Princess Phoebe by Scilla James Page B

I reckon because Granddad’s on his way.
    â€˜Let me know what happens!’ she calls.
    I can’t sit still in the van. It seems to be getting hotter and I wish I’d had a drink before we left. I find a bottle of warm lemonade rolling around on the van floor and hand it to Nick.
    â€˜Yuk!’ he says. ‘That’s disgusting.’
    Nick’s given Mrs Henderson a note of Frank’s address for the police, but he doesn’t think they’ll hurry over there. He’s gripping the steering wheel really hard and I can tell he’s worried, however calm he tries to look. When I ask what he thinks we should do, he doesn’t answer.
    â€˜D’you think Margaret might have Princess for a bit?’ I ask him.
    â€˜It’s worth a try. Give her a call. D’you think she’ll still be at the allotment? We need to get Princess away quickly,’ he says.
    â€˜I’ll ring Jan,’ I say. There’s no reply, so I send her a text instead.
    â€˜We’ll go straight to Big Lennie’s,’ Nick says. By now it’s getting on for 8 o’clock. Then he says, ‘Right Ellie, here’s what we’re going to do. First we’ll make sure that Frank’s not at Lennie’s – we can check around the estate for his van. Then I’ll park a good few houses away around the corner, and we’ll go to the back where Lennie’s gate is. He’ll have locked it for certain, because he’ll be expecting us. But Lennie’s a cowardly little bloke and if Frank’s not with him he’ll probably draw the curtains and turn the telly on, hoping to avoid trouble. He only fights people that are smaller than him, or children, or poor greyhounds that he knows he can win against.’
    â€˜Can you climb the wall?’ I ask him, remembering how high it had seemed when Jan and I had been there.
    â€˜Easy,’ Nick reassures me, ‘but if Lennie comes out you’ll have to get Princess away while I distract him. I’ll open thegate and let you in. I’ll bet there’s just one bolt on the inside the same as we’ve got at home. When you’ve got her from the shed, go back to the van and wait for me. If things go really wrong, or if Frank turns up or something, you take Princess and run for it. Cut through the park and make for the allotments and I’ll catch up with you. But only if you have to. Otherwise, wait in the van.’
    â€˜What about you?’ I ask Nick. ‘What if Lennie’s not on his own?’ I’ve begun to realise that this isn’t just about me and Princess.
    â€˜I’ll be fine,’ he says, ‘but you’ve got to be fast Ellie; don’t mess about talking to the other dogs. And keep texting Jan. We don’t want to get to the allotments and find no one there.
    All this while we’ve been driving, and at last we’re back among the familiar roads of our town. Nick knows all the shortcuts and side streets, and he swings the van around and about, bringing us quickly out onto the main route into Lennie’s estate. He slows and parks up behind a row of empty garages where the doors are hanging loose and squeaking. It feels like the wind’s getting up and I wonder if we might be in for a storm later.
    â€˜Now,’ says Nick, ‘ speed , Ellie. Just grab her and run. I’ll leave the van unlocked. We’ll work out what to do next once we have her safe back with us.’
    We walk towards the back of Lennie’s row of houses. Nick looks around and checks in other directions for signs of Frank’s van, but neither of us really expects to see it. We guess he’ll be at home trying to look as if he’s been there all day. Probably checking on telly programmes that he can claim he’s been watching, just in case we’ve told Mrs Henderson where he lives. It’s his bad luck that we turned up immediately after he’d broken into her