The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (20 page)

‘
Well, you are
greatly mistaken!’ Mr Hill shouted, turning to leave the office.
‘Dangerous course, Fox. Call me when you’ve come to your senses!’
he growled at Randy as he stepped out of the room. ‘Come along,
Herbert.’ he added from outside as Fitzherbert lingered long enough
to stare threateningly at Carlo.

‘
I’m not at
all sure that was wise.’ Randy said with a sigh, sitting down in
the seat just vacated by Mr Hill.

Carlo shrugged. ‘Why are you so
scared of him, Uncle Randy?’ Every time we see him you look like a
school boy who has been caught by the headmaster doing something
naughty.

Randy looked stung. ‘That’s not
it at all, Carlo. Not at all! It’s just that Haverton Hill is a
very important man in this area and it makes sense to show him the
respect his position deserves.’ Carlo snorted in disgust as Randy
continued. ‘If nothing else I think it was extremely unwise for you
to lie about the contamination.’

‘
I didn’t
lie!’

‘
You told him
there had been no contamination, Carlo.’

‘
No, I said
there had been no unauthorised ingredient used. But why would he
think there had been? It doesn’t make sense. If he knew it was
cockroaches he would have said so.’ Carlo mused.

‘
I’m not sure
it matters what Mr Hill thinks contaminated our stock because if he
takes that evidence to the press we are in serious
trouble.’

‘
Evidence!’
Carlo shouted, jumping to his feet. ‘Hold the fort!’ he said, as he
leapt for the door.

‘
Carlo! We
need to discuss this!’ he heard Randy shout from the office as he
took the steps down to the factory floor two at a time, spinning
through the doors to the staff locker room and into the
canteen.

‘
Oi! Mr and
Mrs Sherlock!’ he shouted across the room to Ben and Norton.
‘Detecting time, c’mon!’ Carlo said, waving them to follow as he
dashed out of the canteen.

Ben and Norton caught up with
Carlo at the main gates as he peered around the corner.

‘
What is going
on?’ Norton grumbled holding a pack of crisps in one hand and half
eaten chocolate bar in the other. ‘I hadn’t finished
eating.’

‘
That’ll be on
your headstone when you die!’ Ben laughed at Norton. Carlo pulled
them back to attention with a shout.

‘
Evidence!’ he
said, loudly. ‘Hill says that he has some evidence that there was
contamination in our stock, but no one outside the factory knew
that. We recalled all the stock claiming it was a clerical error
not a problem with the actual product and it’s all been destroyed
now, so what evidence was he just waving around at me and why did
he think there was a dodgy ingredient? If he had evidence he would
know it was a cockroach! Something very weird is going
on.’

‘
So he wasn’t
here about us, then?’ Norton asked, stuffing the final bite of
chocolate into his mouth where the previous bite was still happily
being chewed. ‘’ere ‘ot in ‘rouble?’

‘
No, you’re
not in trouble, but if that evidence gets out, whatever he has, we
all might be. But if we can find out what it is it might lead us to
the culprit! Get the bikes!’ Carlo finished, peering around the
gates once more.

Ben and Norton dashed off
again, reappearing moments later with their three bikes and wide
grins.

‘
Quick, he’s
just left!’ Carlo said, taking his bike from Ben and hopping on.
The three shot out of the gates and headed down the road and around
the first corner almost colliding with Mr Hill’s huge black car as
they rushed headlong into the same traffic jam. Steering to the
left, Carlo and Ben hopped over the curb and onto the pavement
whilst Norton screeched to a halt, planted his feet and lifted
himself across the curb before pedalling furiously around the
corner where his two friends were now lurking, watching Mr Hill’s
car intently. As it passed the road they were waiting in the three
boys tried to keep their faces from view, nonchalantly looking in
every direction but the car, before setting off to follow at a more
sedate pace as Mr Hill made his way through the traffic.

‘
Is that
Herbert driving?’ Ben asked, speeding up along the pavement to
glance in the car’s window before dropping back out of
sight.

