Misty Hollow Cat Detective (Darcy Sweet Mystery) (A Smudge the Cat Mystery Book 1) by K.J. Emrick Page A

outside of the town center where it's more private.  I prefer that, but I can see how people would like this, too.
    "I don't understand what kind of help a guinea pig could need," I point out. A big, black bird soars by overhead.  Corvin the crow, out looking for food or shiny things, no doubt.  As long as he stays away from me.  I'm going to have my hands full today as it is with a rat, er, guinea pig.  "I mean, they live in a cage, right?"
    She flicked me with her tail.  "It's not Jocko who needs yo ur help.  He thinks the little girl in the house is in trouble."
    "That doesn't exactly tell me a lot," I grumble.
    We stop now in front of a house that looks pretty much like all the other ones on the street.  One story, detached garage, a chimney of red bricks sticking up over the roof on the back side.  There's no pet door in the front entrance, and the windows are all closed up tight as the days got cooler heading toward winter. I usually like winter as there’s more time to sleep.
    Winter.   That reminds me of how Darcy's new boyfriend Jon has invaded our house. I bristle when I think of how he calls her his “Sweet Baby.” He thinks he's being cute.  I scowl just thinking about it.  Who is he to rename Darcy?  Or take my side of the bed or use the food out of our refrigerator or…
    "Smudge, you okay?" Twist asks me.
    I turn away a little, embarrassed that my feelings towards the new man in Darcy's life had been so obvious.  "Uh, yeah.  I was just wondering how we're supposed to get in."
    She studies me for a moment longer, obviously not convinced that was all I was thinking about, but then walks across the lawn with a flick of her ear.  "Follow me."
    I've told Twist about the great Jon Tinker, of course, so she knows what I'm dealing with.  I haven't told her how much I'd like to claw the man's ankles.  I don't want her to think any less of me.  Maybe I just need to deal with it and accept he's going to be part of our lives now.
    Well.  One problem at a time.
    Tw ist leads us around to a small fenced-in back yard.  The grass back here hasn't gotten the attention that the front yard has.  It was up to our bellies already and the weeds were starting to take over.  A push mower stood off to one side, abandoned and forgotten.  The people who live here obviously didn't have time to keep up with their chores.
    Twist calls to me from the back steps.  They're those fiberglass ones made to look like poured concrete.  A gap between where they sit and the wall of the house allows her to slip behind the m, into the hollow cavity under the steps, and when I follow her I find a small, rectangular cellar window that has been carelessly left open from the inside.  Without a cat's eye view, no one would even know it's here.
    "Sneaky," I tell her.
    She crosses her front paws and locks her eyes on mine.  "I'm a sneaky girl."
    Then she jumps through the window, her tail flicking across my face.  Not for the first time, she fills my senses.  She's the kind of cat a guy would follow anywhere.
    This is a low basement space that she's led us into, carpeted and furnished like a spare room.  Twist finds the stairs at the other end and up we go into the main part of the house.  I hang back, wary and alert.  "What about the people who live here?" I ask in a whisper.
    "Just Jocko's owner.   A little girl named Heidi.  She lives with her mother but the mother is at work during the day.  Heidi's in school.  It's just us."
    "Oh."  Obviously, Twist has done her homework on this.  I'm kind of proud of her.  I couldn't have done better myself.
    Down the hall are the bedrooms.  Twist leads us to the one on the left.  It's tiny, as human bedrooms go, with walls painted purple and pink .  Glow-in-the-dark stars are stuck on the ceiling.  The single bed has a princess themed comforter piled in a heap on it.  Teddy bears and other stuffed animals crowded around the pillow.  Definitely a little girl's room.
    On a