Bones of a Witch (9 page)

That’s when I came up with a
killer plan. Tony didn’t like it at first. Carlos did. He likes
anything that requires a stake out. I mean it. You should see the
guy. You mention stake out and he’s Johnny on the spot with a
freakin` picnic basket. Next thing I know I’m partnered up with
Yogi Bear, I swear. Guess that makes me Booboo. Oh, Christ, better
not let that nickname get out. I’ll never hear the end of it. I’m
just now getting him to quit calling me, Little Buddy—that after I
called him Skipper. Hell, how was I to know about a boat called
the
Minnow
?

But that’s neither here nor there. Concerning
the plan, I suggested it on a whim. “Why don’t we have Lilith call
Lemas Winterhutch and agree to give herself up?” I said.

“What?” Tony balked. “That’s your
plan?”

“No. Hear me out.”

“I’m not going to let Lilith just walk
into—”

“Wait, wait, hear him out,” said Carlos. “Let
the man talk.”

“Yeah, Tony, I’m not suggesting we ask Lilith
to stand in harm’s way.”

“Hell, I’ll stand in harm’s way,” Lilith said.
“I’m not afraid of that sniveling coward.”

Tony pointed his finger at me. “See what you’ve
started.”

“Then hear me out, everyone, just chill a
minute.” I walked up to the map on the wall and pointed out a
location along the New Castle river district. “Here,” I said. “This
is a great location for a sting operation. If we plant a decoy on
the boardwalk downtown here by the Edgewater Shops, say third
streetlight from the pier, we can maintain full surveillance of our
suspect while providing optimum security for our decoy.”

I watched Tony’s eyes narrow with distrust for
the plan. I could see him thinking of all the things that could go
wrong without considering the prospect for things to go right.
Carlos, on the other hand, was practically salivating over the
idea. Lilith, if I could read her at all, downright hated it.
Unless she was standing in the decoy’s shoes, she’d have nothing at
all to do with it.

“I don’t know,” said Tony, rubbing his chin in
contemplation. “We really can’t get a second man in close enough to
the decoy to provide a quick take down. You’re talking about having
someone standing on the boardwalk, leaning on the railing with his
back to the river and not another cop within twenty
yards.”

“That’s right,” I said. “Unless we stick
ourselves out there, Lemas won’t 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 differently from those of the day, especially with the streets
as empty as they were then. I strained to listen and heard music
banging from the jukebox in Ernie’s Pub a block and a half away.
Elsewhere, from a distant rooftop, a couple, probably drunk,
professed their love for one another at the tops of their lungs. I
mused over the thought that one day I might be called to that exact
apartment building to respond to a domestic disturbance call. I
might remind them about what they said that night.

As I waited on the boardwalk, leaning over the
railing and looking out over the milky white swirls made skittish
by the gentle lapping of waves on the rocky edge, I whispered low
into my microphone and called for a sound check.

“Carlos, you copy?”

He came back, “Copy Little Buddy. You’re
looking good.”

See what I mean? Gilligan be damned. “How `bout
you, Tony, copy?”

He returned, “You know, kid, I remember when
you used to address me as Detective Marcella. You forget
that?”

“No, Tony…I mean, Detective. It’s just that you
haven’t been a detective for a couple of years, and then there’s
the fact that you’re, ahm….”

“Yes?”

“Well, sir, I am older than you
now.”

“No you’re not.”

“Of course, I know I’m not; that is to say that
you’re still, I mean your age is—”

“Forget it, kid, I’m only messing with you;
trying to get your head in a better place. I thought you sounded
nervous.”

“No, I’m not nerv—”

“Break it up kids.” Carlos came back. “Got a
bogie at three o`clock. Play it cool, Dominic. Don’t forget we got
you covered. On your word we rush him.”

“Got it,” I said, though I suspect my words had
gotten trapped somewhere between my throat and my lips and nothing
really came out at all. I was so nervous I could pee. All I kept
thinking about was that damn wolf knife. Lilith said she had seen
one before. Were there more?

