“Goodbye Officer Morgan!” Mei-mei called as she waved from the door, Arthur's recovered book clutched to her chest. He waved back and was unable to keep back a smile as he heard her walk out with Arthur. “I like him.”
“You've said that already.” Arthur replied.
Whatever else was said was lost behind the door.
Act III: Ophelia
Officer Morgan didn't call Arthur the next day as he had promised. He had planned to make the call, but after spending most of the night filling out paperwork, interrogating Seamus so that they had a coherent story for him to confess and making oral reports, Morgan was happy to just fall asleep when he finally got home. He stayed that way for most of the morning, recovering from the encounter with the stone Doll.
Exhaustion kept most of his dreams and nightmares away. Most of the ones he did have were filled with unstoppable little girls trying to kill him. Worse was when he relived the moment when the stone Doll clutched her chest and died.
Come morning however there, Surprisingly, seemed to be some good coming out of the mess for him. Sore from head to toe and completely exhausted, he had managed to make the community safer. He also got a couple of days off and rumours were circulating in the precinct that he was being considered for a promotion. It was the second large case he was involved in, and he had played more than a passing role in solving both.
The hardest part before leaving the precinct had been trying explain the damage to the shop and what was left of the dolls. In the end he 'admitted' to shooting the stone doll out of surprise when entering the office. That caused it to fall over and break. For all the other damage he went with “It was like that when I got there.”
Before he had left at the end of that very long night he had started filling out a report detailing what actually happened. He wrote two paragraphs, looked them over and laughed, stuffing the report into the bottom drawer of his desk. Seamus was sticking to the story of industrial theft and a violent murder streak. All the Dolls were gone or had reverted to simple shells unless Arthur stepped in with Mei-mei. No one would believe the real story anyways. Morgan had a hard time believing it himself and telling the truth wouldn't help anyone. He had mostly just wanted to see how absurd it looked written down.
Two days after wrapping up the 'Dolls case' and a day after he was supposed to call, Morgan finally got around to calling Arthur. Not entirely sure what he was going to say but knowing he needed to, he dialled the number and slouched against the kitchen wall as it rang.
“Hello?” Arthur curtly answered the phone. He must have been working.
“Hello to you too Arthur” Morgan poured as much sarcasm as he could into the words. “Look you told me we still had things to talk about and I figured a thanks was in order for-”
“That's nice, you too, you're welcome.” Arthur interrupted in a rush and with his usual lack of tact. “Look I have to redo the whole face now. Can you come by at the end of the week I am really busy. Oh and call before you come. Oh but don't call until then alright Officer. Sounds good, bye.”
The line went dead before Morgan had a chance to get a word in and he stared at the phone for a moment. He considered calling back just to annoy the man and give him a piece of his mind. Instead he got ready to head out to the gym in the precinct. Arthur likely wouldn't answer and, though still sore, if Morgan didn't keep moving it would only get worse. Besides as a big man he was tired of being out-muscled by all the little girls running around, fake or not.
The week passed fairly quickly. Morgan made more reports, written and verbal. He was allowed to give a short interview to a local newspaper and the district police chief had confirmed to him that the process and paperwork to promote him to detective was already started. The last few days before the week ended consisted of boring patrols and speeding tickets for the most part. It was a lot easier work, which he was grateful for following the hectic last few days, though it lacked the excitement.
Friday did arrive and Morgan called Arthur again as promised. The Dollmaker had distractedly told him to come over after work before simply hanging up again. He did come by after his morning shift, despite his annoyance with the man's working attitude.
The house looked more or less the same, though it appeared someone had cut the overgrown grass around Arthur's cement stairs which had themselves actually been swept. Small improvements from the previous neglected state, but improvements nonetheless.
Morgan rapped on the door with his knuckles and listened. Arthur and Mei-mei called back and forth to each other as Morgan waited patiently outside the door and thought on the strange Dollmaker. It was amazing how much the man changed when he was working. When dealing with people the man Arthur was cool and confident and even charming. When working on Dolls, he was still confident, but he left no room for anything but work and so was also distracted and grumpy.
