Un-Fur-tunate Events (Vanessa Abbot Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 4) (5 page)

“You’re jumping a little ahead of
yourself, aren’t you?” Vanessa asked. “All I did was make marinara sauce.”

Pete twirled his noodles onto his fork.
“I could never make pasta sauce from scratch.”

“Making the sauce just takes time,”
Vanessa remarked. “I am going to miss seeing you so often. The cats and I have
a lot more room out here but the drive into town is a lot farther.”

He set his fork down and studied her
over the candle flames. “I don’t even think about how much farther you are from
downtown. I’ll tell you what. We never had any candlelight dinners at your
apartment.”

“Things did seem to be so much more
casual there,” she agreed.

“I could just drop by the apartment
anytime I wanted,” he told her. “It was cozy, but this house is so much better.”

Vanessa raised her glass again. “To new
beginnings.”

The glasses clinked together, and they
continued eating.

At that moment, a cat meowed from the
floor. Pete looked down and found Flossy sitting at his feet. “Hello.”

She meowed again, louder this time.

Vanessa called under the table. “Get
out of here, Flossy. You know better than to beg at the table like a puppy
dog.”

“Maybe I should just give her one
noodle to make her happy,” Pete suggested.

“Don’t you dare,” Vanessa laughed. “If
you give her one noodle, we’ll never get rid of her. She’ll be eating off of
our plates next.”

“Maybe she’s hungry,” Pete offered.

“She’s not hungry,” Vanessa scoffed.
“Look at her. She’s the size of a Cocker Spaniel. That cat gets plenty to eat.
You can take my word on that.”

Vanessa lifted herself up from the
table. She maneuvered Amber off her lap and set her back down on the chair.

“Look at you, you’ve got a cat on your
lap at the dinner table,” Pete pointed out. “I guess you can’t blame her for wanting
some of this pasta as well.”

“Amber isn’t begging,” Vanessa told
him. “Amber knows how to mind her manners. If I hadn’t stood up, you never
would have known she was there. Now come on, Flossy. You had your chance, and
you blew it.”

Vanessa picked up Flossy and put her in
the kitchen. She shut the door and came back to the table.

“You could have kept her around,” Pete
murmured. “The smell of this pasta is so tempting, and there’s nothing to eat
for her in the kitchen.”

“Nothing to eat?” Vanessa objected.
“There’s five bowls of cat food on the floor, but she always seems to be more
interested in what I’m eating.”

Pete suppressed a grin and bent over
his food. Vanessa picked up Amber off her seat and let the cat settle on her
lap. Amber curled up and fell asleep.

As Vanessa exited the Casper Crossing
Police station, she glanced over and noticed Flossy jumping through the
station’s hedges.

“Hello, Vanessa.” Andrea shouted.

Vanessa glanced over towards Andrea as
she walked across the parking lot. Behind her, Frank and Sabrina stepped out of
his silver Mercedes.

“Good morning, Andrea.” Vanessa called
out.

“Detective Wheeler made you drive all the
way out here too?” Andrea asked.

Frank passed by Vanessa without a word,
and stepped into the station.

 “Now
that the police are investigating Jerry’s death as a murder, I had to make an
official witness statement,” Vanessa explained.

“I hope they will resolve this quickly,”
Andrea remarked.

“Me too. I still can’t believe that it
happened at the sanctuary,” Vanessa lamented.

“Please say hello to AngelPie for me,”
Andrea smiled and waved goodbye.

“I will,” Vanessa replied.

Vanessa picked up Flossy who had been
chasing a bird outside the police station. She walked to her car and noticed
Sabrina still leaning against the Mercedes texting on her phone.

“You just let them roam around without
you?” Sabrina snickered as she looked up at Vanessa.

“They are responsible, and I hate the
thought of leaving them in a hot car,” Vanessa proclaimed as she approached her
station wagon which had Teddy sprawled out on the roof.

