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

arms around him and
burst into tears. “Thank God you're here. There was a hole in the gas line in
my bedroom heater. The cats showed it to me. We only just got out in time.”

    He wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“Come on. We have to get out of here. It isn't safe. I heard the fire truck
pull out of the station, so it's on it's way here now. We can wait for them out
on the sidewalk.”

    “What about the cats?” Vanessa asked.

    He shrugged. “Leave them in here for
now. They'll be all right.”

    “If it isn't safe for me,” she told
him. “It isn't safe for them. I'll stay with them until we find another place
to put them.”

    He frowned at her. “This is a really
bad idea. You understand that, don't you?”

    “What am I supposed to do?” she asked.
“I would be dead right now if it wasn't for them.”

    He turned away with a sour expression
on his face. “I know you too well to argue with you. Please, just step outside
until the fire crew gets here.”

    She glanced back over her shoulder and
saw Henry sitting on his books. He blinked at her, and she softened. “Can you
take care of everybody else?”

    He turned his head away with his eyes
half closed. Then he started licking one paw. She smiled at him and set Foxle
and Aurora on the floor next to Teddy's bed under the front counter. Then she
turned back to Detective Wheeler. “All right. I'll come outside.”

    Pete sighed and led her outside just as
the fire truck pulled up to the curb.

Chapter 7
    “Well, that's it,” Pete remarked. “The
fire crew cleared the building. Only your bathroom was destroyed in the blast.
The rest of your apartment is still intact.”

    Vanessa put her head to one side. “Are
you saying I'm supposed to spend the night in there tonight, after someone
sabotaged my heater and blew up my apartment?”

    “There's nothing wrong with the
apartment,” he told her. “The fire crew turned the gas off, and you won't be
able to turn it back on until you get that heater fixed. But the rest of the
apartment is still perfectly livable.”

    “I'm not going back in there,” she
declared.

    “I thought you might want to,” he told
her. “Where else can you stay with thirteen cats?”

    Vanessa blinked. “I didn't think of
that.”

    “No, you didn't,” he replied. “I'm
happy to take you anywhere you want. It just might be kind of difficult to find
a place for you and the cats at this time of night, if you know what I mean.”

    She nodded. “I'm beginning to… What do
you think I should do?”

    He stared at her. Then he snorted with
laughter. “I think that's probably the first time you've ever asked me that
question.”

    She hesitated. Then she had to smile.
“Stop teasing and tell me. Do you really think I should spend the night in that
apartment? How do we know whoever sabotaged it didn't sabotage something else,
just to make sure I didn't make it through the night?”

    “I don't think you should spend the
night in there,” he replied. “I just didn't think you would consent to go
somewhere else without your cats. I thought you would be most comfortable
staying with them, and that means staying here.”

    “So what's the alternative?” she asked.

    “From what I saw just now,” he replied,
“…they look perfectly comfortable here in the shop. Why don't you leave them
here, just until the morning. You can work out another situation tomorrow after
you've had a good night's sleep under police protection.”

    “I don't think I'll sleep, no matter
where I go,” she told him, “not after this.”

    “But at least you'll be safe,” he
pointed out. “If you won't do it for yourself, then do it for me. I'm a cop,
and I'm your friend, if I'm nothing else. I couldn't live with myself if
anything happened to you when I had the power to prevent it. Let me take you
somewhere else. Turn off the light and let the cats spend the night in the
shop. Even if whoever it was did sabotage something else in the