Shoot to Thrill by P.J. Tracy Read Free Book Online Page B

huge stack of fringe sites that pop in and out on the Net we have to look at. It’s creepy stuff, Magozzi, especially the fetish sites.’
    He nodded. ‘We saw a few of those at the Cyber Crimes happy golf weekend last spring. Sex stuff, sadomasochism, like that.’
    ‘It’s a lot worse than that. People are acting out murders on instant messaging, taking turns being the victim and the killer …’
    ‘How do you act out a murder on instant messaging?’
    Grace made a sour-pickle face. ‘It’s really depraved. They
    ‘Jesus.’
    ‘Yeah. And as disgusting as the texting is, the photos are worse, especially on the specific fetish sites. There’s one totally dedicated to drowning, by the way.’
    Magozzi reached for his whiskey to get the bad taste of sick people out of his mouth. ‘Yeah, well, let me know if you run across film of someone holding a bride underwater.’
    Charlie pushed his nose under Magozzi’s arm, demanding attention, shifting the focus from all the weirdness in the world to more important things, like getting your ears scratched. ‘Good old Charlie,’ Magozzi bent to give him a doggy massage, and then realized that Grace hadn’t said anything for a while. He looked up to see her staring at him. ‘What?’
    She reached for his glass and took a sip, which was frightening. Grace hated whiskey. ‘Nothing, really. Probably just a coincidence. We pulled a staged drowning off one of the fetish sites this morning, with a victim in a wedding dress. But it wasn’t real.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘We did some tinkering with the resolution. Turns out it wasn’t a bride at all. Just some guy in a wedding dress and a wig.’
    Magozzi closed his eyes.
    Gino had a belly full of Angela’s lasagna, a glass of terrific Chianti at his side, the Twins game on the big screen, and
    ‘Daddy?’
    Such a gentle whisper from the doorway, somehow attached to the corners of the mouth so he smiled every time he heard it. ‘Hey, kiddo. Have a seat. Top of the ninth and a tie ball game.’
    ‘Whoopee.’ Helen sat in the chair next to him. She was almost sixteen, and scary beautiful. This year she’d go to her first prom with some sweaty-palmed, hormone-heavy scuzzball teenager who had pimples on his face and probably a condom in his wallet, and Gino was pretty sure he’d never survive the experience.
    ‘Okay, Daddy. Why did you try to put a block on YouTube?’
    Gino closed his eyes. ‘Not just YouTube. I blocked MySpace, MyPage, a bunch of others. Took me hours.’
    ‘Yeah, I know. You kind of suck at it, though.’
    ‘Excuse me?’
    ‘Your blocks were lame, Daddy. You want me to show you how to do it?’
    ‘What do you mean my blocks were lame? I followed the instructions to the letter.’
    Helen actually patted his head. He loved it when she did that, and he hated it. It was affection and patronization, all at the same time. ‘A toddler could have busted through those blocks. You have to work on your computer skills.’
    Gino jabbed the mute button and wished he’d been born a hundred years before that jerk had gone into his garage
    Helen giggled, which was humiliating.
    ‘Seriously, Helen. There are things popping on those sites I blocked—’
    ‘Tried to block.’
    ‘Whatever. There are things on those sites I don’t want you to see.’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘Okay, what?’
    ‘You don’t have to block the sites, Daddy. Just tell me to stay off them and I will.’
    ‘Really?’
    She smiled and bent to kiss his forehead, which was what her mother did when she thought he was being endearingly stupid. ‘Really. Nite-nite.’
    The phone rang before her slippered feet hit the top step.
    ‘Rolseth.’
    ‘Film of our waterlogged boy bride was posted to the Web last night.’
    ‘No way.’
    ‘I’m looking at it on Grace’s computer right now.’
    ‘Who is this?’
    ‘We’ve got a homicide, Gino. This shows the guy being held underwater, struggling, and then the bubbles stop.’
    ‘Oh,