Murder in Cherry Hills (A Cozy Cat Caper Mystery Book 1) Read Free

one side of the room and rapped on the wall with his knuckles. “The walls here aren’t very thick. I can hear the team in the hallway.”
    “If she was attacked while I was in the shower, I wouldn’t have been able to hear anything,” Kat told him.
    “What time were you in the shower?”
    “Between nine-thirty and ten.”
    “And you didn’t hear anything before or after that?”
    Kat shook her head and sighed. Although she hadn’t known Mrs. Tinsdale well, they had chatted on occasion. Mrs. Tinsdale had shared Kat’s love of animals, as evidenced by her adoption of Matty and her volunteer activities for one of the local animal organizations. Who would hurt a woman as compassionate as that?
    “What about the neighbors across the hall?” Andrew asked. “Do you think they might have heard something?”
    “The other two units on this floor are both vacant.”
    Andrew’s expression didn’t change. If he was disappointed by the lack of leads so far, he didn’t let on.
    “Hey, Andrew,” someone called out from the corridor. “Where are you? We’re ready to move the vic.”
    Andrew walked over to the front door and poked his head outside. “I’ll be out in a sec.” He turned to address Kat again. “I need to go join the crew. I’ll question you more later. In the meantime, here’s my business card. If you think of anything crucial to the case, call my cell or just step outside and ask around until you find me.”
    Kat took the card he offered and slipped it into her jeans pocket. “I’ll be here when you’re ready.”
    “I’m counting on it.” Andrew flashed her that smile again before disappearing into the hallway. Kat quietly shut the door behind him.

CHAPTER THREE
    Five hours later, the commotion outside Kat’s apartment began to die down. She figured the authorities had finally finished processing Mrs. Tinsdale’s apartment. She had hoped that Andrew would drop by again before he left, and found herself vaguely disappointed that he had departed without even a cursory goodbye.
    Matty had spent the entire afternoon drifting in and out of consciousness. Kat was amazed that one animal could sleep so much. Although Matty had roused herself long enough to bathe at one point, she had promptly gone back to sleep as soon as she finished.
    Now, Kat watched as Matty stood up and stretched. “Did you see what happened to Mrs. Tinsdale?” she asked.
    Matty turned her back to Kat and settled down again.
    Kat groaned. There she went again, interrogating a cat and expecting an answer. She used to think Mrs. Tinsdale was strange for carrying on conversations with the animal, yet here she was doing the same thing. But she couldn’t shake the notion that Matilda had witnessed what had happened earlier.
    Kat thought about Andrew’s claim that cats couldn’t be eyewitnesses and wondered if it were possible to prove him wrong. Before she knew it, she found herself brainstorming on ideas to get Matty to share what she knew about her owner’s fate.
    Kat almost had to laugh at herself. When they were kids, she and Andrew were always competing about something. Now they were both thirty-two, and she was back to trying to prove him wrong not six hours after their first encounter in over a decade.
    Still, if Matty could somehow communicate what she’d seen, maybe Kat could rest easier. She shuddered whenever she thought about a murderer skulking around next door with her sitting not fifty yards away.
    Kat slumped against the sofa. “Poor Mrs. Tinsdale.”
    Matty twisted her head over her shoulder to shoot Kat a glare when the couch cushions shook. But before Kat could even consider apologizing, Matty rotated back around to rest her chin on her paws.
    Kat eyed her new companion. That was one more thing she would have to get used to besides the murder: sharing her apartment with an animal. Kat had lived alone ever since she had been emancipated at age seventeen and learning to share her place—even if it was only