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

eyes into the sunshine
and turned his head away.

    “I’ll say it’s odd,” Vanessa went on.
“Who would drive all the way out here just for a picnic? There is a park in the
middle of town. That would have been so much easier than driving out to a Cat
Sanctuary?”

    Henry got up and walked away, and
Aurora jumped up onto the steps next to Vanessa.

    “I know,” Vanessa told her. “I was
hoping perhaps a school group would come by for you. But I’m sure that will
come in time. We had to get our first visitors out of the way, and they were not
what we expected, but they’re here.”

    Flossy let out a loud meow from her
chair beneath the front window.

    “I don’t know about that,” Vanessa
replied. “That man seemed to like cats just fine. Still, maybe you cats should
give them some room to have their picnic.”

    Flossy stretched and walked around in a
circle on her cushion.

    “I know, I know,” Vanessa went on. “It
makes no sense to come to a Cat Sanctuary if you don’t want a lot of cats
around. I’m just saying they don’t seem to have arrived here for the cats. They
want to have a peaceful picnic. Let them have it.”

    Flossy jumped down and walked to
Aurora’s side.

    Vanessa laughed. “If you insist,
Flossy. You and Aurora could follow them and make yourselves agreeable. Perhaps
you could listen in on their conversation and find out more about why they
needed to be so far from town. They would never suspect a thing. But do you
really think that’s a good idea? What if they did become suspicious?”

    Flossy and Aurora hopped off the porch.
Flossy set off at a dignified walk after the visitors. Aurora went with her in
bursts of speed interrupted by stopping, looking around, and shaking her tail.
Vanessa chuckled and shook her head. “Be careful out there.” She turned back to
the house. “I must be losing my mind. Of course, the visitors wouldn’t suspect
a thing from a couple of cats making themselves friendly.”

    Vanessa went back to her work tidying
up the house and the grounds. Foxle shadowed her from room to room while she
dusted. He batted the leaves of a potted rubber tree in the passageway while
she cleaned the bathroom. Vanessa unpacked the last of the moving boxes from their
old apartment above the Opportunity Shop. Foxle saw this as his chance to jump
into an empty box that had been left opened.

    Vanessa smiled at him. “You’re finally
coming out of your shell, Foxle. We should have made this move a long time ago.
You’ve been out exploring in the woods with Porcupine. Before the move, I
thought you were too frightened to leave the apartment.”

    He cocked his head and looked up at
her.

    Vanessa laughed out loud. “Would you
like to help me with the visitors? I never would have expected that from you.”

    He glanced toward the door and went
back to batting at the flaps of the empty box.

    “No,” Vanessa told him. “I don’t think
you should start with those people, either.”

    The sound of voices drew her attention
to the front yard, and she peered through the bathroom window. The visitors
emerged from the woods with Flossy and Aurora trotting at their feet. They
talked in subdued tones and stopped just inside the line of trees. Jerry set
the hamper down in the shade.

    They settled on the grass. Steve and
Sabrina started unpacking the hamper and hand out freshly made sandwiches. The
rest of the group continued with their conversation. Flossy sat down next to Sabrina
and eyed the food with a practiced eye. Aurora ran laps around the scene to the
amusement of Steven Weaver, who couldn’t take his eyes off her.

    Vanessa went back to her work, and
quickly found her way back out to the porch. She swept the porch, and beat out
the cat’s cushions. The group glanced at her while they talked and ate. Jerry
and Andrea gave the cats bites of their food. Flossy stood at Sabrina’s elbow
and begged without shame.

    When any of the visitors looked in
Vanessa’s