Morgan was about to give the door a kick when the locks clicked behind it. Mei-mei opened the door a moment later, though only a few inches before it hit the stool on which she stood.
“Hello Officer Morgan.” Her smile had a more awkward and forced quality to it. “I am sorry for the wait, I could not reach all the locks.” She hopped down off her stool and kicked it to the side, allowing the door to open.
“Thank you Mei-mei. The wait wasn't very long. Did you clean up outside?” Morgan asked on a hunch.
“Yes I did Officer Morgan!” Her smile was more genuine and less disconcerting with the compliment and it lit up her face in a way he just couldn't reconcile with her being made of wood. She seemed so much more human when she forgot to try to be human. “Thank you for noticing. Arthur says we may be here for a while. He has been quite busy so I tidied up.”
She leaned in conspiratorially and with an exaggerated whisper said “Using the weed trimmer was quite hard.” She pointed out the power tool which was easily a foot taller than she was.
“I bet.” Morgan said and couldn't help wondering how that must have looked to the neighbours. “What has Arthur so busy all of a sudden?”
“He had to go over the notes you recovered to make sure nothing was altered or ripped out. Unfortunately he tells me a few pages are missing though he did not share with me which ones.” She led him to the kitchen as she spoke and offered a glass of water. He felt bad for saying yes when she had to go back for her stool so that she could reach, pretty much anything.
“Other than that.” she continued. “He has been working on the new Doll.”
Morgan tried to hide his surprise. “He's making a new Doll?”
“Yes.” she handed him the glass as she spoke. “He has been working on her since well before we came here.”
That made sense. Arthur had complained when Morgan had called him earlier in the week about changing a face. Something about it made Morgan uncomfortable though he wasn't sure why. The man was a Dollmaker after all. It just seemed like someone shouldn't have more than one, though the encounter with Seamus had proved that to be far from impossible. Morgan tried not to think about it and just waited quietly with Mei-mei.
“Should we go in?” He suggested awkwardly after a while.
“No.” The finality in the Doll's voice reminded him abruptly that Mei-mei was not actually a little girl. Which was something he was starting to suspect that he forgot a little too often. “I was told to keep you out here until he called.”
An itch grew between his shoulder-blades. It hadn't occurred to Morgan than Mei-mei was a Doll that might be much more like the others than he was comfortable with. She seemed so much more human than the angry Dolls they had faced. Arthur had said that many of them had to follow orders and didn't really understand morality. Which made the police officer wonder what might have happened if the Dollmaker had been more like his malicious counterpart Seamus. Just to be safe he edged away from the door a little.
“Finished! Bring him in Mei-mei!” Arthur called a few minutes later, breaking the awkward silence like a rock through a wi
ndow. At least it was awkward for Morgan. He looked to Mei-mei who waved him ahead of her and then he entered the room.
Arthur was on one knee facing away from the policeman entering the room, but stood to face him blocking whatever he was working on as he did. The Dollmaker was in his work clothes, ill fitting with a leather apron over top. His hair was a greasy mess and he had several days worth of untrimmed beard on his face.
“Hello Arthur, what was so important you had to bring me down here today?” Morgan asked, crossing his arms.
“To give you your Doll Officer Morgan.” Arthur stated and stepped to the side.
There stood what appeared to be a young girl with hair the colour of basement shadows at night and skin as pale as the moon. Of a height with Mei-mei she had a slender build, with a graceful and willowy neck and limbs. It appeared Arthur had put real shoes on her feet instead of painting them on, and her fingers were long and delicate. She wore elegance and poise as well as the dark green dress that covered her, and wore them in a way he couldn't imagine a real little girl being able to. It was obvious that Arthur had created a work of art in her, but it was her face that drew Morgan in.
The Doll's face was familiar. He couldn't tell you how he might have seen her before, but she was deeply, frustratingly familiar. The features of her face