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

door.
    â€˜Right,’ she said, a bit too brightly, as though she was presenting children’s telly. ‘I’d better see the damage.’
    Everyone was quiet as Sally stepped inside. In the silence, Eva could hear Sally’s footsteps crunching over broken glass. She was gone for a few seconds, then she reappeared by the door. ‘Has everyone got decent shoes on? No flip-flops, or sandals? Just give me a minute to sweep and then I think you can come in, but be careful, OK?’
    Shanika put her phone away. As she passed Eva, she stopped. ‘You’re better off without him. We all are.’
    Eva had a feeling that Shan might be right. She followed everyone inside.
    The damage was worse than Eva had feared. The chairs had been slashed and their stuffing oozed out like frothing bubble bath. Tins of paint had been poured on the walls and floor, shiny puddles of white and red and black were drying to a tacky finish. Shelves had been pulled down and the objects on them smashed and trampled.
    â€˜Why would anyone do this?’ Eva whispered. Why would Jamie’s brothers do this?
    She felt Heidi take her hand and squeeze it gently.
    Shan righted a fallen chair. ‘Because they’re scum. That’s what my dad says,’ she said. ‘They see that we’ve made something good, something to be proud of, and they can’t stand it. Because it isn’t theirs, they want to ruin it for everyone.’
    Eva wondered if she should say something about what she knew, about what Jamie had said. She didn’t know for certain that Jamie’s brothers had been involved. She didn’t have any proof. Other than Jamie looking all het up and saying they’d have to help the police with their enquiries. But maybe that was all it was? Helping the police. Maybe they didn’t do it, but knew who had? Could that be it?
    Not for the first time, Eva felt queasy with it all.
    â€˜But we won’t let them win,’ Shanika said. There was a brightness in her eyes. They were marble-shiny with tears, Eva realised. ‘We’re going to make it even better than it was. Starting right now.’
    Shan marched to the store cupboard where mops and buckets and cloths and big bags were stored, and started pulling things out and handing them to anyone who was close by. Eva found herself holding a broom.
    Soon the room was full of people tidying and cleaning and moving all the broken things out. She swept up the splinters of wood and balls of couch stuffing, and wondered about trying to stuff the fluff back into the furniture, but the splinters probably meant that was a bad plan.
    All around her, people worked. As the pile of debris got bigger, she got sweatier. Someone started singing some pop tune from the radio. Slowly, everyone joined in, until they were shouting the chorus. Eva suddenly realised that she was smiling. She hadn’t thought about Jamie or Dad, she’d just been thinking about getting the lodge back in one piece. The same as everyone else. These were her friends: Heidi, Dilan, Sally, even Shanika. Even Shan, she corrected. She might be bossy and rude, but it was only because she cared so much.
    If Jamie’s brothers were half as nice as Shan, then they would never have done this.
    Eva realised that she had made the right choice not to go and see Jamie yesterday. This was where she belonged.
    Everyone worked hard that morning. Adults stopped by as the news spread, some brought cleaning equipment, others brought old pieces of furniture that they didn’t need any more. One person even brought a computer that he said still worked fine, but he hardly used any more. Another family arrived with a whole box full of sandwiches that they’d made for the workers.
    Shan moved through the crowd taking photos on her phone.
    â€˜Don’t you think the police did that already?’ Heidi asked her.
    â€˜This isn’t for the police – it’s for the papers.