The Girl With No Name

Chapter Fifty

Josie closed the door to her office and leaned against it, taking a deep, long breath. She had to keep it together. She refused to believe that Luke and little Victor Derossi were dead; she wouldn’t, she couldn’t. Twitch had told Kim that he didn’t have the baby, but someone had the baby. Josie didn’t know if that was better or worse. At least Dunn’s men had been prepared with a cradle and a blanket. She was certain they knew less than nothing about caring for an infant, but some effort had been made, which meant Dunn hadn’t intended to simply kill the baby. But in the hands of someone else? A chill ran through Josie. She shook it off and went over to sit behind her desk. Kim was lying about a lot of things, but Josie didn’t believe she had any information that would be useful in finding Victor or Luke.

There was a soft knock on the door and Noah let himself in. He looked at her with that half-pitying, half-pained look he’d been giving her since all of this started. Like he was watching her get a root canal.

“I’m fine,” Josie snapped.

He stepped forward and put a paper fast food bag in the center of her desk. “We put Conway in holding for now. She’ll go over to central booking after she’s assigned a public defender.”

Josie nodded. Her stomach clenched at the smell of the food. She peeked inside the bag. A burger and fries. Noah said, “You have to be hungry. Even if you’re not, you need to eat.”

She unwrapped the burger and took a bite. It turned out she was hungry; it took only seconds to devour it and, as a loud growl sounded from her abdomen, she reached for the fries. Noah sat across from her desk. “You think she’s right?” he asked. “That Dunn had Luke and the baby killed?”

Around a mouthful of fries, Josie replied, “There’s someone else. Has to be. The mysterious Leo in the black car? The baby taken from Twitch? The dead men at the church where they were holding Luke? And then someone killing Dunn and his men? Someone else is involved.”

“I think so too. But who?”

“Someone with enough power and money to take Dunn down. Someone with big enough balls to take him down.”

“Someone pissed about the building collapse?”

“Or someone planning to use the evidence Kim had to take him down. I want units out looking for this Leo guy. Start out by Luke’s. Check the silo.”

“You got it.”

Sated, Josie leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She meant only to sit quietly long enough to still her swimming thoughts, but the next thing she knew Noah was shaking her awake. “Boss,” he said. “You were snoring.”

Josie sat up and wiped a line of drool from the corner of her mouth. “How long was I out?”

“Just a few minutes,” Noah said. “Why don’t you go home? Get some rest? I’ll make sure you get a phone call if anything develops. You’ve been at this all day.”

Everything in her wanted to object to his suggestion, but her limbs were tired and heavy. It was after nine o’clock at night. She could just go home and get two or three hours, she reasoned with herself, and then get right back to work. “Okay,” she told Noah. “Just for a little while.”

Josie weaved her way through the streets of Denton, both longing for her bed and desperately wanting to avoid facing Carrieann. She was only a few blocks from home when her phone buzzed. She pulled over and took out her phone; Diana Sweeney had sent her a series of texts and a PDF with the other donor profile and a photograph of the donor when he was a young man. Josie zoomed in on the photo. The fog of exhaustion she’d been feeling since she ate evaporated instantly.

“Holy shit.”

Without thinking, she pulled back out onto the road and made a U-turn.