Dognapped! Read Free

yard and she ran off.’
    ‘Amy thinks someone might have stolen her,’ Max butted in.
    Gran clutched her throat ‘What?’
    ‘The gate was shut when I left her in the yard, but when I came to let her in again, it was wide open and Fluffy was missing,’ I explained. ‘Someone opened it and let Fluffy out on purpose.’
    ‘Are you sure it wasn’t you?’ Mr Winkleberry demanded. ‘You’ve made it quite obvious that you find the dog annoying. Maybe you left the gate open hoping Fluffy would run off.’
    I glared at him. ‘Of course I didn’t! I wouldn’t do that!’ I turned to Gran. ‘I wouldn’t. Honest, Gran.’
    Gran dabbed her eyes. ‘I’m sure you didn’t do it on purpose, Amy. But you did leave Fluffy in the garden alone.’
    ‘Only for a little while. She wouldn’t come back in, and I wanted to watch the end of the film …’
    ‘How long has she been missing?’ Gran asked.
    ‘About an hour. We’ve looked everywhere … I’m sorry!’ I shouted, as Gran hurried back into the house. She grabbed her car keys and headed for the front door.
    ‘Sue, wait!’ Mr Winkleberry called after her. ‘You’re in no state to drive. I’ll come with you. We’ll look for Fluffy together.’
    ‘I’ll have another look too,’ I shouted. Gran was so upset that I felt really guilty. I should never have left Fluffy on her own like that. I knew how much she meant to Gran.
    When Mr and Mrs McFarlane returned, they joined the search too. So did Emily Williams. She adored Fluffy and always made a fuss of her. Actually she loved animals, period. I saw her stop to stroke a vicious-looking cat in the street yesterday. The cat looked like it would scratch your eyes out as much as look at you, but it came meekly to Emily and happily cuddled up to her.
    We all searched until it was too dark to search any more, but there was still no sign of Fluffy. The little dog seemed to have vanished off the face of the Earth (or at least from the town of Little Cragg). Gran was distraught.
    ‘My precious little princess, what can have happened to her?’ she sobbed. ‘She’ll be scared and hungry. What if she’s trapped somewhere? Or injured?’
    I felt terrible, I can tell you. ‘I’m sorry, Gran. I’ll find her,’ I promised. ‘First thing tomorrow, I’ll be on the case.’
    ‘On the case! I think you watch too many detective movies, young lady,’ Mr Winkleberry said scathingly.
    I didn’t bother to tell him that I was actually a bit of a detective myself and had solved a couple of mysteries back at home. I thought I’d keep that information to myself for a while. My instincts told me that whoever was responsible for Fluffy’s disappearance was someone who knew her well, and I didn’t want that person to be on their guard. As Vince always says, the culprit is usually right under your nose!

Chapter 3
Suspects
    I thought about how Vince would try to find Fluffy. Find a reason for the crime, list the suspects then eliminate them one by one is what he always told his sidekick, Mac. So, the first thing I had to work out was whether someone had let Fluffy out of the garden hoping she’d get lost, or whether she’d been taken. I remembered Gran telling me that Fluffy was favourite to win a dog show next week. Could this be why someone had stolen her?
    I got out my notepad and lucky green pen, and sat in bed, making notes:

    I knew that Mr and Mrs McFarlane had gone out right after breakfast, as usual, and I had seen Emily fussing over Fluffy in the hall at about eleven thirty, just as she was on her way out too. (Emily wasn’t one for getting up early.) I looked back at my notes. That meant there was a ‘window of opportunity’ of thirty minutes when Fluffy could have been taken.
    First thing in the morning I checked out the crime scene. Standing outside Gran’s garden, with my back to the open gate, I looked around. Facing me was a patch of waste ground, where people often parked their cars, then gates backing onto