Meow or Never (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) (7 page)

“She could have made that up to throw
you off the track,” Vanessa pointed out. “She could have told you that to get
the police to run over there looking for him while Walter committed some other
heinous deed.”

“We can only wait and find out,” he
replied. “In the meantime, I have a different place for you to stay tonight.”

“Oh? Where?” she asked.

“Somewhere you can take your cats with
you,” he told her.

Vanessa clapped her hands and jumped up
and down. “Oh, Pete! You are a treasure. Where is it?”

“It's Mrs. Harris's house,” he replied.

“What? Your place?” she exclaimed.

“Well, you'll have your own room,” he
explained. “You know how Mrs. Harris is. She wouldn't stand for us sharing a
room, since we aren't married. But I explained the situation to her, and she
agreed to give you and the cats a place to stay, just until you figure
something out.”

Vanessa threw her arms around him. “Oh,
thank you so much. You don't know what it was like, spending the night without
my cats.”

“From what I saw,” he told her, “you
didn't have any trouble spending the night without your cats. I showed up
around eleven o'clock, and you were sound asleep.”

Vanessa grinned. “You're right. But I
have to get back to the shop now. They'll want their breakfast, and I have to
get them ready to move.”

“Do you have enough crates for them?”
he asked.

Vanessa nodded. “I have all the cat
crates anyone could want in the basement. We're the Cat Protection League,
after all.”

He drove her back to the Opportunity
Shop and dropped her off on the sidewalk outside. “If any of them gives you a
hard time, you tell them to talk to me. I'll straighten them out.”

Vanessa slammed the car door. “Don't
worry. I think they'll be happy to get out of the apartment for a while.”

He called through the open window.
“I'll be back in three hours to pick you up.”

Vanessa let herself into the shop, and
the cats greeted her with their usual hungry meows.

“Did you have a quiet night?” she
asked. “Apparently I did, although I don't remember much of it. I must have
been a lot more tired than I realized. I'm not surprised, after that scare I
had with Walter yesterday. Anyway, we're going to be staying with dear old Mrs.
Harris for a while, at least until I can find another place to live.”

She set out their breakfast as usual on
the back wall of the shop. Henry sat up on the book table and stared down at
the other cats eating. The sight of his placid face and squinted eyes set
Vanessa's mind at ease. “No, I don't think I want to go back up to the
apartment. Who knows how long it will take to fix, and I could never turn on
the bedroom wall heater again without taking my life in my hands.”

She washed out the cans and
straightened up the children's toys.

“I really don't know,” she went on.
“Julie told us Walter was in that old flour mill on the other side of town. You
know the one next to the aluminum plant? I know. That's what Pete said, too. He
thought Walter could have snuck into the plant after hours to sabotage that gas
line. Anyway, when the police went there, they didn't find him. He must have
moved to another hiding place.”

The other cats finished eating, and
Henry jumped down to the floor. He stood next to the shoe rack and waited for
the crowd to thin before he moved in for his own meal.

“I really don't know,” Vanessa told
him. “After yesterday, I'm ready to give up all this sleuthing. I've had
enough. I just want to go back to the nice quiet life we had before. Oh, I
know. We'll still have Pete in our lives. That won't change. Now, come on.
Let's get ready to go. Three hours isn't that much time to get thirteen cats
packed up.”

Vanessa straightened the shop. Then she
went down to the basement and got out the cat crates. She lined them with old
blankets from the linen shelf in the shop and made a cozy nest in each one. She
left them standing open in the middle of the floor so the cats could sniff
around them and get used to the idea.

Vanessa cleaned up the breakfast dishes
and started on the paperwork left over from the previous day. “I don't know
what Mrs. Harris has in mind. She might want you all to stay in your crates in
the garage, for all I know. I don't think she wants thirteen cats running
around her house. She's a prim old lady who can't stand mess, let alone cat
hair. I know what Pete said about her giving Aurora a home, but that could have
been nothing more than a nice idea. You know how it is.”

Henry finished cleaning his whiskers
and strolled over to his crate.

“I know you had a terrible time in your
crate yesterday,” Vanessa told him. “But I think we can be certain we won't
have a repetition of yesterday's excitement. As soon as the police find out
where Walter is staying, he'll be taken into custody and he'll be out of our
lives forever.”

Henry sniffed his crate. Then he
stepped into it and curled up into a furry ball.

“That's right,” Vanessa told him. “We
have thought the same thing before. I don't know when we're ever going to be
rid of him for good.”

The doorbells jangled, and Vanessa
turned to see who it was. “Julie! I thought you were at the office.”

“I was,” Julie replied. “I had some
phone calls to make. After what happened yesterday, I felt so bad about telling
Walter where you were that I decided I had to do something to make it up to
you. I called the owner of that property. I explained your situation, and he
agreed that, if you are serious about buying it, you could move into it right
away. It's standing there vacant. All you have to do is make an offer on it,
and you can move in whenever you want.”

Vanessa's eyes widened. “You didn't
have to do that. I have a place to stay for now.”

“Do you mean Mrs. Harris's house?”
Julie asked. “Detective Wheeler told me you would be there. You know you'd be a
lot more comfortable out at the property, and your cats would have all the room
they need to run around. If you were ever serious about buying that property, you
can have it now. It's the perfect solution to your problem.”

Vanessa grinned. “Spoken like a true
real estate agent.”

Julie grimaced. “I'm so sorry for
getting you into this mess, Vanessa. I'm not thinking of my commission here. I
just want to make good on the mistake I made. I didn't know Walter was so
dangerous when I told him where you were going.”

