Meow or Never (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) (8 page)

Vanessa heard the screeching and
yowling of cats over the machinery of the aluminum plant next door. “I better
check on them. Their crates could be turned over and smashed to bits.”

She went to the back of the paddy wagon
and opened the door. The crates weren't tipped over, but the cats somehow
escaped from them in transit. The moment she opened the door, a handful of cats
shot through the opening and dashed into the flour mill before she could get
the door closed again. She barely had time to recognize little Aurora running
in the midst of the pack.

“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 bars, 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.

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.