Depawsit Slip (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

again.
    “She really is beautiful,” Pete remarked. “Her coat looks almost pink.”
    “That’s why we call her AngelPie,” Vanessa told him. “Or, at least, that’s why   I   called her AngelPie. I’m the one who named her. To me she looks like some kind of dessert, like Angelfood Cake.”
    He scratched the cat again. She purred and leaned over the side of her shelf to press her cheek into his hand. “Where did you get her?”
    Vanessa grimaced. “We got her at the same place we got all the others. Some local kids found her in the basement of an abandoned house outside of town. When we got her, she was skin and bones. She was so weak, she couldn’t even stand up. We had to start her on a bottle, just like a baby kitten.”
    “Who’s we?” he asked.
    Vanessa blushed. “Well, I mean me. I did it. I nursed her back to health.” She waved her hand toward the back of the Shop. “Henry over there got run over by a car. When he came here, every bone in his body was broken. The vet said we ought to put him down to put him out of his misery. And look at him now. You would never know it happened.”
    Pete looked around. “Wow! Twelve of them. That's a lot of cats.”
    She laughed. She couldn't stop laughing and smiling with him around. “Not all of them are helpful enough to come down to the shop. And some of them have been treated so badly by people that they can’t come out in public. They stay inside where they know they’ll be safe.”
    He studied her. “You really have a big heart, don’t you? It must take a special person to care for unwanted animals like that.”
    Vanessa’s face turned red, and she dropped her eyes to the counter. “I’m not a special person. I’m only doing what’s right. Somebody’s got to look after these cats, and it just happens to be me.”
    “Don’t sell yourself short,” he returned. “I think you’re pretty special.”
    Before she could answer, he turned to leave.
    “You let me know if you find anything out about the case,” he called from the door. “I’m counting on you to be my lamppost.”
    She laughed. “I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
    Vanessa watched him through the front window until he disappeared down the street and around the corner. When she turned around, she almost tripped over Teddy. He stood in the middle of the aisle and gazed up at her.
    “I know what you’re thinking,” she told him. “And you can put that nonsense right out of your mind. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay right here and look after Henry and you and AngelPie and the others. I’m too old to get mixed up with a man, anyway.”
    The cat tilted his head to one side.
    “Oh, I know I’m only forty-eight,” she went on. “But I’ve been there and done all that. I’m not going to run around like a teenager, even if he is a nice-looking man. I’ve got too much on my plate as it is.”
    Teddy blinked his languid green eyes and twitched his whiskers.
    “Now stop that this instant,” Vanessa snapped. “I won’t stand here and listen to you smart off to your mother like that. You should have your mouth washed out with soap. I swear, where you come up with this stuff is beyond me. I’m supposed to be a dignified older woman, and here you are, making tawdry remarks about my love life.”
    Teddy turned his head and rubbed his cheek against the corner of the counter.
    “Okay,” she relented. “So I’m not all that dignified, but I am an older woman. I can admire a handsome man without you and all the others jumping to conclusions.”
    The cat ran his body along the corner. His tail flicked around the wooden counter, and he took a few steps back.
    “I never said I was going to marry him,” Vanessa insisted. “All I said was that I would ask around about the murder case. Is that so bad? You’d think I’d accepted an invitation to the movies for Saturday night. And even if I had accepted an invitation to the movies, you wouldn’t have anything to say