‘
Nah, can’t
be.’ Carlo said, ‘I wouldn’t trust him to drive a wheel barrow,
never mind that beast!’

‘
It is you
know. Look at the shoulders of the driver! Who else do you know
who’s that big?’ Ben said, as the boys weaved either side of
pedestrians, Norton rather less gracefully with the occasional halt
and apology followed by huffing and gurning as he got back up to
speed.

Eventually Mr Hill’s car turned
a corner leaving the main traffic and sped towards the Hill’s
factory, forcing Carlo and the others to up the pace to stay in
sight. Leaping off the pavement they shot down the road, Ben urging
Norton to more effort in order to stay in touch. As the car
disappeared into the foreground, Carlo abruptly swung right into a
park followed by Ben as they hurtled across the grass and around
the pond leaving Norton behind.

Skidding through the gates at
the other side of the park they began circling the outer wall at
the back of the Hill’s factory, bombing around the corners until
they soon found themselves nearing the front gates.

Both boys screeched to a halt
and deposited their bikes against the wall just as Mr Hill’s car
approached from the opposite end of the road and turned right into
the gates of the factory. They casually walked along the wall,
ignoring the wheezing from behind them as Norton arrived looking
red in the face and thoroughly disgruntled.

‘
Shhh!’ Carlo
said, waving his friend into silence as he started to protest the
need of so much exertion.

Carlo and Ben peered through
the gates as Norton leant against the wall behind them with his
hands on his hips fighting for breath, but Carlo was disappointed
to see Mr Hill march directly from the car to the factory doors
empty handed apart from the ever present umbrella swinging at his
side.

‘
What now?’
Ben asked in excitement, ‘Do we go in?’

‘
No.’ Ben
answered puzzled. ‘He doesn’t have it. It must still be in the
car.’ Both boys looked across to see the car slowly pull away in a
big loop around the ornate drive of the factory and head back
towards the gates.

‘
Damn!’ Ben
said, flinging himself to the side followed by Carlo, shooting past
Norton towards the bikes.

‘
Huh? Norton
exclaimed. ‘Where are you…?’ he started but at that moment the car
pulled out of the factory, paused for a moment and then turned left
away from the boys, Norton’s ample bulk shielding the others from
sight as he looked at them in confusion.

Ben pointed down the road
behind his friend and Norton turned to see the car disappear around
the corner.

‘
Are you sure
it was Herbert?’ Carlo asked Ben.

‘
Unless the
zoo is missing a gorilla, yes, that was Herbert.’

Carlo sighed. ‘OK, get the
bikes.’

‘
Ah, man!
You’re kidding me!’ Norton moaned as his friends jumped back on and
set off down the road.

The three boys made more
stately progress across town this time based on Norton’s theory
that Herbert had driven the car home for lunch and there was
therefore plenty of time to reach his house before he left. Carlo
was pleased to discover that Norton’s guess proved correct as they
all turned into his street to find the large black car parked
outside one of the houses.

Carlo slowly pulled up
alongside the car and peeked inside to see the folder that Mr Hill
had been holding sat on the back seat. He surreptitiously tried the
handle but wasn’t surprised to find it locked. He turned to see his
friends stood outside a neighbouring house and saw Ben bend down,
pick up a rock and wave it towards Carlo with an expectant grin on
his face, mimicking smashing the car window. Carlo shook his head
firmly, but couldn’t think of any other ideas.

‘
What now?’ he
asked making his way back to where the others stood.

‘
I still think
smashing the window is the best idea.’ Ben answered, still holding
the rock in a menacing fashion.

‘
No!’ Carlo
replied again. ‘If we break in Herbert will know straight away that
the folder is missing. If we can get it without him knowing it
could be ages before they realise we have it, which will give us
time to work out how they got it and what to do next. We need to do
this ninja style.’

‘
What? Take
him out with a flying kick? Can you do that?’ Norton asked,
impressed.

‘
Of course I
can’t!’

‘
A distraction
is what we need.’ Ben looked at his friends and a smile slowly
appeared. ‘I have an idea.’

