Un-Fur-tunate Events (Vanessa Abbot Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 4)
Read Un-Fur-tunate Events (Vanessa Abbot Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 4) Online
Authors: Nancy C. Davis
Tags: #detective, #cozy mystery, #woman sleuth, #cats, #Amateur Sleuth, #cat, #mysteries
Nancy C. Davis
©2015 Nancy C. Davis
Chapter 1
Vanessa Abbott gazed out at the vast
countryside through the kitchen window of her new house at the Harvest Home Cat
Sanctuary. Foxle strode across the windowsill. Vanessa dried her hands on the
wash towel and stroked Foxle’s back.
“Yes Foxle, there isn’t the hustle and
bustle of downtown anymore,” Vanessa affirmed. “Once I finish unpacking, it
will feel like home again.”
At that moment, Vanessa noticed unexpected
guests pull their minivan into the driveway. Vanessa finished drying the last dish
and put it away.
“The first visitors are here. Come on,
everyone. Let’s go make them feel welcome.”
Felicity took off running in the
opposite direction, but Amber, Flossy and Aurora followed behind Vanessa out to
the front porch. The minivan’s doors swung open, and people tumbled out. They
all slowly stretched their legs from the long ride. Vanessa approached the van.
A tall man walked towards her and extended his hand.
“Good morning,” he greeted her. “I’m
Frank Morton, and this is my wife Andrea.”
Vanessa shook his hand, and then the
hand of his equally tall wife. Frank took a look around. Cats lined the porch
behind Vanessa and eyed him and his group. Two other men stood behind Frank. One
tall and red-haired and the other short and muscular.
A curvy woman with brunette hair milled around
the van’s side door. “The woman standing behind us is our secretary, Sabrina
O’Malley. This here is our treasurer, Steven Weaver, and our executive officer,
Jerry Spacick.”
Vanessa nodded to them. “Welcome to
Harvest Home. It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I assume you’re here for the ten
o’clock tour.”
“We were not expecting a tour,” Frank
told her. “We had planned to just walk around the grounds and enjoy a nice
picnic. Lovely weather we’re having today, isn’t it?”
Vanessa paused. “It certainly is a
lovely day for a picnic, but we do offer guided tours free of charge. I also
have free literature on the Cat Protection League's work and educational
material on animal welfare. Are you interested in that?”
Frank exchanged glances with his
friends and shrugged. “I don’t think so. I think we’ll just entertain
ourselves, if you don’t mind.”
Vanessa hesitated. “It’s fine with me,
but would it have been easier to find a park or a nature reserve closer to
town? You are my first visitors to the Cat Sanctuary. I didn’t expect people to
come all the way out here who weren’t interested in my work of giving the cats
a home.”
Frank held up his hand. “We really
appreciate all that you do here. We have a few business matters to discuss. The
office has been hectic, so we were looking for a nice quiet place to spend the
day. I discovered your Cat Sanctuary online and thought it would be perfect.
We’ll just walk around these beautiful grounds—if you don’t mind, that is.”
“I don’t mind,” Vanessa replied. “It
isn’t what I expected, but you’re more than welcome. Make yourselves at home.”
AngelPie jumped up onto the hood of the
van and strutted over next to Frank. He scratched her behind the ears. “Thank
you. We will.”
“You will let me know if there is
anything I can do to make your stay more enjoyable, won’t you?” Vanessa asked.
“Of course,” he replied. “I guess I
didn’t expect this warm welcome. We have everything we need in a picnic hamper”
Vanessa waved her hand toward the woods
at the edge of the property. “All right. You’re more than welcome.”
Frank turned toward the van, where
Jerry Spacick unloaded the picnic hamper from the back door. The group strolled
away into the trees with many smiles, waves and well wishes.
Vanessa waved back as the group made
their way across the open field. Then she glanced around and found Henry
sitting on the corner of the porch. His gaze followed hers to the people
disappearing into the woods. “What do you think that’s all about?”
Henry closed his eyes into the sunshine
and turned his head away.
“I’ll say it’s odd,” Vanessa went on.
“Who would drive all the way out here just for a picnic? There is a park in the
middle of town. That would have been so much easier than driving out to a Cat
Sanctuary?”
Henry got up and walked away, and
Aurora jumped up onto the steps next to Vanessa.
“I know,” Vanessa told her. “I was
hoping perhaps a school group would come by for you. But I’m sure that will
come in time. We had to get our first visitors out of the way, and they were not
what we expected, but they’re here.”
Flossy let out a loud meow from her
chair beneath the front window.
“I don’t know about that,” Vanessa
replied. “That man seemed to like cats just fine. Still, maybe you cats should
give them some room to have their picnic.”
Flossy stretched and walked around in a
circle on her cushion.
“I know, I know,” Vanessa went on. “It
makes no sense to come to a Cat Sanctuary if you don’t want a lot of cats
around. I’m just saying they don’t seem to have arrived here for the cats. They
want to have a peaceful picnic. Let them have it.”
Flossy jumped down and walked to
Aurora’s side.
