You look at the open armoire looming in the darkness before you. The wood now appears rotten, as do the contents inside. The gruesome quintet of repulsive dolls seem to fall apart at your gaze, and the maw of the terrifying toy head hanging above them seems to sink lower and lower the longer you stare. The Salesman’s briefcase sits unlocked on the top shelf. There is also a locked cabinet beneath the main compartment. The doors of the armoire delicately sway ever so slightly, revealed only by the haunting creak accompanying their imperceptible movement.
The dolls are stained with age and neglect. They reek of mildew. You hear one of them on the left shift but they barely evade your stare. Back to the right, did that arm just move? You listen intently… is that breathing?
You remove the briefcase from the shelf and unlatch it, disclosing its contents. All that remains inside is this torn poster:
The smell of old leather enters your nostrils, and in the blink of an eye the Salesman appears in front of you.
“By all means, Detective, I’m an open book.”
“Nothing, I swear! One moment she was there, and the next thing I know she’s gone and disappeared, shrouded away by some malevolent force! I’m as curious as you are as to who killed that little girl, but I promise you it wasn’t me!“
“Let’s see, after being invited inside, a bit of chaos ensued. There was hurried talk about what to do with the broken down car, and then the neighbor was there. I’m not sure when she entered the room, but she was insisting that something be done about the children. The next thing I know, I’m offered some hot cocoa from a tray, I think Mrs. McDermott was holding it. The cocoa must have been poisoned! I unknowingly take a few sips, then excuse myself to the bathroom. Admittedly, I was looking for Elsie’s room. I wanted her to see the dolls! Before I could find her, however, I heard a blood-curdling scream from the main room. Rushing back, I saw the neighbor, Birdie, hunched over in the hall in a most agonizing-looking fashion. I felt a great pain in my stomach, my vision started to blur, and an awful taste entered my mouth. Nevertheless, I made it back to the others in time to see the corpses of Mrs. McDermott on the floor and Aunt Jane slumped down in a chair. As my vision darkened and I fell to the ground, I saw the boy, standing in the doorway, watching! My goodness… was it the boy all along?“
“Okay detective, you got me, I did a few bad things long ago and lived with it ever since, but I was no murderer! I was wanted on fraud charges, you see. I wasn’t always in the business of selling toys, rather, it was automobiles. Foolishly, I went by my real name back then, Audo, it’s a German name. I made quite a fortune rather quickly in the city selling broken down vehicles that I’d “fix up” into a workable-enough shape to drive off the lot. They’d eventually break down again, and sometimes they’d cause accidents. I heard one such accident was fatal. It all eventually came back to me, and instead of facing my charges I went on the run. Am I a crook? Yes. A coward? Yes. But a murderer? Not a chance.“
