Asprin, Robert Lynn – Catwoman – Tiger Hunt (With Lynn Abbey)

On the edge of Old Town he hailed a taxi and gave the Keystone address. The cabby dropped the flag and steered one-handed into traffic.

“You live in there?” the cabby asked, looking at Tiger in the rear seat, not at the traffic. “More kinds of cops parked over there than I ever seen before. Television cameras. The works. This guy they’re after, he must really be something.”

Tiger went numb. The pain in his shoulder was a world away. He told the cabby to let him out a few blocks shy of the Keystone. His hands were shaking as he dug into his emergency stash and produced a twenty.

“Keep the change.”

“Thanks.” The cabby rolled the bill with the hand that never touched the steering wheel and tucked it into his shirt pocket. “You know, you don’t look so good. You sure you don’t want me to get closer?”

“The fresh air’ll do me good,” Tiger replied with a thin-lipped smile. Feeling returned to his shoulder as he got out of the cab. He relieved the pain by slamming the door. The cabby told him to go to hell.

Tiger hoped that this wasn’t going to happen, but hope was fading.

Television vans were double-and triple-parked. None of them was big enough to be the boss’s, but Tiger approached them cautiously just the same. There was no reason to panic, Tiger told himself as he neared the end of the line of vans and the start of the police cars. He’d had a bad day—a disastrous, catastrophic day—but nothing he did would justify this media circus.

“Can you move to one side, buddy? We’re trying to film here.”