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“Thanks.” Allina pushed away thoughts of Grace, setting them at the back of her mind. They never went away, but if she let them overwhelm her, she’d never be able to function.
Sensing the change in her, Jonathon strode towards the lifts. “Thomas’ apartment is on the thirtieth floor. He must make good money to afford this place.”
“I think he sold some of his drawings to an advertising company to use in some national campaign,” she said as they traveled up in the lift.
“Too bad I can't draw anything beyond stick figures,” Jonathon joked.
“I can't even manage that.” Allina offered up a small smile. Smiling didn’t come easy these days, but sometimes it was necessary. She didn’t want to let herself get depressed over Grace’s situation—her sister-in-law was counting on them to rescue her, and they couldn’t do that if they let themselves fall apart.
“I wasn't expecting this,” Jonathon said as they opened Thomas’ door.
The place was as messy as the apartment building was luxurious. The apartment itself was large; they were in a huge open plan living room, dining room, and kitchen. There wasn't much furniture, a large table that was strewn with papers, and shelves that were full of paints and pencils and other art supplies. The kitchen benches were full of plates of leftover food, and the sink was piled high with dirty dishes. There was no TV, no couch, no dining table. It seemed like all Thomas did was draw, and that when he did stop for a meal, it was a quick one in the kitchen that he rarely managed to finish. The apartment had beautiful hardwood floors, which were barely visible through the mass of discarded papers. Hundreds of pieces of paper full of drawings in various stages of completion were tacked to the walls.
“I’ll check out the bedroom,” she announced as she headed toward a door on the opposite wall.
“I’ll do the spare bedroom,” Jonathon headed for the other door.
Thomas’ bedroom was as sparsely furnished as the rest of the apartment. There was a bed and a small night table beside it. That was it. The closet was open, and in it she could see a few items of clothing hanging on coat hangers, but most of his wardrobe appeared to be scattered about on the floor.
“Anything?” Jonathon appeared in the doorway.
“Looks like just clothes. Anything in the spare room?”
“Nope. It’s completely empty. Bathroom just has a few basic toiletries. If we’re going to find anything incriminating here, it’s going to be in his drawings.”
“I agree,” Allina returned to the main room. “We may as well get started; there’s a lot here.”
“You take the chair and go through what’s on the table; I’ll do the floor,” Jonathon offered.
“Chivalry isn’t dead, I see.” She grinned and took the only chair, beginning her examination of the table’s contents. The drawings were dark. Full of dragons, demons, trolls, and monsters. Allina couldn’t help but feel sorry for Thomas Karl. He was obviously suffering. To him, the world was a fearful, gloomy, evil place. If these pictures were anything to go by, then Thomas was a sad, bleak young man.
This insight into his mind also hinted toward the darkness he had brought into the lives of others. Perhaps he suffered from depression; perhaps he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder; perhaps his childhood had warped his mind so dramatically that it no longer functioned correctly—
“Ali.”
Her head snapped up at the tone in her partner’s voice. “What did you find?”
“Pictures of the children.”
“Which children?”
“The victims.”
Joining Jonathon on the floor, he handed her a book. The first page had extremely lifelike drawings of Lindsey Peters and Kent Mason. In the pictures, the children were perched on a plain white chair, each with a doll clasped in their laps. It looked like the children were posing for the picture. The next page contained pictures of Lottie Hatcher and Paul Owen, posed in the same manner as the one of Lindsey and Kent.
“This isn’t necessarily proof he was involved,” Jonathon stated. “The children’s pictures were all over the TV and the Internet when they went missing.”
“Except the clothes,” she said softly. “The dolls are wearing identical clothes to the ones that were found with the children. How could he have known that if he wasn't there?”
“The pictures are all drawn in black; a defense attorney could argue he simply drew doll’s clothes that happened to look similar to the ones the doll was wearing.”
“Lucky we don’t need to convince a judge or jury. Thomas is dead—we just needed proof he was involved. Now we have it.” Allina turned the next page in the book and cast a concerned glance at Jonathon. “It’s Clara.”
“I know,” he replied tightly, refusing to look at the picture. “They're all there. All eighteen of them.”
Flipping quickly through the book, Allina discovered her partner was correct. All eighteen children who had died at the hands of the Doll Killers were featured in the book. Did that mean that Thomas had met the original killers as an adult? Or had he found pictures of the children someplace else?
Now they knew Thomas was involved, they just needed to find his partner and hopefully, Katie Logan, and then they could put an end to these crimes for good.
