Page 120 of The Dollmaker

When Sharp received the text from Andrews requesting a meeting, he agreed immediately. Andrews played his cards close to the chest. Sharp arrived at the Shield offices just before one in the afternoon. He flashed his badge at the two guard stations and rode the elevator to the fifth floor, where he was escorted to the computer lab. Andrews sat behind a collection of screens, each with different images. The man seemed lost in thought.

Sharp cleared his throat. “Andrews.”

Andrews stared at a screen before finally turning around. “Let me buzz Bowman. He wants to hear my debrief.”

“Sure.”

Andrews dialed a number on his phone console, relayed Sharp’s arrival, and replaced the receiver. “Bowman’s on his way.”

“I didn’t realize he’d taken a personal interest in this case.”

“Bowman and Shield both hate cold cases. I briefed them both on our earlier case discussion.”

“So why am I here?”

“There’s more data to consider.”

Before he could ask, the door opened and Bowman crossed to shake Sharp’s hand. His grip was firm and his gaze cutting and direct. “Thanks for coming, Agent Sharp.”

“I should be the one thanking you for taking on the case,” Sharp said.

“It’s been a month since the Shark case closed. I’ve already got an itch to close another. Andrews, fill Agent Sharp in on what you’ve found.”

“As you know, I planned to search all cold cases that might be linked to your sister’s as well as Diane Richardson’s case. I fed all the details into national and international databases.” He reached for the clicker of the overhead projector.

Bowman shook his head. “We don’t need to see Kara Benson’s crime scene photos.”

Sharp raised his chin. “Don’t change your methods on my behalf.”

Andrews reached for his clicker. “I’m going to show you the faces of three women found in three US cities over the last eight years. They were spread across the western part of the country and were prostitutes. Authorities weren’t overly concerned about solving their cases. I also did a computer search of all the media outlets for murdered women made out to look like dolls.”

Andrews clicked on the overhead. Sharp studied the screen. The women were all young, and each wore makeup resembling a doll as well as a wig. “One of the local media outlets in Denver quoted a detective’s briefing. He called this killer the Dollmaker, as you have, for obvious reasons. I did some digging into the case files of the three women. As I said, one victim was in Denver, one in Salt Lake City, and the third in Colorado Springs. There’s nearly no paperwork on the women’s backgrounds or forensic data from the cases. Two of the three women weren’t found for three weeks. These women lived on the margins. It took months for anyone to file missing persons reports on any of them.”

Sharp moved closer to the screen. “Were there any suspects in any of the cases?”

“A local drug dealer in Denver came under scrutiny in one case,” Andrews said. “He not only had his hand in prostitution and strip clubs, but he had an affinity for young girls. But he was cleared.”

“Cleared or he hired a good attorney who got the charges dropped?”

“Good attorney who got the charges dropped. But this suspect was shot and killed last year in a nightclub fight.”

“Were there any other similar murders matching this killer’s MO?” Sharp asked.

“I checked the FBI database and didn’t see any other crimes that matched the criteria. Doesn’t mean they didn’t occur.”

“How did he keep them immobile?” Sharp asked.

“There were multiple needle marks on their arms. I think he dosed them often with heroin.”

“He chose the most vulnerable, and he picked areas where he was less likely to be caught.”

“What about victims before Kara?” Sharp asked.

“There were no similar cases that came up in my search engines predating her death.”

“Do you think she was his first?”

“I would say so. I would guess seeing Kara with friends dressed up as dolls flipped a switch in the killer. Many aspects of her death suggest a lack of planning. But whatever payoff he got when he killed her has spurred him to kill more.”

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