Page 54 of The White Picket Fence

“I’d say not,” Vito murmured. “Did the administration here know about Kevin’s protection hustle?”

“Sure. But Kevin never actually hurt anyone. Not bad enough to be reported, anyway. He kind of kept the peace, so the guards let him do it. Just the threat of him was enough to make most of the punks in here back down.”

Vito nodded as if that was what he’d figured. “Okay. Can you describe the house?”

Tino opened the sketch pad he’d been allowed to bring in with him. “Ready when you are.”

“Like I said, it was blue.” Greene began to describe the details, all eerily familiar.

Tino thought he could draw the house without Greene’s description, but he waited for the man to recall each detail, sketching as they went along.

Finally, Greene nodded. “That looks exactly like the photo he showed me. You’re pretty good.”

“You have a good memory,” Tino said.

“I’ll talk to the DA as soon as I leave,” Vito said. “I’ll make sure he knows how helpful you’ve been. Thank you.”

Greene nodded, wincing as he stood, his shackles clanking. “I’ll hold you to that, Lieutenant.”

Tino and Vito sat for a moment while Greene was escorted from the room.

“Hopefully we’ll find his house based on your sketch,” Vito murmured.

“It was going to be our house,” Tino whispered.

Vito frowned at him. “What?”

“When Charlotte and I talked about the future—” He stopped himself, realizing now thathehad talked about the future. Charlotte had simply nodded.A dinghy in my wake, he thought sadly. “When I talked about our future, this was the house I described.”

Vito’s expression grew intense. “Does it exist?”

“I don’t know. It must, because Hale bought it. But it was just a dream to me.”

“Let’s go. When we find it, hopefully we’ll find Hale, too.”

They were escorted back to the lobby, but halfway there, the warden came hurrying to them.

“Lieutenant!” he called. “You have a message from a Lieutenant Lawrence.”

Tino felt dread descend upon him. “What did he say?”

“Charlotte Walsh was contacted by Hale. He’s abducted a girl she knows—the daughter of the victim he shot, but who survived. Said if Miss Walsh came to him, he’d let the girl go.”

“Kayla,” Tino whispered, the picture coming together with terrifying force. “She’s trading herself for Kayla.”

“Not exactly,” the warden said. “Walk with me and I’ll bring you up to speed.”

CHAPTER8

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Thursday, March 31, 11:00 a.m.

Charlotte paidthe cab driver in cash, just as she’d been instructed. She’d managed to slip out of Tino’s house without alerting his brother. At least not until she was already pulling away in the back of the cab.

She’d seen Gino run outside, phone in his hand as he stood on the stoop, yelling at her to wait. She’d told the driver to keep going.

Gino had undoubtedly called his brothers, which was as she’d hoped. It couldn’t hurt to have a backup in case Nick Lawrence didn’t get through to Tino and Vito.

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