Page 36 of The White Picket Fence

And this was why Tino had needed to come home to run this program. He had his internet routed through several proxy servers—another thing the PI’s tech guy had taught him. He didn’t want anyone to know which databases he had access to.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Was this tech guy a hacker?”

Tino smiled. “A really good one. I can check against mugshots and even DMV photos.”

“And nobody’s going to trace it back to our house, right?”

Tino gave him a look. “Would I put you in danger?”

“Yes,” Gino said immediately. “You did it all the time when we were kids.”

Tino snickered. “You were such a goody-goody. ‘Oh no, Tino,’” he said in a falsetto, “‘you’re gonna get us in trouble.’”

“He wouldn’t have been wrong,” a voice said dryly from the office doorway.

Charlotte stood there, looking lost. But she was trying to rally.

Gino stood. “Charlotte. What can I get you?”

“That coffee smells good,” she said. “Maybe a cup?”

Gino smiled at her gently. “Of course. Sit down. Take my chair.”

She obeyed, taking the chair he’d vacated so she could see Tino’s computer screen. “I always knew you’d be a bad boy. Hacking into databases, Tino? Really?”

Tino grinned. “Really.” Then he sobered. “Are you okay?”

“No,” she said honestly, then smiled up at Gino when he gave her a cup of coffee. “Thank you. And thank you for letting us invade your space. Even Mrs. Tripplehorn.”

Gino laughed, taking the cat from Tino and cuddling her up against his chest. “She’s a nice cat.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes. “She’s nice to you two. She’s a monster to everyone else. She only tolerates me because I feed her.” She sipped at the coffee, returning her gaze to Tino’s screen. “Tell me that we aren’t breaking any laws?”

Tino waggled his hand back and forth. “Maybe one or two.”

“Tino,” Charlotte sighed. “Vito’s going to be doing this, too, you know. Why risk it?”

“Because I can be faster, and because he might not be able to share with us whatever he finds. His goal is to catch a killer. My goal is to keep you safe. Period, full stop. I want to know who we’re dealing with.”

Her eyes filled with gratitude. “How long does it take?”

“Could take all night. Could be hours or even minutes.” The laptop dinged loudly. “Or it could be now.” Tino tapped his keyboard and heard Charlotte’s indrawn breath at the mugshot that filled his screen. “This was faster because this guy served time locally. I started with the local law enforcement databases.”

Gino pulled up another chair. “Kevin Hale,” he murmured, reading the screen.

“Served time for armed robbery,” Tino said. “Arrested at eighteen and served nine years of his fourteen-year sentence. Was out for less than a year before he got locked up again for another robbery. This time he served the full fourteen. Got out less than a month ago.”

“He robbed a liquor store the first time and then a corner store the second time,” Gino said. “And now he’s allegedly robbed a pizza place, another corner store, and a dry cleaner’s. At least he’s consistent. He could have stepped up and robbed a bank.”

“The bank didn’t have Charlotte’s address,” Tino said lightly, then noticed a detail that had his full attention. “Look athispast addresses. When he was arrested the first time, he lived in our old neighborhood. The second time, too. He must have moved back home after getting out.”

Charlotte reached for the mouse with a trembling hand, scrolling down the screen to see more of Kevin Hale’s biographical information. “Oh my God. Tino. He went to our high school.”

Tino clicked a link, bringing up the man’s first mugshot, taken twenty-three years ago. But he still didn’t recognize him.

Gino snapped his fingers. “That’swhy he looks familiar. I graduated with that guy. He would have been a year behind you guys. He was in my shop class. Kind of a loner, as I recall.”

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