We’d all been in a pretty good mood after the win, but that mood quickly soured as Kallie and Charlie got to work on their criminal profile. I thought that they’d be able to wrap this up quickly— you know, seeing as this project was literally duea week ago, but clearly, it was far from finished as the two of them bickered across a library table. We were the only ones in here, and I was glad for it, because their argument was really loud.
“Finals week is over. The extension Professor Jobe gave me is already past due, and final grades have to be intomorrow,” Charlie moaned. “If I don’t turn this in first thing in the morning, I’m going to fail.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Kallie insisted.
“I don’t have enough here to pass!” Charlie argued. “Our profile barely lists anything about the killer that the police don’t already know!”
“Calm down. We can figure this out.” Kallie’s fingers drummed against the table as her eyes scanned the evidence, but she appeared just as puzzled as he was.
“Mind if I have a look?” I suggested. I knew about Charlie’s project, but it was kind of his and Kallie’s thing, so I hadn’t paid any attention to it. But clearly, these two were stuck.
“Go ahead. Maybe fresh eyes will give us some insight,” Kallie suggested as Charlie rubbed his face tiredly.
“I want to help, too.” Marcus sat beside me, and we flipped through the collection of evidence the two of them had collected.
To be honest, there wasn’t much, which confused me. Kallie and Charlie had been working on this thing for months. Why hadn’t they gotten anywhere?
“Tell us everything you know about the Dollmaker, from the beginning,” I insisted.
“Kallie and I have been over this a hundred times,” Charlie complained.
You’re very whiny today, Oberi commented.Just tell your wife what you know.
Charlie huffed, and Kallie said, “We know the Dollmaker targets women in their late teens or early twenties. He kills them through bloodletting, then after the murders are complete, he dresses them up in navy gowns and poses them like dolls. He used to commit the murders in secluded areas of the city, but he’s gotten bolder, and has moved on to targeting girls during events, where he’ll have an audience that will be shocked by his work.”
“He likes creating a spectacle…” I murmured. “It’s how he gains pleasure from the killings. He wants attention.”
“What does the profile say?” Marcus questioned.
“We think the killer is young, possibly early twenties to mid-thirties,” Kallie continued. “We’re almost certain he’s a member of the noble class, because he’s the only one who can gain access to some of these locations where these girls were killed.”
“Wethinkhe kills women because he’s traumatized from a situation in his past, and he’s trying to impress a girl he associates from his childhood with the killings, but that’s just a guess. We don’t have anything to back that up,” Charlie said.
“You don’t commit crimes like this without a deep-seated hatred of women,” Marcus replied. “This girl the Dollmaker was obsessed with must’ve really messed him up.”
“That doesn’t mean it was her fault. She could’ve done something innocent he might’ve perceived as an insult,” I replied.
“So he hates her as much as he wants to impress her,” Charlie said thoughtfully. “He’s vying for her to give him attention, but what kind of girl would be impressed bymurder?”
“It’s about power to him,” I replied. “Whatever this girl in his past did, it took away the power he wanted over her, so he’s trying to regain it by using the victims as a replacement for her, so he can act out the dominance over her he wants to exert so badly.”
“How can you be sure?” Kallie asked.
“I just know.” I’d been a victim of someone like the Dollmaker— John wasn’t a serial killer, but his intention in luring me out to the woods that day was to feel like he’d gained power over me. I’d been fortunate enough to keep my life, but I could’ve just as easily been murdered, like these girls had been. This guy had similar motives.
I flipped open a folder, which contained photographs of all the victims. I began laying them out on the table, one by one. As I did so, a pit of dread grew in my stomach, and I began to feel ill. Marcus stopped what he was doing and paused to observe the photographs, eyes locking on the similarities. Rishi hopped up on the table, giving a low mewl.
Marcus and I shared a glance. We didn’t have to speak to understand we were thinking the same thing.
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Kallie… all of these girls look like you.”
“What?” Kallie visibly startled. She jumped to hover above us, observing the photographs. “That’s… it’s impossible!”
“They all have blonde hair and blue eyes,” I said quietly.
“That’s not enough,” Kallie stammered. “It's a coincidence!”
“The bone structure in the face is the same,” Marcus said, sounding like he was going to be sick. “And they’re all wolven girls of the noble class, just like you.”
