Meow or Never (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) (6 page)

“What about the cats?” Vanessa asked.

He shrugged. “Leave them in here for
now. They'll be all right.”

“If it isn't safe for me,” she told
him. “It isn't safe for them. I'll stay with them until we find another place
to put them.”

He frowned at her. “This is a really
bad idea. You understand that, don't you?”

“What am I supposed to do?” she asked.
“I would be dead right now if it wasn't for them.”

He turned away with a sour expression
on his face. “I know you too well to argue with you. Please, just step outside
until the fire crew gets here.”

She glanced back over her shoulder and
saw Henry sitting on his books. He blinked at her, and she softened. “Can you
take care of everybody else?”

He turned his head away with his eyes
half closed. Then he started licking one paw. She smiled at him and set Foxle
and Aurora on the floor next to Teddy's bed under the front counter. Then she
turned back to Detective Wheeler. “All right. I'll come outside.”

Pete sighed and led her outside just as
the fire truck pulled up to the curb.

“Well, that's it,” Pete remarked. “The
fire crew cleared the building. Only your bathroom was destroyed in the blast.
The rest of your apartment is still intact.”

Vanessa put her head to one side. “Are
you saying I'm supposed to spend the night in there tonight, after someone
sabotaged my heater and blew up my apartment?”

“There's nothing wrong with the
apartment,” he told her. “The fire crew turned the gas off, and you won't be
able to turn it back on until you get that heater fixed. But the rest of the
apartment is still perfectly livable.”

“I'm not going back in there,” she
declared.

“I thought you might want to,” he told
her. “Where else can you stay with thirteen cats?”

Vanessa blinked. “I didn't think of
that.”

“No, you didn't,” he replied. “I'm
happy to take you anywhere you want. It just might be kind of difficult to find
a place for you and the cats at this time of night, if you know what I mean.”

She nodded. “I'm beginning to… What do
you think I should do?”

He stared at her. Then he snorted with
laughter. “I think that's probably the first time you've ever asked me that
question.”

She hesitated. Then she had to smile.
“Stop teasing and tell me. Do you really think I should spend the night in that
apartment? How do we know whoever sabotaged it didn't sabotage something else,
just to make sure I didn't make it through the night?”

“I don't think you should spend the
night in there,” he replied. “I just didn't think you would consent to go
somewhere else without your cats. I thought you would be most comfortable
staying with them, and that means staying here.”

“So what's the alternative?” she asked.

“From what I saw just now,” he replied,
“…they look perfectly comfortable here in the shop. Why don't you leave them
here, just until the morning. You can work out another situation tomorrow after
you've had a good night's sleep under police protection.”

“I don't think I'll sleep, no matter
where I go,” she told him, “not after this.”

“But at least you'll be safe,” he
pointed out. “If you won't do it for yourself, then do it for me. I'm a cop,
and I'm your friend, if I'm nothing else. I couldn't live with myself if
anything happened to you when I had the power to prevent it. Let me take you
somewhere else. Turn off the light and let the cats spend the night in the
shop. Even if whoever it was did sabotage something else in the apartment, they
should be safe down here.”

She glanced back at the shop. “All
right. You convinced me. Where are you going to take me?”

“Penny and Alan are spending the night
over at the TipTop Motel on the other side of town,” he told her. “I'll take
you there, too.”

He ushered her into his car, and drove
her across town. He knocked on one of the doors at the motel, and Penny opened
it.

“Do you mind if Vanessa stays here with
you while I go and book her a room?” he asked.

Penny's eyes widened. “What's going
on?”

“Vanessa will tell you all about it,”
he replied. “I'll be right back.”

Penny closed the door behind them. Vanessa
sank down onto the edge of the bed and peered up at Penny and Alan. “Someone
sabotaged my apartment. They drilled a hole in the gas line of the wall heater
in my bedroom. If my cats hadn't alerted me to it, I would be dead right now.”

Penny gasped. “You don't think.....?”

Vanessa nodded. “It must have been the
same person. It must have been Walter.” She shuddered. “He must have sneaked
into my apartment while I was at the police station. When he failed to shoot me
outside of town, he must have gone straight to my apartment and drilled the
hole before I got back.”

“But how could he get in?” Penny asked.
“Don't you lock up when you leave?”

Vanessa shrugged. “He's been operating
a criminal enterprise in this town for decades. He could have keys to every
building, for all we know.”

“Then we won't be safe anywhere,” Penny
pointed out.

A knock sounded on the door again, and
Pete came back. “I got you the room next door so you won't be far away.”

“Did you have any success getting the
employee information from the real estate office?” Vanessa asked.

He shook his head. “I tried, but the
manager dug in his heels. He said that was confidential information, and if we
wanted it, we had to get a court order.”

Vanessa perked up her ears. “That sounds
like he's trying to hide something. He could be the connection we've been
looking for between the real estate office and Walter.”

“Not really,” Pete replied. “He has a
point. They aren't allowed to give out personal employee information to just
anybody who asks for it.”

“You aren't exactly anybody,” Vanessa
pointed out. “You're the police.”

“We still need a court order,” he told
her.

“But that could take days,” she cried.

He nodded. “Months, even.”

“We can't wait that long,” she
exclaimed. “We have to find Walter now, before he kills us all.”

“You don't have to tell me,” he
replied. “I just don't know where we're going to start looking. We need a lucky
break.”

At that moment, another knock rang out
on the door. They exchanged glances, and Pete pushed his jacket back so he
could reach his gun if he needed it. Then he opened the door a crack.

