Lucy had a Sunday class in the park too, in the afternoon. Now she just had to work on Mum and Dad to get her there. She wasn’t going to admit her real reason, there was no way her parents would let her go off “bothering those poor people”. She could just imagine Dad saying it. No, she would have to be a bit sneaky.
It wasn’t hard to sit in the corner of the sofa and look as if she was moping – Emily felt a bit better now she had a plan, but she could easily drag up miserable thoughts about Sam. She could hear Mum and Dad muttering in the background. They’d noticed!
“Ought to get out and get some fresh air,” she heard her dad murmur. He strode cheerfully over to the sofa and announced in an over-bright voice, “Time for a walk, you two!”
Jack looked up crossly from his toy cars. “Don’t want to walk,” he grumbled.
Dad’s bouncy attitude didn’t slip. “Football!” he half-yelled, making Jack jump. “Come on, grab the ball, grab your coats, we’re going to the park!”
Emily shook her head in disbelief. How easy had that been? Maybe she ought to try being sneaky more often. Although it was a pity they had to take Jack too, especially a grizzly Jack who moaned about being cold all the way to the park.
Actually, having Jack in tow was probably a good thing, Emily thought to herself, as she watched Dad try to jolly Jack along as they kicked the ball about between them in the park. Dad was having to spend so much time getting Jack not to lie down on the grass and sulk, that he wasn’t really watching her. “Just going to practise dribbling,” she called. Gently, she kicked the ball over towards the dog-training class, pretending to be using a line of trees for markers. Jack was now jumping up and down, swinging from Dad’s hand and howling.
Emily lurked behind a big chestnut tree with a fat trunk, and peered round at the dog-training class. The sight of so many beautiful dogs, lots of them only puppies, made her stomach lurch, and she felt her eyes go hot with tears again. She shook herself firmly. If she wanted to get Sam back, she had to do something. Crying wouldn’t help.
Carefully, Emily watched the class. It was a cold February day, and hardly anyone had stopped to watch. A few people were gathered up at the far end – but it was hard to see… Then someone moved, and she spotted Bertie the pointer sitting sadly by the man, who was talking with another dog-owner. The woman was standing next to him, wearing her red gloves, laughing at something. They were there! It couldn’t be a coincidence. Emily felt her fingers curl into fists at the sight of them chatting so nicely. They were probably trying to pick up information about a new dog to steal.
Suddenly, the man hauled on Bertie’s lead, and they started to walk away from the dog-training area, waving to the people they’d been chatting with.
Emily watched in horror from behind her tree. Now what was she supposed to do? Her plan had only gone as far as getting to the park. Quickly, she looked back round the tree. Eeek! Now Dad and Jack were coming over. Jack’s bottom lip was sticking out, but at least he wasn’t yelling any more.
“Sorry, Emily,” Dad said, still trying to be super-cheerful. “Come on then, Jack! Let’s see if Emily can get the ball past us, hmm?”
Emily looked over at the class in panic. The couple was heading for one of the side gates to the park now. What was she going to do? There was no way she could convince Dad to follow them, and even if she said she wanted to go home, they wouldn’t use that gate.
It was time for a desperate move. Emily made a big thing of running up to the ball, faking a couple of times to get Dad and Jack in the mood, then booted it completely the wrong way – over towards the gate.
“Whoops! Sorry!” she giggled breathlessly. “I’ll get it!” She raced off after the ball, which was still rolling feebly. There was a clump of big bushes close to the gate, and Emily made a big thing of rooting about in them after the ball. Then she simply nipped through the bushes and out of the gate.
Dad was going to go mad when he worked out what she’d done, but right now Emily didn’t have time to think about that.
She was going to rescue Sam.
Chapter Six
Emily threw a quick glance back over her shoulder as she set off out of the park. Jack was being difficult again, and Dad had his hands full. Good.
The couple with the pointer were about halfway down the road, walking quite slowly, and talking to each other. Bertie was plodding along beside them, his tail drooping between his legs. Emily had never tried to follow anyone before, and she didn’t really know what to do. She was pretty sure that they would recognize her if they saw her, so she needed to keep back out of sight. She jogged up to a nearby postbox and hovered behind it, jigging from one foot to the other nervously. As soon as Bertie’s black-and-white tail disappeared round the corner at the end of the road, Emily raced after them, skidding to a stop just before the corner, and peering round, helpfully disguised by a large but prickly rose bush.
She went on following them, lurking behind lamp posts and parked cars. Luckily not many people were around, and when someone did walk past, she just pretended to be doing up her trainers. It was weird. Emily felt silly hopping about behind trees, but scared at the same time. If she really was following the dog-nappers, what would happen if they noticed her? They weren’t going to be pleased to see her.
After about five minutes, Emily spied round the next corner and got a shock. They’d gone! Her heart thumping in horror, Emily dashed into the next street. She couldn’t have lost them. This was her only chance, because once Dad caught up with her, she was going to be grounded for life.
Suddenly, she heard voices.
“Come on, you stupid dog,” someone said crossly. It sounded as though they were in one of the front gardens.
Emily took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. Maybe the couple lived in one of these houses. Yes, that had to be it, because this was quite a long road. Unless they’d started running, they couldn’t have got that far ahead of her.
The street was full of big, old houses, and most of them looked neglected and shabby, some with boarded-up windows, as though they were empty. The gardens had quite high front walls, about shoulder height for Emily. She ducked down and scurried along to where she’d heard the voice coming from. It was a house on the end of a row, with a path running down the side, full of old rubbish. The garden was overgrown with bushes, so she peeped round the gate, hardly daring to breathe in case someone heard the air hissing in and out of her mouth. It was only now that she was so close that Emily started thinking about what might happen if she got caught. The grumpy man yelling at poor Bertie, who’d stopped to do a wee and have a sniff around halfway up the garden path, made her realize how much she did not want them to know she was there. The houses nearby looked as though they might be empty, with broken windows and gardens that were even wilder than this one. Emily shuddered. No one was around to help her out.
At last the man and woman went inside and slammed the front door. Emily was left crouching by the gate, feeling a bit stupid. She’d done it – found where the couple lived. But what was she supposed to do now?
