The Girl With No Name

Chapter Twenty-Six

It only took five minutes for Noah to get Zora Conway’s number.

“This has a 212 area code,” Josie said when Noah handed her the number. “That’s in New York, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought Brady’s mother lived here.”

“Evidently not,” Noah said.

“You sure this is right?”

“How many Zora Conways do you think there are in New York? I remember hearing her name on the news when the shooting happened. It’s right.”

Wordlessly, Josie picked up the phone and dialed the number. Noah sat back down in the chair across from her desk. The phone rang four times. Just as Josie was sure she would get voicemail, a woman’s reedy voice answered, “Hello?”

“Mrs. Conway?”

“Who’s calling?” A note of suspicion but no confirmation that it was Zora Conway.

“This is Denton chief of police, Josie Quinn. I’m trying to reach Zora Conway.”

A long silence. Then, “I already talked to the police about my son. I told you, he was never violent. I don’t know why he did what he did. I have nothing more to say.”

“Oh, Mrs. Conway, I’m not calling about your son, I’m calling about your daughter.”

Again, the woman fell silent. Josie forged ahead. “Your daughter, Kim,” she tried.

Nothing.

“I just have some questions about her. I think she—”

“My daughter is dead,” Mrs. Conway snapped. Then there was an abrupt click and, a couple of seconds later, the dial tone buzzed in Josie’s ear.

She held the receiver out and stared at it, puzzled. Then she tried calling back. Four times the phone rang and rang until it went to voicemail. It was a dead end.

“What the hell was that about?” Noah asked.

“She said her daughter was dead, and then she hung up on me. Now she won’t pick up.”

“Now what?”

Josie thought back to the funeral. They had it in Denton because Bowersville didn’t have its own funeral parlor and the rest of the Conways were Denton locals, including their grandmother, whom Josie remembered seeing at the funeral.

“I need to go to Rockview,” she said.

“To see your grandmother?” he asked, perplexed.

“No, to see Brady Conway’s grandmother.”