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    Time Spent With A Cat
    Time Spent With A Cat
    Time Spent With A Cat
    Ebook52 pages37 minutes

    Time Spent With A Cat

    By Chuck McKenzie

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    About this ebook

    My name's Jim Carpenter. I'm a private eye. And business has been in the toilet since everyone found themselves saddled with an ethereal entity that floats beside them. Mine is a wiseass talking cat. I hate cats. But's that's not my biggest problem, because a cashed-up frenemy from my military days has just given me six hours to solve the murder of a scientist who was working on something very special for the Special Weapons Division. Shot in the head, only one possible killer, witnesses on the scene within seconds. Should be an easy case, right?
    Except that, impossibly, the weapon and bullet have both vanished.
    And the clock is ticking.

    Time Spent With A Cat: the best Hard SF gonzo-fantasy murder-mystery novella featuring a possibly-imaginary talking cat you'll ever read, probably.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDaft Notions
    Release dateNov 6, 2024
    ISBN9780645894592
    Time Spent With A Cat
    Author

    Chuck McKenzie

    Chuck McKenzie was born in 1970 and is still not dead. He is an award-nominated author of numerous science fiction and horror stories, and he hopes one day to be described by his neighbours as having seemed like such a nice man. You can stalk him on Instagram at @chuck.mckenzie.author

    Read more from Chuck Mc Kenzie

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      Book preview

      Time Spent With A Cat - Chuck McKenzie

      image-placeholder

      First published by Daft Notions in 2024

      Daft Notions www.daftnotions.com 

      Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

      Copyright © Chuck McKenzie

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including Internet search engines and retailers, electronic or mechanical, photocopying (except under the provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission by the publisher.

      National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data.

      Time Spent With A Cat

      ISBN: 978-0-6458945-8-5(paperback)

      ISBN: 978-0-6458945-9-2(ebook)

      Spelling in this book is standard Australian.

      Cover Artwork by Greg Chapman

      Cover Design & Editing © All In The Edit

      www.allintheedit.com 

      Fiction, Science Fiction, Crime

      This novella is expanded from a novelette of the same title originally published in Who Sleuthed It? (Clan Destine Press, 2021).

      Contents

      Time Spent With A Cat

      About the Author - Chuck McKenzie

      Also by Chuck McKenzie

      Daft Notions

      image-placeholder

      Time Spent With A Cat

      You’re about to get a visitor, said the cat, sitting on—or rather, hovering about a centimetre above—the edge of my desk. It glanced pointedly towards the wall behind my chair, where my framed certificate hung.

      State of Victoria

      Department of Law Enforcement

      Private Investigators Licence

      James Carpenter

      Might want to straighten that up, the cat continued. You really can’t afford to look sloppy in front of clients right now, can you?

      I hate cats. I really do. Feral, lazy, arrogant creatures. So it does seem unnecessarily ironic that my Conscience took the form of a talking calico cat. Maybe the current popular theory about Consciences being ‘shared subconscious projections’ is crap after all. Or maybe I just really do hate myself that much. Four whole months since everyone, worldwide, got a Conscience, and still nobody can explain a damned thing about it. All I knew for sure was that my previously thriving business had pretty much ground to a halt as society worked through the resulting chaos.

      Up yours, I snapped, and flicked the pen I’d been holding at the cat. The pen, of course, passed right through the animal and clattered against the floorboards.

      There was a knock on the door. Three sharp raps.

      I bit down on the follow-up insult I’d been about to hurl at the cat. I’d already learned the hard way that potential clients get twitchy if they catch you swearing at a cat, even a possibly imaginary talking cat that everyone can see and hear. I stood up, angrily buttoning my coat. Come in, I called, forcing a smile

      Of all the people I might have guessed would be at the door when it opened, Alan Cook wouldn’t have been one of them. I felt an expression of shock touch my face momentarily before I was able to clamp down on it, staring impassively at my visitor.

      Alan nodded, flashing a smile that vanished almost immediately. Hey, Jim. Long time, no see.

      I said nothing.

      Alan shuffled uncomfortably for a moment, standing there in full military uniform with his cap tucked underneath his arm. May I come in?

      I sat down again,

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