Her next little creation was waiting for her in the attic. Tomorrow, the little girl would be joined by her partner. A perfect little boy to create another perfect little couple. She never made them make the journey alone. She wouldn’t do that. She always made sure that they went together. She knew children sometimes got scared when they were alone. And she wouldneverwant to make a child afraid. She loved children—she would never hurt one. In fact, she insisted that when the time came for them to make the transition from human child to living doll, it was a painless journey.
He never fought her on that. He understood. Understood what it meant to create something so utterly perfect it almost shouldn’t exist in a world that was so full of ugliness. He understood because he knew what it was like to be ugly. And only ugliness could truly comprehend the beauty of perfection.
Perfection.
That was what life was all about.
Achieving perfection.
And she had done it.
* * * * *
5:39 P.M.
“Catch me up, guys,” Captain Heidi Kramer ordered as he and Allina sat at the desk in their boss’ office.
“Well,” Jonathon began slowly, “we’re waiting for the official report, but Lindsey Peters and Kent Mason appear to have died in the same manner as the other children—both the recent murders and the ones from thirty years ago.”
“What about the man who found the bodies? Is he a possible suspect?” Heidi asked.
“I don’t think so,” he answered. “He’d been having a secret meeting with his girlfriend while his wife was at the playground with their son. When he first saw someone on the park bench, he thought his wife had caught on to his cheating ways and hired a private investigator. Then when he got closer, he realized it was children and because they weren’t moving he thought they might be homeless and had possibly died from hypothermia. Once he saw the dolls, he realized what was going on and went running straight for the playground, concerned the killers may go after his son. He was so concerned he forgot he was only wearing a pair of pants. When his wife saw him, she realized what he had been up to. When we interviewed them, he was begging for forgiveness, and she was talking divorce. But given the way he reacted upon finding the children, I don’t think he’s a suspect, if for no other reason than if his wife does divorce him she’s going to take half of his considerable fortune. So if he were going to plant the bodies then pretend to be scared about it, he would have gotten dressed before he went running off.”
“Check out him and his girlfriend just to be certain. What about the dolls?”
“They appear to be the same as all the others. This time is was a Kestner 167 with Lindsey, and a Bahr and Proschild 585 with Kent. Both dolls are German . . .”
“Not all of them were, though, correct?” Heidi interrupted.
“Correct. A couple of the dolls from the original killings were French, but almost all were German made,” he replied. “All of the dolls from the first time around and this time are from around the turn of the last century.”
“But they never used the same doll twice,” Allina noted.
“No, but we still get a feel for their tastes. Size obviously wasn't important; the dolls ranged from eleven to thirty-two inches. The material used doesn’t appear to be crucial, all have bisque heads, most composition bodies, but a couple had cloth bodies. Maker didn’t seem to matter, a couple of times they doubled up, but most of the dolls were made by different companies. But the appearance of the doll seemed extremely important; all have blonde hair and blue eyes, just like the children. There are plenty of other dolls out there, and yet they never once used one with brown eyes, or brown, black, or red hair.”
“But did the kids fit the dolls or the dolls fit the kids?” Heidi’s stern face looked thoughtful. Jonathon didn’t think he’d ever seen her smile at work; she appeared perpetually austere. But get her away from the precinct and into a social setting, and she was like a completely different person and a surprisingly jovial one. Heidi was in her fifties, just over six feet tall, with an angular and bony face, and as skinny as a stick. She was a tightly bound up ball of energy who was constantly on the move; even when she was still, she was fiddling with something. Right now she was squeezing a stress ball in the shape of a bumblebee.
“If we knew that, then we’d know their motivation,” Allina replied. “If the dolls come first, then they're the focus. If it’s the kids, then they’re the focus.”
“I think that the dolls come first,” Jonathon stated. “If the kids came first, then they would have had to find a doll that looked like each one of them.”
“They had each of the kids for at least a month,” Heidi noted. “Plenty of time to purchase a doll before killing them.”
“Then there are Clara’s eyes,” he continued. “They're green, not blue. I know we never knew what her doll looked like, but there were a couple of other children with green eyes, and they were found with blue-eyed dolls. If they got the dolls to match the children, then they would have made sure to get dolls with the correct color eyes.”
“Can you find antique dolls with green eyes?” Heidi asked.
“Not sure. It wasn't in any of the research we did on antique dolls, but I’ll look into it,” he replied.
“Blue or green eyes can be hard to distinguish from a distance,” Allina pointed out. “Perhaps they thought they were taking blue-eyed kids and didn’t realize till they already had them that they, in fact, had green eyes. Maybe it was close enough, and they didn’t worry about that slight difference.”
“If the kids were the Doll Killers’ focus, then I think they would have been found in their own clothes, and the dolls would be dressed accordingly,” Jonathon addressed his next argument. “Instead, the killers went to all the trouble of perfectly recreating the costumes the dolls were wearing—right down to undergarments, socks, and shoes. Hair was also done to match the dolls, too, including hair ribbons.”
Heidi nodded. “That all makes sense.”
“I agree,” Allina concurred. “And don’t forget the markings.”
Jonathon wished he had, but he hadn’t.