“Why don’t you just leave them at home,”
Sabrina retorted.

“Because they want to come with me.
They enjoy coming out to town as much as I do. I used to live right around the
corner above the Opportunity Shop. This was practically their backyard,”
Vanessa explained.

Sabrina rolled her eyes and went back
to typing on her phone.

“I’m sorry to hear about your
boyfriend,” Vanessa offered.

“What do you mean? What do you know
about him?” Sabrina snapped.

Flossy jumped out of Vanessa arms and raced
around the Mercedes.

“Andrea told me about him. I hear you
take such good care of him at the hospital,” Vanessa explained. “I hope his
condition isn’t too serious?”

Sabrina looked down. “Thank you, but I
don’t want to talk about it with you.”

Flossy jumped up and pounced on
Sabrina’s white purse, which had been placed on the hood. The purse’s contents
spilt out across the pavement. Sabrina shrieked.

“Oh, I am so sorry,” Vanessa cried out.
“Flossy is very playful and sometimes her instincts take over.”

Sabrina stooped down and started to
collect the assortment of items. Vanessa reached down and gathered old credit card
receipts together. Before Vanessa could react, Flossy batted at her hands
sending the receipts into the air.

“I guess you were right,” Sabrina
smiled then started to laugh. “A cat’s instincts are well ingrained.”

Vanessa’s faced flushed red. “Yes, she
is rambunctious.”

“I needed a laugh. It’s been stressful
taking care of Peter.  That’s my
boyfriend’s name. The foundation has also demanded a lot more of my time since
Jerry’s death,” Sabrina conceded. Vanessa handed an old tube of lip-gloss to
Sabrina, which was the last of the scattered items.

“I have heard Jerry was an important
part of the foundation,” Vanessa remarked.

“We have been working hard to fill his
absence,” Sabrina asserted. “After the long days at the foundation, I visit the
hospital and stay most of the night. Sometimes, I even sleep there. I used to
be a head nurse before Frank and Andrea hired me. It’s difficult to hand over
the responsibility of Peter’s care to the nurses I use to manage. Are you married,
Vanessa?”

Vanessa spotted Flossy’s tail sticking
out from underneath the station wagon. “No. I am seeing someone but we are not that
serious.”

“They need you in here!” Frank Morton
shouted from the entrance of the police station.

“I really should be going,” Sabrina
stressed as she rushed to the entrance.

Vanessa stepped into her car and rolled
down the windows. Flossy and Teddy leapt inside and settled in the backseat.

Frank held the door open for Sabrina as
she passed by him. He hovered for a moment and furrowed his brow as he stared out
at Vanessa. She waved to him but Frank turned his back and walked inside. 

 “Alright,
so, I need ten cans of salmon, fifteen cans of chicken and fourteen cans of
whitefish,” Vanessa announced to the car. “Have I forgotten anything?”

Vanessa pulled the station wagon into
the parking lot of Casper Crossing market.

Flossy licked her paws and dabbed at her
ears. Teddy lifted his head from his curled up position in the rear seat.

“I have plenty of dry food. Don’t
worry,” Vanessa affirmed. “Please don’t wander off too far from the car.”

Vanessa looked in her rear view mirror and
noticed Flossy pounce on something in the backseat.

“Yes Flossy, I know I haven’t cleaned
the car in awhile,” Vanessa confessed.

In the rearview mirror, a blue BMW pulled
into a spot across from Vanessa. Steve Weaver stepped out and headed to the
Market.

“I can’t believe Steve shops here too.
I wonder if we’ve ever passed each other shopping at the market,” Vanessa remarked.

Teddy lifted himself from the seat and
arched his back.

“That’s a good idea, Teddy. I’ll wait
for him by the checkout line. I do have a few questions for him.”

Flossy and Teddy jumped onto the roof
of the station wagon, as Vanessa entered the market. She rushed to collect the
cans of cat food and headed to the checkout line. She pretended to be
interested in a magazine while waiting for Steve.

