Meow or Never (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) (9 page)

Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief, but
their presence distracted Walter from his attention to Detective Wheeler. He
rounded on the cats in a rage. “These filthy cats again! I can't stand these
infernal cats! I'll kill 'em. I'll kill 'em all before I let one of them come
near me again.”

He bared his gritted teeth and turned
the barrel of his pistol away from Pete. Vanessa saw him menacing her cats, and
the scream broke out of her mouth from the depths of her soul. “Walter, no!”

He didn't hear her. Only one thought
dominated his mind. He had to get rid of those cats. Maybe some forgotten part
of him knew they were the ones who really put him behind bars. He glared at
them with more ferocious hatred than he had ever aimed at Pete.

How could a person hate innocent
animals so much? In all the years she'd known Walter Connelly as doctor of
Caspar Crossing, Vanessa always admired the way he treated her cats with
indulgent care. He smiled at them when he came into the shop. He even encouraged
children to pet them. In hindsight, she couldn't remember him ever petting one
of them himself. Maybe that's why Flossy scratched him when he tried.

That was all an act. Underneath that
indulgent regard, he really hated the cats. Now that his facade fell away, she
saw that hatred clearly and shuddered at the sight of it. Here he was, moving
in for the kill, the same way he did with people he wanted to get rid of. He
gritted his teeth, and the muscles of his jaw flexed.

Walter took a step along the scaffold
and came within reach of Henry and Teddy. They crouched in anticipation, but
they had nowhere to run. Walter swept his arm to one side to knock the two cats
off the railing.

Teddy dove clear to the catwalk under
Walter's feet, but Henry didn't react in time. He only escaped Walter's strike
by cowering in place and watching for a better chance to escape. Walter fixed
his most terrible glare on Henry and moved in for the attack.

He didn't see where he was going,
though. He stepped on Teddy's tail, and the little cat let out a scream that
sent shivers up Vanessa's spine. Teddy darted away from Walter in such haste
that he yanked his tail out from under Walter's foot and knocked Walter off
balance. At the same moment, Walter swung his arm to knock Henry off the railing,
and the unstable scaffold. The jerk of Teddy's tail under his foot, and the
momentum of his own arm sailing through the air combined to send him stumbling
forward.

He put out his hands to steady himself
against the railing, but he couldn't get a hold on it with the gun in his hand.
He kept moving forward, and he hit the railing with all his weight. The fragile
ancient metal buckled and snapped. Henry flew off into the air, and Walter
rocketed past him into space.

Vanessa observed the moment frozen in
time. Henry hung suspended above the scaffold, and Walter stretched his arms
and legs out in suspended animation. Then everything sped up again. Henry
twisted in midair and landed on the scaffold next to Teddy. Walter let out a
yell of terror and alarm, but no one could help him now. He fell, past the
conveyor machine, to the floor below.

Vanessa ran to his side, but she knew
before she got there that it was useless. Penny arrived at her side a fraction
of a second later. They checked his pulse, but he was gone. Pete Wheeler
hurried down the ladder to the floor, but he only took one look at Walter
before he shook his head and stepped back.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“I'll call the ambulance anyway. We'll go through all the official channels, just
to satisfy Captain Jameson.”

“You don't think anyone will question
what happened here, do you?” Vanessa asked.

“I don't see how they could,” Pete
replied. “There are three witnesses, and that fall was a freak accident.”

Vanessa gazed down at the still body.
“Why did he go after the cats like that? If he hadn't lost his temper, he would
be alive now.”

Pete shrugged. “I must have made him
mad with my comments about him needing to see your face.”

“We all heard him admit to the
killing,” Penny added. “We don't have to worry about that, either.”

“I didn't have any doubts about his
guilt,” Pete replied. “But a criminal like him can't keep his mouth shut when
it comes to taking credit for something he's done. All I had to do was get him
talking, and he would dig a hole for himself all the way to China.”

“You have to pity him,” Vanessa
remarked. “No one deserves to die like that. Still, I'm not sorry he's out of
our lives forever. As long as he was alive, he would hound us to death. He said
so himself.”

Pete nodded. “He's gone now. We'll
never have to worry about him again.”

Another crash of doors made them all
jump out of their skin, but when they whirled around to see who it was, the
SWAT team burst in with their guns drawn and flood lights sweeping every corner
of the warehouse. When they saw Detective Wheeler standing unhurt with the two
women at his side, they pointed their guns the other way.

The conveyor machine nosed its way into
a corner and finally died down. Vanessa turned her attention to retrieving her
cats. Henry and Teddy wouldn't come down from the scaffold by themselves. Pete
had to climb up to get them. He wouldn't let Vanessa go near it. “That whole
structure is about to collapse. I'm surprised it held the weight of two grown
men. Throw on two cats and you've got a recipe for disaster.”

Once she got the three cats crated and
put back into the paddy wagon, Vanessa slumped against the fender of Pete's
care. “I guess it's to Mrs. Harris's house now.”

“You're not having second thoughts
about that, are you?” Penny asked. “She'll make you a nice cup of tea and you
can put your feet up for the first time since Alfred Botchweather died. Imagine
how nice that will be.”

“I can't really imagine it,” Vanessa
replied. “But I don't think I'll really relax until the cats and I move into
our new home outside of town.”

“Have you thought about what you'll
name your new sanctuary?” Pete asked.

“I don't suppose I can call it the Cat
Protection League,” Vanessa considered.

“That name is taken,” Pete replied.

“But the Opportunity Shop will probably
shut down,” Vanessa pointed out. “I won't be in town to run it anymore. I could
take the name with me.”

“You can't call it that,” Penny
replied. “It's too dry and lifeless. You need a better name, like…..”

“Like Henry's Haven?” Vanessa
suggested.

Pete and Penny both laughed. “Not
quite.”

“I'll come up with something once I get
there,” Vanessa told them. “Once we move in, we'll make it our home. I'm sure
of that.”

“I can't wait to see it?” Penny
exclaimed.

“It's the perfect place for functions,
too,” Vanessa went on. “I was thinking you could hold weddings there. It's got
a huge kitchen, a beautiful garden, and woodlands all around. You couldn't ask
for a nicer place for a wedding.”

Penny shrugged. “I don't think wedding
guests would want dozens of cats running around, though.”

“They would if they were cat lovers,”
Vanessa pointed out.

“I'll think about it,” Penny told her.

“Come on,” Pete told them. “Let's get
going.”

Penny got into his car, but Vanessa
hesitated. She glanced back toward the flour mill. “I still can't quite bring
myself to accept that he isn't coming out of there in a few minutes.”

Pete nodded. “Having someone threaten
you, sabotage your apartment and shoot at you can cause more stress than you
realize. You probably won't realize how much this experience affected you until
you sit down in your own house again. Then it will all come flooding back.”

“I know it will,” she replied. “I'm
holding it all together now, but I won't be able to do that forever.”

“Maybe you should stay at Mrs. Harris's
house for another few days,” he suggested. “That way, I can keep an eye on you
in case you need me. I wouldn't want you to break down at your new house when
you're all alone.”

Vanessa shook her head. “Even if that
happened, I would be better off. The cats will be more comfortable there, and
we can all relax and make ourselves at home. I just know we're all going to be
very happy there—even happier than we were in the apartment.”

He gazed down into her face. “I wish
there was something I could do to make your burden lighter.”

She smiled and put her arms around him.
“You are. You don't have to worry about me. Whatever happens to me, I'll have
my cats to see me through.”

The End.