The Girl With No Name

Chapter Ten

Butch’s girls had little to offer in the way of new leads. Josie and Noah spent an hour speaking to each of them in turn and waiting for Gretchen to show up with the warrant for the CCTV footage. All of them confirmed what both Brittney and Butch had said—Misty was private; she refused to reveal the father of the baby; she routinely dated clients; Ray had been the love of her life; and only her pregnancy had seemed to lift her out of her grief over his death.

A blast of fresh air accompanied Gretchen into the club. From the bar, Josie watched her enter and felt relief wash over her; talking about Ray was always difficult, but hearing the girls repeatedly describe him as Misty’s soulmate was unbearable.

Noah emerged from the hallway that led to Butch’s office, closing his notepad and shaking his head. He and Gretchen arrived at the bar at the same time.

“That was the last dancer,” he said. “And she had nothing new to offer. This is a dead end.”

“Well, we added at least two names to our list of Misty’s ex-lovers,” Josie pointed out. “We need to check the footage though.”

Gretchen held up the warrant. “Lead the way.”

Ten minutes later, they were standing behind Butch while he queued up footage of the last seventy-two hours. He fast-forwarded through it, pausing to show them what time he arrived each day so they could mark it down. After that, he pulled up Misty’s last two months of work. “I don’t have cameras in the private rooms,” Butch told them. “But I have eyes on the hall, so you can see who goes in and out and how long they’re in there.”

“Let’s start with Misty’s last night of work, then, and work our way back,” Noah said. “If you can tell us which customers were regulars, that would be helpful.”

Butch fast-forwarded through most of the footage as dancers led men down the hall to various doors and then back out to the main floor several minutes later. He slowed it back down when Misty’s shift started, and they watched her lead her clients in and out of one of the private rooms. Josie noticed that Misty’s perfect stomach showed the hint of her baby bump. She also had far fewer clients than the other girls. “I thought you said Misty brought in a lot of revenue,” Josie said.

“She did. Until she started showing. It creeped a lot of dudes out. That’s why I had to ask her to leave.”

They worked backward through her last week of work, Butch noting two of her regular customers who were already on Noah’s list of potential fathers. Mayor Charleston’s husband was not among the men who appeared on camera that week. As they went further back, a police officer in full uniform appeared on the screen walking behind Misty. Butch stopped fast-forwarding and let the tape play at regular speed. He pointed to the screen. “This guy, he was here a couple of times. Not for a dance though, he just wanted to talk to her.”

Josie’s breath caught in her throat. “Can you—can you rewind that?” she asked, hoping her voice didn’t sound tremulous.

“No need,” Butch said. “You’ll have a better view of him when they come back out.” He fast-forwarded again, and Josie noted that fourteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds had passed.

On screen, Misty emerged from the private room without looking back. Luke followed behind her, his state trooper hat in his hands and his eyes cast downward. At the end of the hallway, he went one way and Misty went another.

“You should talk to him,” Butch said. “If you can find out who he is. Maybe he knows something. Looks like a statie.”

Josie could feel Noah’s gaze on her. She gritted her teeth, wishing he would look away. At least Gretchen wasn’t staring as well. She motioned for Butch to keep going. “How many times did you say that trooper was here?”

Butch shrugged. “I don’t know. Two? He came in a month before this for sure. You’ll see him on the tapes. He stood out like a sore thumb in that uniform. We don’t like uniforms in here, makes the clients jumpy.”

Josie let out a breath as the video went back into super speed. She couldn’t bring herself to speak. From her periphery, she saw Noah turn toward her and sensed his body stiffen. Gretchen, who seemed unaffected, asked, “And you said he never paid for a dance?”

“Nah,” Butch said. “Had some business with her, he said. Normally I wouldn’t allow that sort of thing. I mean, time is money, you know? She’s in there with him for fifteen, twenty minutes, that’s revenue lost. But I cut him some slack ’cause he was with the police.”

“And you didn’t ask Misty why a state trooper was coming to her place of business to speak to her?” Noah put in.

“’Course I did. She said it was a private matter.”

Gretchen raised a brow. “And you let it go at that?”

“She wouldn’t tell me anything else. She said it wasn’t anything to do with any crime and that it wouldn’t hurt the club. She said they were working something out, and once they did he wouldn’t come around anymore.”

Heat crept up from Josie’s collar. She could barely stay still as they watched more of the tapes and Luke appeared for a second time just over a month earlier than the first time he had been there. It was the same scenario, and again they emerged without looking at one another and parted ways at the end of the hallway without a word. Josie pulled out her cell phone and looked at it. There were no texts or calls, but she made a show of punching icons and swiping and said, “Excuse me, I have to make a call.”

Outside, she sucked in the cool, clean air. It had grown dark in the time they’d been inside, and beneath the dull yellow glow of the parking lot lights, moths fluttered and dived. Josie leaned against Noah’s car and looked at her phone once more. A photo of her and Luke stared back at her, their faces pressed together, smiling happily at the camera. They had been so happy once. At the beginning. Even though she had been technically married to Ray, they had been carefree and crazy for one another. Then came the horror of the missing girls cases and Luke was shot. Had things started going wrong from there? She wasn’t sure. Then Brady Conway put a bullet in his wife’s head and turned the gun on himself, and Luke became a different person entirely.

Was he sleeping with Misty Derossi? Could she really have lost two men to this woman? Was that why he was so on edge, why he shut down at any mention of their wedding? Then another, more horrifying thought crept into her mind. Was it possible that Luke had fathered Misty’s baby?

“No,” Josie said aloud.

It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. She thought back to December but couldn’t remember much other than they had been happy. Hadn’t they?

If he wasn’t having an affair with Misty, then why had he been at the strip club to see her? Why hadn’t he told Josie? What business could the two of them possibly have together?

Her finger hovered over the phone icon. She should call him. But no, she wanted to look him in the face when she asked him, see the truth in his eyes.

“Boss?” Noah walked slowly up beside her, both hands jammed into his pockets, his expression pained.

Josie sighed. “Don’t.”

“I’m sure Luke wasn’t here to… I mean, he doesn’t seem like that kind of guy.”

“Every guy is that kind of guy,” she muttered.

Noah took a step closer. “No, not every guy,” he said firmly.

A moment passed between them in the silence that followed. Then Noah added, “I’m just saying, I think you should give Luke the benefit of the doubt.”

She shook herself and pushed herself off the car. “I have to go talk to him,” she said. “Find out why he was here and what business he had with Misty. If nothing else, I need to know if anything he knows is going to help find her baby.”

Noah held out his keys to her. “I’ll get a ride back to the station with Gretchen. Meet you there later?”

Josie took them. “Thank you. Once you’re done with the videos—”

“I’ll get to work on alibis for the men on this list,” he finished.