Read Online Meow or Never (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) by Nancy C. Davis - Free Book Online

was in federal custody,” Pete
pointed out. “He's supposed to be in federal custody now.”

    “So what are we going to do to protect
ourselves from him?” Vanessa asked. “If we can't rely on the FBI, we'll never
be safe as long as Walter is alive.”

    “We'll have to figure out a way to
neutralize him,” Pete replied. “I don't know how, but we'll find a way.”

Chapter 9
    Pete cruised through the town. “Should
we drop off Penny and Alan first? Or should we take you to Mrs. Harris's house?”

    “Why don't you drop me off first?”
Vanessa suggested. “Then Penny and Alan don't have to worry about a paddy wagon
full of cats sitting around while they get checked in.”

    Pete nodded and turned toward Mrs.
Harris's house. The smoke stacks of the aluminum plant came into view. “There
it is. We still have no evidence that Douglas Middleton sabotaged that gas
line. I wish we could nail him once and for all. I don't like letting a guilty
man walk around free.”

    “We don't know that he is guilty,”
Vanessa told him. “Walter could have done it himself, especially with access
from the flour mill.”

    The car rolled past the flour mill, and
Penny gave a cry. She pointed through the windshield. “Look! Do you see what I
see?”

    They followed the direction of her
gesture, and Vanessa started forward in her seat. “Yes! There goes Walter into
the flour mill.”

    Pete screeched to a stop. He veered
into the entrance of the mill and threw his car into park. The paddy wagon
stopped right behind him. “You all stay here. I'm going in after him.”

    “You can't go alone,” Vanessa called
after him. “Let one of us go in with you.”

    Pete tossed her his cell phone. “Call
Captain Jameson. He's number seven on my speed dial. Tell him to get the SWAT
team out here pronto. I'll keep Walter pinned down as long as I can.” He took
off running toward the mill before she could answer.

    Vanessa turned the cell phone on and
started punching buttons. She delivered Pete's message to Captain Jameson, then
she, Penny and Alan sat and waited.

    “How long does it take to get the SWAT
team out?” Penny asked.

    “You would think they would be here by
now,” Vanessa replied. “This could be a real emergency. Pete could be dead in
there for all we know.”

    “And Walter could be getting away,”
Penny added. “We don't want that, either.”

    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