The Girl With No Name

Chapter Forty-Nine

Kim looked around the room again, eyes falling on the camera above the door. She leaned into the table and lowered her voice. “There was this building collapse in Philadelphia last year.”

“I’m aware,” Josie said and repeated what Trinity had told her.

“Jesus,” Kim said. “You’re thorough.”

Josie didn’t reply. “What does the building collapse have to do with you faking a pregnancy?”

“I had video of Eric bribing one of the municipal guys and video of one of his foremen telling him that one of the guys hired to do the demo was high on drugs and Eric saying he didn’t care, to use the guy anyway. I was going to use them—take them to the police and see if they could put me into, like, the witness protection program or something. Anything to get away from him. I mean if he was in prison, he couldn’t hurt me, right?”

“What happened to the videos?”

“Eric found them on my phone and deleted them. He was going to kill me. Torture me, then kill me. So, I told him I was pregnant. It was the only thing I could think of to buy myself some time. To make him stop. I knew how obsessed he was with having his own son one day. A real, blood-related child. Did you know he’s a donor baby?”

“His parents used a surrogate,” Josie said. “That’s public record.”

Kim shook her head. “Not just a surrogate. A sperm donor. His dad couldn’t have kids of his own. Eric’s mom wanted to make sure he wouldn’t divorce her like he did all his other wives. The best way to do that would be to have his kid. She convinced him he needed an heir.”

“How do you know this?” Josie asked.

“Eric told me. He found out about it in high school, and it messed him up. He always had a chip on his shoulder about it. His mom wouldn’t tell him shit about who his biological parents were. It was always a thorn in his side. So, when he said he was going to kill me—and I knew he really was this time, because I had really betrayed him—I said I was pregnant.”

“He wanted the baby.”

She nodded. “Yes. I think he probably still would have killed me, but the baby—a baby that was biologically his—it was important to him.”

Josie raised a brow. “Dunn didn’t seem like the caring type to me—or like he had any interest in being a parent.”

“Oh, he wasn’t. He wasn’t going to be this fantastic dad or anything. You have to understand that Eric was all about acquiring things. He always got what he wanted, and he wanted the baby because it was his, and there was no way anyone else was going to have it.”

“So, you went to your brother’s house to hide.”

Kim nodded. “Yes. His wife didn’t like me very much, so I told them I was pregnant too. I told them and Eric that I was only a couple of months along, so I didn’t have to worry about showing.”

“But at some point, when your belly didn’t get any bigger, they would have figured it out,” Josie pointed out.

Kim shrugged. “Well, yeah. Brady and Eva would have, for sure. I think Eva started to when I was there for two months and didn’t get any fatter. I planned to fake a miscarriage or something. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just wanted to get away. I thought I’d deal with the fake pregnancy thing later. Then Kavolis came and…” She closed her eyes, and a shudder ran through her body. “I never wanted Brady and Eva to get hurt. Problem is that Eric didn’t know I was faking. He thought I was a couple of months along back when I ran away from him. I ran in March. When he sent Kavolis for me back in May, I should have been four months pregnant. But Kavolis didn’t bring me back.”

“So, in Dunn’s mind, you would have given birth within the last couple of weeks.”

“Yeah.”

Josie’s mind spun. She leaned back in her chair. “Dunn fully expected a baby. He sent Twitch this time. Twitch tracked you down at Misty Derossi’s house.”

“Denny was looking for me and the baby.”

“But he didn’t take you. He took Misty’s baby. Did he know Victor Derossi wasn’t your baby?”

Kim looked away. “I think so. I mean I tried to tell him that the baby wasn’t mine, but he didn’t believe me. Misty tried to tell him, too, but he hit her. She fought so hard, but he was too strong. I told him to take me and not the baby, but he said Eric would kill him if he didn’t come back with a baby. Denny didn’t care whose baby it was, as long as he delivered a baby. He said Eric wouldn’t know the difference.”

