Un-Fur-tunate Events (Vanessa Abbot Cat Cozy Mystery Series Book 4) by Nancy C. Davis Page B

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.

    Vanessa laid her hand on his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry for my cat's behavior. She wasn’t watching where she was going.
She’s only a kitten, you know, and they need a lot of room to run around.”

    He didn’t answer. He jerked over on his
back, and violent convulsions racked his body. His arms and legs kicked and
thrashed in the throes of a massive seizure, and pink foam worked its way
through his clenched teeth. His eyes rolled back into his head, and a horrible
grunting noise came out of his throat.

    Frank bent over the stricken man and
peered into his face.

    “What’s wrong with him?”

    Vanessa tried to restrain Jerry, but he
struggled out of her grasp. She glanced up at Frank. “Do you have a cell phone?
Call an ambulance.”

Chapter 2
    Detective Pete Wheeler zipped the
plastic coroner’s bag closed and nodded to the ambulance driver. The crew
loaded the bag into their ambulance and drove