Carlo groaned.

‘
Remember,’
Carlo said for the third time, ‘wait until he has unlocked the door
before you make your move.’

‘
I know… I
know.’ Norton answered irritated. He had been chosen as the most
likely distraction on the basis that Ben may prove too intimidating
and cause Herbert to just drive away, whilst Carlo would probably
just get ran over, according to Ben. Seeing no reason to take issue
with Ben’s theory considering the few other occasions he had come
face to face with Herbert, Carlo agreed and Norton found himself
volunteered, with the proviso that Ben wait around the corner
should he be needed to rescue Norton from an otherwise certain
pummelling.

Carlo pushed Norton towards Mr
Hill’s car and then scampered to hide behind a different vehicle as
Ben looked on from around the corner where he was waiting with the
bikes. Carlo edged around the back of the car so he could get a
good view and saw Norton nervously stood next to the large black
car looking as conspicuous as it was possible to get. The wait
seemed to drag on for hours, though looking at his watch only ten
minutes had passed when eventually Carlo heard the front door open
and Herbert step out towards the car.

Norton, loitering a few yards
with his back to the car, bent down to tie his shoelaces as Herbert
left the house and waited until he heard the car door open before
standing up, staring straight at the windscreen. Herbert stopped as
he was just about to duck into the car, surprised to see the
younger boy.

‘
What are you
doing?’ he asked, still holding the car door open. ‘You don’t live
‘round here.’

‘
Nuthin’.’
Norton replied with a shrug, trying, and failing, to sound casual.
‘It’s a free country. Can stand where I want, can’t I.’

‘
Well you
can’t stand there or I’ll run you over! Herbert said as Norton
meandered in front of the car as if just out for a
stroll.

‘
I wouldn’t,
you might damage it. It’s a nice car’ Norton replied, nodding
towards the vehicle.’

But Herbert mistook the nervous
strain in Norton’s voice and with his natural suspicion and slow he
wit jumped to entirely the wrong conclusion. ‘Here, have you done
something to this car!’ he shouted, marching towards Norton who
took a few startled steps backwards.

Behind them Carlo watched the
scene unfold and saw his chance to move, but quickly pulled himself
back as Herbert turned away from Norton to inspect his car.

‘
I’ll bloody
thump you if you’ve done something to this car!’ Herbert continued
to rant, caressing the bodywork and looking around the bonnet for
signs of vandalism.

‘
I didn’t do
anything, honest!’ Norton squeaked as Herbert turned back to
him.

‘
You bloody
well better not have done, or I’ll make you wish you’d never seen
this car, you fat lump!’ Herbert raged, grabbing Norton by the
shirt and pushing him backwards as he continued shouting. ‘You just
get out of here now or I’ll…’

‘
Or you’ll
what?’ Ben asked stepping into view behind Norton.

Carlo silently praised Ben for
being shrewd enough to step out to help Norton but still make sure
Herbert was facing away from the car. Ducking out and keeping low,
Carlo reached the back passenger door of the car, opened it as
silently as he could and reached in to the grab the papers, before
closing it and making his way back to the other car still
crouching.

Up ahead Ben seemed to be
having fun as Herbert tried his best to extricate himself from the
situation. He released Norton who fell to the floor. Herbert tried
to look relaxed but seemed to ease into a pained pose of casual
terror as the younger boy grinned back at him. Herbert swung his
arms by his side as if he was just out for a stroll, but looked
equally as awkward as Norton had mere moments before when trying to
pull of the same relaxed posture.

‘’
Sup?’ Ben
asked, a one word question laced with menace that made Herbert take
a step back.

‘
Yeah, you
think you’re all big and hard when you’ve got your friends with
you, Teesdale!’ Herbert said, falling back on one of the playground
classics.

Ben looked stung. ‘Him?’ he
asked, incredulous, ‘How rude! To suggest I wouldn’t be able to
take you if Norton weren’t here.’

Norton realised he was at risk
of becoming the centre of the conversation and scrambled towards
Carlo’s hiding place on all fours.