“He left you there.”

Her eyes drifted to her lap. “Denny and I… we used to have a thing.”

“What kind of a thing?”

Kim met Josie’s eyes again, one eyebrow arched. “We used to sleep together, okay? Behind Eric’s back.”

“Did Eric ever find out?”

Kim gave a dry laugh. “Are you kidding? Eric would have had both of us tortured and killed. No, Eric never found out, and Denny was still loyal to Eric, but I kind of used our prior relationship to convince him to let me go. Denny said he would tell Eric he never saw me, but he told me he was going to have to track me down again. He was just as scared of Eric as I was. He was giving me a couple of days. I was still trying to figure a way out of the whole thing—how I could get away from Eric and still get Misty’s baby back. That’s why I went to Luke.”

“Why were you there? At Misty’s house?” Josie asked.

Kim reached up again and tucked hair behind her other ear. “Can I have something to drink?”

Josie made a hand signal toward the camera and a moment later, Noah came in with a bottle of water. Kim eyed him as she took the bottle and gulped half of it down. She smiled sweetly at him and thanked him. Josie tapped her hand on the table to bring her back into focus.

“Why were you at Misty Derossi’s house?” She tried again.

Kim took another sip of water. She was buying time, Josie realized.

“Luke wanted me gone,” Kim said finally. “He said it was too stressful and that it couldn’t go on forever. Like, I had to find a way out of the whole thing. Misty came to his house one day.”

“She came to his house?” Josie said, more loudly than she intended, but Kim didn’t seem to notice.

“Yeah, I mean I just saw her from the upstairs window. I don’t know what they talked about, but I saw her come and go, and she was pregnant. So, I asked Luke if they were sleeping together, and if it was his baby, and he laughed and said no. He said he barely knew her.”

This gave Josie a small modicum of relief. “Did he say why she was there?”

“He said that she wanted him to talk to his fiancée about something, something having to do with the baby.”

That the baby was Ray’s, Josie thought.

Kim added, “He said something like it would be easier for her to hear coming from him, whatever that meant.”

Josie pursed her lips. For whatever reason, Misty had wanted Josie to know that she might be having Ray’s baby. Luke had been the intermediary. She wondered if there was more to it, but soon Misty would be well enough for her to ask. “And so, what? You said hey, I can go stay with the pregnant lady?”

“I knew he wanted me gone, and I got the feeling this chick was alone. I mean, she looked pretty distressed. I told Luke that I was a midwife—”

“A lie,” Josie interjected.

Kim looked down at her lap. “Yes,” she admitted. “I lied. He never would have agreed to it otherwise. I said maybe you can ask her if I can stay with her for a few days till I figure something out.”

“And he thought that this was a good idea? Knowing that Dunn’s men were trying to kill you, he thought it would be okay to send you to the home of a single woman about to give birth?”

“Well, no, he thought it was a horrible idea,” Kim said. “But there was no connection between me and Misty, so it was kind of perfect.”

“Except it wasn’t,” Josie said. “Because Denny Twitch found you.”

Something about Kim’s story wasn’t ringing true. Luke wasn’t the kind of guy who would knowingly put a pregnant woman—or any woman for that matter—at risk, even Misty Derossi. Then again, Josie thought, taking another look at the fishing T-shirt draped over Kim’s small body, did she really know Luke at all?

“I know,” Kim said. “I don’t know how. I really don’t. The next thing I knew, the baby was gone and Misty—well, I thought she was dead.”

“You didn’t call 911.”

“I couldn’t. I didn’t want Eric to find me. You don’t understand—”

“I understand enough,” Josie said coldly.

“No, you don’t,” Kim replied firmly.

“I understand that you put Misty in danger repeatedly. You lied about being a midwife, and you put her in Eric Dunn’s crosshairs. Then when Twitch beat her, you left her there to die. Instead of going with Twitch and leaving the baby, you let him take a tiny, defenseless infant so that you could remain free. You don’t know the first thing about delivering a baby, but you convinced Misty to let you help her deliver at home. Did she ask to go to the hospital?”

