The Girl With No Name

Chapter Sixty

“This is never going to work,” Noah said.

“It will,” Josie promised. She pushed the box of pastries from Komorrah’s across her desk. Noah declined but Gretchen plucked out a gooey pecan-covered bun and bit into it. Josie pulled one of the coffees she’d bought from the cup carrier and took off the lid. The barista had given her a small paper bag of sugar, creamers, and stirrers. Josie dumped it onto her desk, put two sugars into her coffee and added half-and-half until the liquid took on a light caramel color. “I already talked to the district attorney and the sheriff. The sheriff was able to get me a phone call with Kim at the county jail,” Josie explained. “She’s in.”

“Does she know Rowland?” Gretchen asked.

“She claims she doesn’t, but who knows? Lying is the same as breathing for her.”

“Did they show her a photo of Rowland?” Noah asked.

Josie sipped her coffee. “Yeah. She didn’t recognize him.”

“Then what the hell does he want with her?” Noah groused. “It can’t be the videos she made of Dunn. They’re meaningless now.”

Josie picked at a cheese Danish. “Kim’s fictional baby would have been Rowland’s grandson.”

Gretchen said, “But Kim only told Dunn she was having his baby to get away from him. I don’t think it was common knowledge. Especially since she told him and then ran.”

“Yeah, but Rowland had his own people keeping tabs on a lot of different players.”

“You mean Nance,” Noah said.

“Nance is the one we know about,” Josie said. “Obviously, he was already watching Misty, waiting for her to give birth because he snatched the baby from Denny Twitch. If Rowland has Luke that means Nance probably went to the church and killed Dunn’s men. Rowland had eyes on a lot of different people—some of them from Dunn’s organization. It’s possible that word of Kim’s pregnancy, false though it was, filtered back to him. I mean, we don’t know how much surveillance he had on Dunn and his men or for how long. His donor children died within the last year. We don’t know how long he was keeping tabs on them before causing their accidents.”

“Still,” Gretchen said. “This is a lot of trouble to go through to set up a trade for a woman who may or may not have given birth to your grandchild.”

“This guy is all over the place,” Noah said, picking up one of the other coffee cups. “I mean, he killed off his donor children, but he kept Luke alive. For what? Luke is no one to him.”

“For leverage,” Josie said. “He’s kept him alive this long in case he needed him. When he outlives his usefulness, Rowland will find someone else just like Leonard Nance to dispose of him.”

A heavy silence fell among them. Noah said, “We’ll get Luke back, boss.”

She could only hope. “Well, this is the best plan I could come up with between the coffee shop and here. Plus, the DA is willing to reduce the charges pending against Kim if she cooperates with us. Kim said she’ll do whatever she can if it will help get Luke back.”

“So now what?” Gretchen asked.

“I get in touch with Rowland and we set up the meet.”