and even sew. I was taught to carve a face and give a shape to them, to how they felt and spoke to me. Eventually he even passed on all his notes and books to me. Several generations worth of Dollmaker's notes.” He put down the knife and picked up a piece of sandpaper. Gently and carefully he smoothed out the fixed edges a little bit at a time as he talked. “Our families notes are some of the only written works on Dollmaking, and are by far the most complete. Anyways I learned, as many others have either from teachers or written instruction, to make Dolls. How to give them not just a body and face but a heartbeat, a name and a purpose, all the things they need to survive.”
Morgan waited for the man to continue, unsure if the man was collecting his thoughts again or just lost in his work. He didn't, so Morgan decided to venture a few questions and try to wrest back some control of the situation, and himself. “So Mei-mei there is a -”
“Doll.”
“Which is a spirit of some kind.” Morgan asked almost absently, trying to put things in order in his head. “Like a ghost?”
Arthur heaved an audible sigh and Mei-mei's arm twitched on her body. “No” the man responded with annoyance. “A ghost would be the spirit of something that was once alive assuming they exist in the first place. These are more like.... shamanistic spirits. The Japanese use the term Kami, to which I am partial.” He paused again to examine something on the doll's head and sand carefully. “Mei-mei is a spirit that comes from a tree and she wanted to know what it was like to be human if you want to put it simplistically. If you want it any simpler than that I am going to need some crayons.”
Morgan shot a displeased look at the Dollmaker who payed absolutely no attention whatsoever to it, or much of anything else, as he worked. It was a wonder the man heard his question's at all. “So she is a tree... spirit. Wrapped in a fake body, with a 'purpose' and a 'name' and who knows what else?” He made the last a question.
The Dollmaker rolled his eyes and actually stopped to give a patronized expression to the Officer. “A heartbeat and” he scrunched up his face and imitated an old lady “The feet of little children.” he did a double take in order to add to it before Morgan could respond. “The last was a joke Officer. No human sacrifice, dead body parts, evil spells or hidden fees here.” He went back to his work with a mumble. “No good at magic and body parts don't work properly anyways.”
“What do you mean by a heartbeat and a name or a purpose then?” Officer Morgan's head was spinning, trying to understand what a Doll was and how they worked. He ignored the last mumbled sentence as he assumed it was a joke of some kind and if it wasn't he was not prepared to deal with it yet. “What do they mean and how do they make a wooden doll walk and talk? How does it work!? You make it sound like carving a figurine and plugging in a battery!”
Arthur put the dolls head down with great care, blowing and brushing off the sawdust gently and inspecting it ceaselessly. Morgan couldn't help but notice that, despite being a little more asymmetrical and rough than his first encounter with the Doll, the face looked much better, almost all of the damage completely removed or hidden by the tall man's careful work. Mei-mei even looked more alive, less wooden and more expressive than when he had come into the room.
“I have neither the time nor the patience while I am working to answer all your questions even if I could Officer.” Arthur was giving Morgan his full attention now and there was a fierceness and impatience that shone through the young man. “There are a lot of things about Dolls that no one understands. Even in my family, and we have been studying them for generations, there is still a lot of mystery. We don't really know why if you take the right object and the right conditions they seem to come to life, but we can do it and we can repeat the process. What I have shared with you already is far more than most Dollmakers would under pain of death in our circles. I have far greater things to worry about than you Officer. I need to finish repairing Mei-mei before Seamus can send his Doll after us again. I don't even know if they will wait for full repairs and his Doll, much like him has a very violent streak in it. If you want to know more stay out of this until it is over.”
“Why is this other Doll even here and what do they even want? And what does it have to do with you?” Morgan asked calmly. He hoped it infuriated the other man now as much as it had him back at the station.
