The Doll Collector

Chapter 10: Detective DeWitt

Marner had just smashed his knee on the corner of his desk. Since we were surrounded by glass walls, everyone got a front row seat of his clumsy antics. A string of curse words echoed from his office. Lieutenant Carter looked up from his desk, immediately reaching for his phone to record and upload his video to Snapchat. I swear that guy was a child. Marner banged on the top of his desk and delivered an awkward kick.

Marner had weak knees as it was, so this wasn't helping him.

He looked over in my direction in time for me to lower my face so he wouldn't see me laughing. After the giggling had died down, Marner limped his way over to my office and drew the ceiling to floor blinds, all the way around. He grumbled sitting down and rubbing his knee.

"Are you okay, darling?" I asked, teasingly.

"Shut up, Adrian." he retorted, continuing to pout.

He reminded me of my five-year-old whenever she didn't get her way.

"Now Kristopher, that's no way to talk to someone who cares about you."

"I hate you."

I  gave into a laugh as I reached into my desk drawer and grabbed a See's Candy coffee lollipop.

"Here, little buddy." I said, sliding it over.

Marner continued to pout as he unwrapped his lolly. Maybe that's why girls liked him so much, because he was a giant baby. Women enjoyed that shit for some reason.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"No, my knee is throbbing." he whined.

"I meant about your outing. You left the station early last night."

"Yeah, Lieutenant Diaper sent me home." Marner explained.

"If he hears you, you're fired." I laughed.

"He knows I'm kidding; besides, I hear he finally got potty trained. He's a toddler now."

"He's not that young."

Marner rolled his eyes. He had a huge vendetta against our lieutenant because he had been next in line for the position, but the kid swooped in after solving a string of murders. He was a good detective, but Kristopher hated him anyway. I told Marner to just keep trying, and he'd make lieutenant eventually. He was a sergeant for hell's sake, that was something.

I did my best to keep him from getting fired in the meantime, however. Kristopher had a loose tongue. It would be his downfall one day.

"I feel like we're hitting a wall with this case. " he sighed, switching the subject. Obviously he didn't want to discuss whatever it was that sent him home.

"I think maybe we should release some of the details Barbara gave us. We need another boost before this case goes cold. Have you spoken to Barbara lately? Maybe she remembered something else." I said.

"We had plans to go out, but she hasn't answered any of my texts."

"What stupid thing did you say?"

"Nothing," he laughed. "I offered to treat her to a nice dinner."

"Maybe she's one of those independent feminists and you offended her or something."

"Her loss." he shrugged.

Before I could offer slightly comforting words, an officer knocked on the door preceding his entrance. With a whisper, he let us know that there were two couples looking for us. From the look on his face, we knew it had to be a pair of grieving parents. We nodded for him to send them in. A small woman with shoulder length, black hair, and a tear streaked face entered my office. Behind her, was a tall man with short dark hair. Both held reddened blue eyes.