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Katie shrank farther back, wrapping a blanket tighter around herself like a shield.
The blanket reminded her for the first time that she was cold. She was still dressed in the yoga pants and tank top she’d gone to bed in. This attic was cold, just like the one she remembered from her childhood. Ignoring the cold—she couldn’t do anything about it anyway—she tried to hold her head in a position that didn’t make her neck ache, and called again to Katie, “Come on, honey, come here. You can trust me, Katie. I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure you get home to your family.”
“Promise?” The girl’s voice was so soft she had to strain to hear it.
“That I’ll do everything in my power to get you home? Of course.”
“No,” Katie shook her head, her blonde braids flying from side to side. “Do you promise we’ll go home?”
Her heart was breaking for all of them. How much she wished that she had the power to make that promise. “I can't promise you that, sweetheart. But if I can make it happen, I will. Come here, baby.”
Giving in, Katie crept over, curling up against Clara’s chest and pressing her face against Clara’s neck. “I want to go home,” the girl cried.
“Me too, baby.” She twisted her head so she could kiss Katie’s wet cheek.
“I want my mommy.”
While she didn’t want her mother, Clara empathized with the child’s need to be in the arms of someone who made her feel safe. For her, it was Jonathon’s arms she longed to be in.
“I'm scared.” Katie tried to get closer.
“Me too, honey; me too.”
* * * * *
3:40 P.M.
Clara had been gone for well over twelve hours now.
That fact haunted him.
Jonathon knew it was plenty of time for the Doll Killers to enact whatever they had planned for her. He was terrified that she was already dead. Every time a phone rang, or an email or a text came through, he found himself holding his breath, expecting it to be news that Clara’s body had been found.
“Let’s get started.” Heidi was pacing up and down the conference room.
“Wait,” he exhaled slowly and prepared to just get it over with and say it. “I know I should have said something sooner, but my sister was one of the Doll Killers’ victims.”
“I already knew that,” his boss nodded calmly.
“Me too,” his partner agreed.
“But—but . . .” he stammered.
“Neither of us are stupid,” Heidi reminded him. “But at first it wasn't apparent if we were after the original perpetrators or copycats. When it became clear that the killers from thirty years ago were involved, you seemed to be holding it together. Allina said it wasn't affecting your ability to work the case, so I saw no reason to remove you from it.”
“Oh,” was all he could manage.
“Although, I was hoping you'd have come clean before now,” Heidi sounded slightly disappointed.
Jonathon could feel his cheeks tint pink in embarrassment and he thought of Clara. “I'm sorry, I should have, but I thought you'd take me off the case. My mother is dying, and I want her to know who killed her daughter so she can die in peace. I'm sorry,” he repeated.
“Apology accepted, but next time, trust me. I may be your boss, but it’s my job to oversee things—not to tell you what you can and can't handle. So, was Thomas Karl working with a partner?” Heidi asked.
“No, it doesn’t look like it,” Allina answered. “We checked into Sarah Ellis, Thomas’ old girlfriend, even though it didn’t seem likely that she’d be involved, given her daughter’s accusations against Thomas. She and her children had been out of the state for a month spending time with her grandmother, who’d been ill. They only returned on the ninth; that’s the day after Lindsey and Kent’s bodies were found, and Katie Logan was abducted. Plenty of people remember Sarah and her children from the grandmother’s nursing home—apparently the kids were quite a hit with the residents. Thomas died on the seventh; Sarah Ellis was out of town—that means someone else committed the crimes.”
“The original killers?”
“Seems logical since Clara’s doll was delivered to her house,” Allina nodded.
