The Girl With No Name

Chapter Sixty-Four

Gravel bit into her back. She stared upward at the blue sky, watching billows of black smoke roll across her field of vision. Noah’s face swam into view. He pressed something cold over her forehead. She closed her eyes, just for a moment, focusing on his touch. Next, he reached for her hand. She felt something cold and stinging flow over the gash and then something warm and dry pressed into it. She cried out in pain.

“So, you are still with us,” Noah said.

Her body erupted into a coughing fit. Noah helped her turn onto her side as sooty saliva and vomit gushed out of her. He rubbed her back as her body spasmed. When she finished, he slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her to standing. She leaned against him. The smell of burning was so strong, she didn’t think she’d ever get it out of her skin or hair. “Did you pull me out?” she asked.

“Someone had to.” He gave her a pained smile, and she realized she must be in pretty bad shape because he didn’t even bother to scold her for nearly dying in the car.

“Did Kim survive?” she asked.

“She’s in bad shape, but yeah, she’s on her way to the hospital. Gretchen’s going with her. The sheriff’s team will process this scene.”

She already knew that Rowland perished in the fire. “He said the word patio,” Josie said. “Before you pulled me out of the car. I was trying to get him to tell me where Luke and the baby were. He said patio.”

Noah frowned. “Patio?”

“Patio Mo—that’s all I heard.”

“Mo?”

One of the EMTs walking past said, “The Patio Motel, maybe? We get calls for that place twice a week.”

Josie and Noah exchanged a look. She knew the place. They’d busted more prostitutes and drug addicts there than anywhere else in the city.

“Let’s go,” Josie said.