by Molly Fitz
When the Cat’s Away
A Collection of 11 Cozy Mysteries to Celebrate Summer
Molly Fitz
Bailey Booth
M.L. Bonatch
Daisy Finch
Jane Hinchey
Daphne Hunt
Denise Jaden
Patti Larsen
R. A. Muth
Morgan Vale
Rosie Pease
© 2021, Whiskered Mysteries
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All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover Designer: Mallory Rock, Rock Solid Book Design; Proofreader: Jasmine Jordan
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
Whiskered Mysteries
PO Box 72
Brighton, MI 48116
Contents
About this Collection
Grizzly Grievance
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
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The Magical Mocha Latte
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
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Murder and Mice and Everything Vice
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
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What Ghost Around
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
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Murder in the Meow
About this Story
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue
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Curses, Cats & Corpses
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
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Murder of a Po’Boy
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
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Art Heists and Hairballs
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
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Murder in the Cards
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
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Hawaiian Kitten Curse
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
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Catastrophe on the Road
About this Story
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
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More Books Like This
WHISKMYS (WĬSKʹMƏS)
About this Collection
Join these vacationing sleuths as they trade their sunglasses for magnifying glasses in 11 new, never-before-read cozy mysteries.
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USA Today bestselling author Molly Fitz has gathered a fantastic group of emerging and established talent in the Cozy Mystery genre. Together, they are ready to present the ultimate bookworm staycation. And you’re invited...
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The best part? When you escape into the pages of these stories, kitty doesn’t have to stay at home. So snuggle up with your favorite furry friend to read this fun collection of travel cozies, each including a fabulous feline sidekick.
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All aboard for intriguing mysteries, hilarious banter, and good, clean fun. Grab your copy of WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY to catch up with your favorite characters (including a brand new Octo-Cat story) and to meet some new friends along the way. You’ll be very glad you did!
Grizzly Grievance
by Molly Fitz
About this Story
GRIZZLY GRIEVANCE
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A spoiled house cat and sneaky raccoon stowaway in a rented RV
Charles is taking Angie away for a weekend camping trip. Unfortunately, Octo-Cat and Pringle stow away in the RV, too. And if that wasn't enoug
h to ruin any chance of romance, the dead body that shows up in the picnic area is sure to take their getaway from relaxing to ruinous...
Copyright © 2021 by Molly Fitz.
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All rights reserved.
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Chapter One
I’m Angie Russo, and lately my life has been one train wreck after another. And, yeah, I do mean that literally. First my cat and I found ourselves aboard a derailed train about six months back, and then just a couple weeks ago, my nan crashed her sports car on the highway with us in it.
I’ve started to fear various modes of transportation just as much as I’ve feared electric coffee makers for a while now. In my life, both have only led to trouble.
And that’s how it all started, too.
I got zapped by an old coffee maker and woke up with the strange new ability to talk to animals. And those talking animals have led to most of my problems, like the aforementioned vehicle wrecks. I’ve also dealt with more than anyone’s fair share of murders, thefts, kidnappings, and other nefarious crimes. Then again, I guess that’s what I get for setting up shop as a private investigator.
Still…
I could really do with just a week or two where nothing life-altering comes around and rocks my world.
I can’t even remember the last time I enjoyed a good old-fashioned Netflix binge or spent the full day in bed reading. Also, I almost never get paid for my investigative work, which begs the question: Why do I keep signing myself up for more and more?
My partner at Pet Whisperer P.I. has zero issues saying no. Of course, he’s not the one doing any of the talking. He wouldn’t miss napping in a sunbeam or giving himself a slow, leisurely tongue bath for anything… Oh, did I mention my partner is a cat?
He’s a standard tabby with an oversized attitude, but don’t tell him I said that. His full name is Octavius Maxwell Ricardo Edmund Frederick Fulton Russo, Esq, P.I. (a name he freely and regularly adds to). I prefer to call him Octo-Cat. He’s not a fan, but at least he’s stopped arguing with me about it.
The trust fund his previous owner left him pays all our bills, and those rare moments when he offers me genuine displays of love and affection are the brightest spots in my day.
