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

through.
    I nearly choked on the letter I was carrying when Corvin swooped down again in front of me.
    "What ya got there, Smudge?  What ya got there?  Is it mine, mine, mine?"
    I growled at the bird.  I hadn't realized how close to his tree I'd gotten, and I really didn't have time for this right now.
    "Juff go atay," I tried to order him.  He laughed at me as the paper in my mouth mangled my words.
    "Caw!   Caw!  You're funny Smudge.  Funny."
    I rolled my eyes and looked up into his tree to make sure his cousins weren't around.  One crow was bad enough.  More would be worse.  I didn't see them, but I did see something else.  Corvin's stash of things that he'd taken from around the park, stuffed into a basketball-sized opening on this side of the tree.  The hole faced away from most of the park, so I wouldn't have even noticed the stash if I hadn't come this way.
    Interesting stuff.   I'd need to remember all of that for later.  Never know when a secret stash might come in handy to a protector of the town like me.
    For now, though…
    I charged at Corvin and he jumped up, ca-cawing the whole way, flapping his wings furiously.  Crows.  They were like mice with wings.
     
    ***
     
    I ran to Darcy's house, the paper in my mouth the whole way.  It rattled in the wind and my fur ruffled as I streaked up to the front door.  I didn't have time to find an open window or use my secret entrance, plus I didn't want to risk tearing the precious clue.  So I stopped at the front door, and scratched until I got Darcy's attention.
    "Smudge," she said to me, a little sternly.  "What are you doing out so late?  What's this?"
    She took the paper from me, and I beamed up at her.  Darcy understood me so well.  I didn't have to tell her anything about the page for her to understand how important it was.  Her eyes got wider as she read it.  Then she reached down and scratched me for a long time behind my ears and around my neck and even on my belly.
    Hey.  Don't knock it until you can try it.
    "Good boy, Smudge," she said.  "I think I better call Benson on this right away."
     
    ***
     
    It was the next day when I followed Darcy over to the bank.  It was where people kept their money and their jewels and for all I knew their stashes of catnip.  Their important stuff, anyway.  There were people who worked at the bank, and I knew most of them.  It was one of these people Darcy was going to see.
    Cats a ren't allowed in the bank, but that never stopped me before.
    I know my way around places in town.  I know that if you sneak in through a back entrance to the bank and push aside a wall panel that everyone thinks is nailed down and then crawl up into the ceiling, you can spy down on just about everything from up here.
    Being a cat rules.
    So that was how I could sit, very quietly, and listen in on Darcy's conversation with Fillmore Swiller, one of the bank people.  He was a loan officer, or something like that.
    "Hi, Fillmore," Darcy said to him.  "Got a minute for me?"
    "For you, Darcy, always."  Fillmore was a mousy little man, and cats don't use that term lightly.  His skin was a pale white that was almost gray, and his face was narrow like a mouse's, and his teeth were long and crooked when he smiled. 
    I just wanted to bite him. 
    "What can I do for you?" he asked.  "The book store need another loan?"
    "No, not yet, thanks."  Darcy took a seat across from Fillmore at his desk.  From my vantage point, between two ceiling tiles, I saw the whole thing.
    "I wanted to ask you about this letter you sent Benson LaCroix," Darcy said, handing the letter she had gotten from Benson this morning over to Fillmore.
    He took it from her, his hands shaking as he read it.  "Oh.  Yes," he said, clearing his throat.  "Well, as you know, it isn't our policy to discuss the financial matters of our clients with anyone."
    "I know," Darcy told him, her face all smiles.  "That's why I went to talk to him about it.  See, Benson