Free Bones of a Witch by Dana Donovan Page A

trust the set up. If he doesn’t
feel comfortable with his surroundings he’ll back down.”
    Carlos agreed. “The guy is clever, Tony. He’ll
have to suspect that we’ll try something like this. We have to make
him feel like he can approach our decoy without leaving himself
vulnerable.”
    “Look.” I indicated several places on the map.
“We can have a guy posted here, here and here.” Closer to the
target I pointed out others. “Carlos can set up shop here, and you,
Tony, can get as close as here without arousing
suspicions.”
    “What about you?” he asked.
    I pointed at target zero. “I’ll be here,
dressed up as Lilith.”
    “What?” said Tony.
    “You?” said Carlos.
    Lilith added, “Forget it.”
    “Why not?” I splayed my arms wide. “We’re about
the same height, though granted I’m a few pounds heavier. But I
figure if I dress in baggy clothes, wear a floppy hat and walk
around like I have attitude to spare, Lemas should fall for the
bait all right.”
    “Preposterous,” Lilith balked. She came up to
me and gave me the once over with her gaze, sizing me up from head
to toe as if inspecting my worth for such lofty comparison. “First
of all, let me tell you; I don’t wear baggy clothes, nor would I
ever wear some silly floppy hat. Secondly, I don’t walk with
attitude, I walk with confidence. There’s a difference. And
thirdly, well there is no thirdly, except to say that there isn’t a
person alive who could pretend to be me and get away with
it.”
    “It’s going to be dark,” I said. “And remember,
he’s never met you. He’s already mistaken one other woman for you,
someone you yourself said was a fat cow.”
    “Dominic.” Tony shot me a stern look, I thought
because I had given Lilith pushback, but it wasn’t. “Let’s have
some respect for the dead please.”
    I apologized and moved on. “Look, I can do
this. Carlos, tell them. There’s not another female cop in the
precinct as close to Lilith’s height and weight as me, least none
who aren’t married with children. There’s no sense putting anyone
else in harm’s way when I can do the job just fine
myself.”
    “He’s got a point,” said Carlos. “You put him
in I dark wig, a heavy coat and a wide-brim hat, no one’s going to
know the difference.”
    I added, “It’s better than putting Lilith out
there and letting her get hurt.”
    “I’ll hurt you,” she said. “If you think for a
minute that you can—”
    “Lilith, stop. He’s right.” Tony gestured with
a nod in my direction. “He’s thinking logically. We’ve got to go
out on a limb if we want to draw Lemas in. He’s got to feel like he
has a way out, and we can’t give him that anywhere else. Least this
way we control his direction of flight.” He pointed to my suggested
location for the operation on the map. “See, it doesn’t matter
which way he enters or exits. There are only two paths along the
boardwalk, which essentially funnels into natural dead ends here
and here. The only other escape route is over the railing into the
river. He won’t get far that way.”
    “Then it’s settled,” said Carlos. “Tonight on
the boardwalk it is. Let’s call Lemas and set it up.”
    Sure Lilith protested some more, confident we
would screw things up and that only she could pull off the lure.
But Tony denied her, citing department regulations against
civilians acting in official police matters. It was a good
strategy, too, even though there is no such department regulation.
But if it were merely his objections against hers we would have
never heard the end of it. As it was, Lilith stormed out of the
meeting completely pissed, wishing us luck, but saying it in a way
that I’m sure was sarcastic.
    That night a light drizzle fell intermittently
on the boardwalk. A dewy mist had rolled in off the river and the
drone of traffic out on Lexington Boulevard carried back on the fog
all the way to Edgewater. I noticed how the sounds of the night
rang