Meow or Never (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) (5 page)

Pete shook his head. “This is getting
us nowhere. We have to track him down before he strikes again.”

Vanessa turned to the pair next to his
desk. “Hello, Penny. Hello, Alan. What are you two doing here? You’re not going
into protective custody, are you?”

Penny glanced at her brother. “We
weren’t sure what to do. We came here to talk to Detective Wheeler and Captain
Jameson about the situation. But that was before we knew Walter was in town.
This changes everything.”

Vanessa sighed, and they all sat down
around Pete’s desk. “I wasn’t all that excited about going into hiding myself,
but now that I’ve seen Walter from myself, I’m starting to have second
thoughts. If Walter has people planted all over town and can get information
about where we are and where we’re going at the snap of his fingers, none of us
are safe. We might not even be safe in protective custody.”

Pete stared down at his desk. “I used
to think we had a pretty straight department here. I haven’t seen anything that
would make me think Walter or any other criminal element had a hand in this
police force. But if the FBI is that slack about letting him roam around the
country, I would have to agree with you. I wouldn’t trust anybody with your
protection.”

“So what are we going to do about it?”
Vanessa asked.

“There’s only one thing we can do,” he
told her. “We have to find a way to bring Walter to justice. We have to catch
him in the act of trying to kill one of us, or find proof that he’s hiring
others to do it. We have to prove he’s here, in town, and we have to find some
way to stop him.”

“How are we going to do that?” Penny
asked.

Pete shook his head. “I know it’s a
tall order, but we have to do it. We can’t wait around for someone else to do
it. We could all be dead before anybody knows what happened.”

Vanessa sat up straighter in her chair.
“I’m with you, Pete. We’ve stopped Walter before. We can do it again.”

“This is much more serious than that
was,” Pete told her. “No one knew before that Walter was a killer. Now he’s
killed one person and tried to kill two others.”

“He tried to kill three people,” Penny
reminded them. “Don’t forget that the explosion at the plant was intended to
kill Alan. He killed Eastman by mistake.”

“Do we know that for certain?” Vanessa
asked. “I thought that was just a speculation.”

“We know it for certain now,” Pete told
her. “I checked the personnel records from the plant. Another pipe fitter had
to go to Chicago for some special training conference. Alan was supposed to
come in to cover for him, but at the last minute, his car broke down and he had
to back out. They called in Eastman instead. He was doing the job Alan was
supposed to do.”

“And now he’s dead, just like that,”
Vanessa murmured. “Did you find any evidence linking Middleton to the case?”

Pete shook his head. “I’m not wasting
any more time on Middleton or the plant explosion. We have firsthand proof that
Walter is trying to kill us, and we have a direct link between him and the real
estate agent’s office. I’m turning all my attention to that. I don’t think it
will be that hard to find out who told Walter where you were going.”

“That still doesn’t help us protect
ourselves from the next attack,” Penny pointed out. “What are we going to do
between now and when you catch Walter? I don’t feel safe going home.”

Vanessa stood up. “Well, I do. I’m
beat, and I’ve got thirteen cats waiting for me who haven’t been fed all day.
I’m going to my apartment. A good night’s sleep will help me think this case
over.”

“I’ll find a place for you and Alan to
stay tonight,” Pete told Penny. “I can assign an armed guard so no one comes
along shooting the place up. That’s the best I can do for right now. I know it
isn’t much and it probably doesn’t set your minds at ease, but at least you
won’t be in any of your usual places where Walter can find you.”

Vanessa took her leave. Pete walked her
out of the building, and they agreed to meet the next morning at the
Opportunity Shop to talk strategy.

Vanessa walked away with a smile on her
face, but as soon as she passed around the corner out of sight, she wilted. Her
feet shuffled along the ground, and she stared at the pavement sliding by
beneath her feet. She could barely summon the energy to unlock the door.

When she pushed her way into the
apartment, the cats crowded around her feet so she couldn’t open the door. “Oh,
you poor, poor mistreated creatures. Did I leave you alone all day without
food? I’m so sorry.”

She went to the kitchen and started
getting down the dishes and cans of cat food.

“The bad news is that Walter Connelly
is back in town and out for retribution,” she told the cats. “But the good news
is that I found a very nice property outside of town that could make a
wonderful cat sanctuary. It’s got a very nice house, and acres of forest for
you all to play in. Just ask Henry.”

The cats paid no attention. They
swirled around her feet in eddies of color and swishing tails, and they meowed
up at her in a united chorus. Even Henry wouldn’t leave her alone. He yowled
louder than she’d ever heard him, and he kept running his sides across her
legs.

“I know you’re very hungry,” she told
them. “I’m getting the food as fast as I can.”

She ran the can opener around five or
six cans and dumped them into dishes. Then she set them on the floor in a row
before she went back to open several more. She didn’t notice until she turned
around the second time that the cats weren’t eating the food she set out.

“I know you’re terribly upset,” she
went on, “and I promise I won’t ever do it again. You don’t know the day I’ve
had. First, Pete almost crashed his car into the side of a building when
someone cut his brake lines. Then Walter shot up the real estate agent’s car
trying to kill me. It was only by the luckiest chance that we got away with our
lives.”

She finished putting the cat food out.

“Now, finish your food and I’ll get the
fire going.” She let out a heavy breath and went into the living room. “I won’t
be sorry to put my feet up and fall asleep in front of the fire.”

The cats meowed, screeched and pranced
around the room.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked.
“Not one of you has eaten your food. Come on, Henry. You usually can’t stand
being in the same room while the other cats are eating.”

She knelt down in front of the
fireplace and started sorting through the newspaper and kindling to start the
fire. The cats went wild. The calling and whining got louder and more
desperate, and Aurora even jumped on Vanessa's back and bit her on the neck.

