Dognapped! Read Online Free PDF Page A

my feet when the back door opened and the pit bull came charging out. It rounded on me, barking menacingly, determined not to let me get away this time. My instincts were screaming at me to run, but I knew that was asking for trouble, so I stood very still and said loudly but firmly, ‘NO!’ I’d seen Vince do that in a movie once, and the dog had immediately stopped barking.
    This dog carried on barking.
    ‘Stop it, Buster!’ Mrs Brewson came out, stared at me in astonishment and grabbed the dog’s collar. ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded.
    ‘Oh, hello, Mrs Brewson. I was just about to knock on your back door.’ The dog looked like it wanted to tear me into little shreds and was pulling so hard it nearly yanked Mrs Brewson off her feet.
    Kittikins got up from the bush, strolled past Buster, tail in the air, and into the house. And this was the cat little Fluffy was supposed to terrorise?
    ‘Buster! In!’ Mrs Brewson opened the back door wide, pushed the dog inside and closed it again. Then she turned to me. ‘What are you doing in my back garden? Why didn’t you come around to the front if you wanted to speak to me?’
    I pointed to the broken statue. ‘You left your window open and the wind blew this off the windowsill, so I came to tell you about it.’
    Vince would have been proud of me. Talk about cool and calm in a crisis.
    Mrs Brewson looked up at the window. ‘How careless of me. No wonder Buster was barking upstairs when I came in. He must have heard the crash and thought someone had broken in.’
    ‘I didn’t know you had a dog,’ Max piped up, peering over the gate.
    ‘He’s my sister’s dog. I’m looking after him while she’s on holiday,’ Mrs Brewson replied. ‘Now, thank you for coming to tell me about the statue, but next time, can you please come to the front door? I don’t want to risk Buster escaping like your Gran’s dog.’
    So we were no nearer to finding Fluffy, I thought, as I went out of the gate – Mrs Brewson bolted it firmly after me. Although, as Vince says, the trick to solving a crime is to class everyone as a suspect, then eliminate them one by one. At least I could tick Mrs Brewson off the list.
    Or could I? Just because she wasn’t hiding Fluffy didn’t mean she hadn’t let her escape. After an eventful few hours of investigating, we still didn’t know whether Fluffy was lost or dognapped!

Chapter 6
A Sighting
    The next day, the local newspaper published an article about Fluffy’s disappearance. It was on the fourth page, under the headline: ‘Prize-winning show dog disappears’. There was a picture of Fluffy and brief details of how she’d gone missing from the back garden, with an appeal to phone the local police station with any news of her whereabouts. It also mentioned a reward of one hundred pounds for her safe return.
    Apparently, the ‘someone’ Gran and Mr Winkleberry had been talking to when I brought back the shopping yesterday, was a reporter. I was a bit annoyed at missing out on the chance of speaking to a reporter, just to get chased by an angry pit bull and nearly break my neck climbing drainpipes. Gran was upset that the story hadn’t made the first page, and Mr Winkleberry was angry that they hadn’t mentioned his name, simply referring to him as a guest.
    ‘We’re having some flyers printed too,’ Gran told me. ‘David … Mr Winkleberry suggested it. Fluffy’s insured so the insurance company will pay for advertisements and contribute towards the reward.’
    ‘That’s a good idea, the more publicity we get, the more chance we’ve got of finding Fluffy,’ I agreed. ‘I’ll help you give out the flyers, Gran. I’m sure we’ll find Fluffy before the show next Sunday.’
    ‘I hope so, Amy. The flyers will be ready to pick up after two, so could you collect them and distribute them for me? See if any of the local shops will put one in their window.’
    Just then the telephone rang. ‘I’ll get it,’ I said. I