Page 66 of The White Picket Fence

Tino laughed, as he suspected Cliff had intended. “Shut up.” He sobered as Cliff stopped on the block behind the blue Victorian. Luckily the fence between Hale and his backyard neighbor was a standard four-footer. Tino could jump over that in his sleep. “If I’m not out in fifteen minutes, call Vito. He’ll yell and scream. Tell him I lied to you about where I was going and why.”

Cliff held his gaze. “I will tell him the truth.”

Tino’s eyes stung. “Thank you.”

“Go on. Get Charlie out of there.”

Tino glanced in the side mirror as he started to open the van’s door, then groaned in frustration. “Fucking hell.”

Cliff looked around. “What?”

“Nick’s here.” The man was jogging up the street towards the minivan. “Lieutenant Nick Lawrence,” Tino explained. “He’s the one Charlie called because she couldn’t reach me or Vito.”

Cliff didn’t have a chance to say anything because the side door was already opening. Nick jumped into the back seat and closed the door.

“Hey, y’all,” he drawled. “Fancy meetin’ you here.”

Tino scowled, his plan crumbling to dust because Nick had probably already called Vito. “Hey, Nick.”

“Tino. Mr. Gargano.” Nick nodded to Cliff. “Rookie move, driving by the house. Should have just come straight back here. My guys made you right away. Took less than a minute to run your plates.”

Cliff looked nervous. “Sorry?”

Nick chuckled. “I’ll bet you are. Tino, boy, what’re you thinkin’?”

“That he has Charlotte,” Tino bit out. “And Vito will do this by the book.”

“That he will,” Nick said, but his tone was kind. “Sometimes the book takes a while.”

“I...” Tino closed his eyes. “He’s killed five people, Nick.”

“I know.”

Tino swallowed hard. “He’s not going to negotiate with Vito.”

“I know,” Nick repeated softly. “What was your plan gonna be?”

Tino twisted in his seat to meet Nick’s eyes. “Sneak in through the basement window in the back and get her out. Her and Kayla.”

Nick looked thoughtful. “He’ll kill you if he sees you in his house.”

“I don’t care.”

“Tino!” Cliff gasped.

Tino glared at him. “What would you do if this was Sonya? The same. I know you’d do the same. But it doesn’t matter now. We’ve been made.”

“Hold on,” Nick said, then checked his phone. “Excellent,” he murmured. He typed something then returned his attention to Tino and Cliff. “You nearly got my detective killed.”

Tino blinked. “How?”

“Because she was fixin’ to knock on Hale’s front door to make sure that it’s him. She had a frozen casserole for his dinner. Brought it from her own personal freezer when I called her to help. A welcome to the neighborhood thing. If he saw your friend’s license plates, he might be able to run them just like I did. I understand you all went to school together. He’d remember Mr. Gargano, here. He might have taken out my detective. Like you said, he’s killed a lot of people, Tino.”

Tino hadn’t considered that and he should have. “Dammit. I’m sorry. But of course it’s him. The house is a match for the one his cellmate described.”

“It is,” Nick agreed. “But the vehicle he drove into the garage was not one of the ones we were expecting. He must have driven around a while to make sure we weren’t following. He switched vehicles again. We had to be sure.”

“But it’s him?”

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