Misty Hollow Cat Detective (Darcy Sweet Mystery) (A Smudge the Cat Mystery Book 1) Read Free

nose.
    See, there's a family of crows that lives in the park.  They don't bother people much, so no one bothers with them.  They eat seed and popcorn and other food garbage that gets tossed on the ground, so I guess they're helpful.  Sort of.  They have a tendency to be pretty selfish, though, and they're always in the way.
    "Come on, Smudge," Twist says to me, " let's go."
    She doesn't give the crow a second look.  Corvin watches after her, then turns to me.
    "I have to go, too.  See you around."  Hey, it never hurts to be nice.  Even to noisy, annoying blackbirds.
    "See ya," Corvin mimics.  "Pretty string.  Mine, mine!"
    Crows.   Less annoying than dogs, more annoying than….well, everything else.
     
    ***
     
    Twistypaws lives in a nice house a few streets over from the Town Hall.  Nice neighborhood.  A little crowded for my liking but then cats don't really get to choose the places they live.  You just sit back and hope your human makes a good choice.  Twist's human had made a good choice.
    It was a three story house with huge windows and a big apple tree in the front yard that I bet would be amazing to climb.  All those branches twisting around and waving in the breeze.  Fun.
    The house was painted a gray color that kind of matched the color of the sky at the moment.  Looked like rain.  I twitched my tail.  Hate rain.  Gets your fur all wet.  Thankfully Twist doesn't waste any time getting us up on the long porch at the front of the house and then inside through a hinged cat door.  Nice.  I might have to see if I can get Darcy to put one of those on our front door.
    Inside was ni ce enough.  There was plush furniture in the living room off the front hall that looked like it would be comfy to curl up on.  Thick brown carpeting.  The walls were this weird green color that kind of reminded me of catnip.
    She stopped for a minute, listening to the house.  "I think Benson's in bed," she said after a moment.  "Come on.  I'll show you that letter.  You can read?"
    "I can," I promised her.
    She looked at me then with something in her eyes.  Something I liked.  Then she turned and bounded off into the kitchen, up onto one of the wooden chairs around the table, and then up on the table itself.
    This is one of those universal rules that cats know not to break.  You do not get up on the kitchen table.  I blinked up at her, and smiled.  "You're a bad girl".
    Her face poked over the edge of the table.  "The letter's up here, you idiot.  Now, come on."
    "Oh."  What else could I say?  It had been funny to me.
    Up on the heavy wooden table were a scattering of papers and pens and a salt shaker and a pair of glasses.  Lots of human stuff.  Twist was standing over at the near edge, tapping a gray paw against one piece of paper in particular.
    "This one," she said.  "This is the one that he keeps reading."
    I stepped over and sat next to her, very aware of how close we were, of how our tails kept touching.  I had to make myself get at reading the letter, because the thought crossed my mind that if I pretended I wasn't very good at reading, we could be sitting like this for a very long time.
    But, I can read really well, and Twist needed my help.  So.
    The paper was an official looking letter from the bank in town, saying that Benson owed several thousand dollars on his mortgage, and that the sum was due immediately.  I sucked in a breath.  That was not good.
    "He owes a l ot of money to the bank," I translated for Twist.  "I'm sorry.  People lose houses sometimes when they can't afford them."
    She mewled softly.  " Lose the house?  I don't want to move, Smudge!  I love this house.  Benson loves this house.  This was where he raised his two kids, where he and his wife lived until she passed on.  No wonder he's so sad."
    I could see how upset she was.  Not thinking about it, I went to her and pushed my face against hers, the cat equivalent of a hug.  "I know, Twist.  I'm just not sure