The Girl With No Name

Chapter Sixteen

At the station, Josie spent five minutes watching the mystery woman on CCTV as she sat motionless and alone in the interview room, an untouched cup of coffee on the table in front of her. Josie was beginning to wonder if she had slipped into some altered state of consciousness when finally she looked around the room, pushed her hair behind her ears and let out a long breath. Then she stretched her arms over her head and yawned. She still wore Luke’s clothes, and Josie didn’t like the way that made her feel.

Her office door was open, and someone had left a stack of mail on her desk. She riffled through the post, not really seeing any of it. She kept thinking about Luke, wondering if he was alive. Wondering what the hell he had done to get into this situation.

“Boss?” Noah walked in with a cup of steaming coffee in one hand and his notepad in the other. He handed the coffee to her. “Thought you might need this.”

“Thank you.”

She sipped it standing, watching as he held up his notepad, a list of names down the side of the page. “I’ve got what I think is a pretty complete list of men Misty was involved with,” he said. “Going back to when she got pregnant.”

“So, potential fathers,” Josie said.

“Right.” His brow furrowed as he studied the list. “There are seven.”

Josie nearly choked on her coffee. “Seven?”

“Uh, yeah, and you might find this interesting—Brady Conway is on the list.”

Josie set the coffee mug on her desk. “Luke’s friend?”

“None other.”

She gave a low whistle and thought back to the footage of Luke in Foxy Tails with Misty; it had been right around the time of Brady Conway’s death. Was that the business that Luke had had with Misty? Was he acting as some kind of go-between between her and his friend? Brady had been married and a police officer; if he had been the father of her baby, it certainly wouldn’t have been an ideal situation for either one of them. Josie sent up a prayer that that was, in fact, why Luke had been at Foxy Tails twice to see Misty before Brady died. But why hadn’t he told her?

“Boss?” Noah prompted.

Even if Brady had been the father, that didn’t explain what had happened to Misty and her baby, or Luke. And where did this girl fit in? “Just thinking,” Josie told Noah. “The Conway connection is certainly interesting, but Brady’s dead so his alibi checks out. We won’t find Misty’s baby until we find the person who was at her house yesterday.”

Noah gave her a wry smile. “Yeah, well, most of these other guys alibi out. There are five with alibis for the last two days, one guy we haven’t tracked down yet, and the mayor’s husband.”

Josie raised a brow. “The mayor’s husband doesn’t have an alibi?”

Noah shook his head. “His wife is his alibi. He was at the hospital yesterday and the day before, but there are long periods of time he can’t account for—well, he says he was with her at home and she confirmed it.”

“So, it’s possible he could have attacked Misty and taken the baby, but if he has the baby, then where is he?”

Noah shrugged. “Easy to hide a baby in a mansion.”

“I can’t see Tara Charleston going along with that. She likes the power her status gives her. She wouldn’t do anything to intentionally jeopardize it.”

“Yet she’s already tried to cover for him once. What if she came home, found him with the baby and didn’t know what to do? So, instead of calling the police, she’s got this baby.”

It wasn’t completely implausible. Spouses covered for each other all the time. Josie would have thought Tara was smarter than that, but then again, she’d stayed with her husband despite knowing that he might have fathered Misty’s baby.

Josie said, “She’d let us have a look around, but if they’re hiding a baby in the house, she’ll have that bundle out of there the minute she knows we’re coming.”

“Shall I have a few officers respond to a burglary nearby?” Noah asked.

Josie smiled. “Maybe they can pursue the suspect onto the mayor’s property.”

“You got it.”

“What about the prints from Misty’s house? Anything?”

“Nothing yet. I asked the state police to put a rush on it, but you know it can take forty-eight hours.”

“That’s bullshit. They ran Jane Doe’s prints last night for us,” Josie said.

“Yeah, because it had to do with Luke’s case.”

“Call them back. Tell them the cases are connected. I’ll call if you want.”

Noah shook his head. “No, I can handle it.”

“Thanks. Also, keep on top of the mayor’s husband and see if you can locate the last potential father on the list. I’m going to try talking to Jane Doe again.”