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It was Clara’s turn to look surprised. “Tonight?”
“Unless that’s too soon. If you prefer, we can wait until this case is over.”
Clara smiled, and her whole face was transformed. She looked stunning; her green eyes sparkled, her cheeks tinted a pretty shade of pink, and her lips looked so tempting that he had to force himself to resist the urge to kiss her right here and now. “Tonight is fine. Perfect,” she added.
“Okay, I’ll call you later, and we can fix the details,” he smiled, feeling like he couldn’t stop.
Clara stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek and then hurried off to her sister’s car. Jonathon stood staring after her, long after the car had disappeared up the street, until Allina poked him in the side.
“She’s watching us from the window,” his partner informed him.
He snapped himself back into work mode. Clara’s decision to go out with him had thrown him, but now it was time to focus on the task at hand. At the front door, he gave a brisk knock, and a moment later it was cautiously opened. “Good morning, Mrs. Karl. I’m Detective Dawson, and this is Detective Bennett.”
“Come in,” the woman said in a resigned tone.
Wordlessly, she led them through the house and into a small but homey lounge room. Jonathon wondered whether she knew they were here to talk about more than the carjacking. He didn’t think Clara would have said anything—if for no other reason than her sister, who seemed to have a sensible head on her shoulders, would have told her not to.
“You think my Tommy is involved, don’t you? In the Doll Killer copycat murders?”
“Did Clara say that to you?” Jonathon asked, sharper than he intended to, but if Clara had done that she was going to get a real talking to at dinner tonight.
“No. But Tommy’s dead; there isn’t really any need for you to talk to me about the carjacking. And the crimes started up a few months ago, and then Tommy goes after Clara. I’m not stupid, Detective; I can put the pieces together.”
“Do you think he could be involved?” he asked, intrigued by the woman’s attitude. Mrs. Karl seemed more resigned than angry or adamantly maintaining her son’s innocence.
“What about Clara? Could she be involved?” Allina added.
“Clara? My goodness, no,” Mrs. Karl looked horrified by even the possibility.
“But you think Thomas might be?” he pressed gently.
Looking miserable, she responded, “Maybe. I didn’t have the heart to say it to Clara though.”
“Why do you think your son might be involved?” Allina asked.
The woman looked conflicted, and Jonathon took pity on her and asked instead, “Was Thomas different after the abduction?”
“Yes, he regressed. Started wetting the bed, had nightmares, became very clingy, cried a lot—all things his therapist said were normal,” she finished defensively.
“And at school?”
“He was teased a lot. Bullied. Because he was so emotional. He started to withdraw.”
“How did he cope with the bullying?”
“Drawing. It became his life after the abduction. It was basically all he’d do. I could hardly ever pry him away from his pencils and paints.”
“Did he ever talk to you about the abduction or the bullying?”
“No, he kept all that in. I tried to encourage him to be open about it all, but he wouldn’t. I think he’d talk to Clara, though. They were very close.”
He caught the hidden meaning there. Thomas Karl had had a crush on Clara, and he was fairly sure it wasn't reciprocated. “When did the bullying stop?”
“Probably after high school. In college, he was quiet, kept to himself. He was a very polite boy, and very sensitive, but he wasn't confident in forming bonds with people. He made a few friends once he started his art degree, but I don’t really know any of them.”
“What did the bullying involve?”
“Tommy didn’t have good control over some of his emotions after he came home. Not anger; he was never one to get angry about anything, but he’d cry at the drop of a hat, and he’d get real embarrassed about it. The boys at his school would call him a sissy, steal his clothes during gym class and replace them with dresses. They would call him Tammy, corner him in the playground and try to convince him to fight them to prove he was a real man. The school was supportive, but whenever they did anything to punish the boys involved, they'd stop for a while, wait for things to die down, and then start up again. That was almost worse because Tommy would start to relax, thinking it was finally over.” Mrs. Karl’s voice was a mixture of fury and helplessness.
