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

better for you."
    "Better?  Better?" he cawed, hopping around and flapping his wings crazily.  "It's not better!  I need my sparkly.  Jessamine loves sparklies!  Loves sparklies!"
    He was going to have a seizure or something if I didn't stop him.  "Corvin.  Corvin!  Look.  Look what I have for you."
    He focused his attention on the object I had scrounged for him.  It wasn't much, from the viewpoint of anyone else, but I figured to a crow it would be like finding a little piece of a star that fell to Earth.  A little toy mirror, pink plastic handle broken in half.  The doll it had belonged to had been in the trash as well but I figured Corvin didn't have any use for a doll.  Just the sparkly.
    "What is this?" he asked, suddenly very calm, staring at an image of himself in the reflective surface of the toy.  The mirror part looked like maybe a sticker instead of real glass, with a seam running through it where it had been stuck on carelessly.  It was no people feather, maybe, but it sparked every time the sunlight angled in it just right.
    Corvin seemed to like it.
    Excitedly he spun in a quick, hopping circle, then flapped his way up into the trees.
    "You're welcome!" I called after him.  I had just given up on him coming back when I saw a rustling of leaves in the branches and heard the cawing noises of not one but two crows.
    It was Corvin, and he had brought Jessamine with him.  He swooped down and then hesitantly went up to the mirror, nudging it toward her with his beak.  She hopped closer to it, then away again, then back to it, bending low to look into the imitation glass.  Her beak parted, her breath quick, and she began hopping from foot to foot with animated little noises.
    "See?  See?" I said to Corvin, mad at myself for falling into the crow's speech habits.  "She likes it.  How could any girl not like…that?"
    He spread his wings wide, his chest puffed out, and it was the happiest I'd ever seen him.  "Likes it!  Likes it!  Corvin did good.  Jessamine likes it!  Likes me!"
    The two of them began dancing around each other with various caws and screeches that I couldn't understand.  It was cute.  So cute, in fact, that I wanted to bite their heads off.
    I restrained myself, but it was a close thing.
    When another bird came crashing down in the middle of Corvin and Jessamine it was like war had broken out.  Flapping, shouting, noises that would peel paint off walls.  It was Jessamine's father, and he did not look happy about who his little girl was with.
    I figured it was time for me to leave.  Wishing Corvin good luck, knowing he was going to need it, I turned tail and jetted across the park as fast as I could.
    Hey.  A cat can only do so much.
     
    —End—

Stealing Heidi
     
    A cat's work is never done.
    People—human beings in general—t hink their lives are busy.  Rush, rush.  Go here, go there, go back to the first place again.  The person I live with, Darcy Sweet, is a lot more organized with her life but even she gets caught up in too much at once sometimes.  She's always trying to help people in our town of Misty Hollow.  Sometimes, she's the only one they can turn to.
    I guess that’s what happens when people know you can talk to ghosts.
    Anyway, as hectic as people think their lives are, cats have it worse.  Don't let the nap times fool you.  There's so much stuff a cat does during any given day that it's no wonder we flop down on the couch sometimes.  We need a breather.  Trust me.
    All of these thoughts roll through my mind as I run full tilt behind a row of houses on, well, whatever street this is.  I've kind of lost track of where I am.  The breeze ruffling my black and white fur is brisk and it would have felt good any other day.  This isn't a sprint for fun, though.  Not today.  It's not me chasing a rat or racing home for a dinner of tuna and milk.
    I'm kind of running for my life.
    The dog's breath is hot on my backside as he leans in and snaps at