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

On the other hand, there could be sixty apartments—more if the developers had chosen profit over style and subdivided. She was going to have to get into the building, learn its guts and sneak a peek at its mailboxes and intercom panel, before Catwoman went to work.

The sour-faced cashier reappeared, cleared the table, and shoved an illegible bill in front of her.

“You can pay me now.”

Selina ignored him.

“C’mon, lady. I ain’t got all day.”

Selina made a show of looking for other customers in the otherwise empty room. “I do,” she replied in a dangerously sultry voice. “Gimme a piece of your chocolate pie.”

“Didn’t you hear me before? There’s a four-dollar minimum. I already checked you out. Pie only costs three.”

“Then gimme two pieces.” She smiled. Her even, ivory teeth glistened.

The East End clung to Selina Kyle like a saint’s halo and was most easily detected by someone like the cashier who bore it himself. Life was a game in Gotham City. Everyone was always jockeying for a little position.

“And two coffees, with cream. Make it separate checks. One after the other.”

At the rate she was going through her drug-house cash, Selina figured she’d have to take something from Eddie’s apartment. She’d burn that bridge when she got to it. For the moment she had the upper hand with the cashier. His eyes smoldered and she knew he’d clout her if he dared, but he didn’t dare. Instead he slunk over to the refrigerator case where tired wedges of chocolate pie were mummified in shrink wrap.

In Gotham’s game you didn’t lose points for making enemies, so long as you never saw them again. Selina turned her attention back to the Keystone and ignored the pies when they arrived.