The Admirer: The Doll Collector Sequel

Chapter 23: Maria

Detective DeWitt and Lieutenant Carter were interviewing me in the hospital, as I got checked by the doctor. My nose was swollen, broken, and had been iced since I'd gotten into the hospital.

Taylor didn't wait not even 20 minutes after Kris left to come inside of his house. He caught me off guard in the bathroom where I was fixing my hair. He grabbed me by the ponytail and slammed my face into the sink. Hairline fracture, according to the doctor. I must have gone unconscious upon impact because when I awakened, I was in the cabin, tied to a chair and with a gag in my mouth.

Now I knew what it was like to be in that cabin and be certain that you were going to die. At first, everything was hazy, but my vision cleared quickly when Audrey began to shuffled on the floor. At least, now I knew her name.

At the time, I had no idea who she was. Her hands were zip tied behind her back and her mouth also gagged. She was squirming around trying to wriggle away from Taylor. I saw the knife in his hand and I tried begging him to spare her. He couldn't understand me under the gag, not that he was listening. It didn't take him long after that to slit her throat. I wanted to shut my eyes and save myself those images, but I couldn't do it. Her skin split open and brightened with blood. It curtained her neck. I could still see her body on the floor when I closed my eyes. Hers and Elaine's. Her blood had splattered on my face, I had her dead body on top of me for several seconds. I felt the weight on me and even to this moment, I could still feel it.

I was seated on a hospital bed with an ice pack, listening to the detectives. Their questions were routine, and I was sure that my one worded answers were frustrating them, but I couldn't help it.

Every time I blinked, I saw them.

"It was him." I said. "It was all Taylor. He wanted to finish what he started."

"How did Kris know that you were in the cabin?" Detective DeWitt asked.

"Taylor left a note. I'd been in Kristopher's home when he took me. He wanted Kris to see him kill me. He was using me as a game... He wanted to torture the officers on the case and that's why he took me and Audrey."

Lieutenant Carter was writing diligently, just eating up everything I was saying. Yet, something told me that Detective DeWitt wasn't buying it.

"The FBI was on the case, not us." he pointed out.

I raised my eyes to his, and it seemed that he was trying to poke holes in my story.

"Detective, this is a very personal matter. Kristopher and I... crossed a boundary, and Taylor knew that. He used me to hurt him, as he was one of the original detectives on the case. It's the same way the he used your mistress. You two found me, that warranted punishment."

"Who told you this?" he asked.

"Taylor did. When you get them talking, there's no way to shut them up, and they will tell you everything. They generally make sure that you don't live long enough to tell another soul."

"What was his reasoning for killing?"

"Childhood trauma. His family has very dirty secrets, Elaine Backstrom being one of them. His parents exposed him to many sexually compromising positions, and his sister is quite loose. He carried this resentment with him, and became accustomed to mistreating women. It seems that it was commonplace in his family. As he grew older, his ability to maintain relationships had already been damaged, and that frustration and anger, of being unable to talk to women, and be with women, ultimately led to him becoming a killer. It started off as a control mechanism, being in a situation where a woman could not reject him. Killing them ensured that they would always be an un-rejecting partner, which is why he turned them into dolls. It can be insinuated that he did have sexual relations with the dolls. Necrophilia is common among lust killers. The first kill gave him a rush of adrenaline, much like being with a woman, so he continued to seek out that release. It became an addiction, a way to connect with women, and to repay all the trauma he suffered as a child." I explained.