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

by Nancy C. Davis

  “Come back!” she shouted.

  The cats ignored her, and the next thing she knew, they were gone.

  Vanessa looked around. Penny and Alan looked with her. “Now what are we going to do?”

  Vanessa stuck Pete's phone into her pocket. “I'm going in after them. I didn't like Pete going in alone. He might need my help. And now I have to go in to get my cats back.”

  “How did they get out of their crates?” Penny asked.

  Vanessa shrugged. “You don't know my cats. They can figure these things out when they want to.”

  She started toward the mill when Penny took a step forward. “I'm coming with you.”

  “Are you sure?” Vanessa asked.

  Penny nodded. “I can't let you go in there alone, either. The more of us who face off with Walter, the better our chances of keeping him in one place until the SWAT team gets here.”

  Vanessa smiled at her, and the two women set off side by side. Their footsteps crunched through the gravel driveway and echoed off the solid timber walls of the mill. Vanessa held her breath and put out her hand to open the door.

  She cast a quick look at Penny and found her flushed and breathless, too. “Do you really want to do this?”

  Vanessa pulled herself up. “I don't want to do it, but my cats are in there, and so is Detective Wheeler. He should have been out ages ago, and he could be hurt or in trouble. I'm going in one way or the other.”

  Penny nodded. “Let's go then.”

  Vanessa pushed the door open and peered into the dark. She and Penny tiptoed inside, but they saw no sign of Pete or the cats. Vanessa dared not call out. Walter was waiting somewhere in that building. Was he lurking around some corner, standing astride Pete's dead body, waiting for the chance to finish off Penny and Vanessa too? That would leave only Alan to testify against him.

  Vanessa put her hand out again, fumbling for the first thing she could find. Her hand found Penny's hand, and the comfort of sharing the danger gave them the courage to move forward. The door opened into an entrance hall and, from there, parted into three different halls moving into different parts of the mill.

  “Which way should we go?” Penny asked.

  “If we weren't facing an accused murderer,” Vanessa replied, “I would suggest we split up to search the building. But since we are facing an accused murderer, I won't suggest that. So, since we don't know where we're going or what we're looking for, I suppose we should just pick one at random and see where it goes.”

  Penny nodded and they stepped forward again as Aurora scampered out from behind a potted plant and stopped right in front of them. She looked up at Vanessa and meowed.

  “Aurora!” Vanessa exclaimed. “Just what do you think you're doing in here?”

  Aurora walked toward one of the halls. She stopped and meowed at Vanessa again. “She wants us to follow her. She must know something and wants to show us.”

  To Vanessa's surprise, Penny didn't laugh her head off and ask how Vanessa could possibly know what the kitten was trying to tell them. She only nodded as if it all made perfect sense. Then again, Penny was in the Opportunity Shop when Henry and the other cats caught Walter in the first place. Vanessa's cats were capable of anything.

  The two women held each other by the hand and followed Aurora. The kitten led them down the hall, past empty offices, to a large warehouse. Most of it stood vacant and echoing, but a few giant rusted pieces of equipment occupied the far corner. Scaffolding rose from the floor to the ceiling and surrounded the equipment.

  When they entered the warehouse, Vanessa caught sight of Henry and Teddy balancing on top of an angled conveyor belt rising to the ceiling. They teetered on the very precipice. The crash of metal drew Vanessa's attention to the top of the scaffold.

  High above the warehouse floor, a figure moved against the ceiling. Vanessa squinted to make it out. Then she sucked in her breath when she recognized Pete. “Oh, there he is,” she murmured. She put out her hand to wave to him, and she opened her mouth to call out, but Penny held her back with a hand on her arm.

  Vanessa looked to see what made Penny hold her back and followed the direction of her gaze to the top of the scaffold. Then she sucked in her breath when she recognized Walter facing off with Pete. Pete crouched; ready to spring at any moment, and Vanessa spotted a pistol gleaming in Walter's hand.

  The cry died on her lips, and she choked on her breath. Was she going to stand here and watch Walter kill the man she loved? But what could she do to stop him? She couldn't climb up that scaffolding. He would shoot Pete long before she got her foot on the first rung. She glanced around, but nothing presented her with even a glimmer of hope. Penny didn't have to hold her back. Fear and uncertainty kept her rooted to the spot.

  “You won't get away with this, Walter,” Pete called out. “The SWAT team is right outside. Give up now and let me take you into custody while you have the chance.”

  Walter chortled with mad glee. “Give up? You're crazy! I will never give up. You think the SWAT team is right outside? Where are they then? I see two women standing down there, but they won't come up here, not if they know what's good for them and for you. You're sunk. Do you hear me? Sunk!”

  Pete shook his head. “You've killed one too many people already, Walter. You thought you could get away with killing us, too, and that would get you off the hook for killing Botchweather. But you can't leave a trail of dead bodies halfway across the country and expect to walk away. You're going back to Washington to face the music, once and for all.”

  “What a fool you are, Wheeler,” Walter shot back. “I'm not going anywhere, certainly not back to Washington. How do you think I got here in the first place? I own the FBI, just like I own this town. I can come and go as I please, and if you and your friends haven't gotten the message yet, let me give it to you now. I can kill anyone who gets in my way and there's nothing you or any other well-meaning civil servant can do about it.”

  Pete took one tentative step forward, but the decrepit scaffold swayed and clanged underneath him and he had to freeze in his tracks. Down on the floor, Vanessa clutched at Penny's hand. That scaffold could collapse under them at any moment.

  “What are we going to do, Penny?” she breathed.