Vanessa held her breath. Then she heard
a female voice outside. “Is Vanessa Abbot here?” She cried out in surprise.

“Julie!” Vanessa pulled the door open
the rest of the way. “Julie McLeod is my real estate agent. She was with me
when Walter shot at us. This is Detective Pete Wheeler, Julie. He's the one
who's investigating the murder at the aluminum plant, and he's also in charge
of the case of that man shooting at us this afternoon.”

Julie pushed her way into the room.
“You don't have to tell me, Vanessa. I know all about it.”

“Well, you were there with me, weren't
you?” Vanessa replied.

“No, I mean I know all about the
shooter being Walter Connelly,” Julie told her.

Vanessa gasped. “You do? But how could
you know? I didn't even know you knew Walter.”

“I know,” Julie replied, “because I'm
the one who told him you would be out at that property and when you would be
there.”

Vanessa's mouth fell open. “Julie! How
could you tell him?”

“I didn't know he was going to shoot at
you,” Julie replied. “I didn't know he was going to shoot at me, either. But I
saw him in the window of the barn, and when you asked me who knew we were going
to view the property, I put two and two together. I should have told you then
and there that I was the one who tipped him off, but I just couldn't bring
myself to face you. I thought the police would try to pin the murder on me.”

Vanessa stared at her. “But why would
you tell him, Julie? You must have known he meant mischief.”

Julie shook her head. “You don't
understand. I've known Walter Connelly all my life. He was my mother's second
cousin, and he was always perfectly nice to me. I never knew he was arrested
for all those terrible crimes until I got back to the office and told one of
the other agents about him shooting at us. You could have knocked me over with
a feather. When he called me up this morning, he asked me if I knew where to
find you. I didn't think twice. I told him I was meeting you.  I told him where the property was and what
time we would be there. I'm so sorry, Vanessa. I didn't know he would come
after you with a gun, and I certainly didn't know he would shoot at me, too.
That's gratitude for you.”

Vanessa shook her head. “Well, that
solves that mystery. But it doesn't bring us any closer to finding him and
stopping him from threatening us again.”

“I can tell you where to find him,”
Julie returned. “He's staying in that old flour mill outside of town.”

Pete Wheeler stiffened. “That's right
next door to the aluminum plant.”

“What if it is?” Julie asked.

“He could have snuck in there from the
flour mill,” Pete pointed out. “He could have found a way to get in after the
plant shut down for the night. He could have done all his tampering then.”

Julie shook her head. “If I hadn't seen
him with a gun this afternoon, I never would have believed he could do such a
thing.”

“Believe it,” Vanessa shot back. “So
he's in the flour mill. How are we going to catch him?”

“
We
aren't going to catch him,”
Pete told her. “You, Penny and Alan are going to stay right here while the
police apprehend Walter. Julie, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to stay
here, too. We can't run the risk of you tipping him off again.”

“Oh, I won't tell him anything ever again,”
she snapped.

“Still,” he told her. “You'll have to
forgive me for taking precautions. You did it before, and it almost cost you
and Vanessa your lives. Please stay here while I get a squad together to bring
in Walter.”

Julie nodded. “I understand. Where
would you like me to stay?”

Pete hesitated, and Vanessa intervened.
“You can stay in the room next door with me, Julie. We'll both be safe there,
and Pete can come and let us know the moment he has Walter in custody. What do
you say? The room's all paid for and everything.”

“All right,” Julie replied. “Thank you,
Vanessa. I don't think I would be as forgiving as you are.”

Pete stepped out, and Vanessa went out
with him. He paused on the sidewalk and took her hand. “Are you sure this is a
good idea, sharing your room with her? She could be one of Walter's agents, and
this could be a ploy to get close to you to make another attempt on your life.”

“If she is one of Walter's agents,”
Vanessa replied, “then there's no better place for her than in the same room
with me. I can keep an eye on her, and there won't be any chance of her telling
Walter you're on your way to arrest him.”

“Just be careful, will you?” he asked.
“You've run too many risks and faced too many dangers already.”

She moved closer to him. “Don't worry.
I'm being as careful as I can. Now go get Walter and we can all go home.”

He kissed her on the forehead. “I'll
come back and let you know the minute we have him behind bars.”

Vanessa lay down on the bed in the
motel room next to Penny and Alan's room. Julie sat down at the table and
fiddled with her cell phone. Vanessa closed her eyes, and the next thing she
knew, the sun was streaming through the room and birds chirping outside the
window. She glanced at the clock. 7:00am. She slept the whole night without
waking once. So much for keeping alert.

She kicked herself when she looked
around the room and noticed Julie gone. Some watchdog she turned out to be. She
sat up on the edge of the bed and straightened her hair just as someone knocked
on the door. She peeked through the window and found Pete Wheeler on the
doorstep. “Did you get him?”

Pete shook his head. “He wasn't there.
We even posted a guard, but he won't come back to the flour mill. He knows
we're onto him now. He'll find some other place to hide.”

“So we're back to square one,” Vanessa
remarked. “..and we lost Julie, too. I mean,
I
lost Julie. She slipped
out while I was asleep.”

“No,” he told her. “I came by to tell
you we missed Walter, but you were asleep, so I decided not to wake you up.
Julie said she had to go into the office, but she would let me know if she
heard from Walter again.”

“And you believe her?” Vanessa asked.

Pete shrugged. “She seems genuinely
sorry for putting you in danger. At least, she seems genuinely sorry for
putting herself in danger. I'm willing to give her a chance to redeem herself.
After all, she's the one who told us he was in the flour mill in the first
place.”