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

over to her pet. Matty looked expectantly up at her, her tail swishing as if she expected Kat to join in on the game. Stooping forward, Kat spied the silver hoop earring half trapped underneath one of Matty’s paws.
    Kat reached down and gently worked the earring from Matty’s grasp. Matty lifted her haunches, ready to launch her body in whatever direction Kat threw her new toy. Kat hated to disappoint her, but right now she didn’t have time to play.
    Kat examined the earring, her heart beating faster as she absorbed the implications of its presence here. The metal back that hooked onto the sharp end of the pin was missing, leading her to believe that the earring hadn’t been deliberately removed from someone’s ear. It also didn’t look like the type of jewelry that Mrs. Tinsdale would wear. The older woman had always preferred simple, understated accessories.
    Could Mrs. Tinsdale’s murderer have unknowingly left this on Tuesday? Kat wondered. When the police had searched the apartment, they could have easily overlooked something this small.
    Kat tucked the earring in her bathrobe pocket and made a mental note to call Andrew as soon as the hour turned decent. Until then, she might as well help Betty Hamilton sort through Mrs. Tinsdale’s paperwork. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep no matter how hard she tried.
    But first, she had a cat to return home.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Kat Harper had a lot to learn about cats. For one thing, she was discovering that Matilda pretty much did as she pleased, regardless of whether Kat approved. If Matty preferred to use the couch to sharpen her claws instead of the scratching post that Andrew had lugged over from Mrs. Tinsdale’s apartment, she did. If Matty wanted to sit in the middle of the kitchen table, she plopped her butt down there even if it meant that her tail landed on top of Kat’s microwave dinner.
    Kat was also learning that she couldn’t carelessly set things down as she had become accustomed to doing during her fifteen years of living alone.
    After sorting through Mrs. Tinsdale’s files with Betty Hamilton, Kat had returned home with a stack of paperwork for 4F. She’d set it, the remote control, and the earring in one neat pile on the coffee table, then proceeded to the bedroom, where she’d tossed and turned despite her best efforts to catch a few more minutes of shut-eye. When she finally gave up on sleep and emerged from her bedroom, she found Matty playing with her shiny new toy in the middle of the living room.
    “Matty!” Kat rushed over and snatched the earring out of Matty’s paws. “That could be evidence!”
    Miffed, Matty sat on the floor and stared at her, her tail thwacking the coffee table legs with displeasure.
    Kat shoved the earring into her bathrobe pocket and shook her finger at the cat. “You have plenty of other toys. Why don’t you play with one of those?”
    Matty turned her tail up and sauntered into the kitchen.
    Kat sighed as she followed after her, knowing Matty was expecting her breakfast. That was another thing she was learning about cats. They were very regimented about their meals and didn’t appreciate any delays when it came to being served.
    Kat dished out some kibble while Matty twined between her legs. The affectionate display caused the last of Kat’s exasperation to fade away. She would have given anything to have such a loving pet when she was a child. But that wasn’t a possibility when you grew up in foster care. And, as an adult, Kat never found herself with a decent amount of free time to devote to an animal.
    Of course, if Kat were honest with herself, she had had the time. What she didn’t have was the confidence that she would be the best owner, and she feared she would end up doing an animal more harm than good. She had seen firsthand how a bad parent could cause more damage than no parent at all.
    “Snap out of it,” Kat mumbled to herself, shaking her head. “You have more