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I rushed out into the hall, but Jinx moved far too fast for me keep up. By the time I closed the door behind me, he’d already made it to the bottom of the grand staircase. And he was headed straight for the party—or toward the door. Thankfully, we’d had the foresight to secure the pet door to prevent our backyard raccoon neighbor from crashing the gala and terrifying all our guests.

Unfortunately, there was no way for me to quietly go about corralling Jinx, so I stood in the entryway and shouted for everyone’s attention. “We have an escaped cat from the adoption room. If you see him, would you please pick him up and take him back upstairs? Sorry for interrupting your dinner.”

My piece now said, I raced back up the stairs to get Scarlett. I found her seated on the rug on my floor with both Octo-Cat and Paisley sharing her lap contentedly. Octo-Cat purred so loudly, I could hear him from the doorway.

“Oh, wow. You really are good at this,” I said with extreme reverence. Paisley was easy to please; Octo-cat, on the other hand, was darn near impossible.

“I’ve always loved animals,” she said, petting each animal with one of her hands simultaneously.

“That’s great, but I have a bit of bad news.” I waited for her to meet my eyes before continuing. “I let the cats out of their cages and one of them escaped while I was coming to get you.”

Scarlett gasped.“You did what? Why would you do that?”

“Um, I don’t suppose you’ll take ‘they asked me to’ as an answer?” Heat rose to my cheeks. I really should have known better, but I was so blind in my pursuit of answers that I hadn’t listened to my instincts. No matter what a cat promised you, he would always play the situation in whatever way benefited him the most—and you could take that to the bank.

“Of course not. Gosh, I have to get down there now and make sure nobody gets into a fight.” Scarlett set my pets on the ground and jumped to her feet, then lumbered through the door to make right what I’d set wrong.

“Now there’s one human with a heck of a right-ear scratch,” Octo-Cat moaned as he watched her depart. “Those fingers are like a dream. You should have her give you some lessons before she goes.”

“Yeah. I like her very much, Mommy,” Paisley added with a wiggly butt and a merry voice.

“Great. I’m happy for you guys, but I can’t stay and chat. Sorry.” I stared down at them and bit my lip.

“Why not?” my cat demanded, marching straight up to me and placing a paw on my foot. As if that could stop me from going.

“There’s been a murder,” I whispered just in case anyone was eavesdropping on the stairs.

“Again?” My cat balked. “That’s like the third time this month.”

“It is not,” I argued with an indignant snort. “You have no sense of time. Like, at all.”

“Well, then it’s at least the third time this year,” he shot back.

Okay, maybe he was right about that. I didn’t have time to tick off all the murders we’d investigated on my fingers. Although I suppose it was a bad sign that I’d managed to lose count.

Most people stopped at one—or heck, never even got to one in the first place. Me, I had a good handful or two of murder investigations under my belt.

“Who’s the stiff this time?” my cat wanted to know.

“Mommy, I’m scared,” Paisley whined. “Am I going to get murdered, too?”

I reached down and picked her up. Her ears lay flat against her head and her eyes squinted as she shivered with fright.“You’re safe, Paisley. I promise.”

She whimpered and hid her face in the crook of my arm.“But why does everyone always get murdered when you’re around, then?”

Octo-Cat burst out laughing.

“Stop it,” I scolded him. “Can’t you see she’s upset?”

“That’s why I’m laughing,” he answered, then laughed some more. “And she’s not wrong. People get murdered around you all the time.”

“I barely knew the guy, okay? He wasn’t even supposed to be here tonight. It was a last-minute substitution, and—wait. Why am I explaining this to you? I have a case to solve. See you later.”

I set Paisley on the bed and gave her a loving pat on the head.“It’s okay,” I promised her. “Your big brother will watch out for you.”

“Says you.” Octo-Cat hopped up onto the bed. “I’m coming with you. I am your partner, after all.”

“No, you’re not. Things are chaotic enough down there without adding your fluffy behind into the mix.”

“But Angela—” he began in that droll voice of his.

I didn’t hear what he said after that because I’d already slammed the door behind me.

This was one case I needed to solve without my talking tabby partner. And fast.

I found Mr. Gable waiting for me in the second-floor hallway.“There you are. I was beginning to worry.” His forehead creased with even more wrinkles than usual. The poor old man looked wrung out.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” I asked breathlessly.Please tell me things had not gotten worse in my short absence.

He kept his voice low while answering.“The guests are beginning to get a bit fussy. They want to know how they’re supposed to solve the murder mystery without any clues as to who the killer might be. They do have a point.”