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

All the same, turning himself in to the dozens of waiting policemen never occurred to Eddie Lobb. If he had to die, he was going to die the way he’d lived, on the waterfront streets, not rotting in some jail. Miraculously, his mind had cleared and his shoulder was pain-free. Tiger had no difficulty slipping back down the block and hailing another cab.

“Take me over to the docks,” he told the driver.

He got out at Pier 23—the old Blue Star Line. It was quiet, nothing to show for all the excitement. The Connection would survive. Tiger admitted—for the first and only time—that he wasn’t a big enough man in the organization to take his boss down with him. But Pier 23 was as dead as he was. The boss would shut down all the operations that touched it. He stared at it awhile—a man needed to set things in his memory, even when he knew he wasn’t going to be remembering anything pretty soon. Then he ambled over to his favorite bar and sat at his favorite table.

“Hey, Tiger—you don’t look so good.”

One of the Pier 23 stevedores made himself comfortable in the chair opposite Eddie.

“Things went bad. You heard.”

“Yeah, I heard. Tough break, Tiger. People been comin’ in askin’ about you.”

“Cops?”

“Yeah, cops . . . and people. They gave me a message to give you, if you should show up.”

“So, give.”

“They says if you want to make things square again, you go over to the place on Broad Street. There, I give you the message. I give you a piece of advice, too—don’t go over there, Tiger. Get outta Gotham City. There must be a hundred places you could go.”