The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (16 page)

‘
Are you OK?’
Carlo asked, looking concerned.

Ben shook his head vigorously
in the negative, continuing to stare at the far wall, but didn’t
look like he was going to bolt for the door, for the time at
least.

‘
Just stay
there.’ Carlo said, walking to the far wall. Ben nodded but said
nothing.

‘
Dad? It’s OK,
it’s just Ben.’

‘
What’s he
doing here?’ Luigi said from beyond the wall.

‘
Don’t worry
about, Ben. Can you come out?’

Luigi’s head appeared from the
wall in front of Carlo frowning. ‘You said we weren’t going to tell
anyone!’ he complained.

‘
I know, but I
got worried. One minute you were there and then you weren’t and
then Ben found me looking for you. It’s OK, it’s only
Ben.’

Luigi looked over at Ben still
shrinking against the opposite side and finally nodded, looking
like an annoyed mounted wall trophy. ‘OK, but no one else. Not yet.
Now what happened, where did you go?’ he said turning back to Carlo
and slowly walking through the wall until he was entirely back in
the room.

‘
I don’t know,
I was just walking along to the offices talking to you and I
thought you were next to me, invisible, but actually you just
weren’t there anymore. Why did you come back here?

‘
I didn’t.’
Luigi said, pacing the room. ‘I was just looking at that new
conveyor belt you have at the back of the packing area near the
vans. Then I noticed you had wandered off. I was just about to
follow you when,
poof
, I was back in here again.’ he finished waving his hands
around the room.

‘
That’s
weird.’ Carlo said, sitting down at the desk.

‘
You
think
that’s
the
weird thing?’ Ben asked, finally finding his voice.

Luigi smiled. ‘Sorry. I didn’t
mean to scare you.’

‘
Perhaps it’s
the room?’ Carlo mused. ‘Perhaps you walked to far from the room
and you just sort of got pulled back?’

‘
Like a rubber
band?’ Ben said, getting to his feet but not taking his eyes from
Mr Leodoni.

‘
Yeah, I guess
so.’ Carlo agreed. ‘This is obviously the place that you’re meant
to haunt.’

‘
Well that’s
rather tedious.’ Luigi said. ‘I was hoping to get out some more;
see the rest of the factory; help you around the place.’

‘
How far did
you go before you were pulled back?’ Ben asked.

‘
Just
upstairs, not far at all.’

Ben was clearly warming to the
idea of conversing with a ghost as a grin spread across his face.
‘I’ve got an idea.’ he said, winking at Carlo.

‘
That’s
doesn’t sound good.’ Carlo replied, being used to the rather rash
schemes thought up by Ben and Norton.

‘
You’ll like
this one. We need to find out how far Mr Leodoni can get from here,
right?’

Carlo and his father
nodded.

‘
Well, why
don’t we just go up to the factory and walk from the door across
the factory floor and when you disappear, Mr Leodoni, we’ll know
how far you can go. We can measure it so we’ll know the
circum-thingy.’

‘
Circumference.’ Carlo supplied.

‘
Yeah, one of
those. And we can mark places around the factory so you
know.

‘
Great plan,
lads.’ Mr Leodoni stepped in, ‘Except for one thing. If you two are
seen walking across the factory floor with the former and decidedly
late owner, do you not think it may raise the odd eyebrow, or
possibly exorcism?

‘
Late?’ Ben
asked.

‘
Dead.’ Carlo
answered. ‘He means, we can’t just go upstairs and walk around with
Dad. It’d scare the hell out of everyone.’

‘
You could do
it invisible?’ Ben suggested.

‘
How would you
know when I get pulled back?’ Luigi pointed out.

Ben sat on the stairs next to
the door, looking deflated. ‘I guess you are stuck here then.’ he
said.

‘
Wait a
minute, perhaps we can do it!’ Carlo said. ‘You can hold things,
right?’ he asked his father, who nodded.

‘
If I
concentrate, yes. How will that help?’