Vanessa shooed her off quickly. Aurora
darted away to the other side of the room and wouldn't come near her again. The
other cats took Aurora's place right away. They got in front of Vanessa and
stopped her from getting the fire together.

In the end, Vanessa sat back on her
heels and stared at them. “I don't know what's wrong with you cats tonight, but
I guess we're not having a fire. I can't do anything with you beating me up
every five minutes.”

She threw down her matchbox and set her
hands on her hips. Then she turned off the light and went into the bedroom. The
sight that met her eyes when she turned on the bedside lamp made her gasp in
astonishment all over again.

Her cats usually piled onto her bed and
lounged together while they waited for her to get into it. Tonight, not one cat
sat on her bed. They ran around her feet, whining and yowling. Even Henry—dear,
sensible Henry—just wouldn't stand still. He shivered and waved his tail in
anxious agitation.

“I just don't know what I can do for
you cats,” Vanessa exclaimed. “You don't want food. You don't want a fire. What
do you want?”

She glared down at Henry as he stared
up at her. Then, to her horror, he put out his paw and scratched her across the
top of the foot. His claws tore three holes in her sock, and he ripped three
straight scratches over her skin. She screamed, more in surprise than pain, and
she stepped back away from Henry.

He scooted away from her foot. Then he
stood still a few feet away and stared up at her. Tears sprang to her eyes.
“Have you taken complete leave of your senses? What am I supposed to do?”

She covered her mouth with her hand and
turned away. What was happening to her beloved cats? Had they turned against
her?

She went into the bathroom to get her
bathrobe off the hook by the shower, and that's when she smelled it. Gas. She
darted out of the bathroom as fast as she could, and when she got back to the
bedroom, she stopped again. Henry sat in the same spot across the room with his
eyes fixed on her face.

“Henry,” she breathed, “I'm sorry. I never
should have doubted you. Aurora, I am so sorry for knocking you away like
that.” She picked up the kitten and gave her a cuddle. “Do you know where the
gas leak is?”

Henry strode over to the wall heater
between her closet and the bathroom. He pretended to sniff at it, but then he
wrinkled up his nose and sneezed.

Vanessa knelt down in front of the wall
heater and looked inside. There, right next to the pilot light controller she
spotted a perfectly round hole. Tiny copper shavings curled up from the sides
of it, and a faint hissing noise came from it. The smell of gas hit her in the
face.

“And to think,” she murmured. “The
moment I turned on the thermostat, the pilot light would have come on and the
whole place would have blown up.”

She stood up and looked around. The
smell of gas was becoming unbearable, but the cats—her cats—still crowded the
room. They wouldn't leave her alone, not even with all their lives in danger.
How could she ever have doubted them? No wonder they didn't want her to light
the fire.

She picked up Foxle and glanced around
again. “I'll take Foxle. He's the one who needs me the most, since he's the
most terrified of leaving the apartment. 
Can you others follow me? Henry, you lead them. Show them where to go.”

Henry trotted toward the door. AngelPie
and Flossy, who left the apartment every day to help Vanessa in the Opportunity
Shop, followed him, and the rest took the signal. Foxle shivered in her arms.
At that instant, Aurora clawed her way up Vanessa's pant leg and burrowed into
her arms next to Foxle. He calmed down at once, and Vanessa hugged them both
against her chest.

“All right. Good,” Vanessa went on.
“Follow me, all of you. We've got to get out of here.”

She hurried to the front door. She got
into her overcoat as best she could with one arm around Foxle and Aurora. Then
she stuck her keys in her pocket, and went out into the hall with a crowd of
cats at her heels.

She raced down the stairs as fast as
she could until she got to the shop. She opened the door, flicked on the overhead
light, and stood back while the cats filed past her into the shop. They stopped
by the cat food cupboard and waited for her. None of them made a sound.

Under Vanessa's chin, Foxle panted in
anxiety, but Aurora purred to kept him calm. “It's all right,” Vanessa told
him. “I've got you. You don't have to worry. We just have to get out of that
apartment. Now, is everyone here?”

She did a quick head count and came up
with eleven cats. “Whom have we left behind?” Then she realized she forgot to
count Foxle and Aurora. “So everyone's here. I'll just call Detective Wheeler.
Then we'll get out of the building.”

She went to the phone at the front
counter and picked up the receiver. All the cats followed her. They didn't want
to be alone. She dialed Pete's cell phone number, but at that moment, a
tremendous explosion rocked the building.

The concussion knocked Vanessa to the
ground. She landed on top of Foxle, and he squealed in shock. The crockery and
glassware rattled on the tables and shelves. One of AngelPie's favorite radios
fell off the electronic shelves and crashed to the floor just inches away from
Vanessa.

“I'm so sorry, darling,” she told
Foxle. “I didn't mean to hurt you. Is everyone else all right?”

She glanced around. The other cats
cowered under the furniture and stared around the room with wild eyes. Vanessa
did the fastest survey she could of her cats and struggled to her feet. “Come
on, darlings. We have to get out of this building. There could be another blast
at any moment.”

She started for the door when it flew
open with a crash. Detective Wheeler put his foot through the door and dashed
into the shop. He looked around and clapped his eyes on Vanessa.

“Oh, thank God you're all right,” he
exclaimed. “I was parked outside when the explosion happened.”

Vanessa threw her arms around him and
burst into tears. “Thank God you're here. There was a hole in the gas line in
my bedroom heater. The cats showed it to me. We only just got out in time.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“Come on. We have to get out of here. It isn't safe. I heard the fire truck
pull out of the station, so it's on it's way here now. We can wait for them out
on the sidewalk.”