Vanessa laughed. “If you insist,
Flossy. You and Aurora could follow them and make yourselves agreeable. Perhaps
you could listen in on their conversation and find out more about why they
needed to be so far from town. They would never suspect a thing. But do you
really think that’s a good idea? What if they did become suspicious?”
Flossy and Aurora hopped off the porch.
Flossy set off at a dignified walk after the visitors. Aurora went with her in
bursts of speed interrupted by stopping, looking around, and shaking her tail.
Vanessa chuckled and shook her head. “Be careful out there.” She turned back to
the house. “I must be losing my mind. Of course, the visitors wouldn’t suspect
a thing from a couple of cats making themselves friendly.”
Vanessa went back to her work tidying
up the house and the grounds. Foxle shadowed her from room to room while she
dusted. He batted the leaves of a potted rubber tree in the passageway while
she cleaned the bathroom. Vanessa unpacked the last of the moving boxes from their
old apartment above the Opportunity Shop. Foxle saw this as his chance to jump
into an empty box that had been left opened.
Vanessa smiled at him. “You’re finally
coming out of your shell, Foxle. We should have made this move a long time ago.
You’ve been out exploring in the woods with Porcupine. Before the move, I
thought you were too frightened to leave the apartment.”
He cocked his head and looked up at
her.
Vanessa laughed out loud. “Would you
like to help me with the visitors? I never would have expected that from you.”
He glanced toward the door and went
back to batting at the flaps of the empty box.
“No,” Vanessa told him. “I don’t think
you should start with those people, either.”
The sound of voices drew her attention
to the front yard, and she peered through the bathroom window. The visitors
emerged from the woods with Flossy and Aurora trotting at their feet. They
talked in subdued tones and stopped just inside the line of trees. Jerry set
the hamper down in the shade.
They settled on the grass. Steve and
Sabrina started unpacking the hamper and hand out freshly made sandwiches. The
rest of the group continued with their conversation. Flossy sat down next to Sabrina
and eyed the food with a practiced eye. Aurora ran laps around the scene to the
amusement of Steven Weaver, who couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Vanessa went back to her work, and
quickly found her way back out to the porch. She swept the porch, and beat out
the cat’s cushions. The group glanced at her while they talked and ate. Jerry
and Andrea gave the cats bites of their food. Flossy stood at Sabrina’s elbow
and begged without shame.
When any of the visitors looked in
Vanessa’s direction, she smiled at them but made no attempt to engage them.
They wanted privacy. She understood that better than anyone, which is what
brought her out to the countryside in the first place.
She turned to go back inside. There was
a mountain of paperwork waiting for her after the purchase of the property. She
set her broom in the corner of the porch and cast one last glance toward the
visitors. At that moment, Flossy stood up and strode toward her. She tripped up
the porch steps and stopped next to Vanessa.
Vanessa lowered her voice to an undertone.
“Back so soon. Did you find out anything?”
Before Flossy could respond, Jerry
Spacick jumped up with a wild flail of his arms. His voice reached Vanessa’s
ears for the first time.
“I won’t stand for this!” he shouted. “I
am putting an end to this foundation. I’ve been your patsy for five years, and
I won’t put up with it a moment longer. I’m leaving.”
Frank Morton stood up as well. He
brushed the grass clippings off the seat of his pants and faced Jerry. “You
can’t go back to town by yourself. We all have to go back in the same car.”
Vanessa didn’t pretend to mind her own
business anymore. She watched and listened to every word. Jerry shook his fist
at Frank. “I am not going to be driven home by the likes of you. You can’t do
this to me. Do you hear me?”
Frank smiled to himself and wiped
sandwich crumbs from his lips. “I hear you.”
Steve stood up. “Don’t leave in a huff,
Jerry. We all knew what we were getting into when we started. You can’t claim
to be innocent now. You are as much part of this as I am.”
Jerry turned on Steve. “You did this.
This is all your fault, Steve. This isn’t what I expected to be doing when I
was hired.”
Sabrina hissed. “Why don’t you just
leave?”
“We are still doing good work. Don’t
leave now, Jerry.” Andrea implored.
Frank laid his hand on his wife’s arm.
“Don’t pay any attention to him. He’ll settle down in a minute, and then we can
get back to business.”
“I’ll never get back to business,”
Jerry thundered. “I’ll never have anything to do with you or your organization
again as long as I live.”
Frank laughed. “That’s what you say
now. Just wait until we issue the next payout check. You’ll be happy about it
then.”
“I’ve heard enough from you. I’m
leaving.” Jerry whirled away.
From her place on the porch, Vanessa hoped
that Jerry didn’
t
have the keys to the
minivan. Jerry would leave, and Vanessa would be left with his four companions
stranded out here at the Harvest Home Cat Sanctuary. Then what would she do
with them?
Jerry stormed off. The group looked to
Frank to see what they should do next. At exactly the wrong moment, Aurora
streaked past Jerry. His foot came down on her tail, but she didn’t stop
running. Jerry lost his balance and fell onto his seat. Aurora disappeared into
the trees. Vanessa let out a cry and hurried forward to help Jerry, but he
tumbled over the rest of the way onto his side.