Kim didn’t answer.

“She did, didn’t she?” Josie pressed.

Her voice was quiet. “I couldn’t take her to the hospital. I couldn’t risk being found. Anyway, she was fine. The baby was fine.”

Josie’s anger flared white hot, surging through her body. “Do you even know how to tell the truth?”

Kim’s eyes widened. The childlike look of feigned innocence. Josie stood up. “Save it,” she snapped. “It’s not going to work on me. You manipulated people—your brother, Luke, Misty—you lied and said whatever you needed to say to get them to do what you wanted.”

The innocent look slipped off Kim’s face, and in its place was something hard and flinty. “Not what I wanted,” she shot back. “What I needed them to do to help me survive. My life has been in danger from the moment Eric set his sights on me. I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but I’m still alive.”

Josie glared at her. “You are but you may have sacrificed Luke and a baby. Tell me, was it your intention all along to pass Misty Derossi’s baby off as your own?”

Kim remained silent, arms crossed over her chest, her eyes everywhere but on Josie. After a few moments, Josie asked, “What happened after Twitch took the baby?”

“I went back to Luke for help, and we were trying to decide what to do when Eric’s guys showed up. Luke told me to hide and I did. The next thing I remember is coming to on his back porch with no memory of who I was or how I got there.”

Josie laughed. “You’re sticking to your amnesia story? Is that really necessary?”

Kim bristled. “It’s not a story. I was traumatized. The doctors said trauma caused my amnesia. I could have died twice that day—at Misty’s and then again at Luke’s. I mean Denny came here to this police station and told your people he was a marshal. Don’t you see how ruthless Eric could be?”

What Josie saw was that by admitting that she had faked her amnesia, Kim would expose herself to more criminal charges—obstructing justice and interfering with a police investigation, just to name a couple. As she openly admitted, Kim did whatever she had to do to ensure her own survival. Continuing to stand by her amnesia story would ensure a measure of protection. Josie moved on. “You obviously knew you were in trouble when you saw Twitch in our lobby. Why did you go with him? You were in the police station. Why not tell someone then what was going on?”

“I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt,” Kim explained.

“In a police station? That’s rich.” Josie wondered if she had always been a pathological liar or if she really had just grown used to lying as a matter of survival during her relationship with Eric Dunn.

“When you fled the scene of the accident after you shot Twitch, where did you go?”

Kim said, “I think I need that lawyer now. If we’re going to talk about the accident.”

“Let me rephrase,” Josie said. “After the crash, where did you go?”

Kim took a moment to answer, and again Josie wondered if she was making calculations about how much she could say without getting herself into even more trouble than she already was. Finally, she answered, “I ran until I found a backyard. There was a woman there. She helped me clean up and gave me something to eat, some clothes, and then she said the police were coming back and I had to leave.”

“The woman with the treehouse in her yard?”

Kim looked up at her. “Yes, that woman. But look, please don’t charge her with anything. She didn’t know—”

Josie held up a hand. “I’m not interested in her. We didn’t find you at Luke’s until today. What else were you doing?”

Again, Kim’s gaze drifted to the table. Josie had a feeling the truth was coming, but it seemed difficult for Kim to push it out. “There was this guy. He was following Denny. I mean, I didn’t know that at first. I only found out later. I had seen him before, lurking around when I was at Luke’s. That was why I had to leave there. I knew I had been found.”

“One of Eric’s men?”

“Well, I thought so at first, but he didn’t work for Eric. He was weird anyway. Not like the kinds of guys Eric usually hired. Plus, he was older.”

“How old?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, fifties, maybe? He was thin, average height, quiet as could be. I mean, I got a really strange vibe from him. I didn’t realize that he was following Denny until I left that lady’s house. A few blocks away, he caught up to me and took me.”