Vanessa patted her arm. “I know. I was
only teasing. Thank you very much for thinking of me. I will call my bank
manager right now and see about arranging the paperwork. I would love to buy
that property, and I know my cats would love it there, too.”

Julie hesitated. “Is there anything
more I can do for you?”

Vanessa turned away. “Not unless you
have some other idea where we can find Walter. I don't think any of us will
sleep at night until he is put away for good.”

Julie shook her head. “I don't
understand why he wasn't at the flour mill. He's been staying there ever since
he came back to town. When Detective Wheeler told me they hadn't found him
there, I was as surprised as anybody.”

“Never mind,” Vanessa replied. “Walter
has agents all over town. I'm sure one of his people told him the police were
on their way.”

Julie nodded and turned away. “Let me
know if there is anything more I can do for you.”

“Thank you, Julie,” Vanessa exclaimed.
“I'm sure we'll continue to deal with one another during the sale of this
property.”

Julie drove away in her SUV and Pete
drove up in his Toyota Corolla. Penny sat in the front passenger seat, and her
brother Alan sat in the back. Pete looked around at the cat crates. “All set?”

Vanessa nodded. “Great news. I'm going
to buy that property outside of town, and we're going to move in tomorrow.”

Pete gasped in astonishment. “Wow.
Great. I don't think you would be very happy at Mrs. Harris'. It was only a
temporary arrangement anyway. That is really great news.”

“Julie arranged it,” she told him. “I'm
convinced now that her tipping off Walter really was an accident. She's trying
to make up for it any way she can.”

“I should darn well hope she would,”
Pete growled.

“Don't forget,” Vanessa told him.
“Walter almost killed her, too.”

“I haven't forgotten,” he replied.
“That's the price you pay for dealing with people like him.”

“She didn't know that at the time,”
Vanessa told him. “But she knows it now. Anyway, we'll stay with Mrs. Harris
tonight, and we'll go home to our new house tomorrow.”

Pete waved toward his car. “If you're
ready, let's go.”

“What about the cats?” Vanessa asked.
“They won't fit in your car.”

“No,” he agreed. “They're going in the
paddy wagon.”

“The paddy wagon?” she repeated.

At that moment, a white police van
pulled up to the curb behind Pete's car and a uniformed officer got out. He
opened the back grating. Pete laughed at Vanessa's expression. “You never
thought your cats would be hauled away by the police, did you? The wagon is the
only vehicle I could find to fit thirteen cat crates, and Captain Jameson was
very kind to let me use it for the afternoon.”

Vanessa shook her head. “I'll be sure
to send him a thank you card.” She helped the officer load the crates into the
paddy wagon. They lined the benches and filled the whole floor. Then he locked
the door with the cats inside.

Pete laughed again when he saw her
staring at the plain white van. “They won't get away from us this time.”

Vanessa smiled. “My poor little
darlings.”

Pete chuckled and opened his own car
door. “Come on.”

“Are Penny and Alan going to Mrs.
Harris's house, too?” Vanessa asked.

“No, they're going to the Mountain High
Inn,” he told her. “When Julie told us about passing information to Walter, I
decided to move them so she wouldn't know where they were. I still can't trust
that woman.”

“She's all right,” Vanessa insisted.

“I hope you're right,” he replied. “In
any case, I'm not taking any chances until Walter is off the streets.”

Vanessa got into the seat next to Alan,
and Pete started down the street. Vanessa gazed out her window at the town
passing by. “I never thought it would come to this. I always thought Caspar
Crossing was above all this criminal stuff.”

“It was,” Penny told her, “until Walter
came along. I can't wait until he's in federal custody.”

“He was in federal custody,” Pete
pointed out. “He's supposed to be in federal custody now.”

“So what are we going to do to protect
ourselves from him?” Vanessa asked. “If we can't rely on the FBI, we'll never
be safe as long as Walter is alive.”

“We'll have to figure out a way to
neutralize him,” Pete replied. “I don't know how, but we'll find a way.”

Pete cruised through the town. “Should
we drop off Penny and Alan first? Or should we take you to Mrs. Harris's house?”

“Why don't you drop me off first?”
Vanessa suggested. “Then Penny and Alan don't have to worry about a paddy wagon
full of cats sitting around while they get checked in.”

Pete nodded and turned toward Mrs.
Harris's house. The smoke stacks of the aluminum plant came into view. “There
it is. We still have no evidence that Douglas Middleton sabotaged that gas
line. I wish we could nail him once and for all. I don't like letting a guilty
man walk around free.”

“We don't know that he is guilty,”
Vanessa told him. “Walter could have done it himself, especially with access
from the flour mill.”

The car rolled past the flour mill, and
Penny gave a cry. She pointed through the windshield. “Look! Do you see what I
see?”

They followed the direction of her
gesture, and Vanessa started forward in her seat. “Yes! There goes Walter into
the flour mill.”

Pete screeched to a stop. He veered
into the entrance of the mill and threw his car into park. The paddy wagon
stopped right behind him. “You all stay here. I'm going in after him.”

“You can't go alone,” Vanessa called
after him. “Let one of us go in with you.”

Pete tossed her his cell phone. “Call
Captain Jameson. He's number seven on my speed dial. Tell him to get the SWAT
team out here pronto. I'll keep Walter pinned down as long as I can.” He took
off running toward the mill before she could answer.

Vanessa turned the cell phone on and
started punching buttons. She delivered Pete's message to Captain Jameson, then
she, Penny and Alan sat and waited.

“How long does it take to get the SWAT
team out?” Penny asked.

“You would think they would be here by
now,” Vanessa replied. “This could be a real emergency. Pete could be dead in
there for all we know.”

“And Walter could be getting away,”
Penny added. “We don't want that, either.”