It's been ten years.

Ten years since this case first showed up on my desk. Ten years since I got more than an hour of sleep each passing night. I have long since retried from being a detective and the infamous "Toy Maker" case still haunts me to this day.

For those you who don't know let me explain.

The Toy Maker was a serial killer that paralyzed his victims (we suspected that the killer was a man) with a drug we had never seen before. When he got bored with his victims he would overdose them on the drug and it seemed to disappear within the body so we never figured out what it was. The press labeled him "The Toy Maker" because when we found a victim they would be dressed like a child's toy. Dolls, teddy bears, action figures you name it we found it.

One top of that he had one of the highest body counts I'd ever seen at the at the time so the pressure was on to catch him. He had over 40 victims and we weren't even sure if we found all the bodies. I was around forty-one at the time close to retiring when the trail suddenly went cold. He stopped killing and for a long time I thought that he would be the one that got away.....

.......until this morning.

I had just finished my breakfast and was sitting on my couch watching the morning news. "TOY MAKER CAUGHT!!" Was in big bold letters, I was in so much disbelief that I blinked and double checked my glasses just to be sure my old eyes weren't fooling me. They weren't. I felt tears of happiness and relief stream down my wrinkly face as I listened intently to what the news lady was saying about the man I had searched for for more than a decade.

"Yesterday the Creekwood County Police department was finally able to apprehend the infamous 'Toy Maker' after the case went cold for nearly a decade----"

I didn't hear what else she was saying as I was jumping up and down with joy not caring about my bad back or hip. I've waited for this day for years so I have the right to be celebrate my health be damned! Just then the phone rang and I ran over to answer it still jumping up and down in joy.

"Hello?"

"Louis! This is Patrick, did you see the news?"

"Yes I did! They finally caught him!"

"Doesn't it feel good?"

"Yeah but I just wish I could've been the one to put the cuffs the bastard."

"Well I think they'll let us go to his court hearing so looking forward to that. Also Scotty would be proud."

I froze at the mention of my old partner and sighed a little as memories began to flow through my head. Scotty was my partner on the toy maker case and didn't live to see the day that we would put the killer behind bars. No he didn't grow old with the rest of us, he was one of the toy makers victims and I'm the reason it happened. We had been investigating a lead on where the toy maker could possibly be staying and we came upon an old house.

I had told my partner to wait in the patrol car since he was a rookie and he didn't have much experience with this kind of thing. Scotty wasn't having any of it and insisted on coming with me so I let him tag along. I still regret that decision to this day and will for the rest of my life. We had finally arrived at the address and we decided to split up which is never a good idea especially when there's a serial killer on the loose.

I checked the front of the house while he checked the back. The house looked like it hadn't been live in in years so it was safe to say no one lived there. I was just about to call for my partner to see if he had found anything when a scream erupted through the air and I ran around to the back of the house only to see my partner's gun and flashlight (it had been dark when we went to the house).

Three days later we found him dressed like a Ken doll in front of my house with a note. This was unusual as the killer never left a note or any other clues at the crime scene hence why he so hard to catch. It read "It's all your fault ----The Toy Maker". We buried him that same day since we didn't have time for a funeral but we promised to give him a proper one once we closed the case.

"Louis? Louis!"

The voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I quickly apologized to Patrick.

"Oh sorry! Yeah Scotty would be proud."

"Yeah he would and you should be proud too."

"Why?" I asked sounding very confused all of the sudden. "Well they pulled his fingerprints from that old knife you insisted that we keep around so in a way you help catch him." Patrick explained and I smiled myself. I always knew that knife would come in handy even thought everyone else thought it was crazy to keep evidence from a case that would never be solved.

"Huh. Guess I was right after all."

I turned my attention toward the Tv which was now showing the footage of the police arresting the toy maker. He looked like to be in his late forties with black hair and green eyes and was fighting against the cops that were trying to escort him to the police cruiser.

"I guess you were."