“What was he driving?”

“I don’t know. It was like a sedan or something. Black, four doors. I’m not good with cars. It looked like every other black car on the road.”

Josie suppressed a noise of frustration. “Where did he take you?”

“Nowhere at first. Then I started talking to him. I told him all the stuff I told you about Eric wanting to kill me. I asked him if Eric had sent him to kill me, but he said no. He said he didn’t work for Eric and that he was supposed to deliver me to his boss, but he wouldn’t tell me who that was.”

So, there was someone else in play. It made sense in light of Dunn’s gruesome death. “What did he want from you?”

“He wanted to know about the building collapse in Philadelphia. He said the information was important to his boss and that his boss would protect me if I told everything I knew about the collapse. Anyway, I told him that no matter where he took me, no one was safe with Eric looking for me. So we made a deal. He said he would ‘take care’ of Eric and then I would go wherever he wanted me to go and get him the videos.”

“The videos Eric destroyed?”

“Well, he didn’t know that.”

“Fair enough. What do you mean ‘take care’ of him?”

Kim shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought he meant, you know, get rid of him.”

“Kill him?”

“He didn’t say that and neither did I. For all I know, he was just going to have a talk with Eric. Get him off my back.”

Josie’s eyes narrowed. “I see.”

“Look, you wanted the truth, I’m telling you the truth.”

“You were going to go with this man, but you had no idea who he was or who he worked for? You didn’t ask who his boss was or how he knew to look for you?”

“He wouldn’t tell me who his boss was. I just figured it was someone who got screwed in the building collapse. Anyway, I had no real intention of ever meeting him, I was just trying to get away from him in the moment.”

Everything Kim did was in the moment. “Then what happened?”

“He dropped me off at Luke’s. I was supposed to meet him about a mile away at this abandoned farm silo today. I walked there, but when I saw the car, I chickened out. I couldn’t go through with it. I just didn’t feel safe. So, I went back to Luke’s.”

“What was his name?”

“He told me to call him Leo. That’s all I know.”

“I’ll have my people start looking for him,” Josie said. “Did you have a conversation with Denny when he took you?”

“I can’t talk to you about that. Not without a lawyer.”

“I’m not asking you about anything that happened. I just want to know if the subject of the baby or Luke came up while you were with Denny Twitch.”

Kim’s fingers peeled away the label from the water bottle. “He wouldn’t talk about Luke. I asked about him, but Denny changed the subject. All he cared about was the baby. He thought I took the baby. He said he didn’t have him.”

A frisson of excitement shot up Josie’s spine. “He thought you took the baby from him? When? How?”

“Yeah, he thought I followed him or whatever when he left Misty’s with the baby and took the baby out of his car when he stopped for gas.”

“Did you?”

“No,” Kim said. “Like I told you, I went to Luke’s.”

“How did you get there?”

Looking almost sheepish, Kim said, “A cab. I used Misty’s phone and then I threw it into the river. I had the guy pull over halfway across the bridge, and I threw it into the water.”

Which meant she was covering her tracks not to avoid Eric Dunn but to avoid the police. Josie wondered if she was hiding something, but right now her only goal was to find Luke and Victor Derossi, dead or alive.

“All right, so if Denny didn’t have the baby and you didn’t have the baby, who has the baby?”

“I have no idea.” For the first time that afternoon, Josie felt absolutely sure she was telling the truth.

“All right, well who would have tried to take the baby? Who would have taken Luke from Eric? Who would have known where Eric was keeping them?”

Kim looked at her sadly. “Everybody he ever screwed over, which was a lot of people. But none of them would have had the balls to do it. If his men were dead, it’s because Eric ordered them to be killed. Eric had a lot of guys on his payroll, and their only loyalty was to him. They went where he told them to go, and they did what he told them to do. If Luke and the baby weren’t there, it’s because Eric had them killed too.”