The Girl With No Name

Chapter Seventeen

The door to the interview room banged closed behind Josie, and the girl’s head snapped up in surprise. Her big brown doe eyes widened as Josie approached. A hand snaked up and pushed more of her blond hair behind one ear. Josie pulled up a photo of Luke and placed her phone on the table. She pushed it across until it was right under the woman’s nose.

Jane Doe stared at it blankly. “Who is that?”

Josie stared at her. “You tell me.”

The woman looked up and, for just an instant, Josie thought she saw a flicker of something real, something not practiced. Annoyance, maybe. “I don’t know him,” Jane Doe said.

Josie reached across and tapped the phone screen. “This is the state trooper whose home you were fleeing last night when I found you.”

Jane Doe said nothing.

“That trooper’s name is Luke Creighton, but you know that already, don’t you?”

“No, no, I don’t remember—”

“What did you see in that house last night?”

“I told you, I don’t remember.”

“Why were you there?”

“I don’t know, I told you. I mean, not you but the other lady detective.”

Josie put a hand on her hip. “I’m aware of what you told Detective Palmer. Now I’m asking you—who took Luke?”

“Took him? What are you saying?”

The screen had gone black. Josie picked up the phone and pulled the photo up again, this time zooming in on Luke’s smiling face. She pushed it in Jane Doe’s face. “You obviously knew him, you’re wearing his T-shirt. Why were you there last night?”

Jane Doe spread her hands, palms up, on the table, a gesture of frustration. “I don’t know! I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember why I was there, or anyone named Luke. If I knew anything at all, I would tell you. I swear it.”

“What did you see?”

“I told you. I… came to and I was outside, on the porch. It was dark. I walked up to the back door and saw blood on the walls, so I ran. I don’t remember anything else.”

“How did you get there?”

Jane Doe rolled her eyes. “I don’t know how many times I can say it—I don’t remember!”

“What’s your name?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did you get burn marks on your back?”

Her expression changed fractionally. A slight tensing of her jaw. “What?”

“My detective tells me they found burn marks on your back when you were examined at the hospital. How did you get them?”

“I… I don’t know. I mean, I don’t remember.”

Josie appraised her for a long, silent moment. Then she turned on her phone’s camera and held it up. “Smile,” she told Jane Doe.

The woman’s eyes bulged. Not with feigned innocence this time but with fear. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m taking your photo. We’ll release it to the press. Someone out there will know who you are.”

The woman jumped up, throwing her hands in front of her face just as Josie snapped a photo. It was a blur. “Stop!” she cried.

Josie suppressed a smile of satisfaction. “Why? Surely you want to know who you are and where you came from?” Again, she held up the phone. “Now hold still.”

The woman held her hands in front of her face. “Please,” she said. “Don’t.”

“Why not?”

“I… I think I might be in danger.”

“Really? Why is that?”

She pulled her blond locks toward her face, turning away from Josie. “Well, I was at that house, and obviously something bad happened there. The blood—I saw the blood. I do remember that. Today you want to know who took this… this Luke guy, which means he’s missing. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m obviously caught up in it or you wouldn’t even have me here. What if you show my picture on the news and whoever took him comes after me?”

Josie narrowed her eyes. “You’re in police custody.”

The woman turned to face Josie again, her brown eyes peeking out over her hands. “Yeah and wasn’t the guy who got kidnapped a police officer? How did that work out for him?”

Josie still held the phone aloft like a weapon.

“Please,” she said. “Before you splash my face all over the television and internet, just give me another day to try to remember. I mean I haven’t even slept yet. Maybe if I get some rest…”

Josie pocketed her phone and put both palms on the table, leaning toward the woman. “I will protect you,” she said. “I can protect you from whatever it is that you’re hiding from. If you tell me what it is right now, I can help you.”

“I don’t remember anything,” she insisted.

“Do you understand that whatever it is you’re hiding or running from could get Luke killed—if he’s not dead already? I need to find him. Now.”

Jane Doe remained silent, chewing her lower lip.

“What about Misty Derossi?”

“Who?”

“She’s in intensive care at Denton Memorial. Someone took her newborn son yesterday. You know anything about that?”

The woman’s eyes widened dramatically. Josie couldn’t help but feel the shock and dismay in Jane Doe’s expression was fake. “That’s terrible,” she said. “But no, I don’t know anything about that—or her. I’ve never even heard of her. I’m telling you, I don’t remember anything.”

“Tell me what you know. I will protect you, and we’ll get Luke back—if he is still alive.”

A long moment passed. Josie could hear the sounds of her officers walking back and forth in the hallway outside. She kept her eyes on the woman until she looked away.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t remember anything. But please, just give me a day. Let me sleep. I want to help.”

Josie didn’t believe her for a second, and as much as she wanted to stride across the room and shake the information out of her, she couldn’t. It was clear she was in danger. Which meant the safest place for her was in Josie’s custody.

“You’ve got four hours. You can sleep down in holding. If you don’t remember anything by the time I come to get you, I’m releasing your photo to the press.”

“Thank you.”

She would just have to find Luke on her own.