  But Walter wouldn't stand by and wait for Pete to come and get him. The instant Pete moved, he raised his pistol and fired at the detective. The bullet ricocheted off a steel bar next to Pete's head. He ducked, and the bullet whizzed off somewhere into the dusty corners of the warehouse.

  Vanessa really did scream out then, but no one heard her. The noise startled the cats, and Henry dug his claws into the conveyor belt to keep from falling over the side. Teddy wavered on the other side. His tail flicked first one way and then the other to keep his balance, and he managed to align himself on the very curved end of the belt.

  Aurora yowled at Vanessa's feet and darted forward. Vanessa noticed her from a vast distance, but she couldn't collect her thoughts enough to call out to the kitten or make a move to hold her back. Aurora raced into the tangle of derelict equipment and disappeared.

  “Don't even think about coming near me,” Walter thundered. “I'll kill the whole pack of you before I let you capture me.”

  Pete stayed where he was and made no further attempts to move forward. “Why did you do it, Walter? We probably never would have known you killed Eastman if you hadn't gone after Vanessa with that gun. If you stayed hidden, or used one of your agents to try to get rid of us, you would have gotten away clean. Instead, you had to do the job yourself, and you got caught. That just goes to show how arrogant you really are underneath that veneer of respectability of yours.”

  Walter sneered at him. “You always were a bumbling fool, Wheeler. You don't know the first thing about crime. You might be a detective and all that, but you don't understand how the criminal mind works.”

  “I don't know how it works,” Pete admitted, “and I don't want to know how it works. My job is to put crooks like you behind b
ars, not to become one of them. I can only imagine why you decided to show your face when it came to killing Vanessa. That was your fatal mistake, and you'll pay the price for it.”

  “Do you really want to know why I did it?” Walter asked. “I'll tell you, if you really want to know that bad.”

  “I really want to know,” Pete replied. “Please tell us while we're waiting here for the SWAT team to come and take you away.”

  Walter chuckled. “I had to see her face. I had to see your precious Vanessa's face when I shot her. I had to know for myself that she was gone. She's been a thorn in my side for months now, and I would be getting a tan on a beach in Aruba right now if it wasn't for her.”

  Pete indulged in a private smile. “I thought it might be something like that. I've heard of this sort of thing before. Crooks can't stand anybody taking the credit for their crimes. They have to put their own stamp on things, or they just can't enjoy themselves.”

  Walter gave him a crooked grin. “Now you're starting to understand the criminal mind. I didn't think you had it in you. You catch on quicker than I thought. Maybe you're not so dumb after all. I'm surprised.”

  “Not everyone can be as smart and successful as you, Walter,” Pete replied. “I'm just a cop. I don't have thousands of people at my beck and call, and I don't have a criminal empire at my fingertips, either. But I wasn't born yesterday. You might be surprised at the tricks I have up my sleeve.”

  “I might,” Walter replied. “But I don't think so. I've known too many cops in my day. You and Vanessa and your friends can't beat me. Even if you catch me now, I'll find a way to get you in the end. I'll beat this murder rap, and I'll be back in business before you know it. You can't win. You're the ones who might as well give up.”

  “What are you going to do, Walter?” Pete asked. “You can't shoot me right here in cold blood. There are two witnesses standing right down there. They'll testify that you killed me, and then you'll be facing two murder charges instead of one. You don't want that.”

  “Two witnesses? Do you mean those cats right there?” Walter laughed in Pete's face. “That was a good one. You really are as stupid as I thought you were. Vanessa and Penny will never testify against me. If they live to leave this building—which I'll make sure they don't—my people will track them down and take care of them.”

  Vanessa gasped out loud. Walter never flinched. He kept his gun trained on Pete's chest when Pete glanced down at her. Vanessa looked around again in desperate hope of finding some way to help Pete and stop Walter.

  Chapter 10

  At that moment, Aurora streaked out from among the equipment and jumped up onto the control deck of the conveyor belt. She landed first on one of the levers, and the whole machine exploded into life. Vanessa and Penny jumped back in surprise at the sudden noise, and Aurora herself sprang off the lever onto the driver's seat. The machine, however, lurched forward swung around to the right. The belt started racing through its track. Teddy screeched in surprise and alarm and took a wild dive off the belt into thin air. He landed on the scaffold just inches from Walter's head.

  The conveyor machine, meanwhile, continued on its ghostly ride across the warehouse floor. Aurora sprang down from the driver's seat and skipped back toward Vanessa. The noise and sudden movement of the machine snapped Vanessa out of her trance, and this time, she bent down and scooped the kitten into her arms. That was one cat accounted for. Now she just had to find a way to get ahold of Henry and Teddy.

  The conveyor marched across the floor with its belt spinning. Henry still balanced on the very tip of the crane. He couldn't move away from the belt without falling off, and he couldn't move to any more secure location without stepping onto the moving belt.

  The crane swung around and crashed into the scaffold. The scaffold shuddered, and Pete grabbed ahold of the railing in a useless attempt to stop himself from falling. If that scaffold came down, he was finished. Teddy squeaked in terror, but none of them could move. Henry almost fell over backwards to the floor below, but at the last second, he clawed his way back up onto the crane. One more jolt and he would lose his grip.

  Vanessa put out her hand, but there was nothing she could do. The conveyor machine jumped back a foot at the impact and then marched on ahead. It slammed its crane into the scaffold again, harder than before, and this time, Henry couldn't hold on any longer. In one final desperate bid for safety, he leapt clear of the conveyor belt and landed on the scaffold rail next to Teddy.

  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.”