Kitten Kaboodle (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 20) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the one to steal the kittens and leave them on the doorstep. My next assumption was that it had been Aspen who had taken the sickly babies, but Nona swore she’d headed over to Aspen’s after she spoke to me that morning and the two of them had been together until after four o’clock, when she’d left to meet her newest conquest at the local bar. It was in the parking lot of the bar, where she’d retreated to smoke a cigar, that Salinger had picked Nona up and taken her in for questioning.
    So, if Nona hadn’t stolen the kittens and killed Edna, and Aspen hadn’t done it either, who did that leave, other than me, on the suspect list?
    When I finally made it to the meeting the wine tasting was being discussed. Ellie suggested that we sell advance tickets at a discount to encourage visitors from off the mountain to commit to the event, and make up maps so which shop would be serving which wine and appetizer would be clearly defined. It seemed that everyone in the room was focused on what can only be described as an extremely boring conversation.
    I noticed Levi hadn’t made it to the meeting. He’d all but stopped coming after he and Ellie broke up, although he had attended the four meetings she’d missed when she’d been away. I knew things between Ellie and Levi remained sensitive, especially now that Brady was in the picture, but the three of us had been friends for too long to let the relationship between my two best friends die altogether. In the beginning I hadn’t wanted to interfere, but it had been nine months since the breakup, more than enough time, I decided, for hurt feelings to heal.
    I quickly texted Levi and asked him if he wanted to come over for dinner, then texted the same question to Ellie. We were headed for a Zoe Donovan intervention.
    By the time I finished meddling in my friends’ lives, the discussion of the wine tasting had come to an end and Willa Walton had asked the group if anyone had anything else to talk about. I realized this was my chance to pick everyone’s brain about Edna Leech’s death. I started off by explaining the situation, and the fact that Nona was the prime suspect, filling the group in on the information I’d already managed to obtain. “So, as you can see, the most obvious suspects are Nona and Aspen, but they were together yesterday afternoon, so I find I’m fresh out of ideas. Does anyone have any input?”
    “Are you sure Aspen and Nona aren’t lying for each other?” Willa, the town clerk, asked. “They’ve both demonstrated a decided lack of respect for authority over the past few weeks.”
    “I suppose there’s no way to know for certain unless a third party saw them together, but I didn’t get the sense Nona was lying.”
    “It seems to me you should speak to this Aspen Woods before Nona has a chance to talk to her. See if their stories line up,” Gilda Reynolds, owner of Bears and Beavers, a local gift shop, suggested.
    “That’s a good idea.” I nodded. “I’ll do that when we’re finished here.”
    “You might speak to the neighbors in the area,” Hazel Hampton, the town librarian and my Grandpa Luke Donovan’s girlfriend, spoke up. “I know Tilly Palmer lives next door to Edna. Tilly is a very nice woman who comes into the library frequently. Based on some of the conversations she’s engaged in with me and others, I think it’s safe to say she’s very observant, and she likes to share whatever dirt she can dig up with anyone who will listen.”
    “Ellie and I planned to do that after the meeting. Edna has been operating the kitten mill for quite some time. I can’t imagine Tilly hadn’t reported it long before Aspen found out about it.”
    Hazel shrugged. “It could be that she didn’t think there was a problem with Edna breeding cats in her barn. Not everyone is as impassioned about our four-legged friends as you and Aspen are.”
    “Or maybe she did report it but, as with Aspen’s complaint, it went nowhere,” my father,