Page 143 of The Dollmaker

Tessa tried to hide her revulsion. “Did you plan to overdose her?”

His face tightened with regret. “No. That was a terrible accident. I thought I was just settling her nerves with a few more pills. I loved her so much when she was quiet.”

“When did you realize she was dead?”

“Early on the fourth morning. I panicked.” He looked at her as if he needed her to understand. “I took her to the woods. But I didn’t just dump her. I couldn’t just discard her like trash. She meant so much to me. So I leaned her against a tree. I wanted to preserve her dignity.”

“But that wasn’t enough to make you feel better. You’d killed her, and nothing was going to make that right.”

“I didn’t want to hurt her.”

If she could keep him talking, she might be able to reach him and make him see this was wrong. And if she couldn’t reach him, then she was at least buying time. “You set the fire the morning she was found.”

“I was feeling guilty. Lost. The fires calm me. They always have.”

“Knox knew you’d set the fire, didn’t he?”

“He’d been consumed with finding Kara, like everyone else in town. He never linked her to me.”

“But the fire told him you were upset about something.”

“Yes. I was trying to stay calm. Trying to be good. But Kara was dead, and I knew it would mean trouble.”

“Did Knox confront you after Kara was found?”

“He came by the funeral home that night. He was upset and so angry. He was ready to arrest me when I broke down crying. I was so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt her. I told him she took the drugs on her own. It was all a terrible accident.”

Tears welled in her eyes as she struggled to keep her voice calm. “And Diane, why did you change her?”

“You four were part of a set. I wanted her to be perfect forever. Like Kara, but better. You see, I can work for hours to make it perfect, but it can be destroyed with the swipe of a cloth. When the other funeral attendant and I picked Kara up from the medical examiner, she was clean. There were no traces of the pretty little doll I created. It was as if she never existed. It broke my heart to see my work washed away.”

“So you saw to it that Diane’s would never fade.” She avoided the wordmutilate, knowing she walked a razor-thin line with this killer. “The work you did on her was very detailed.”

He nodded. “I’ve worked hard to perfect my craft. It was important that I get it exactly right.”

“All that work, and you killed her. Was her overdose an accident as well?”

He closed his eyes, his face tightening with regret. “No. I am ashamed to say I was seduced by the stillness. I loved her so much when she allowed me to pose her and play with her.”

“I don’t understand.” Her chest tightened as she tried not to imagine the last moments of Diane’s life.

“A doll doesn’t move,” he said simply. “She merely is there for me. All of me. Unconditionally. She is all mine.”

Every instinct in her body demanded she twist her hand in the strap. The muscles in her body begged her to rip her hands from the restraints and get free. She wanted to run to the door. Scream for help. But she couldn’t surrender to impulse. Like Dakota, she had to lock away her fears until she could find the right moment to escape. “Who wasn’t there for you?” She spoke softly, as if soothing a small child.

The question sharpened his gaze. “What are you saying? That my family didn’t love me? My mother and father loved me. My sisters loved me. They just didn’t know me.”

“I know they loved you,” she said shifting course. “But their not understanding you must have been so painful.”

“I saw the fear in my sisters’ eyes. They started locking their doors at night. I just wanted to watch them sleep. Do you know how much it hurt me when I discovered they were locking me out?”

“I spoke to your sister Carol to tell her about your father’s death. She said your mother saw you eight years ago. Did you try to go home?”

“I wanted to see Mom. But when she looked at me, she was terrified. It broke my heart.”

“That’s when you killed the woman in Denver, right?”

He pressed his fingers to his temples. “Questions, questions. You sound like a doctor. A know-it-all.”

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