The Cat, the Mill and the Murder: A Cats in Trouble Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

So I offered my best pleading look. “Please?”
    Candace sighed heavily. “Let’s call this
off the record
. Doesn’t mean—”
    “Off the record,” I said. “Sounds perfect. See, there’s a woman who seems to be living inside the mill. From talking to her, I’m sure relocating her will be difficult. She insists the mill is a holy place and—”
    “What?”
Candace’s already flushed cheeks flamed even more. “How the heck did she get inside? We put up warning signs; there’s a tall fence with spikes; we patrol. Sorry, but
off the record
just went out the window.”
    “
Please
hear me out?” I said.
    Dustin was watching our exchange with intense interest. I was certain he would love to have Jeannie removed from the mill as soon as possible and perhaps saw an ally in Candace. But I considered the woman in the mill like the feral cats—she needed to be handled with great care and compassion.
    “Go on,” Candace said, sounding exasperated. Over time, I’d learned that her first reaction to almost anything was usually based on a black-and-white police view of the world. Beneath that façade, however, I knew Candace well. Nothing to her was as black and white as her new acquaintance Dustin might be led to believe.
    “Social service people are overworked,” I said. “What will they do with her? Ask you to put her in jail while they clear their calendar?”
    “Of course not. She’d go to a shelter.” She paused, seeming to consider this option further. “Although I have to say, it’s hard to find a decent one in this part ofthe state. Most of them are overcrowded. I give. You probably have a different idea. Tell me.”
    “I work with several charities.” I looked at Dustin. “See, I’m a quilter and I donate quilts to several organizations. I know people who might help.” I returned my focus to Candace. “Let me make a few calls before you drag Jeannie out of the mill, okay?”
    Candace’s eyes widened in surprise. “Jeannie? Does Jeannie have a last name?”
    “She said her name was Clara Jeanne, but everyone calls her Jeannie. We forgot to ask her for a last name.”
    “Oh. My. Gosh. Clara Jeanne Sloan.” Candace appeared more than a tad stunned. “She disappeared years ago. Rumor was she went off to look for her daughter, Kay Ellen. The teenager went missing and a few months later, Jeannie was gone, too. Morris knows the details. He talked about all the unsolved cases when I first joined Mercy PD. Said I should read about the missing mother and daughter as well as all the other old files for future reference. Now I wish I’d examined the case more closely.”
    “You’re saying there was an investigation?” I said.
    “I know they tried to find those two, but they were never found—until now. Was the daughter there, too?” Her fair skin had almost returned to its normal pink, though color remained high on her cheeks.
    Dustin said, “We didn’t get farther than the office where we discovered…the lady. There could be more people inside the mill, though.”
    “Great,” Candace said. “Why didn’t I listen to that old coot Morris for once and pay more attention to those files?”
    “Who’s Morris?” Dustin said.
    “He’s Candace’s partner,” I said. “Kind of a bristly guy, but once you get to know him, he’s not so bad.”
    Candace checked her watch and stood. Dustin quickly rose, too, never taking his eyes off her.
    She said, “Okay, here’s the deal. I need to re-read the file before we take action. We keep them in a storage unit, so I’ll have to get the key, find the files. Might take a couple hours.”
    “You want to call me after you’re done?” I said.
    She nodded. “Meet me at the station around the end of my shift—about four.” She glanced at Dustin. “See, we need to know as much as possible about this woman before we go charging into that old mill like gangbusters.”
    My turn to stand and meet her gaze. “Wait a minute.
Charging in?
What are you