Cats on the Prowl (A Cat Detective cozy mystery series Book 1) by Nancy C. Davis Read Free Book Online

step toward the trash
can. “If you were in the alley this morning, you can give us some very
important information about the fire?”

    “How can I give you information about
the fire?” Bella asked. “The bakery’s three blocks away.”

    Willow dropped her voice, but her heart
wouldn't stop pounding. “The baker, Jason Dempsey, says he wasn’t in the bakery
this morning when the fire started. He says he was here, behind the Nickel
Alley Cafe, with Josephine Avino, the murder victim’s wife.”

    Bella stared at her. Then she burst out
laughing again. “You see what I mean? You sound like a police cat already.” She
started moving down the alley again.

    Willow ran to catch up with her. “If
you know something about this case, I sure wish you’d tell me. We can use all
the help we can get to find out who killed Roy.”

    Bella sprang down to the ground and,
for the first time, she stood perfectly still in front of Willow. “Josephine
and Jason were in the alley. I saw them when I came out of the dumpster after
breakfast. But Jason didn’t stick around. He left….I'd say about eight o'clock.
You can ask Chester. He saw them, too.”

    Willow looked around. “Where are they?”

    Bella trotted forward. “Don’t worry.
They went to investigate the fire.”

    “Where is that?” Willow asked.

    “Right here.” Bella turned a corner and
disappeared.

    Willow ran after her and rounded the
corner, but she froze in her tracks at what she saw. A big square of space
between the buildings yawned wide and empty in the moonlight. Black charred
remains of beams and sheetrock lay scattered over the ground, and piles of
charcoal gleamed in the darkness. A few spikes of steel roof beams stuck up out
of the ruins, but most of the concrete slab lay bare and blank before them.

    Out of the darkness, a cat’s sneeze
brought Willow’s attention to the far corner of the site. She shot forward and
found Nat and Chester rummaging in a pile of broken glass and melted metal.

    “Nat, Nat!” Willow panted. “Guess what?
Chester and Bella live in that dumpster behind the Nickel Alley Cafe. Bella
says Josephine and Jason really were in the alley when the fire started. That
means Jason’s alibi is solid.”

    Nat pulled his head out from under a
charred two-by-four. “I’m glad to hear you’re keeping your wits about you, Willow,
but I already discussed the situation with Chester. He saw Josephine and Jason
in the alley this morning, too.”

    “It looks like Naya was right,” Nat
replied. “If Jason’s alibi is solid, then he's innocent and someone framed him
for this murder. Too many of the other suspects have a motive to undermine him
and pin Roy’s death on him.”

    “How can you be certain Naya believes
that?” Willow asked. “I understood from Carl’s remarks that she only told Jason
she thought he was innocent.”

    Nat sneezed again and bent over the burned
remains of the bakery. “I don’t think so. She might not have completely ruled
him out, but he didn’t kill Roy. He had no motive, and now we’ve got
corroboration of his alibi. Meanwhile, we have three other people with motives
to frame him.”

    “Three?” Willow asked. “I can only
think of two— Josephine and Annika Neilsson.”

    “There’s Marlena,” Nat replied.

    “What motive could she possibly have to
frame Jason?” Willow asked. “She didn’t even know him.”

    “If she had a reason to kill Roy,” Nat
replied, “she would want someone to frame, wouldn’t she?”

    “She had no reason to kill Roy,” Willow
argued.

    “None that we know of,” Nat corrected
her. “Maybe she didn’t care who knew they were messing around with each other,
but she could have had another reason. We’ll find that out tomorrow when Carl
and Naya go to interview her.”

Chapter 7
    Nat and Chester stuck their noses
farther into the piles of charcoal and wooden fragments. Chester came out more
soiled and grimy than when he went in. Willow