Catnapped (A Klepto Cat Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

said, “Let’s eat and then I’ll take you for a drive, and show you what’s going on.”
    “How about if I take you, since you can’t drive right now?” Savannah reminded.
    “Yeah, yeah. You drive. Whatever…”
    Savannah relaxed in the plastic booth and scanned the room with her eyes. Yes, she remembered this place. She felt so grown up when she’d come here for lunch with her dad. “Isn’t this where we had your surprise birthday party a few years ago, Auntie?”
    “Yeah, some surprise, all right—for you and your mother. That’ll teach you to try second-guessing me. Gladys may have a predictable lifestyle, but that isn’t me,” Margaret blurted.
    Savannah remembered all too well traveling the 500 miles north with her mother and being stood up. Unbeknownst to them, Aunt Margaret had chosen that week to take a cruise with an eligible bachelor she had met at a ballroom-dancing class.
    Savannah’s eyes rested again on her aunt. Yes, she is an adventurer—always was and always will be, no doubt , she thought with a smile. The only one who came close to inheriting Margaret’s penchant for adventure was Savannah’s own younger sister. Brianna lived on the edge as much as any med student might. She was a fun-loving, energetic young woman. She didn’t just give lip service to causes, she got out there and worked toward what she believed in at the moment. She’d even been arrested a few times, which didn’t sit well with their mother. Aunt Margaret, though, snuck in a high-five and a “you go, girl,” when she’d hear about one of Brianna’s escapades. Margaret had even tried to convince her less Bohemian sister to let Brianna follow her heart and hitchhike through Europe one year, staying in backpackers’ hostels. Savannah remembered her aunt saying, “How do you expect this girl to sow her wild oats before marriage if she continues to live under your thumb? And believe me, this girl has wild oats to sow.”
    Savannah usually enjoyed watching her aunt intervene on behalf of herself and her sister. Her mom could be overprotective, even when the girls became of age—especially after their dad passed away. Aunt Margaret could always suggest a more interesting alternative to Gladys’s typically rigid perspective.
    Savannah, although certainly moved by conflicts between good and evil and right and wrong, generally weighed the consequences of her actions with a more precise scale than her younger sister did. Savannah was known to snatch kittens from bullies more than once, fully prepared to defend a kitten to the end. She intervened when she noticed a neighbor, friend, or coworker in need. But she wasn’t generally the sort to join vigilante groups or to challenge legal boundaries in order to make a statement. Maybe I just haven’t been presented with a strong enough reason to challenge boundaries, she thought.
    ***
    Looks like the bitch is gone somewhere . He didn’t see evidence that the gardener was there, either, so he decided to pull into the driveway and leave another message. He stopped in front of the large house and set the parking brake. Without turning off the key, he stepped out of the driver’s side door, scanned the property with his deep-set eyes, and thought to himself, It’s mine. All mine. Soon. Very soon. He then looked down at the object in his hand, raised it over his right shoulder, and threw it with all his might toward the house. Upon hearing the crack and clatter of glass breaking, he glanced around and then quickly slipped back into the vehicle. He started to leave, when something caught his eye. What’s that in the upstairs window? he wondered. A cat! A grey-and-white cat. Now there’s an opportunity I didn’t expect to come by. He opened the truck door and started to step out, but changed his mind. No, not now, next time. Yes, that’ll be the next cat to disappear, he thought, a sinister smile playing on his lips.
    ***
    “That was a filling breakfast,” Savannah