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

snowstorm than give up on her, but I didn’t say as much. “I’ll be careful. Can I see Nona?”
    “Not until after her arraignment.”
    “And when will that be?”
    “Tomorrow morning.”
    “She’ll need a lawyer,” I realized. “I’ll arrange one.”
    “Figured you would. If you’re unable to secure one, a public defender will be assigned, but the one in our area is newly licensed, and I have a feeling that woman is going to need someone with a bit more experience if she hopes to talk her way out of this one.”
    “Don’t worry; I’ll find someone. Is it okay to collect the cats from Edna’s place and take them back to the Zoo?”
    “I figured you’d want to do that, so I cleared it with the county. They want a complete inventory of the cats you remove from the property and none of them can be rehomed until we establish who legally owns them now that Ms. Leech has passed.”
    “Okay, I understand. And Salinger…”
    “Yeah?”
    “I know how it looks, but please try to keep an open mind.”
    “I will if you will.”
    I just looked at the man I had come to respect. I really hoped this wouldn’t permanently destroy our relationship.
    After I left the sheriff’s office I called Zak, who had spoken to Ellie. He’d called an attorney he knew, who’d agreed to take Nona’s case. Then I called Ellie and filled her in. She was feeling better after getting some fresh air and agreed to meet me at the cat farm to help with the relocation of the animals.
    We had only about ninety minutes of daylight left despite the fact that it didn’t get dark until almost nine-thirty, and I wanted to get all the animals moved that night. I finished my conversation with Ellie and called Jeremy Fisher, my assistant at Zoe’s Zoo, to ask if he would be able to head there to make sure we had room for all the cats to be housed comfortably. As soon as I hung up with Jeremy, I headed to Edna’s.
    Edna lived on a five-acre parcel that was bordered by national forest in the back, a cabin on the right owned by a woman named Tilly Palmer, and another five-acre piece of land belonging to a man named Jethro Willits on the left. Directly in front of Edna’s property, across the narrow country lane, was a seasonal ranch that offered horseback riding tours during the warmer summer months. During the winter, the owner, Ned Bunting, transported the horses down the mountain to a location at a low enough elevation that snow wasn’t a factor. Maybe one of Edna’s neighbors had seen someone other than Nona on the property. I’d get the cats settled in at the Zoo, then come back to knock on doors.
    “Are you sure Nona is as innocent as you believe she is?” Ellie asked as she helped me load the cats into travel crates. “It makes sense that Nona came to the cat farm to rescue the kittens, Edna caught her, they struggled, and Nona ended the fight by hitting Edna over the head with the shovel.”
    “I know it seems like that’s what most likely happened, but unless Nona confesses to Edna Leech’s murder I’m not going to believe she did it. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut, and my gut is telling me that Nona is innocent. At least she’s innocent of killing Edna; I have little doubt she’s the one who stole the kittens.”
    “Even though she told you she didn’t steal them?”
    “Yeah, that is a bit odd. Maybe Salinger was listening in and she didn’t want him to know about the kittens, or maybe she was trying to protect me from getting pulled into the whole thing.”
    “Are you going to add the six kittens at your house to the inventory sheet?”
    Was I? Salinger had told me to keep a list of the cats and kittens I removed from the property, but technically I hadn’t removed the kittens currently residing at my house. When I explained this to Ellie she shot me a look of disapproval. I knew she wouldn’t say anything, but I also knew she was disappointed in me. It wasn’t the fact that the kittens were valuable