Eye Spy Read Online Free Page A

pet.”
    â€œNever mind that! Why don’t we offer to find the dog for her?”
    â€œOh, yes? How are we going to do that, Mr Sherlock Holmes? It could be anywhere by now.”
    â€œWe need to talk to the owner and find out where and when it went missing. Then we can draw up a plan of action.”
    Donna frowned as she thought about it. Then she smiled. She really should smile more often; it makes her look less hostile. “OK. Let’s do it. Where do we start?”
    I turned on our ancient computer, which Dad had found on a skip and brought back to life for Donna and me to use. We began by using an Internet search engine to research Sichuan Pekingese.
    â€˜
This type of Pekingese is a
rare subspecies, not often found outside China,’
said the website
. ‘They are sought after by collectors and change hands for huge sums of money.’’
    â€œDefinitely worth stealing, then. What next?”
    I typed ‘lost dogs’ into the search box, and we got a list of charities that took in lost animals. We took down the details of the ones with local branches. Then we noticed that one of the websites included a long article on dog-napping.
    â€˜
This is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the UK
,’ it said. ‘
The dogs are kidnapped
by organised gangs, who wait until a ‘missing’ notice is posted and then use the contact number to demand a large ransom. Owners usually pay up rather than going to the police, fearing for the safety of their pet.
    Other gangs kidnap rare breed dogs to order so they can sell them to collectors. When the dogs are worth so much, the criminals stand to make a lot of money.’
    â€œI don’t like the sound of those gangs.”
    Donna snorted. “Don’t be such a wimp! Imagine if we returned Kiki to her owner after outwitting a gang of international criminals! We’d get our pictures in the paper, and it would prove to the Pitbull that not all Macintyres are losers.”
    I liked the idea of forcing Mr Bull to change his opinion, but I suspected finding the lost dog wouldn’t be that easy. I tried to think the problem through. “First of all, we’ve got to get this Mademoiselle Boudet to take us seriously. How about we make ourselves a business card like Marjorie’s?” Nan’s friend Marjorie runs a domestic agency. Her business card says ‘Maid to Measure’ and shows her telephone number beside a picture of a girl in an old-fashioned maid’s uniform. Donna nodded. “That’s a good idea, but we’ll have to think of a name for ourselves.”
    Finding the right name was harder than we’d expected. Nothing seemed quite right. ‘Macintyre Investigations’ wasn’t snappy enough. Combining our names gave us ‘Don Al Investigations’, but that sounded too masculine. ‘Premier Services’ didn’t explain what we did. Then, while I was looking round the room for inspiration, I noticed some old puzzle books that had belonged to Granddad. Each one covered a different subject, like wild flowers or types of car, and you ticked off each type of flower or car as you came across it. “I know! We’ll call ourselves ‘Eye Spy’, just like Granddad’s puzzle books. What d’you think?”
    â€œBrilliant!” Donna said, and I couldn’t help feeling pleased with myself, because she’s really difficult to impress.
    It didn’t take long to design a business card on the computer. When it was finished, it read:

    EYE SPY INVESTIGATIONS
    Discrete private enquiries
    Donna and Alex Macintyre
    Holcombe Bay 357102
    When it was finished, we printed out the text onto some thick cream notepaper with a watermark that Donna had been given as a birthday present. We found we could get twelve cards out of one A4 sheet. When we’d cut out the individual cards, they looked really professional.
    Now we were all set to start working on the