The next morning, Eva opened the fridge. There was a cardboard bucket with the remains of last night’s fried chicken in it. No bones. Perfect. She took it out and tucked it under her arm. It was just what she needed for her plan to work.
She had gone through the details on the phone with Heidi last night. Heidi’d promised to get Shan to do her part too.
Dad was still asleep upstairs. But he’d be awake soon.
Eva scribbled a note on the back of an envelope. It took all her concentration to write an explanation. And she was pretty sure that all of her concentration wasn’t enough. Even to her own eyes, the words looked twisted and ugly. It might be better to wake Dad and tell him where she was going. But he would stop her immediately, so that wouldn’t work. She propped the note up against the toaster.
Outside, Heidi was staring at next door, as though she were looking at an alien spaceship – her eyes saucer-wide as she waited for the inhabitants to appear. Not that they would at this time of day.
Shan was with her, looking cross. ‘This better not take long. The radio station is arriving at the lodge in half an hour to set up for their broadcast.’
‘It won’t take long,’ Eva said.
‘I really don’t know why I’m doing this for you,’ Shan said. ‘It completely goes against what I stand for.’
‘What do you stand for?’ Heidi asked.
‘Doing the right thing, being responsible, you know, being good.’
‘We’re doing exactly that,’ Eva said. ‘Doing the right thing for Jamie. I’m sure of it.’
‘So does that mean you’ve told your dad then?’ Shan asked.
Eva felt heat rise in her face. ‘I’ve left a note.’
‘That will be a bit late, considering what you’re planning,’ Shan said. She sniffed. ‘Well, if we get caught, I’m telling them that it was all your idea. Is that clear?’
Eva nodded. That was fair enough. It was all her idea. She couldn’t quite believe that Heidi and Shan were even thinking about doing this, just because she’d asked them.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Let’s do this.’
Eva led her team of conspirators. She had left her invisibility shield at home, but she had brought super speed, super stealth and super friends. Shan was Brains and Skill. Heidi was Bravery and Strength. And Eva? She stomped towards the park, her arms swinging, her head up, her focus keen. She was Bold and Staunch. They were a team and they were going to get Jamie back.
Together they flew along the street, swept through the west gate and raced towards the main gate. Nothing was going to stop them. Not even the little yappy dogs on their morning walks.
‘Get down!’ Shan snapped as a Yorkshire terrier leapt for her ankle.
‘Halt!’ Eva shouted.
Shan and Heidi slowed. ‘Halt?’ Shan asked. ‘Really?’
‘Have you never watched a spy film? Yes. Halt! This is a good place to prepare.’
They were near the main entrance. The lodge and playing fields were behind them. In front was the road and the few parking spaces that flanked the gates. A blue car with a logo showing skipping ropes and weights on the side was parked there already. Gary’s car. A wooden park bench was set immediately inside the gate for those who found the walk from their car too much for them.
Heidi sat down. The others joined her. As she sat, Eva noticed a small brass plaque on the back of the bench. She couldn’t read the whole thing – it was small and scratched and the words were too close together – but she mouthed the first few sounds: ‘In memory’. She smiled a tight smile. It was a sign.
‘Hey, look! Here she comes,’ Heidi said. They immediately moved to their positions.
Heidi took the bucket of leftover chicken dippers and went to lean against the gatepost where she could see the road.
Eva ran and hid behind Gary’s car.
Shan stood in front of an empty parking space.
Melanie’s car eased into the open bay.
Shan simpered her best simpery smile.
‘Melanie!’ Shan squealed as the car door opened.
‘Shanika, oh hello. I just . . . can you . . . one second.’ Melanie was trying to hang up a speakerphone, pull off her heels and keep the dog in the backseat, all with one hand.
‘Bandit, down! Stay!’ Melanie tugged on one trainer. Bandit was a Border collie with black and white markings on his flank and a black stripe across his white muzzle, as though he were wearing a bandit’s mask. He hurled himself up and down in the back seat, whimpering with excitement. He strained at the lead that Melanie was trying to hold.
‘I wondered if I could talk to you about work experience?’ Shan said. ‘I know I’m a bit young, but I’d love to know more about what you do.’
