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“Did Thomas date?”
“Yes, from time to time. It never usually lasted too long. Although there was one young lady. I thought it might have been the real thing; from what he said, she seemed to truly understand him. But Tommy was very secretive about the whole thing. I think he was worried about failing and somehow letting me down. But I didn’t want Tommy to find someone to love for my benefit. I wanted it for him.”
Hopefully, since Clara was the person Thomas usually opened up to she might know the identity of this woman. “What about the last few months? Has Thomas’ behavior changed?”
“I haven’t seen him in six months,” Donna Karl admitted. “Which I suppose is a change. Tommy would usually come by at least once a month; often, more regularly.”
“Did he answer phone calls or emails? Keep up his social media profiles?”
“Tommy didn’t use the Internet. He had a cell phone which he used for phone calls, but lately, whenever he returned my calls, he was always in a hurry. He’d assure me he was fine, just busy, and that he’d come around to visit soon. He never did.” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes.
The timeline fit both with what Clara had told them and with the crimes. Tommy had virtually cut off contact with his family and friends a couple of months before he abducted the first pair of children. Now if they could just find out who he had been spending his time with the last six months, then they'd find his partner and the missing little girl.
* * * * *
4:09 P.M.
The hardest thing about collecting the next precious little person to be given the gift of immortality was timing everything perfectly.
So many things could go wrong. So far, they’d been lucky—every single time things had gone smoothly. But she always knew the risks were high. Particularly the longer things went on. The more children that made the trip to eternity, the more people became paranoid and kept a closer watch on their little ones.
It was because they didn’t understand.
If they understood what she was doing for these children, then they wouldn’t try to hide them away. Instead, they would be lining up to bring their children to her—begging her to choose their child next.
But people didn’t understand, so they were afraid. Which meant that she needed to keep on her toes. Be constantly aware of what was happening around her.
Today she was on the lookout for a little boy to be a partner for Katie. The child was in desperate need of a mate. She had been crying for the last twenty-four hours straight. It was starting to get annoying. Ever since the child had woken up, tucked securely away in the specially designed attic, she had been a mess of tears. Katie should be grateful; soon her transformation would take place. She’d tried to explain that to the girl, but she just continued to sob and ask if her brother was safe. If the child cared about her little brother, then she would have been watching him and noticed when a stranger carried him from the bank. But the girl hadn’t noticed.
Neither had the mother.
What kind of mother allowed her seven-year-old to watch a baby?
How irresponsible. The lady hadn't even been keeping a vague eye on the children. She hadn’t noticed a stranger carrying her toddler away. She hadn’t noticed her little girl go running off in search of the baby. She hadn’t noticed her unconscious daughter being carried away. She hadn’t noticed her toddler being returned to the bank. She clearly didn’t deserve her children.
So many parents didn’t.
Anyway, it would be a relief to give Katie Logan someone to talk to and play with because she was starting to get fed up with the constant weeping.
Scanning the library, it seemed like a good place to go looking for the perfect kid. She was surprised she hadn’t thought of it before.
It didn’t take long.
She spotted the perfect child almost immediately.
He was a handsome little boy. His blond hair was cut shorter than she liked, but otherwise, he was just what she was looking for. His skin was delightfully pale, with just a sprinkling of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His eyes were big and brilliantly blue, framed by lovely long dark lashes. His lips were beautifully defined and a wonderful shade of red. The child almost looked like a doll already. That haircut was bothersome, though; she might have to keep these two for a little longer than usual to let it grow out. She would hate to send the child into infinity with an awful hairdo.
Now she just needed a plan on how best to isolate and then remove the little boy from the library without being detected.
First things first. She needed to find out who his mother was and how attentive she was. The boy was in the children’s area, curled up on one of the large beanbag chairs, with his nose buried in a book. There were at least five other children in the area, but none of them were blondes, so she didn’t think any were relatives. Three adults lingered around the children, half paying attention to them, half flicking through books of their own. Again, none of the adults were blondes, so she didn’t think any were the boy’s parent.
Next, she needed to find where the boy’s mother was. She didn’t want to be right in the middle of luring the boy only to have the mother come and interfere and ruin things. Taking her time, she wandered the library, pretending to peruse the books as she went. Finally, she identified the woman she presumed to be the boy’s mother. The woman appeared to be in her thirties and was sitting at a computer typing madly, a mess of textbooks spread out around her.
Reassured that the mom was occupied writing her paper, she moved on to the next task: finding out the child’s name. Lying beside the boy was a schoolbag. Edging closer she noticed a name written in bright colors on the front. Jimmy Wallander. Jimmy. What a beautiful name. She was so glad that this child had been placed in front of her today; he was going to make her most beautiful doll thus far.
Already a plan was formulating in her head. She knew just how best to quickly gain the child’s confidence and spirit him away.
“Excuse me, young man,” she sidled to a stop in front of the boy.
