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Then she noticed teeth marks in the plastic and smelled that they were made by a dog—the size of the marks indicating a small dog. A little way from where she found the driver’s license, a small pink pet collar underneath some petunias caught her eye. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of a small dog lost out here. “Och, no.”

She lifted the collar off the bark mulch and examined it, finding a little white fur had stuck to the collar.Lady, a heart-shaped pink-metal tag said. The collar didn’t have a tag with the owner’s name, address, and telephone number though. She smelled that the dog belonging to the collar had been the same one that had bitten the driver’s license. Worried for her, Maisie hoped she could find the dog and that it was microchipped so she could find her owners. An inspection of the back of the rabies tag attached to the collar showed the dog had received its last rabies vaccination at a vet clinic in Edinburgh. She wondered if Robert, who’d worked at a clinic there, might be able to learn who Lady’s owners were.

Near where the collar had been, the sun glinted off something else. “What in the world…” Maisie moved some flowers aside to find a phone. She grabbed it and pushed a button, the screen coming to life. The battery was charged, and—she frowned.

Ohmigod.It was Jude Springer’s phone. He had been one of her former boyfriends, the guy she’d dated exclusively back in Glasgow until she caught him on a date with another she-wolf. He hadn’t stayed here, so why was his phone in their garden? She recognized his scent on the phone and the picture of him fishing with a friend as his wallpaper. Thefriend was a good buddy of Jude’s, and she had always wondered if he would have been a nicer wolf to date than Jude.

She hurried back into the inn and asked Anne, “Have you seen a little dog running loose around here?” Maisie held up the collar.

Anne frowned. “Och, no.”

“I’m worried about her. She’s not going to be very big, and if she’s lost—well, it’s not good. Her name is Lady. Her rabies tag has a vet clinic listed on it in Edinburgh. I came in to call Robert about it in case he can discover whom she belongs to. I found Gus Anderson’s driver’s license also.” Maisie handed it to Anne.

“Oh, he’ll probably be missing that. We can call him.”

Then Maisie showed her Jude’s phone.

“It smells like that bastard you dated, Jude Springer? But he didn’t stay here at the inn. I would have turned him down for a room and said we were booked to eternity if he’d tried to make a reservation.” Anne turned it on and stared at the guy’s smug face, red curly hair framing his face, bright-blue eyes and a smirky grin as he stood next to his fishing buddy. “Jerk.”

“But we would need to unlock it. I agree about not getting ahold of him to give it back. I feel like the Good Samaritan in me would let him know I found it. The vengeful part of me says it’s finders keepers, and he’s out of luck. I’m going to call Robert about the dog now.”

“I can’t believe you found so many things in the garden!”

“Not only that, but a garden stone is missing!”

“No,” Anne said.

“Yeah. I mean, they’re beautiful garden stones, but would someone steal just one for their garden?”

“Sounds strange. I’ll go search around the area for Lady while you call Robert.” Anne set the driver’s license and Jude’s phone on the dining room table and pulled up Gus’s phone number from his registration on their computer. “I’ll call Gus about his driver’s license while I’m searching for the dog.” She left the inn with her phone in hand.

Maisie could have called the clinic in Edinburgh to try to learn who the dog’s owners were, but Robert might have more success getting the information as a vet who had worked in the city. Maybe it was even from the one he’d worked at, which would be a real boon. If the dog liked him, he might even be able to coax her to come to him when she might not go to anybody else. Was her owner just visiting the area, or had they moved here? She pulled out her phone and called Robert.

“Hey, Maisie, what’s up?” he asked, sounding concerned, maybe worried her head was bothering her.

She hurried to explain. “I found a dog’s collar in our flower bed. The rabies tag said it was from True Companions in Edinburgh.”

“That’s the clinic I worked for.”

“Oh, great. Do you remember seeing a dog named Lady when you worked there? I’m really worried about her.”

“A West Highland Terrier? I’ll get right back with you.” Robert hung up.

Maisie hurried outside to help her sister find the lost dog. Maybe Lady had returned to her owner and her collar had just been left behind—that would be the best-case scenario.

Chapter 5

Robert had to get ahold of Lady’s owners to tell them that Maisie had found her collar and learn if they actually had her in hand or not. He called the clinic. “Hi, this is Dr. Robert Campbell, calling about a patient.”

“Hey, Doctor, we miss you already,” his former vet tech said. “What do you need?”

“A friend found Lady’s collar. She’s a West Highland terrier. I believe Abercromby is her owner. Can you check? I need to try and reach them and see if she’s missing out here or she just lost her collar and they have her.”

“Sure. Let me pull their record up. Here it is. Bruce and Mary Abercromby are Lady’s owners.” Allan gave Robert their phone number and address in Edinburgh. “Unless they moved without telling us, they still live here. Maybe they were just visiting your neck of the woods.”

“Thanks, Allan. I’ll give them a call.” The Abercrombys were wolves, and he thought they could probably find Lady alright on their own, so that gave him a little bit of relief.

“You’re welcome. If you ever get tired of being out there and want to enjoy city life again, we would love to have you back.”