Sam snuggled up against her, trying to tell her that it would be all right.
“Oh, Sam…” Sleepily, Emily lay back down. “I do love you.”
Sam did understand that. Emily said it lots, and he knew it was very important.
I love you too, he told her firmly. And I’ll always be here. Now go to sleep. And this time he curled up by her shoulder, determined that nothing was going to hurt her, not while he was there to look after her.
But when Emily got home from school the next day, Sam wasn’t rushing down the hall to see her. Usually he met her at the door, barking delightedly, and wanting to be made a fuss of, but today there was no whirling, barking ball of golden fur. Emily checked upstairs while Mum tried to get Jack out of his coat. When she came back down, Mum had started making their tea, and was trying to explain to Jack why he couldn’t have fish fingers every day, and it had to be pasta sometimes. She didn’t really notice when Emily dashed out into the garden to look for Sam.
Sam wasn’t there. Emily hadn’t really expected him to be – Mum wouldn’t have left him out in the garden while she went to collect her from school – but she’d been getting a bit desperate. Sam wasn’t upstairs, and he definitely wasn’t downstairs, so if he wasn’t in the garden, where was he?
“Mum, I can’t find Sam!” Emily burst out, as she raced back into the kitchen.
“Don’t bang the door like that, Emily!”Mum said, with her head in the fridge.
“Sorry, but Mum, where’s Sam?”
“I should think he’s upstairs, having a sleep. I think that’s where he was when we left.” Mum still wasn’t really paying attention. “Or in the garden, maybe?”
“I’ve just looked in the garden!”
Emily grabbed her mum’s arm, desperate to make her listen. “He’s not upstairs either, I’ve looked. He’s not anywhere, Mum!”
“He must be…” Mum was actually paying attention now, but she didn’t seem to realize how serious this was. “He’s probably got shut in one of the rooms by accident, while I was vacuuming. Go and check all the bedrooms, Emily.”
Jack looked round from the table, where he was playing with his toy diggers. “No, Mummy, Sam’s with the lady,” he said helpfully.
Emily and Mum turned to stare at him, and Emily gasped in horror. “What lady?” she asked, barely able to speak.
Jack just shrugged. “The one that came to borrow Sam. When you were upstairs, Mummy.”
Mum knelt down by Jack’s chair and tried to get him to explain, but it was hard to get him to give any more details. He’d been riding his trike in the garden, and the lady had come in through the back gate. She’d said she was just borrowing Sam and she’d bring him back later.
“What did she look like?” Emily asked. “Tell me!”
“Just a lady!” Jack was sounding a bit cross and scared now. He didn’t understand why Emily was so angry with him, and Mum looked so panicked. “Oh!” He remembered something helpful. “She had red gloves,” he told Emily happily. “Sam didn’t like them, he tried to bite them.” He smiled at Emily, hoping she’d be pleased with him now, but she was crying, and he started to cry too. “When is the lady bringing Sam back?” he asked, miserably. “Mummy, when is Sam coming back?”
Emily’s mum phoned the police. It took ages, and she kept being put through to different people, but Emily and Jack stood next to her, listening hard and trying to work out what was happening. At last she put the phone down, and beckoned them over to sit on the sofa with her.
“Emily, the policeman I was just talking to, he’s in charge of an investigation at the moment. There’s – well, they think there’s a gang of what are called dog-nappers working in this area at the moment.”
“Dog-nappers?” Emily hadn’t ever heard the word before. Jack was just listening, wide-eyed and still teary. Emily wouldn’t talk to him, and he wanted Sam to come back, and he was miserable.
“Like kidnappers for dogs,” Mum said slowly, putting an arm round each of them. “Lots of pedigree dogs have gone missing round here recently, especially young dogs.”
“But what happens to them?” Emily whispered. She was still trying to understand what was going on – someone had stolen Sam!
Mum looked upset. She took Emily’s hand. “The policeman’s going to come round and ask us about what happened. We can ask him questions too.”
It should have been exciting, having a policeman coming to their house, like being part of an adventure story, The Case of the Stolen Dogs. But it wasn’t. Emily would much rather have had Sam back and no adventure at all.
Jack was thrilled to have a real police car outside the house at first, but then the policeman wanted to ask him what had happened when Sam was taken, and he went completely shy and wouldn’t say anything. Emily felt like screaming at him – she was furious that he’d just sat there on his trike while Sam got stolen, and now he wouldn’t even help!
The policeman made notes about what Sam looked like, and said it was good that they’d let him know quickly. “But he’s a valuable dog, I’m afraid, and being so young as well, he’s going to be very easy for them to sell on.”
Emily looked at him, confused. “But we’ll get him back before he gets sold, won’t we? You’ll find him.”
The policeman just looked sad, and gave a funny sort of cough.
Mum didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she hugged Emily tighter.
“Emily, the police will do their best, of course, but the dog-nappers are very well organized. The gang seem to be able to make dogs just disappear.”
Emily swallowed. “So – we might never get Sam back…?” Tears rolled down her face, and her nose started to run. She didn’t care. She stared at the policeman, who looked so out of place in their living room. “You mean we might never see him again?”
Chapter Four
Shut away in the dark, Sam howled for Emily to come and find him. This was far worse than being left at home while they all went off to school, and playgroup, and shopping. He padded anxiously around the little wire pen, sniffing the strange smells. There were other dogs here. Sam could hear them, barking and whining, angry about being shut up in their pens. He was sure that there had been at least five different dogs living in this pen before him, too. He just didn’t understand why.
One thing Sam was certain of was that he should never have let that lady with the red gloves feed him dog treats. When she had opened the garden gate, he had thought she was meant to be there, especially when she had the same dog treats that Emily used for when he did well at dog-training. She’d called him, and known his name, and the dog treats smelled so good – but he should have known! She didn’t smell right, and then she’d grabbed his collar, and hauled him out of the garden and shoved him in the boot of that big car. Sam had barked, and tried to tell Jack to get help, but Jack had just watched, looking confused. The really scary thing was, he didn’t know how to get out of this pen, or the big wooden shed where he and all the other dogs were shut in. He didn’t know how he was supposed to get out and find Emily again. All he could do was call her – but how was she ever going to hear him?