False Bottom by Hazel Edwards Page B

its leash.
    â€˜Excuse me. We’d just like to have a look at your bag.’
    â€˜My bag?’ Amy felt guilty. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but she knew why the dog was there.
    â€˜Is that dog part of the Beagle Brigade’?
    The dog handler nodded.
    â€˜They’re the quarantine detector dogs?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜The ones in the Inflight magazine article?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    Amy felt stupid about asking all those questions. She already knew the answers. But she was feeling nervous.
    â€˜ What’s his job?’’
    â€˜Willy patrols the international baggage terminal five days a week. When he sniffs a suspicious item, he’s trained to sit.Then as his handler I can inspect the bag.’
    â€˜Yes. He’s sniffing for contraband, I know. I haven’t got any fruit, meat, eggs or live birds!’ But Amy did have an ace memory for facts she’d read.
    The handler smiled. ‘Willy’s sense of smell is up to one hundred times better than a human’s.’
    â€˜No kidding!’ Christopher hadn’t known that.’ So what’s he smelt on Amy’s luggage? Edwina toy bear smells?’
    â€˜That’s what we’ll have to find out.’
    Amy was still feeling guilty. But she hadn’t done anything wrong. Her backpack had been next to Mr Smith’s box in the overhead locker. Had his box leaked onto her bag?
    â€˜Have you anything to declare?’
    â€˜I failed my maths test last time,’ joked Amy. But the officer just pointed to the purple and aqua bag. Amy undid it.
    At least she thought it was hers. The name tag was right. So was the mess inside. Books. Spare underpants. Lollies. Jumper. My Trip book. Keys. Mini camera. Sleuth notebook.
    The official checked everything. He undid the zips and found an old Singapore Hong Kong ticket Amy had forgotten. He also found Edwina stuffed in a small pocket.
    â€˜Hi again, Edwina,’ said Christopher.
    Amy went red. ‘Forgotten she was there.’
    â€˜She’s not illegal. Just babyish.’ Christopher was more interested in the working dogs. ‘What if someone sprays perfume or aftershave to hide an illegal smell?”
    â€˜The dogs find it anyway. Most of their world is smell.
    Apart from the Beagle brigade, we’ve also got our drug-detector dogs. We call them sniffer dogs. Some are ‘frantic’ dogs who jump all over the luggage and get excited. Our ‘passive’ dogs just sit quietly beside any suspect who smells suspicious.’
    â€˜Like me.’
    â€˜Sometimes the person is innocent. Sometimes they are trying to smuggle something illegal. The dogs smell everything.’
    The officer seemed to be trying to make Amy feel better.
    â€˜I haven’t got anything bad in my luggage.’ Amy clutched Edwina.
    â€˜That’s right. We’ve checked it all now. But you might have been close to someone else’s luggage and picked up the scent.’
    That’s when Amy started looking around for Mr Smith. But Christopher was still asking money questions.
    â€˜How much is a dog like this worth?’
    â€˜Five bucks for a mongrel from a lost dogs home. But by the time he’s trained, the dog’s worth seventy thousand dollars to us.’
    â€˜Do you have trouble getting the right kind of dogs?’
    â€˜ Only one in four hundred is suitable.’ explained the handler. ‘We train them. They help make about two thousand seizures a year.’
    â€˜Seizures?’ asked Christopher.
    â€˜Arrests for smuggled goods. ‘
    â€˜Aunty Viv has trouble choosing the right animals for actors, too.’ Amy said.
    â€˜For us, no breed is better than another. But sniffer dogs tend to come from the bigger breeds. Ones with retrieval instincts.’
    â€˜Like labradors?’ suggested Christopher.
    â€˜Yes. Or German shepherds. They work about five hours a day. Usually we start at dawn to catch the