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.