I turned my head discreetly to the right and
saw a shadowy figure emerging from the fog like an apparition.
Maybe was, for all I knew. I suddenly felt woefully under gunned
and unprepared. I reached under my coat and wrapped my hand around
a .38 snub nose that Tony had lent me; said it wouldn’t show as
much as my Glock would.

The man approaching stepped under the glow of
the second streetlight from the pier. I could see him better now,
though the fog was still thickest along the stretch of boardwalk we
occupied.

“He’s getting closer,” I whispered, not sure if
I had spoken into the microphone loud enough. “Did you guys
copy?”

Tony came back, “We copy. Hold steady. It might
not be him. Don’t want to scare him off if he’s
watching.”

Carlos added, “He’ll probably try stabbing you
in the belly.”

“What?”

“Yeah, the forward thrust, it’s the power
position.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel
better?”

Tony replied, “He means that your vest should
resist a puncture.”

“I wasn’t planning on giving him first
strike.”

“Shhh, he’s too close. Shut up.”

I looked over and saw the stranger now barely
ten feet away. I turned to him slowly, keeping my head down to
shadow my face with the brim of my hat.

“Steady, Dominic,” I heard someone say. I was
so scared I couldn’t tell if it was Tony, Carlos or my own brain
dispensing the advice. From beneath my coat I thumbed the hammer of
my revolver and cocked it back. The stranger’s walk seemed
leisurely, but his body remained stiff. I noticed he kept his hands
in his coat pockets, which gave me a minor sense of relief. To
produce a knife with an eight inch blade would take a fairly
drastic move on his part. He could not do it subtly, I thought;
surely no quicker than it would take me to pull my gun.

“Give him an opportunity,” a voice said, and I
was sure it wasn’t mine that time.

At six feet out I saw the man begin to remove
his right hand from his pocket. I began to slip my own out from
under my coat. But at just four feet away his hand came up empty,
no knife, no gun; not even a glove. I left mine partially out, the
butt of my revolver exposed, but slightly.

“He’s reaching,” said Carlos.
“Shoot!”

“No,” Tony said. “Wait.”

The man continued raising his hand all the way
up to the brim of his hat, which he tipped ever slightly, his eyes
meeting mine as he said politely, “Evening, Miss.”

I was still holding my breath as he passed by,
my heart beating so loudly in my chest I could barely hear Tony and
Carlos congratulating me on my nerves of steel for waiting it out
like that. I hadn’t the heart or the balls to tell them they were
wrong. The truth was I had panicked. I saw that his hand was empty,
but I was so scared I fired my weapon at him anyway. I had pulled
the gun out from under my coat only partially, and when I squeezed
the trigger, the hammer came down in a fold of coat material,
preventing a solid strike on the firing pin.

Now my hands were shaking like a gimp with
Parkinson’s. I eased the hammer back and dislodged the bulk of coat
material from beneath it. Then I pulled the mic up to my lips and I
said quietly, “That was close, guys. I don’t think I can do this
anymore.”

Carlos came back. “What do mean? You’re doing
great. Keep it up.”

“No. You don’t understand. I almost
sh—”

“Quiet.” This from Tony. “Someone else is
coming. Look alert.”

“Forget alert,” said Carlos, “try looking sexy
like Lilith.”

I turned back to the river and glanced over my
shoulder toward the second streetlight. There, another figure
floated into the lamp’s glow on a creeping bed of fog. I swear his
feet never moved. Carlos and Tony might have seen it differently,
but I’ll stick to my guns on that one.

Once again I reached discreetly under my coat
and un-holstered my weapon, careful this time not to snag the
hammer on any unruly folds of material.

“Let him near,” I heard Tony say, his voice
calm and soothing, as if calling my approach on the putting green
at the eighteenth hole. “Just play it cool. He’ll likely try to
talk to you first. If he makes any sudden moves we’ll rush him.
Don’t worry.”

I waited until he had crossed into the shadows
between streetlights before turning towards him. Then I slipped my
hand out from under my coat and tucked the .38 by my side. He moved
in closer to the railing, indicating to me that he did not plan on
stepping around me. Without caring much now whether or not he heard
me, I said to Carlos and Tony, “It’s him. I know it. Move
in.”

“Not yet,” came the response from the cavalry.
“Let’s be sure.”