The Great Ice-Cream Heist Read Online Free

smiled. She had played games like this with Mum.
    Jamie put his hand beside hers. His fingernails were dark with dirt. Her hands had green smears from something.
    â€˜Three, two, one . . . blast off.’ Jamie gave a throaty rumble and leaned back, g-forces pushing him against the branch. Eva copied. Sunlight poured through the prisms of green around her, like the comet trails of distant galaxies. Their exploration of the stars had begun.
    Jamie dramatically described their route and the aliens they met along the way: green and tall, purple and small, teeth and scales and tails. Each one a new discovery. Eva just had to say ‘hello’ and come in as Jamie’s back-up if the encounters got too dangerous.
    She forgot completely about the lodge below.
    â€˜Enemy craft moving into range,’ Jamie said a while later. He pointed down at the drive.
    The enemy craft was the woman he’d arrived with earlier. As she walked, she tapped furiously at the phone she held. Her steps were brisk and purposeful. She wasn’t someone who’d climb a tree and save the universe, Eva thought.
    â€˜My social worker,’ Jamie said. ‘Melanie.’
    Social worker.
    Eva knew a little bit about social workers. One had come to visit her once, two years ago, when they were deciding whether Dad could look after her on his own. She’d been a nice lady, but that hadn’t stopped Eva being terrified of her.
    â€˜Mel!’ Jamie yelled. ‘Mel! Up here.’
    Melanie stopped at the bottom of the tree. She shielded her eyes as she searched for Jamie. ‘Have you actually done any volunteering this morning?’ she asked. Her voice was sarcasm central.
    â€˜Not exactly,’ he said. ‘But I made a new friend. Is it time to go?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    Jamie grinned at Eva. ‘See you tomorrow?’
    He slithered down the tree like a lizard.
    Eva was left to climb down slowly, searching for each branch with the tips of her toes before lowering herself on to it. She’d made a new friend, she thought. It was what Gran wanted.
    But Dad would not like it one bit.

Chapter 6
    Eva rinsed the glasses under the hot tap before balancing them on the draining board. She could see herself reflected in the window behind the sink. There were two of her in the double glazing; overlapping but separate.
    She’d felt like two people earlier as well.
    Dad had met her at the lodge during his lunch break and walked her round to Gran’s.
    â€˜Did you make any friends?’ he’d asked.
    She’d paused. Then she’d said, ‘There was a nice girl called Heidi.’
    She couldn’t tell him about Jamie – he hated the McIntyres. Old Eva would never have kept secrets from Dad. But today it felt like there was a New Eva here too, and that one did.
    She reached across the sink and turned the radio on. It made her feel better to have music playing.
    Beyond the window, the garden was dusky purple. She could make out shapes that were the humps of bushes and the scaffolding of the swing.
    Did something move?
    Eva wasn’t sure. She leaned up and over the sink. Was there something out there?
    She peered into the bruised violet night.
    It was probably just a cat.
    She breathed out.
    Slam!
    She leapt back.
    A hand was pressed up against the glass. The pads of the fingers were yellow where the pressure pushed the blood away.
    Slam!
    A second hand joined it. She heard a low moan.
    She’d seen a zombie film once, by accident. Dad had turned it off as soon as he’d walked into the room, but not before Eva had heard the moans of the dead. She snatched up one of the empty glasses.
    The hands clawed their way up the pane of glass. Then a face appeared below the hands.
    Jamie.
    Eva let out a shriek of annoyance.
    Come out , he signalled.
    Eva looked towards the living room. Dad was watching telly. She heard him laugh at something. She put the glass back. Dashing her hands on her jeans to