“I have been looking for you,” A woman
called out to Vanessa.

Vanessa peered up from the magazine to
see a woman in a black suit approach her.

“Vanessa, I have received a lot of interest
in renting your old place,” the woman stated with a large, almost forced grin.

Vanessa recognized the woman as Julie
McLeod. Vanessa had hired the realtor to help her find the cat sanctuary.

“Good afternoon, Julie. I still haven’t
finished moving my boxes into the new house,” Vanessa remarked. “I am in no
rush to rent out the Opportunity Shop or the apartment.”

Vanessa scanned the market but didn’t
see Steve Weaver shopping. She returned her attention to Julie.

“I have this one couple who have been
looking for an apartment downtown. They are sweet newlyweds. He is a teacher
and she is a waitress,” Julie continued. “They both think the schools are great
in this area.”

Vanessa looked over Julie’s shoulder to
see if she could spot Steve. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m not ready.”

“I understand feeling sentimental about
the old place. I have another man who is looking to start a candlestick shop.
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful addition to downtown?”

“Give me your card, and I will let you
know,” Vanessa conceded.

“Don’t wait too long, or you will end
up sitting on the place for months,” Julie warned. “Bye for now.”

Julie gave an exaggerated wave goodbye.
Vanessa nodded and returned to the magazine.

After flipping through several articles
about the latest diet trends, Vanessa was relieved to see Steve approach with a
full cart. Vanessa maneuvered herself behind Steve as he set his groceries on
the conveyor belt.

“Nice to see you again, Steve,” Vanessa
proclaimed.

Steve tilted his head. “Have we met
before?”

“Only briefly, you stopped by my cat
sanctuary with your foundation,” Vanessa explained.

“Yes, how could I be so forgetful?”
Steve apologized.

Vanessa looked down at the items that
moved along the conveyor belt. “Do you cook your own meals? I don’t see any
frozen food.”

Steve smiled. “Yes, I’ve been cooking
for years. I’m not a chef, but I do know how to make a lot of meals from
scratch.”

“Did you ever work at a restaurant?”
Vanessa asked.

“No, I wish. Before I was hired at the
foundation, I was an assistant accountant at the hospital where Frank and
Andrea worked,” Steve revealed. “I barely made ends meet back then. I couldn’t
even afford takeout, and found I was pretty good at making my own meals. I
didn’t have the ingredients I can afford now, but my dishes were palatable.”

Vanessa started stacking her cans of
cat food behind Steve’s groceries. “Most of my culinary skills involve me
opening cans for my cats.”

Steve laughed. “I only cook meals for
myself.”

“Didn’t you make the sandwiches for the
foundation’s picnic?” Vanessa offered.

“Yes, if it were up to them, we would
be eating out of a vending machine.” Steve quipped.

“Does the foundation take a lot of
excursions like the picnic?”

Steve stiffened at the question. “Not
until recently.”

“The foundation must be doing quite
well to be able to take a break from the office. How does the foundation make
its money?” Vanessa asked.

Steve looked to the cashier who was
taking her time scanning his items. “We are a non-profit foundation. We receive
donations from supporters across the country.”

“Are any of the supporters also
patients?”

A line of customers started to form
behind Vanessa. Steve gave the cashier a sour glance and began to bag his own
groceries. “Our foundation has saved thousands of lives throughout the years.
We are highly respected.”

“Jerry seemed like he wouldn’t agree
with you,” Vanessa implied.

Steve clenched his teeth as he placed
his final items into a grocery bag and handed his money to the cashier. He grasped
the handle of his cart of groceries and walked out without another word.

The cashier gave Vanessa a sympathetic
grin as she ran the multitude of cat food.

As the doors of the market slid open,
Vanessa was startled to find Teddy resting comfortably on top of the BMW’s
roof. Steve was gently petting Teddy who was enjoying the attention.