It was unnerving, to say the least. Too cruel to be a practical joke. What kind of twisted mind could do such a thing? The children were hysterical for hours, and we couldn't explain it away.

We had called the police, but when we showed them the evidence, they were disappointingly dismissive. One officer said something like, "C'mon folks, this is a toy! I think it's a pretty funny one, though." The postal inspectors were equally unimpressed.

The day after the murdered doll arrived, my husband got a strange call at work. It was like something out of a Mafia movie. A chilling voice said, "Did you get our little present, Bill? Taken aback, Bill, of course, answered, "Who is this? What the devil is this about?" And the voice said, "Don't play dumb with me, Jonesy. You should know better than that by now." And he hung up.  

Although we had hidden the doll away, the troubled girls couldn't get that frightening image off of their minds, and we allowed them to stay home from school, hopeful they would become functional soon. 

The private detective, Mike Dean, agreed with Bill that he had hit on something important. Mike was a highly respected FBI director, since retired, renowned for his plain talk and  keen mind. "Bill, it's a good thing that you've got a bundle, because this whole thing is going to cost you. I'm starting with ten men on this. As you say, there's got to be dozens of Wiliiam Joneses in the area. They won't all have kids, but that's still a lot of dolls, if they're using the same M.O. The bad guys probably have been working all of you Bill Joneses. And maybe at least one is known as 'Jonesy', which you're not."  

If Mike was on the right track, that would take some of the load off our shoulders, we thought. They might not be looking for my Bill, after all.

There were eighty-six Willam Jonses living or working in a radius of a hundred miles from our home, and eighty of them had young children or grandchidren. Mike theorized that they would be shaking down these terrorized individuals, but finding Jonesy was their number one focus. Bill believed his caller would be so skillful at "persuading" his "marks" to do as he suggested, that there would be relatively few of them willing to risk their childen's lives by notifying the police. If true, so much the better, because the field would be less cluttered with investigators.

Mike knew his business. Bill received another call at work from the intimidating voice, this time about the doll. What he said was so chilling, I remember it almost exactly as Bill told it to me. "Tell me the truth, do you still have that little present for your kids, Jonesy?" Bill admitted he did. "Good boy, Jonesy, I was just testing you. I know you wouldn't part with it voluntarily. But, I regret you will have to give it back  You may not have noticed that under the little girl's skirt there's a door. I'd appreciate it if you would open it and fill her hollow body with the jewelry in the top center drawer of your wife's armoire.  As you have likely gathered, you and your house are being watched closely. Make no attempt to contact anyone this morning. Kindly go right home now. Your wife is there, so please don't forget to relieve her of the lovely diamond wedding ring, and include it with the other booty in that hollow body. Oh, and give our regards to Mr. Dean."

"Bill, should we call Mike,?" I asked, after he gave me the awful news.
"We have to do what they say, Mary. It looks like they know every move we make, and we can be sure they're keeping a tight watch on Mike. They're playing 'cat and mouse' with us.  They might even have this placed bugged. I'm sure we'll have a visit from Mike. If there are any, hell find them."

Mike showed up in the afternoon with a hangdog face. "Don't pay attention to my worried look. I laid it on for our friends out there.  "i'd prefer they weren't on to me, but things could be worse. Let me take a look around, and see if they've done any more mischief." He returned about fifteen minutes later. "The place is clean," he assured us. "I'm thinking you might have had a close call, Mary. If the perps had time to calmly take inventory of your possessions, but left wihout bugging the place, they must have had to get out of here in a hurry."

I gasped, as I remembered something that happened a day or two before the doll came into our lives. "Mike, I didn't even tell Bill about this. At the time, I  thought maybe it had been my imagination. I was walking  home after some shopping, and when I was about thirty yards away, approaching the house, I thought I heard the front door slam. But when I looked up, I happened to be passing the big oak tree, and I just caught a glimpse of a man running away, and turning the corner. When I got inside, after I inspected every room, and found everythng as neat as a pin, exactly as I left it, I felt silly that I was so suspicious.  By the next day, I had forgotten all about it. But, Mike, now I'm sure you're right! That man might have killed me if I had been walking a little bit faster. Mike, is there anything that can be done now?"

"Yes, First of all, we've got to get the kids someplace safe. Here's what I want to do....I know you don't want to be separated from the girls, but, you can see it's necessary." We nodded in reluctant agreement, but how could that be done? Before we could say anything, Mike continued. "These sons-of-bitches have three cars watching the house. They have no idea I know. When I got here, I didn't look around when I was in the car, or when I got out. I headed straight for the house, and they saw me as a worried guy, only thinking about what he was going to say to his clients. You have to be a good actor in this business. That part was easy, because I already knew they were there, and how many of them there were. 

"I already have five two-man teams surveilling the situation. I told you this was going to cost big bucks. They're rotating, switching into various kinds of vehicles. Each one is former FBI, and they're real good.  Now, here's the plan. You've been been under a lot of stress. Make sure the kids get a good night's sleep. You, too. Tomorrow night, you can make your goodbyes."

(To be continued)