Jilliane Hoffman by Pretty Little Things Page B

slipped into a four-hour-and-counting layover. He rubbed his eyes and downed the rest of his Red Bull. Guaranteed to have him pacing floors at four a.m., but he didn’t want to nod off on the drive home. Insomnia was a vicious cycle: dog-tired when you couldn’t afford to be, wide-awake when the rest of the world shut it down. He logged out of AIMS, the Automated Information Management System he was working in, and shoved the stack of files into his briefcase. Then as the computer started to shut down, a thought came to him. He logged back in, hopped on the internet, and clicked on to Elaine Emerson’s MySpace. She still hadn’t logged back on to her profile. He went to her My Friends space and clicked on the icon with the Miami Dolphins logo. The only friend that was missing a picture.

    *ELCAPITAN*

Headline:
JETS SUCK!
Orientation:
Totally Straight
Here For:
My Peeps and Bettys
Gender:
Male
Age:
17
Location:
Jupiter, Florida.
Profile Updated:
October 18, 2009
    Bobby scanned the webpage, set against a backdrop of an animated Rolling Stones tongue logo that kept licking provocatively at the computer screen. Although the profile was public, like Lainey’s, which meant anyone could see it, unlike Lainey’s, the personal info was pretty scant. His name was Zach, he lived in Jupiter and he played high school varsity football, basketball and baseball. He also played bass. That was it. Musical tastes, gauging from the album covers that dotted a corner of his page, ranged from Nine Inch Nails to The Fray. Most kids spilled their guts on their MySpace. This looked like the one kid who’d actually listened to warnings about personal data going out over the internet …
    Who was this Zach? That was the question that Bobby’s gut still demanded an answer to. That and where the hell Todd LaManna had spent last Friday night. The used car Salesman of the Month was definitely a creep and he was definitely holding back. Whether that had anything to do with his missing stepdaughter or the prospective demise of his marriage had yet to be seen. As far as finding out more about the lone boy on Lainey’s friend space, even with a subpoena, Bobby wouldn’t be able to get the email registration info from MySpace corporate till probably Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest. Unless it was an absolute emergency, even favors took a few days. But with a little ingenuity and help from the World Wide Web, he figured he could maybe beat out the lawyers and find the kid himself.
    A few searches on Google led him to Jupiter high schools and the Jupiter High website. From there it was on to their Athletic Programs and then a click on Football. There was no player roster, but there was a launch on to a Palm Beach Post internet news article about high school football stars.
    And there he was. Zachary Cusano. #17. A Jupiter High Warrior to Watch. Position: Wide Receiver, Team Captain. Class: Senior. A 6′1″, 190 pound, blond-haired, blue-eyed, smiling All-American Warrior. Bobby then Googled ‘Zachary Cusano basketball Jupiter High School’. And there he was again – #17, saving the day last January when the Warriors basketball team romped the Boynton Beach Tigers. Another search under baseball found Zachary Cusano, a pitcher, expected to start this spring for the Warriors. An accompanying interest article named some of Zach’s favorite hobbies besides sports. Jamming with his band on bass guitar was first up.
    Same description, same picture. Same kid.
    No wonder Lainey was taking sexy pictures of herself. The kid was good-looking, no doubt. There was also no doubt he was seventeen. Bobby wondered if the star high school football player knew his cyber pen-pal was jailbait.
    He ran an Autotrack using the kid’s name and birth date and … voila! Zachary M. Cusano, son of Violet and Thomas Cusano, residing at 124 Poinciana Lane, Jupiter, Florida. Social security number, school records, driving history, and a very brief employment history that