The Girl With No Name

Chapter Fifty-Three

FRIDAY

“This is a waste of time,” Noah said.

“Shhh,” Josie said, waving a hand in his direction. “I think I see something.”

She peered through her windshield, staring down the road at the entrance to Rowland’s driveway. After getting a few hours of sleep, Josie and Noah had returned to Rowland’s house. They’d been sitting several yards down from Rowland’s driveway in Josie’s Escape all day, waiting for Rowland’s housekeeper to leave the property.

“It’s a deer,” Noah said.

Sure enough, a doe poked its head out of the foliage surrounding the mouth of the driveway and then tentatively stepped into the road. Josie groaned. Initially, they had waited for Rowland to leave—he drove himself in a Mercedes-Benz—and gone to the house, knocking, ringing the doorbell, and circling the place to see if they could spot the housekeeper inside. Nothing. Then Noah had pointed out the various cameras that Rowland had posted all over the premises. They had pulled back, monitoring the driveway from afar. Josie was certain the housekeeper would leave at some point and then they could follow her and question her.

“Did you even see this woman?” Noah asked.

Josie tutted. “Of course I did. I—” But she hadn’t seen the woman. She hadn’t actually seen anyone. But why would Rowland lie? “He said her name was Marie,” Josie said. “Why would he tell me her name if she didn’t exist?”

Noah sighed. “So that you would think he really had a housekeeper named Marie. It could be anyone. Maybe he has a secret lover he doesn’t want people to know about. Or an illegal exotic pet.”

Josie laughed. “An exotic pet? Like what?”

“I don’t know. Like one of those little capuchin monkeys or something. Dude is rich and weird. Or maybe he is up to something and was just trying to throw you off, get rid of you.”

“You think he’s that diabolical?”

“I’m not the one who thinks he’s got a baby in there.”

Josie groaned. She, too, was beginning to think this was a tremendous waste of time. Maybe she was grasping at straws now that Dunn was gone, trying to force a miracle.

“Has it occurred to you that maybe if he does have the baby—and that’s a big if—that he wouldn’t keep him at his house? I mean, Dunn didn’t keep Luke anywhere that could lead back to him.”

“I know that,” Josie said. “I had Gretchen check land records this morning, but this is Rowland’s only property in the county. It’s our only lead right now. Maybe the housekeeper can tell us something useful.”

A ringing noise filled the vehicle. “Is that your phone?” Noah asked.

Josie fished her cell phone out of the cup holder between them and looked at the screen. “It’s Gretchen,” she said.

“Boss,” Gretchen said when Josie answered. “I think we found the Leo that Kim Conway told you about.”