The Bizarre Adventures of Doctor Who

The Doll Maker Pt. 6

The shopkeeper wasn't the friendliest when he spoke with Theodore and Lila, but the curiosity only strengthened when he refused to sell the dolls much less Theodore and Lila touch them, fearing they'd break them, too.

When asked about what happened with the broken doll, the shopkeeper said a little girl tried to take the doll from the wall despite him telling her she wasn't allowed and she broke it when he refused to sell it to her, even warning her that he only buys dolls, not sell it, but the stubborn girl wouldn't listen to him, determined to get the doll.

She broke it during the confrontation with him and fled before the shopkeeper could've kept her at his shop until her parents came so he could yell at them for their incompetence and receive compensation for the losses.

If he finds her, it won't be a pleasant experience for her, he vowed.

He sounded nasally while riled up, but the two got the gist that he wasn't in a good mood about losing his precious doll to the insolence of a little girl.

Remembering the little girl earlier complaining that a man didn't want to give her a doll that looked like her friend, the two shared a subtle look, and it's enough for them to covertly work out a plan to steal a piece of the porcelain from the rubbish can.

Keeping him occupied wasn't too hard, but he wasn't the conversationalist, he's adamant about having people who weren't selling him dolls in his shop, but Theodore managed to keep him from looking behind while Lila stole a big enough piece of porcelain.

It's flat enough that she hid in her pocket without it bulging or digging into her leg.

Once she successfully squirreled away the piece of porcelain, the two headed out of the shop, at the shopkeeper's insistence, and already the plan changed with Theodore wanting surveillance on the shopkeeper.

"Al, we're coming back to you, prep the lab, we've got something for you," Theodore tells the TARDIS that they got a piece of porcelain that needed scanning, and Al said he'll wait for them.

Working through crowds of people, they made their way back to the TARDIS, patiently waiting for them, and upon entering, Al's in his avatar form waiting for them.

"Have you found anything, yet?" Theodore asked him as he closed the door behind them.

His loud coloured puffy shoulders shrugging, Al said that he found that there's nothing in the sewers except built up sewer gas and unmentionables.

Which surprised him, considering that at this period, there's plenty of rats making headway into terrorizing house wives and being used as punchlines for jokes.

Using that, Al's finding that there's a drop in infestation, which again, surprised him, since rats aren't known to turn away from easy living in a decent sized city.

Even New York City's rats wouldn't give up their little empire without a fight, why, they'd stage incursions before they're driven away from their kingdom.

Ireland couldn't even get rid of them and they got rid of snakes!

"Why's that relevant?" Lila asked Al why this mattered and the avatar stated that the drop in rats corresponds when the Bogeyman started his hold over the city.

Animals can sense things that normal humans can't, when they sensed something that's dangerous, especially when it comes to something like rats, of course they're going to dip.

"How does this help us find where he's keeping his victims?" Theodore asks how this helped them and Al replied that he's sure that the rats avoided the Bogeyman, so it's a matter of narrowing down where the rats don't go, and go from there.