Page 81 of Little Dolls

That terrified him deep down inside. It made it feel like something was eating at him, each second that Clara was gone, another piece of him was gone. That Clara hadn’t been with the children when they were found terrified him even more. Did that mean that the Doll Killers had murdered her? Did it mean that Clara had sacrificed herself to save the children? Did it mean that Clara had gotten away too, but she was lying somewhere, injured?

He hated that he didn’t know the answers to any of those questions.

“Paramedics are finishing up with the kids; then we can talk to them.” Allina appeared beside him.

Clinging to patience, Jonathon questioned, “What about the guy who found them?”

“Waiting for us over there.” Allina pointed to a guy in his twenties, with long, messy hair, dressed in sweats, lounging against the wall of a shop. The man wasn't dressed for the icy morning. Snow was forecast for later in the day, and the temperature was dropping in preparation, but the man didn’t appear fazed by the cold.

“Name?” he asked his partner, already heading for the young man.

“Aaron Lloyd.”

“Mr. Lloyd,” Jonathon stretched out his hand, and the man shook it firmly. “Detective Dawson, and my partner, Detective Bennett. How did you find the children?”

“Was driving out to the park, I go every morning to jog with my dog. I saw two little figures in my headlights, thought it was odd that two children would be out wandering the streets, all on their own so early in the morning, so I pulled over to check it out,” Aaron explained.

“Did you see anyone else?”

“No, just the children. They were running, I pulled over, was catching up to them, they must have heard me and panicked because they darted down that alley,” he pointed across the street. “They were hiding. I couldn’t see them, so I called out. Then the boy, Jimmy, he just came running at me, telling me they needed help, and that we needed to find someone named Clara before it was too late. I figured Clara was their mom, well maybe a stepmother or foster mother or something.”

At the mention of Clara’s name, his blood turned to ice. The only thing that thawed it a little was the knowledge that at least as recently as an hour or so ago, Clara had still been alive. Whether or not she still was, he had no way of knowing. “Did they say anything else about Clara?”

“No, I told the little boy to calm down, that we’d go to my car and call for help, but he said to wait and went running back to where he’d been hiding. I'd thought I'd seen two kids from my car but when only the little boy came over to me I thought I must have seen wrong, but no there were two of them. The little girl was a mess. Pale as a ghost, shaking, petrified, then she just burst into tears and threw herself into my arms. That was pretty much it. I bundled both of them into my car, turned the heat up high, and called you guys. The little girl, she took right to my dog, Bingo, clung to him—it seemed to calm her, so I let her take him with her when the paramedics wanted to check her out.” Aaron pointed to a nearby ambulance.

“Did they say anything else?”

“Nope. Both of them were exhausted. The boy fell asleep as soon as I’d called the cops, and the girl just sat there and held Bingo.”

His patience had pretty much-reached breaking point; he was ready to talk to the children. Now. “Thank you, Mr. Lloyd; if we have further questions, we’ll be in touch. I’ll have an officer bring Bingo over to you.”

Dismissing the young man, Jonathon strode to the ambulance the children had insisted on sharing. Or rather that Jimmy had insisted on sharing. Katie still wasn't saying anything. When he climbed in the back of the ambulance, both children turned to look warily at him. They were sitting side by side on the gurney, the dog lying across Katie’s lap. Their faces were thin and drawn, both were dwarfed by the blankets they were swaddled in, and both children looked as frail as newborn babies.

“Hey, kids.” He tried to keep his voice calm and gentle and take his time with them. Scaring them by losing control wasn't going to get him answers, so he clung to control with every bit of strength he possessed because finding Clara depended on getting those answers. “Your parents are on their way here,” he assured them. Predictably, Jimmy looked enormously relieved, but Katie became more agitated. “We’re going to go wait for them in the café over there. You guys can have hot chocolates and anything else you want. But the dog has to go back to his owner.”

Katie immediately clutched the dog tighter, but Jimmy stood and let one of the paramedics lift him down from the ambulance.

“Katie, honey, I know you like the dog, but your mom’s going to be here soon.” He held out his hand to her, but she shrank away from it. Something about seeing her mother scared her, but there were no indications that her mother had been abusive in any way, which meant Katie’s fears were rooted elsewhere. Taking the dog’s collar, he guided Bingo down to the ground, and an officer took hold of him. “You don’t want to go home, honey?”

She shook her head fiercely.

“Why not, sweetheart?”

Instead of replying, the little girl flew at him. Her small, thin arms entwined around his neck, and her little, wet face pressed against his cheek.

“Why don’t you want to go home, honey?”

“I killed him,” she whispered.

“Killed who?” Had she somehow managed to kill one of the Doll Killers? Maybe she thought her family would be angry with her about it?

“My brother. I was supposed to be watching him at the bank, but I wasn't. I was thinking about my friends from school, and I didn’t notice that the lady took him, then I couldn’t find him, and I ran outside. He was with an old lady, and I thought I wasn't going to get into trouble, but then I saw that Kevin's knees weren’t dirty, so he didn’t go outside on his own. I knew the lady took him on purpose but it was too late, she made me go to sleep, and then she killed my brother, and it’s all my fault.” The words tumbled quickly from the girl’s mouth, broken by sobs.

Rubbing the child’s back, he murmured, “No, honey, your brother isn’t dead. He was found outside the bank. He’s okay. He’s not dead,” he repeated in case she couldn’t hear through her weeping.

Abruptly, the girl grew quiet. She pulled back her head to look at him, her eyes shining with tears. “Kevin isn’t dead?”

“No, sweetheart,” he assured her.

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