Page 41 of Little Dolls

Jonathon was peering at her in concern, and she realized she was still standing in the doorway. “Sorry,” she dropped into the only free seat at the table and looked expectantly at their boss. Heidi knew about Grace, had personally helped her look into numerous leads. So had both the other people in the room. Kane and Tracey Curtis were a happily married Hispanic couple, with no human children but an abundance of fur babies, who also seemed to enjoy working together. Well, not technically together; Kane worked crime scene, and Tracey was a medical examiner, but they often worked the same cases. Three years ago, Kane had gone through Grace’s house with a fine-tooth comb, and Tracey still checked the DNA of all unidentified young women who came through the morgue who even vaguely resembled Grace to see if they were her.

It had been Kane who’d collected the doll from Clara’s house last night, and now he informed them, “As soon as I finished at Clara Candella’s house, I sent pictures to my doll collector friend to find out whatever we could about the doll. This is what she told me: the doll is a twelve-inch French doll from around 1900. Like the others, it has a bisque head and a wood composition body. For those of you who didn’t see the doll, she’s wearing a blue cotton dress with lace trim and a black sash, cream socks and black leather shoes, and underwear appropriate for the time period. Marks on the doll’s neck are F B 3 Paris.”

Jonathon cringed at the mention of the marks on the doll. No doubt he was wondering whether Clara bore those marks. Since Ali and Jonathon were partners—and even friends now—she was going to have to try with Clara, even if she didn’t like that the woman was deliberately holding back information that might be useful. She reminded herself that Clara was a victim, and in her experience, victims sometimes didn’t think logically about things related to their assaults.

“Anything useful on the doll? Fingerprints or something?” Heidi asked.

“Nope, same as all the others, nothing at all on the doll.”

Raising a hopeful eyebrow, Heidi repeated, “Nothing on thedoll?”

“I found a couple of smudgy prints on Clara’s back door. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything with them, but it’s more than we have so far, so I’ll do my best,” Kane assured them.

Well, that was progress. Bit by bit, they were starting to move forward. “You find anything else useful, Kane?”

“That was everything from Clara’s house.”

“Cause of death the same on Lindsey Peters and Kent Mason as all the others?” Jonathon asked the ME.

“Yes, they were given a morphine overdose. At least it would have been painless and quick, given the dosage they were given. They would have fallen asleep; heart rate and breathing would have slowed and then stopped. It was administered intravenously, same as the original murders. From what I saw on these kids now, the IV was inserted well. I only saw one clean incision, no marks from hesitations. I’d say that whoever did it knew what they were doing,” Tracey explained.

“What about the kids from twenty years ago?” Heidi asked.

“Obviously, I didn’t do any of the autopsies, but the reports indicate again that it was done by someone with experience,” Tracey replied.

“Any forensics from the bodies, Kane?”

“I found something on Lindsey,” the crime scene tech began slowly.

“Well, what was it?” Heidi snapped, as did the pencil she’d been fiddling with.

“I found a pubic hair in her underwear,” Kane told them.

“She was sexually assaulted?” Jonathon asked, rather unnecessarily, but he was clearly wondering if Clara had been, too.

“Yes,” Tracey confirmed.

“But none of the other kids were, right?” Jonathon had a tint of desperation in his voice.

“The ones from thirty years ago weren’t,” Tracey assured him. “Given that they were little kids and they were kept for weeks before they were killed, all of them had the exam done, and none of the original nine girls had been sexually assaulted.”

“What about Lottie Hatcher?” Allina asked. This was an unexpected development.

“Undetermined,” Tracey replied. “Her exam was inconclusive.”

“Did you run a DNA test on the pubic hair?” Allina asked. If they had hard proof that Thomas Karl was involved, they might be able to convince Clara to finally believe it, and then hopefully, she’d be more forthcoming with information.

“Yes,” Kane nodded.

“And?” she prompted.

“And it matched Thomas Karl. He was definitely involved; he assaulted Lindsey Peters.”

“That’s why none of the original children were assaulted. Thomas brought that element to the kidnappings.” Jonathon looked livid.

“Any other forensics, Kane?” Heidi asked.

“Nope, that’s all from me.”

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