The Girl With No Name

Chapter Twelve

At the bottom of the back steps, Josie leapt over a pile of gardening implements scattered across the ground and gave chase. Lucky for her, the moon was full and bright on this side of the house and within seconds, her eyes adjusted. Over the grass her feet flew, barely touching ground. She shouted, “Stop, police!” but the figure didn’t slow. As Josie got closer, she could see that it was a woman. Her long golden hair flashed every now and again in the moonlight. She was slight, and her feet were bare. Josie gained on her quickly, tackling her to the ground.

They rolled together through the grass before coming to rest. Quickly, Josie pushed the woman onto her stomach and straddled her. “I said stop,” Josie huffed. She held the woman’s hands behind her back and realized she had no zip ties or handcuffs. She hadn’t run down a suspect in well over a year and it showed.

Beneath her, the woman lay still, but Josie could feel her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. “What’s your name?” Josie asked.

The woman said nothing. “I said, what’s your name?”

Another moment of silence slipped by as Josie patted the woman down. No weapons. Josie gave a frustrated sigh. “Fine. Don’t tell me. You’re under arrest.”

“I… I don’t know,” came the woman’s raspy voice.

“What?”

“I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember your name?”

“I don’t remember anything. I just, I woke up here. I don’t know where I am. I heard someone in the house. T-t-there was blood. I ran.”

Josie stared at the back of the woman’s head for a moment, wondering if she was genuine. “What are you saying?”

“I don’t know. Please. I’m really scared.”

Josie stood and pulled the woman upright by one of her arms. She was small—in her mid-twenties, Josie estimated—with a heart-shaped face. She wore a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt that Josie recognized as belonging to Luke. Josie hoped the moonlight didn’t give away the agonizing flash of hurt in her eyes.

“Woke up where?” she asked.

The woman pointed to the house. “There,” she said.

“I checked the house,” Josie said. “You weren’t in it.”

“I was out back. It was dark. I don’t… I don’t understand what’s happening.”

“How did you know there was blood in the house if you were outside?”

In the moonlight, Josie could see the woman’s brow furrow over a pair of wide, dark eyes. “What?”

Josie repeated her question.

“I… I was going to try the door, and I looked inside and saw blood. I thought I saw someone moving in the kitchen, so I ran.”

Josie stared at her. From the back door, she would have been able to see a good deal of the blood spatter. Still, that didn’t explain why she was barefoot and wearing Luke’s clothes.

“You were in the house,” Josie said. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know. I swear to you, I don’t know. I don’t remember. I have no idea where I am or whose house that even is.” The woman’s eyes pleaded for understanding.

“What about Misty Derossi? Do you remember her?”

“Who?”

The woman wasn’t giving her anything. Wordlessly, Josie turned her around and pushed her back toward the house as sirens sounded in the distance.

“What’s happening?” the woman asked, her voice small and swallowed by the sound of the sirens. “Can you tell me what’s going on? Where am I? Is someone hurt?”

Josie ignored her. As they reached the house, the sirens cut out, but the red and blue flashing lights of emergency vehicles lit up the night. Josie trudged the woman around the house to the front where Noah was just emerging from her Ford Escape. She pushed the woman toward him, and he caught her expertly. “Cuff her,” Josie said.

Dutifully, he cuffed her and put her in the back of a cruiser as Josie paced back and forth in front of Luke’s house. A few of her officers approached, and she gave them instructions for securing and processing the scene. They set to work, and Josie kept pacing until Noah walked over. “What the hell happened?” he asked.

She told him what she had found. “I don’t know whose blood that is, so you’ll have to get it typed as soon as possible. It doesn’t take that long. You should be able to do it tonight. Luke is A-negative. I have no idea who that woman is, and she claims she doesn’t remember who she is or how she got here. Run her prints. See if you find anything. Get her to the hospital and have her checked out. Get a scan of her head or something. Do not let her out of custody. She is our only link to Luke right now. Someone else was here. I don’t know if it was her, or Misty or someone else. Apparently, he was ‘that type of guy.’”

Josie stopped talking to suck in a deep breath, just as Noah took her elbow and steered her toward the Escape.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Get in,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

Josie stared at him. “Boss,” he said, deferring to her authority but maintaining his firm tone. “Get in the car.”

She walked over to the passenger’s side and climbed inside. Noah got in beside her, but he didn’t start the engine. “This is getting too personal now,” he said.

Josie bristled. “I’m fine. I am. I—”

“Luke is your fiancé. He is missing. There’s blood in his home and you found a strange woman fleeing the scene. Tell me again how fine you are.”

Josie glared at him as she pushed the hysteria mounting inside her down—deep, deep down. “I am your superior,” she reminded him.

“Are you really telling me that you have no personal feelings about this situation whatsoever?”

“My husband died in my arms almost two years ago in the middle of a case. I handled my shit, and I’ve handled it every day since then. Whatever your concerns are, you better stow them and get back in line. We’ve got work to do.”

She got out of the car without another word.