“Seamus is another Dollmaker and the Doll that tried to kill you is his. He stole something very precious as well as some very rare items from me.” Arthur sighed out and hesitated before going on. “I spent years chasing rumours and theories and months tracking down a rare component to make a Doll. He stole it just after I found it and on top of that he took one my families old and irreplaceable volumes of notes on Dollmaking. My families work is again some of the only notes on the processes and understanding of Dollmaking. They are valuable, possibly dangerous and they are mine. I will not have them abused.” He was standing and by the end of his heated rant.
Morgan couldn't help but have respect for the man's conviction. Arthur sat back down, slumping a little and looking at Mei-mei again. “As for what he is doing here? From what I can tell he is setting up shop. Planning to use this city as his home as he makes more Dolls and does his business. Seamus has been known for a while to be reckless, and unnecessarily violent. It was only a matter of time before he or his Doll's went rogue and needed to be put down. The murders and thefts you have had are, likely, him driving people away from his work area, or covering up other crimes. A lot of times a Dollmaker will take control over an area when they move in, most of us don't leave a string of dead bodies behind when we do it. Dolls can be merciless and violent and very hard to stop. It is best you leave this to me and Mei-mei Officer.”
Morgan sighed as his conscience kicked him to speak. “I don't think I can do that Arthur.” He rose to his feet and was pleased to find himself much sturdier, his convictions lending him strength. “We've had vandalism, assaults, robberies and a string of dead criminals that, as far as I can tell, can be laid at this guy's feet. If you are right and this guy is setting up shop, then he and his Doll aren't leaving any time soon and aren't too careful about who they hurt. It's only a matter of time before some innocent is just in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets seriously hurt or killed. I need to be involved and I need to stop this. I can help.”
Arthur considered Morgan carefully for a long, tense moment. The officer almost jumped when Mei-mei spoke from the table. He had completely forgotten she was there. “What is this called?” she asked with a curious lilt to her voice.
“Stupidity.” Arthur answered. Mei-mei's head bore a puzzle expression as she stumbled trying to work passed the obvious sarcasm. Morgan could see ideas bubbling to the surface behind the other man's calm exterior. “Are you sure you want to help? It will likely involve bending some laws and could lead to some awkward questions from your superiors.” The question was asked with suspicion and doubt.
Morgan sighed and considered it for a moment. “Yeah I'm sure. I didn't become a cop for the pay, or to protect the law. I actually still believe in helping keep people safe.” He confessed, using a line one of his trainers had told him once.
“You might be in the wrong career, but I could use a little help here maybe.” Arthur's reply was accompanied by a troublesome glint in the mans eye. “How would you feel about a small abuse of police powers?”
“How small.” Morgan had a sinking feeling.
The next evening Morgan found himself once again in the small basement. This time he had a pile of police materials with him that he really wasn't supposed to. It was hardly the extreme abuse of power he had dreaded, but sharing police information with a suspect would not go unpunished if he was caught. He kept telling himself that this was for the best.
“So all the gang members in this old neighbourhood have either left or been put down hard right?” Arthur asked as he poured over the map and other materials that Morgan had brought over. Mei-mei stood on a wooden stool beside her maker, looking quietly down
on the map. They had a copy of the map with all the suspected related crimes, a few reports and files that seemed relevant. Morgan had also managed to get lists of stolen goods, other criminal's strange activities, and anything else that the other officers wouldn't know to look for that might be relevant.
“Yes. Arthur, how come the gangs and mobsters knew to get out before anything really started up? Most of them anyways.” He asked the Dollmaker. "The only like accounts I could find with that amount of movement seemed directly related to gang wars or increased policing."
"The reports are probably right in most cases." Arthur didn't look up from the materials. "In others the gangs are covering for the presence of a Dollmaker or the police are trying to take credit for the decreased crime when they don't really know what happened.
"As far as I know, the story goes that years ago during the early prohibition era a Dollmaker sent a Doll to a few of the big crime families to tell them to get out of his area or else. Something like that anyways as the rumours of what the message was are vague. Anyways, most laughed it off until one of the larger families took offence and tried to retaliate. The details here are even