The Doll: A Vanessa Michael Munroe Novel by Stevens Taylor

Author:Stevens, Taylor [Stevens, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Adult
ISBN: 9780307888792
Goodreads: 17162330
Publisher: Broadway Books
Published: 2013-06-04T07:00:00+00:00

Munroe dozed fitfully, an hour, maybe two, of silence and downtime and decompression during which it was almost possible to tamp down the fear of retaliation, the guessing game of who, out of the few people she loved, would be next on the list of Doll Maker targets, to pretend that having been snatched away from the first true peace she’d found in the last ten years hadn’t just thrown her back to the edge of the abyss, that place of madness she’d spent the entirety of her adult years trying to avoid.

The fight with Arben and the ensuing pain had been a release valve, a temporary calm from the pressure cooker of violence and voices, but they were back again, feeding off the rage, driving and relentless.

The shrill alert of the phone jolted through the quiet and Neeva jumped, then muttered, “No, not again.”

Munroe picked up the phone, checked the display, and in response to Neeva’s panicked deer-in-the-headlights stare, whispered, “We should be okay for now.”

The number showing on the screen was not Lumani’s, which left only the Doll Maker as the caller, and if what had happened over the past few days was any prediction of how things would continue, even though this call might be the harbinger of another battle, it wouldn’t likely announce another death because the Doll Maker preferred to send his minions and foot soldiers as the bearers of bad news.

Munroe answered the phone with silence and after a long pause the Doll Maker said, “My friend, you are there, are you not?” His voice was warm and friendly and infused with the same fractured sense of reality that had permeated his every move within the office of the dolls.

“I’m listening,” Munroe said.

“I cannot give you what you want.”

“Then I see no reason why I should continue.”

“As expected,” he said. “It’s the time frame at issue. Your friend, he is alive, this is for sure, the problem is in the timing of getting you your proof. Continue the journey. A little farther down the road, a little later, and you will have what you want.”

“You killed a man for arbitrary reasons,” she said, “you lost nothing and still took his life.”

“Words like arbitrary are meaningless,” he said. “The responsibility to meet each outcome is yours. No matter how failure arrives, the price for it is yours to pay. I made this clear from the beginning.”

Failure.

Because Neeva had run.

Noah’s life had been taken to compensate for tights and mascara.

“The dead man,” Munroe said. “What was his failure?”

“It was your failure, your punishment, and so the answers are your problem to deal with as you see fit. You were given a task and failed, so there has been suffering. You can correct it now and spare further pain.”

Mental disconnect filled his answers. Her response was about the value of human life, his was about damage to a costume. “You said this task is about me and my debt to you. You already hold Logan as collateral, but instead you took the life of someone who has nothing whatsoever to do with any of this.

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