Free The Great Ice-Cream Heist by Elen Caldecott Page A

it isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. I’ll always be here for you though – you know that, don’t you?’
    She did.
    And she didn’t need anyone else.

Chapter 15
    â€˜I don’t care where he is,’ Eva said the next morning.
    â€˜Me either,’ Heidi said, slipping her arm through Eva’s.
    â€˜Well, you should care,’ Shanika said. ‘Jamie should be here to make amends. Everyone else has turned up, ready to get to work. But not him. He hasn’t spoken to anyone since this happened. It’s obvious whose side he’s on.’
    Eva thought about saying that she’d spoken to him, but she didn’t. After all, they hadn’t really spoken – he’d just shouted out of a window and then she hadn’t gone to the shed. That didn’t count.
    She had slept badly and felt tired and grumpy this morning. She was still cross with Jamie, of course she was, but she also kept seeing him laying on the shed, waiting for her, like an abandoned dog waiting for his master. How long did he lay there before giving up?
    â€˜Well, there’s too much to do here to waste time worrying about him,’ Shanika said. ‘Has anyone been inside yet?’
    Heidi and Eva both shook their heads. Dad had only just dropped Eva off when Shanika and Dilan turned up. There was no way Dad was letting her walk in by herself after what had happened. Other people were arriving in ones and twos. Not just children either. A white van, decorated with pictures of cones and lollies, was backing up the drive.
    â€˜Hey, Eva, give me a hand with this,’ Brian, the ice-cream-van driver yelled.
    She could see that there was something big inside his van, squished up against the fridges.
    Brian opened the door and pushed the seat forward. ‘It was awkward to get in here, but should be easy to get out if you lot help,’ he said.
    Eva moved forward. With Heidi and Dilan clambering in beside Brian, and Shanika supervising, they were able to lift it down.
    â€˜Our old sofa,’ Brian said. ‘Nothing wrong with it, really, but the missus wanted one of those where the seat tilts back. We were going to throw this out, but then we heard about the lodge being vandalised. So, now you lot can have it.’
    â€˜Publicity,’ someone squealed.
    Eva threw a stray cushion down from the van and looked to see who had spoken.
    â€˜PR!’ Shanika said. ‘Of course! People were already getting interested, but the vandalism has just made the story hot. Everyone’s going to want to know. I wonder if Sally has thought about the angles. We should get in touch with the papers, local news – they’d love this sort of story. We’d get loads of support. Ice-cream-van man –’
    â€˜His name is Brian,’ Eva interrupted.
    â€˜Brian, please wait here while I go and get my phone. This is a perfect photo opportunity.’
    Shanika rushed towards the pile of coats and bags that had formed outside the lodge while people waited to see if they could go inside.
    By the time she got back with her phone, there was more commotion on the drive. Three men in camouflage gear were trotting up carrying a stepladder and pots of paint. The boot-camp boys. Eva recognised the shouty one, Gary.
    â€˜Painting is excellent exercise,’ Gary said. ‘It really works the triceps. Can we help?’
    Shanika clicked away, posing the boot-camp boys on Brian’s sofa and sticking Brian up the ladder. ‘Say “cheese”,’ she said.
    As more children and parents arrived, the groups in the photos got bigger and bigger until there was no room in the frame for anyone else.
    Shanika’s face was alight. ‘This story is going to be huge,’ she said.
    It was only when Sally arrived with the front-door keys that the atmosphere got serious again. She pulled down the yellow ‘crime scene’ tape and unlocked the