‘Now? Well . . . erm . . . Here, hold this.’ Melanie shoved a jacket towards Shan.
The whining in the back seat turned into a volley of barks. Eva crept round Gary’s car so that she had a better view. The barking got louder and reached a crescendo that forced her to cover her ears.
‘Bandit, down! Bad boy.’
‘I’d come to your office and make tea –’
‘Bandit! Stay!’
‘I can work a photocopier and a fax machine –’
‘No, sit! Wait!’
‘I’m good at typing too –’
‘Bandit!’
At the gates, Heidi tipped up the bucket. One piece of fried, golden chicken breast fell from the greasy container. It twisted in the air and landed on the ground with a poof of scent. The sudden burst of chickeny goodness was too much for Bandit. He bounded from the car and leapt towards the chicken. It was gone in one chomping mouthful. Heidi tilted the bucket towards him, so that he could sniff that there was more, and then she turned and ran into the park.
‘Bandit! Stay!’ Melanie yelled at the escaping dog. ‘Come here!’
Melanie ran after the Bandit.
Shan ran after Melanie.
Eva raced from her hiding place. This was her moment!
Melanie had left the car door open. Eva reached in and pushed a scrunch of newspaper and some empty chocolate wrappers off the passenger seat. There was a briefcase underneath all the mess. Bingo.
Her heart pounded like footfalls on a pavement.
Jamie was in here. Somewhere.
She clicked open the clasps.
Paper bulged out of the sides and flipped up in the breeze. Tons of paper, notes, squiggles, words . . . a great, steaming mess of them.
She gulped.
Why had she not held the chicken and got Heidi to do the reading?
Because Heidi didn’t want to go to prison on account of Jamie.
It was down to her.
She had to read everything quickly and replace the briefcase.
Or take the whole thing and get one of the others to read it.
It was no choice at all really. There was no way she could read through all the notes in the time it took Melanie to remember that she’d left her car unlocked.
The briefcase was coming with her.
She grabbed it and slammed the car door closed.
‘Hey!’
She turned to look behind her, the direction that the shout had come from. A woman in sports clothes was trotting towards her.
‘Hey, what are you doing in Melanie’s car?’
‘It’s OK,’ Eva shouted. ‘She knows me. She asked me to fetch something for her.’
‘Really? What?’
The woman was close now. Eva was sure that her pounding heart must be loud enough for the woman to hear.
‘Just some notes she wanted to read before the class started.’
The woman frowned. ‘Mel never reads in the morning. She’s no good for anything before breakfast.’ The woman held up two muffins. ‘Who are you, exactly?’
Eva had nothing to say. Her mind went blank.
But her body knew what to do.
She clutched the briefcase to her chest, turned and ran into the park.
‘Wait! Stop! Thief!’ the woman behind her shouted.
Eva picked up the pace, the briefcase by her side banged against her knees, but she tried to ignore the pain. Getting to Jamie was the only thing that mattered now.
That, and not getting caught.
And Dad not finding out.
And not getting Heidi and Shan arrested.
She put on an extra burst of speed. She wasn’t sure where she was heading, but she needed to catch up with the others and have one of them look through the files.
Heidi and Bandit were miles ahead, darting towards the hill at the top of the park. Melanie was halfway across the playing field. Shan struggled on behind, but was getting tired. Well, she was Brains and Skill – it was Heidi who was Bravery and Strength after all.
There was a group of people already on the playing fields. They were stretching and bending and jogging on the spot. Gary’s Boot Camp.
The woman chasing Eva yelled as loud as she could and the exercisers looked up like gazelles sniffing for lions.
Boot camp ahead and jogger behind: Eva was trapped in a Lycra sandwich.
If only she could leapfrog over the class. One huge superhero bound would take her sailing up over their heads and down right next to Heidi.
Eva couldn’t go forward and she couldn’t go backward – if she did, she’d be caught. Instead she turned left, towards the west gate. Shan had stopped running too. She looked back and changed direction, trotting to intercept Eva at the play park.
Eva put her head down and dashed through, slinking left and darting right to get away from the confused-looking adults.