We also live in our—or rather his—giant manor house alongside my nan and her rescue Chihuahua, Paisley. Pringle the nosy reality TV addict lives in a treehouse in our backyard; he’s a raccoon. And then we have Charles, my big-time lawyer boyfriend, to round out our motley crew.
Our latest adventure took Nan, Octo-Cat, Paisley, and me on a cross-country trip to visit my cat’s girlfriend, a former show Himalayan named Grizabella. On the way, I learned that Nan has been blabbing what is meant to be a secret ability to random friends of hers on the Internet.
While that was going on, a militarized flock of seagulls bribed me into helping with their turf dispute, a case that mainly fell to Charles and Pringle since the rest of us were out of town.
And even though we held up our end of the bargain, the seagulls needed more time to deliver on theirs. I trust them, though. Any day now, they’ll lead me to my long-lost grandmother and I’ll finally learn the truth about my lineage.
Until then, I’ve been doing my best to focus on other things. It hasn’t been going well…
Mainly because my cat makes non-stop demands, and I’m just too tired to argue with him anymore. That’s why I’m driving more than thirty minutes out to Misty Harbor to purchase a lobster roll from his preferred venue, the Little Dog Diner. And when I get home, he probably won’t even say thank you for sending me to another far-flung end of Blueberry Bay to fulfill his latest request.
Yeah…
Have I mentioned just how badly I need a break from my life?
When I returned that afternoon with a bag of lobster rolls in hand, I found a pair of seagulls roosting on my porch.
“Bravo?” I asked as I parked my car and ambled over to greet them. “And is that Abigull? No way.”
The smaller of the two birds puffed out her feathers and let out a tinkling giggle. When I last saw her a few weeks back, she’d been little more than a hatchling. Now she was almost as large as her adoptive father—and a very happy-looking bird at that.
“We’ve finished our search for your grandmother,” Bravo informed me without further pretense. He’d promised to put me in touch with my long-lost biological grandmother in return for Charles, Pringle, and me assisting in a land dispute with another flock. And I knew he was trying his best to deliver on his end of the deal, but the more that time passed, the less I believed any of us would be able to find her.
I never should have doubted them, I realized now as an enormous smile stretched across my face. “That’s wonderful. Can you take me to her now?” I moved back toward my car, but the seagulls didn’t follow.
“She’s not here anymore,” Abigull said with a sad shake of her head.
Bravo picked up where his ward left off. “She was here in the Bay for a long time, but now we can’t locate her.”
“Did she…?” I swallowed hard, unable to believe the horrible timing. “Did she die?”
“Oh gosh no!” The little bird chirped and shifted her weight from foot to foot. “Nothing like that.”
“I’ve put my best gulls on scouting duty, but so far we’re unable to locate her new residence,” Bravo added, all business, while Abigull seemed much more concerned about tending to my feelings.
“So what now?” I asked with a sigh. I appreciated that they’d tried but also felt terribly heartbroken that I may never get to meet my missing family member after all.
“We’ll keep searching, but we’ll need to expand the radius. She may have left the state. It’s no problem, really. We will find her, but it’s just going to take a little longer than originally estimated.”
“Thank you,” I said, working hard to show them a smile even though the news they’d just brought me had ruined my whole day. “Thank you for not giving up.”
“Nothing can stop a bird on a mission,” Bravo informed me with a narrowed gaze.
“Yeah,” his adoptive daughter chimed in.
“Now we must be off.” Bravo immediately launched into the sky with Abigull at his tail.
“Bye, Angie,” the girl gull called as they soared away on the winds.
I slumped down onto the worn oak porch steps and sat there for a while, just me and the dwindling warmth of the setting sun.
What would I do if the flock failed to find my grandmother? I’d already questioned my remaining family in Larkhaven, searched every nook and cranny of the Internet… I’d even tried the genealogy route but had come up with absolutely nothing.
Somewhere out there, I had a grandmother I hadn’t even known existed until last year. Her entire family had been stolen from her when my grandpa took their baby—my mother—and asked Nan to take her somewhere far away.
None of us knew why, and my grandpa had already passed by the time I learned of his existence. And now these two huge players in my personal history were nothing more than a giant question mark, and I doubted I’d ever really be whole again until I could find her.
