Free Deception by Dan Lawton Page A

about anything for the companionship of a woman.
    That’s where Alicia comes in.
    She needs to seduce and hook the unsuspecting victim, then I’ll reel him in. I have no doubt in her ability to hook someone, even if it’s just on physical attraction alone. As for me and my role, well, that’s really the least of my worries. The difficult part will be finding the right guy.
    The three of us sit at a round table near the perimeter of the library and scan the room. The library is grand and the shelves are stocked full of books of all sizes, shapes, and genres. There are high ceilings and large windows, which brings heaps of natural light into the center of the room and disperses it throughout the isles. I grab a stack of books from the shelf behind me and spread them across the table.
    “Look busy,” I say, handing a book to Frank. Alicia also takes one from the stack, as do I. We hold the books up to our faces and pretend to read while we people-watch.
    A young couple sits across from us at a similar table, holding hands and whispering to one another. A middle-aged mother and her two children wander around the young adult section. A group of women browse the romance section near the counter. In the fiction section near the corner of the library is a single guy. He’s reasonably physically attractive I guess, average height and medium-build. He looks like any regular guy you’d pass on the street and not even notice. He could have something to offer with a reasonable effort. Either he doesn’t care or he doesn’t get it. He looks almost lost over there by himself, and I may feel bad for him under different circumstance.
    This could be our guy.
    “Hey, look,” I say quietly, getting Alicia’s attention. “Check it out.” I motion in the direction of the loner in the corner. Alicia checks him out from head to toe and I can tell she’s considering him.
    “He’s not too bad,” she says, nodding. “He might be worth a shot.” She puts her book down and rises from her seat. She smoothens her jeans with her palms and straightens the light jacket that covers her blouse. “Wish me luck.” She glides across the carpeted floor with confidence and heads toward the target. Her hips sway with each step, and she looks like a model strutting down the runway toward the photographers at the other end. Frank and I lower our books slightly and observe the action.
     
    ---
     
    It’s been a long day. I knew Alicia was going to be good, but I didn’t know she was going to be this good. She has really embraced her role. She spends the entire afternoon with this guy in the library, and she almost seems to be genuinely interested in him. By the early evening, the conversation moves out of the library and into a coffee shop across the street.
    Frank and I had planned to wait outside the library in the van until Alicia came out, but it’s gone on for too long. By 7:00 P.M. we’re both famished, so we enter the coffee shop and order ourselves some grub. It looks like Alicia might have a stroke when she sees us enter the coffee shop and sit in the booth connected to hers. Frank and I eat in silence and eavesdrop on the conversation behind us.
    We eat as slowly as we can, but pastries and homemade baked goods only last for so long. We leave the shop and wait in the van for another hour before Alicia finally emerges. It feels like we’re staking out the joint while we sit in the parking lot of the library with the lights off in the van.
    While in the coffee shop, Alicia used our guy’s name during conversation, strategically I think, so it gives me something to do while waiting for her.
    George Sanders has no criminal record, no speeding tickets, and no negative marks on his credit report. I run his name and plates through the police database that I’m able to link to from my mobile phone that is paid for by the taxpayers. I discover that he doesn’t appear to have any family around and he doesn’t participate it any of the