Murder in Cherry Hills (A Cozy Cat Caper Mystery Book 1) by Paige Sleuth Read Free Book Online

had been an active crime scene not forty-eight hours ago without something she could use to defend herself.
    And staying in her own apartment wasn’t an option. She was too curious to find out who was in Mrs. Tinsdale’s unit and what they were doing there. Plus, she had to admit, that old childhood stubborn streak that flared whenever she disagreed with Andrew blazed stronger than ever after he’d tried to get her to stop looking into things. She hated for anyone to tell her what to do, even if she knew they were only concerned about her safety.
    Kat paced around the living room as she searched for potential weapons. Her steps halted when she saw Matty watching her from the sofa.
    “What?” she said, her defenses rising. “You want me to sit here and not do anything?”
    Matty turned her head as though to dismiss Kat and her nosy ways.
    There I go again , Kat thought, trying to reason with a cat .
    Refocusing on her mission, Kat ignored Matty and looked around the room once more. She finally settled on the universal remote that could control every electronic device in her apartment if only she could figure out how to program the thing correctly. The remote wouldn’t do her much good against an armed intruder, but it was better than nothing, and carrying a butcher knife around seemed too extreme.
    Kat briefly considered calling Andrew before she left, but it was three o’clock in the morning and she would hate to disturb him this late unless she really needed help. Besides, she knew he would tell her to stay put until he arrived, and whoever was next door might be halfway to Wenatchee before Andrew even finished getting dressed.
    Her heart pounding, Kat pried the front door open and stuck her head into the corridor. She could tell Mrs. Tinsdale’s door wasn’t shut completely from the way the light inside spilled into the dimmer common hallway. The open door led her to believe that the person currently trespassing wasn’t worried about anyone catching them. That eased some of her fears.
    Clutching the remote, Kat crept toward Mrs. Tinsdale’s unit. She paused just outside the door when she spied a middle-aged brunette woman sitting on the couch as she shuffled through a stack of papers on the coffee table. Dressed simply in jeans and a T-shirt and with no obvious weapons in sight, the woman looked harmless enough.
    Kat hesitated only briefly before knocking on the door, keeping her knees bent as she did so. In case she was wrong about her assessment of the intruder, she wanted to be prepared to sprint back to her own apartment.
    The woman’s head snapped up, her eyes wide as they locked on to Kat’s. “Who are you?”
    Kat braced her feet and pushed the door open wider. “I could ask you the same thing.”
    The woman stood up and planted her hands on her hips. “How did you get in here? This is supposed to be a secure building.”
    “I live here,” Kat replied. “How did you get in here?”
    “I have a key.”
    Kat raised her eyebrows. “You do?”
    The woman eyed Kat up and down, a slight frown pulling at the corners of her mouth. Kat didn’t know whether her questions or her disheveled appearance had prompted the woman’s disapproving look.
    The woman wrenched her eyes back up to meet Kat’s. “I’m Betty Hamilton,” she said.
    Some of the fight left Kat’s system. “You’re Mrs. Tinsdale’s daughter.”
    She had a flashback of Mrs. Tinsdale mentioning Betty during one of their hallway conversations. Mrs. Tinsdale had been upset after learning that her son-in-law had recently announced his plans to leave Betty for another woman after twenty years of marriage. Kat had forgotten the daughter’s name until now.
    Kat stepped into the apartment and held out her hand, but quickly dropped it back to her side when she realized she was still holding the remote control. She stuffed the remote in her bathrobe pocket. “I’m Kat Harper. I live next door.”
    “Oh, nice to meet you,” Betty said,