Carlo picked up a pencil from
the desk and stood up. ‘Come with me.’ he said with a smile.

Carlo, Ben and an invisible Mr
Leodoni stood at the door at the top of the stairs looking down the
main factory floor. Carlo brandished the pencil to the thin air
next to him and felt it be taken by his father. He heard Ben gasp
as the pencil floated next to them.

‘
Go on then.’
Carlo urged.

The pencil began a slow but
steady advance across the factory floor, floating around four feet
from the ground. Ben and Carlo tried to look casual as they
pretended to be stood having a chat, all the while keeping a
watchful eye on the progress of the pencil, but Ben swore as they
saw Mr Lumsden walking from the huge refrigerators at the far left
of the factory towards the centre of the floor, very clearly on a
collision course with the pencil. Ben made to dart out to intercept
Lumsden, but Carlo pulled him back, whispering under his
breath.

‘
No!
Look.’

Mr Leodoni had clearly also
noticed Lumsden as the pencil had stopped its journey and was
floating in what Carlo thought was a nonchalant manner next to one
of the large mixers.

‘
He’s going to
see it! He’s going to see it!’ Ben muttered.

Both boys held their breath as
Lumsden reached the pencil and then walked straight past. The
pencil shot a few feet higher into the air and bounced up and down
in a clear victory dance before floating back to its normal height
and continuing on across the factory.

As it reached
the far end Carlo began to wonder how much farther it could
possibly be, when it was his turn to swear as he saw Norton waddle
through the main doors to the factory floor, struggling to remove
his suit jacket and heading directly towards the pencil. Carlo was
just about to call out to him to stop when the pencil dropped out
of the air landing at Norton’s feet. The two boys shot forward to
get to Norton, who had stopped and was looking heavenwards to see
where the pencil had come from, just as Mr Leodoni briefly
materialised right where they had been stood just a second before.
He saw them sprinting across the factory shouting at Norton to
leave the pencil where it was and made to follow them when, in his
own words, he went
poof
and disappeared once more.

‘
No, leave
it!’ Carlo shouted, sprinting across to Norton, who was bending
down to pick up the pencil, still looking rather bewildered. Ben
reached him first, sliding to a halt in front of him, knocking his
hand out of the way and collecting the pencil in one
move.

‘
What are you
playing at?’ Norton huffed as he stepped back from Ben who was
looking around making a mental note of the pencil’s exact landing
place. ‘Did you throw that?’

‘
No, it was an
accident…’ Carlo started to say just as Randy’s head popped over
the side of the walkway above them.

‘
Carlo, can I
have a word?’ he said, before disappearing back into the
office.

‘
Yeah, no
problem.’ Carlo called back. He looked at Ben and gave a shrug
before motioning to Norton with a nod that meant that Ben under no
circumstances should tell Norton what was going on. Ben nodded back
in understanding and headed off towards the cafeteria. ‘Are you
coming, Norton?’

Norton looked between the
retreating Ben and Carlo having noticed the exchange and headed off
after Ben in search of breakfast muttering ‘You two are very
weird.’

Carlo took a deep breath of
relief and jogged up the stairs to the office wanting nothing more
than to be heading the other way to see his father in the
study.

Randy was making a cup of
coffee when Carlo entered whilst steadfastly ignoring the
telephone, which was merrily ringing away, unanswered.

‘
Want me to
get that?’ Carlo asked, sitting at the desk.

‘
No, it’s OK.
I know who it is.’

‘
Who?’

‘
Mr
Hill.’

Carlo groaned. ‘What does he
want?’

‘
Sadly, in
this town news travels fast. He has heard we have a slight problem
and is calling to ask if there is anything he can do to, ahem…
“help”. Obviously when Mr Hill says help, he normally means
“complicate and assimilate”.’

Carlo swore, but for once Randy
declined to reproach him.

