Invisible Prey

studios are?”
    “That’ll be good, that’d be perfect,” Widdler said. “One o’clock?”
    “I’ll scream if you do anything,” Coombs said.
    “Then I go to trial and you won’t get a penny,” Widdler said.
    Another long pause. Then, “Okay.”
    “Bring the originals. I’m not bargaining anymore. Bring the originals or I’m gone,” Jane Widdler said.
     
    W ITH J ERROLD in the air, and Flowers, Shrake, and Jenkins on the ground escorting Widdler back to her shop, Lucas and Del helped Coombs out of the muumuu and then out of the ballistic vest and the wire. “Jeez, that thing is hot,” she said. She’d told them about the phone conversation on the way out of the store. “She was behind me?”
    “Yeah. And I was behind her,” Del grunted. “We were cool.”
    “Think she’ll come?” Coombs asked.
    “I hope,” Lucas said.
    “What happened with the phone?” Del asked.
    “We don’t know, but she didn’t use her own and she switched phones inside,” Lucas said. “I think she bought a phone at Best Buy.”
    “She’s no dummy,” Del said.
    “But we sold her,” Lucas said, grinning at the other two. “Lucy, you were great. You could be a cop.”
    She shook her head. “No, I couldn’t. Cops pretend to be friends with people, and then they turn them in. I couldn’t do that.”
     
    T HE KEY, Lucas told Coombs, was to get Widdler on tape acknowledging the quilt fraud, that she knew of the Donaldson killing…anything that would get her into the slipstream of the killings. Once they had her there, circumstantial evidence would do the rest.
    “Get her talking,” Del said. “Get her rolling…”
     
    M EARS P ARK WAS a leafy square, one block on each edge. The buildings on three sides were rehabbed warehouses, combinations of apartments, studios, offices, and retail, including the studio of Ron Stack, the artist that Gabriella had dated. The fourth side was newer, offices, a food court, and apartments in brick-and-glass towers.
    “As soon as she’s in the park, we’ll have you come around the block in the car, since she’s seen the car,” Lucas told Coombs. “Shrake will pull away from the curb, and that’ll leave a parking space open for you.”
    Del pointed at an unmarked cop car, already in the parking slot. Lucas pointed out the route: “Pull in, then walk down the sidewalk over here. Del’s gonna be on the other side of the park, back through the trees, closing in, as soon as we know where she’s at. Flowers and I will be behind the doors in Parkside Lofts. We’ll be invisible, but as long as you’re on the sidewalk, we’ll be right across the street from you. Sit on this bench…” He pointed. “There’s gonna be a guy on the bench eating his lunch.”
    “Pretty obvious,” Coombs said.
    Lucas shook his head: “Not really. When people are suspicious, they look for a bum pushing a shopping cart or a woman with a baby carriage, but a guy in a suit eating a peanut-butter sandwich and talking on a cell phone…Won’t look at him twice. Besides, as soon as you show up, he’s gonna walk away. That gives you the bench. Talk to her on the bench.”
    “What if she doesn’t want to talk there?” Coombs asked.
    “Go with the flow—but as soon as you feel the slightest bit uncomfortable about anything , break it off,” Lucas said. “Anything, I’m serious. If you feel uncomfortable, you’re probably right, something’s screwed up. Get out. Scream, run, whatever. Get away from her.”
    Coombs nodded, and started to tear up. “It’d be a shame if she got all three of us.”
    “Don’t even think that,” Lucas said.
    Del said to Lucas, “Man, I’m getting the shakes. Bringing a civilian in…”
    Lucas looked at Coombs. “What do you think, Lucy? We can call it off, try to get her to talk by phone.”
    Coombs shook her head, wiped her eyes with her knuckles. “I’m a big chicken—if she looks at me cross-eyed, I’m runnin’.”
     
    J ANE W IDDLER GOT to the park at noon, an hour early. She’d parked in the Galtier Plaza parking ramp, had taken the elevator to the Skyway level, had scouted the Skyways and then the approaches to the park, tagged by three female cops borrowed from St. Paul. Finally, she walked all four sides of the park, and walked in and out of the buildings on all four sides.
    “She’s figuring out where she can run,” Flowers said. They were on the second floor of the Parkside Lofts, looking out a window.
    Lucas nodded. “Yup.