For a moment Marc and Toffee were left to ponder this episode in solitude, then the girl slowly reappeared, leaned her elbows on the counter. She swiveled her bored eyes in their direction apathetically.
"Yuh want something?" she drawled.
"Aren't you going to scream or something?" Toffee asked with quiet curiosity.
"Scream?" the girl asked. "What'd I want to scream for?"
"Well," Toffee said. "It may be that I'm just the excitable type, but if I'd just been robbed I'd sound off like a crash alarm."
"Oh, that," the girl murmured. "That wasn't nothing, honey. Take a look over there."
Marc and Toffee gazed in the direction she indicated—a counter laden with expensive handbags. As they looked a hand darted furtively from beneath the counter, grasped one of the bags and instantly disappeared again. A moment later the action was repeated.
"What in the...?" Marc said.
"A purse snatcher," the girl said. "He's good, too. He can clean out a whole counter in half an hour sometimes."
"Don't you care?" Toffee asked.