The Doll Collector's Son

Chapter 1: Jordan

Or someone was angry at their mother. More often than not, serial killer had some type of mommy issue. Funnily enough, I had learned this from my own mother, a renowned forensic psychiatrist for the FBI. I made a note of my theory to look more into once Martina's autopsy had been finalized. I dumped my trash into the bin, standing up to sit on the corner of Annalise's desk. Her eyes were focused on the various missing posters entered into our database and the local police database. Sure enough, there was Martina Perez. She had been a PhD candidate at the local university, studying, you guessed it, psychology.

"I'm starting to think this is a scorned patient." Anannlise said, glancing at me.

"Possibly, but I've noticed the women have had their reproductive systems removed. That sounds pretty personal and not very related to psychology." I replied.

"Maybe it's a man who was unable to have children with his wife or girlfriend and they ended up in therapy. The psychologist was of no help, woman commits suicide, now man is on a rampage to exact revenge on women of child bearing age who study psychology."

I hummed... maybe. But it wasn't sitting entirely right.

"Have these women had abortions? If your theory holds, then maybe these women had the chance to have children and rejected the opportunity."

Annalise lifted a brow, nodding. It was a possibility. Women of this caliber who had a lot on their plate and important plans for their future might be inclined to visit an abortion clinic, should something of this nature get in their way. Annalise made note, continuing to scan through the missing posters.

A knock came through our door. We both called out to our visitor to come in. It was a young agent new to our office. Her name was Diana Nguyen and had so far been able to keep up with us all.

"Next of kin calls have been made to the families. The parents are here to speak with you and Agent Valentine. They're um, crying." She said.

"Please offer them water or tea and snacks." I said.

She nodded, hurrying back to the families.

Annalise and I grabbed our notebooks prepared to take detailed notes. The connections between the various women was not clear. Sure they were all students of the same subject, but none attended the same universities. In fact, half of the victims were simply visiting their families for the weekend. Special Agent Nguyen had taken the families into a small conference room just near our offices. I was pleased to see they each had a beverage in their hand and bags of chips in front of them. Annalise and I entered, shutting the glass door.

"Hi, my name is Special Agent Valentine, and this is Special Agent Aleksandrov. We are part of the Violent Crimes Division and are taking lead on the investigations into the deaths of your daughters." Annalise introduced.

The families remained quiet, but I could tell that the mothers were close to bursting into tears.

"We understand this is a difficult time, and we are here to answer any questions that you may have. On the flip side, we too, have questions regarding your daughters. However, because the news is so fresh, we would like to ask these questions at a later date, preferably in your homes, where are you are most comfortable. Are there any pending questions now?" I asked.

"Yes, was this a serial killer?" One of the women asked.

"We are not able to formally make that call just yet. We are still sifting through evidence trying to determine a pattern if any."

"Our daughters were friends." Another woman said, gesturing to the woman beside her.

"Anais Wexler and Emily Sanchez, they were roommates."

And they were roommates. Annalise immediately wrote that down.

"They went missing a week apart." The same woman offered.

"Are you Mrs. Wexler or Sanchez?" I asked.

"Wexler."

"I'm Mrs. Sanchez." Her friend finally piped up.

Her face was so visibly red, I wondered if she was going to pass out from the grief.

"This is what we would like to do. We have the personal effects of your daughters. We would like for you to take them home and figure out the passcodes, and collect all of their remaining  electronics. We would like to go through them to see if we can find anything." I said.