‘
Indeed.’ he
said, sitting opposite Carlo and taking a sip of his coffee.
‘Further to that, I have managed to trace the batches that we are
concerned about. Whilst the retailers are very sympathetic to our
rather vague assurances of a labelling mistake, I’m afraid there is
no way to resolve the issue other than to recall and refund, which
is a huge hit on the operation so close to launch. With this in
mind and now Mr Hill sniffing around, I can’t imagine how you must
be feeling. I assume you have decided to call it a
day…?’

Carlo knew that Randy was only
concerned with his best interests and he himself had only an hour
ago been very close to quitting, but the discovery in the study had
lifted his spirits. If he could continue with his father’s help,
perhaps he could make a success of things? And far from crushing
his resolve, the news that Mr Hill was once again sticking his nose
where it was not wanted only doubled his determination.

Carlo jumped up, taking Randy
by surprise. ‘Recall the stock and assess the losses. Let’s get a
figure on what we have to make up before launch as soon as
possible. Then I want to revaluate the production schedules and see
how much stock we can make up by hitting it hard.’

‘
But Carlo,
are you sure?’ This is a big commitment.’

Carlo grinned back at Randy
feeling happier than he had in weeks. ‘Does this look like the face
of someone who is quitting?’

‘
OK, if you’re
sure. But making up the stock shortfall to launch on the
22
^nd
will take more cash than we have available right now. I
appreciate your enthusiasm and it’s a nice suggestion,
but…’

‘
We’re not
launching on the 22
^nd
anymore.’ Carlo butted in. ‘We’re launching on
the 29
^th
at the town fair. Consider the 22
^nd
a, what did you call it?
Soft launch? Will the extra week help make up the stock shortfall
if we boost production in the meantime?’

‘
Well,
possibly.’ Randy stammered feeling he was losing grip of the
conversation.

‘
Good. Let’s
get the details of what we’re facing and re-plan the schedule. In
the meantime I’ll get Newton and Abi working on new marketing for
the town fair and Norton and Ben on defence.’

‘
Defence?’
Randy asked, utterly bewildered.

‘
We were
sabotaged. Randy.’ Carlo answered, dropping the usual honorific. ‘I
want to know who and how! Which better people to investigate than
two who would normally be the prime suspects?’

‘
Sabotaged? It
was an insect, Carlo. Sometimes it just happens. We perhaps need to
re-evaluate our cleaning procedures, shut down the mixers for a
while to check for nests… but it’s clear it was an oversight on our
part, not sabotage.’

‘
Cockroaches?
In my factory?’ Carlo echoed his father, ‘Not likely. I think
someone is trying to cause trouble and I mean to find out who it
is!’

Randy gave in to the force of
passion that was Carlo. ‘OK, he said sighing. ‘Let’s get
started.’

‘
Excellent.’
Carlo exclaimed. ‘Oh, and Randy?’ he winked at his guardian, ‘It
wasn’t a nice suggestion… it was an order.’ He strode over to the
door and marched out whilst Randy leant back in his chair, shaking
his head.

Carlo ran across the factory
and over to the study feeling alive with excitement and a rather
unusual sense of confidence, not something he was used to. But he
was stopped dead in his tracks as he bounded down the stairs only
to be confronted by Norton screaming in the opposite direction at
an astonishing speed for the normally sluggish boy. They collided
head on and both went tumbling back down the stairs, Norton still
shrieking, interspersed with a high pitched yelp as he hit every
other step on the way down.

Carlo groaned as he rolled to a
halt only to have Norton leap up and sprint back up the stairs,
eyes wide, still screaming with every last breath he had. He span
around the corner at the top of the stairs and out of sight, the
din slowly growing more faint and eventually stopping as they heard
a final slam meaning Norton had yelled his way across the factory
and through the front gate. Even now Carlo thought he could
possibly hear a faint screeching and he imagined Norton still
running at full volume down the street.

Ben appeared at the door in
hysterics and reached out a hand to help Carlo up.

‘
That…’ he
gasped through the laughter, ‘was the funniest thing I think I have
ever seen!’

‘
I take it you
reintroduced Norton to my Dad?’