Free Rachel's Coming Home by Gillian Villiers Page A

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    â€˜That’s Jinty,’ she said in disbelief. ‘I know her owners. They’re very protective of her. What on earth is she doing here?’
    â€˜You’ve made a mistake. She belongs to a friend of mine,’ said the man. Rachel immediately noted that he’d changed his story. He moved forward and the dog shrank back. That was enough for Rachel. The driver of the red car had come to stand behind them and she hastily handed over the leads of the other two dogs. ‘Hold these, will you?’ She reached forward to open the cage. ‘Here, Jinty girl, come on now.’
    At the sound of a familiar voice the little dog crawled forward, almost on her stomach, still eyeing the man fearfully. Rachel whisked her into her arms and held her close. The dog wore no collar but there was no mistaking her beautifully-trimmed coat and gleaming eyes.
    â€˜Give her back,’ said the man, making a grab for the animal.
    â€˜Oh no you don’t,’ said the woman, now apparently fully recovered. Rachel took advantage of the distraction to step away and the woman continued. ‘I don’t think that is your dog at all. In fact, I think you have dog-napped her. I happen to know that quite a bit of this has been going on in the area recently. In fact, I’ve been researching it for my job.’ She had found her handbag now and produced a notepad and pen. ‘Now what do you have to say about that?’ she said expectantly.
    For once in her life Rachel was speechless and had never been so glad to see another car as she was when the police car drew up behind her.
    â€˜You’re famous,’ said Anthony with something between a grin and a sneer. ‘Quite the local heroine.’
    Rachel groaned. ‘How was I to know she was a journalist? I would have been more circumspect if I’d realised.’
    â€˜Excellent publicity for the kennels,’ said her father, massaging his leg just above the plaster. ‘And Mr and Mrs Johnston are delighted, they can’t say enough in your praise.’
    â€˜I’m just glad I got Jinty back for them.’ Rachel shuddered. ‘You know they think the man was heading for the ferry at Stranraer? If he’d got across to Ireland they might never have seen her again.’

Chapter Six
    â€˜Just exactly what do you think you’re doing?’ demanded a deep voice that was all too familiar to Anthony.
    He swung round, immediately guilty although he didn’t know why he should be. He and Gemma were just putting up a few posters. The voice belonged to Sergeant MacFarlane, as he had known it would.
    â€˜We’re putting up posters,’ he said, trying to be polite. Rachel had gone on and on at him about how being polite made life so much easier.
    The policeman folded his arms across his broad chest and shook his head at them.
    â€˜Is there a problem?’ said Gemma. She sounded scared.
    â€˜I don’t see why there should be,’ said Anthony.
    â€˜Yes there is a problem.’ The policeman sighed lugubriously. ‘Have you ever heard of fly-posting? It’s against the law to put up posters on any property that isn’t your own and even on your own property there can be restrictions.’
    â€˜But that’s ridic …’ started Anthony, and then thought better of it. ‘That’s really, er, a shame.’ He could feel colour rising to his face and he hated that. They had put up at least twenty posters around Boroughbie and the plan had been to do the same in Moffat the next day.
    â€˜I never thought,’ said Gemma, chewing her lip.
    â€˜Other people do it,’ said Anthony.
    â€˜Yes, and if caught they can receive a hefty fine.’ The man glowered at them. ‘Is that what you want?’
    Anthony balked. He still hadn’t repaid Rachel for the last fine. ‘I suppose we could go and take them all down,’ he offered, hoping he could remember where they had