"How should we kill her? We need something good." A cat with blue eyes whispered from behind a tree.

"Maybe we should poison her. We haven't done that yet." Another cat replied, keeping his voice low.

"Poison is too boring. I think we should drown her." The third cat said, watching as the other two nodded in agreement.

"You can kill her-" the cat's name wasn't heard because of crunching leaves. "She's coming!"

Snowfeather padded into the clearing, fluffing out her white fur and sitting down by the river. The cat padded out from the trees, taking a seat next to the she-cat.

"Nice day for a swim, huh?" They asked. Snowfeather turned to look at them, her eyes widening as she immediately recognized what was happening.

"I knew it was you! You're going to pay for this-" Snowfeather was thrown into the river, the murderer holding her under the rushing current until they felt no movement. Padding out and shaking themselves off, they called out to the remaining two cats.

Snowfeather is dead.
Snowfeather was innocent.

"She's dead. A patrol will hopefully find her. Let's go." The three cats headed back to the camp, not a pang of guilt filling their bones.
~
Emberstar saw it coming. The second she padded out of her den, her eyes were glued to the body that lay in the middle of the clearing. It was soaked with water, but Emberstar knew it wasn't accidental. Somebody had murdered Snowfeather.

"Who found her?" The leader asked, and almost immediately, Opalsnow, Clovertail, Ravenwhisper, and Pansypaw stepped up.

"We did. She was stuck in between some rocks at the end of the river." Clovertail said softly. "I can't believe she died."

Out of all the cats in the Clan, of course it had to be Snowfeather. She had taken in Lichenkit-How would Lichenkit react? It didn't take long for her question to be answered, because Lichenkit came rushing out of the nursery, Lilacpaw at his side.

"What happened to Snowfeather?" He asked cautiously, prodding her limo body with his paw. "Snowfeather? Wake up; I want to play a game of mossball with you!" He chimed sweetly.

Lilacpaw pulled him away, dragging him back to the nursery and whispering stuff to him. He would realize soon enough.

Emberstar sighed in defeat and looked around her Clan. How would she ever find the traitors? They hid in so well; it was as if they were the cats no one suspected. Of course! She was always watching for the cats she thought would have a motive to kill another cat, but what if it was the opposite of that?

Glancing down at her swollen belly, the leader scanned the camp one more time for good measure. She needed a fellow investigator, and she had the perfect cat in mind.