Bandit’s barking came from far away now, right up on the top of the hill.
‘Eva!’ Over to her right, Shan stood waving. She had taken cover behind Brian’s ice-cream van and was trying to keep out of sight.
Suddenly Eva was hit by a glorious, shining burst of inspiration.
‘Brian!’ she yelled. ‘Brian, start the engine!’
Shan understood in an instant. She banged on the window and yelled Brian’s name. The ice-cream seller appeared behind the serving hatch. He took one look at the mob of adults haring after Eva and disappeared again. The next thing she heard was the revving of the engine and ‘Greensleeves’ tinkling out of the speaker. Shan wrenched open the passenger door, tumbled inside and held the door open for Eva.
Eva was just metres away from the van, but the class of fit, angry adults was right behind.
She hurled the briefcase on to the seat beside Shan and then heaved herself into the vehicle. ‘Go!’ she cried.
Brian’s eyes were practically springing out of his face. ‘What’s going on? It’s not a zombie apocalypse, is it?’
‘Drive!’ Shan said. ‘Please,’ she added quickly.
Brian harrumphed, then put the van into gear and they moved forward.
In the wing mirror, Eva could see that the class hadn’t given up. There were about twenty of them, running like hounds after a hare. Hounds in tracksuits. And hares in an ice-cream van.
Then she saw a dog with them – Bandit! His tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth as though he were grinning. Was Melanie with him?
‘Where am I going?’ Brian asked. They were past the play park now and were heading back to the main gate. ‘And why are those grown-ups chasing you?’
‘We have something of theirs and they want it back,’ Eva said.
Brian glanced over, his face crumpled with a frown. ‘Something of theirs? You stole something?’
Shan, sitting in the middle of the seat, crossed her arms. ‘Brian,’ she said, ‘we’re just borrowing it. We’ll give it back. But right now, if you stop driving, then it will all be for nothing. We haven’t hurt anyone. We’re on a rescue mission. So, if you help us, I promise you won’t regret it. I’ll even get you a slot on the radio later today to talk about it. Free publicity.’
Eva smiled, sweet as the ice creams around her.
‘You can get me on the radio?’ Brian asked suspiciously.
‘She can,’ Eva said firmly. ‘She’s meeting them this morning.’
Shan glanced at her watch and gasped. ‘The radio crew will be at the lodge in ten minutes. I have to get out and get up there.’
Brian had eased his foot off the pedal and the van slowed up. The adults in the wing mirror loomed larger.
‘No!’ Eva shouted. ‘Please, Shan, I need you to read the papers for me. There isn’t time to stop. We’ll get back to the lodge soon. Anyway, if you get out now, Melanie will whisk you straight into Sally’s office for a telling off and you won’t get to speak to the radio crew.’
‘Would I lose my slot on the show?’ Brian asked.
‘Yes,’ Eva said.
‘Well, in that case, why don’t you tell me where I need to go and as soon as you’re done I’ll take you back to the lodge myself?’ Brian slammed his foot back on the accelerator and the van reached its cruising speed of about fifteen miles an hour.
‘Friar’s Brook,’ Eva replied. ‘Jamie is somewhere in Friar’s Brook.’
‘Oh, really?’ Brian asked. He sounded worried. ‘Only, that’s not my patch. That belongs to Ginelli’s Fresh Italian Ice Cream. They’ll go mental if they see me on their streets.’
The main gate was close now. Brian pressed a remote control and the bollard sank into the ground. The van pulled out between the stone gate posts and on to the road.
Eva gave another glance at the rear-view mirror.
Bandit bounded ahead of the group, barking and leaping into the air.
Behind him, the runners kept pace. An air of steely determination had come over them now. They were going to catch the van no matter what. Sports types could be competitive like that, Eva thought.
And leading the pack – she must have sprinted like an Olympic athlete – was Melanie.
And she didn’t look like she was going to give up the chase any time soon.
‘We’ll keep you safe from Ginelli’s and we’ll get back in time for the radio,’ Eva said. She sounded certain, but inside she was quaking – she might just be getting everyone into the most trouble they’d ever been in. She just hoped she could keep her promises.