Tony Kowalski

Tony Kowalski, a character in the Crimes of Passion series, is a blacksmith and a serial killer. He is first seen in Book 1, Chapter 1, although his identity isn’t revealed until Chapter 14.

Appearance
As Tony, he has grey eyes, medium-length wavy hair, light skin and a thick beard. He wears a black t-shirt underneath a brown ripped jacket, and it's noted that he has a strong-build. As the killer, he wears a long black and golden cultist robe with a hood, a golden belt, and black clothes underneath. He also wears a golden goat skull mask with horns and three circles on the forehead.

Personality
Tony can be considered cold and psychotic given that he murders people in cold blood and in a very brutal matter. He's also fanatic because of his excessive, single-minded and extreme religious cause. During your fight with him in Chapter 5, he claims that he will "ascend" and tells an unknown deity to "give him strength", showcasing that he believes his religious mission gives him power and will prevent him from facing justice. According to Dr. Calina Navarro from the Student Disciplinary Committee, Tony suffers from psychiatric illness, rage issues, and an obsession with violent occult symbology.

Based on the evidence you find in Chapter 13, you deduce that Tony is immature, nervous and shy when committing murders and stalking people. He also seems to be hunting for a specific type, and to have issues with confident women.

Background
He is the son of "Kowalski and Son", a family-owned forge. According to him, ever since his father died and his grandma needs help, their shop has fallen into hard times and he had to take jobs from the cult to keep their business afloat. Whether or not the first part is true remains to be seen. However, according to Nick Bastion, the cult did not come to Tony to offer him business. It was Tony who solicited work from the cult, offering custom gear like the old Hand of Mahra used. Tony only contacted the group when he had a new shipment of items to sell.

He claims to be a nursing student at SUNY (The State University of New York), which is why he has medical textbooks in his shop. In reality, he had never enrolled in nursing classes, and only audited them while he was studying history at Manhattan University. Because he showed promise in the history department, his advisor, Winston Reese, pushed him into seeing a counselor due to his dropping attendance. His counselor referred him to more specialized care, outside of her scope and stopped seeing him. When he began to stalk her, she endorsed the disciplinary committee's recommendation to expel him.

Book 1

 * Chapter 1: Cross Your Heart
 * Chapter 2: Follow My Lead
 * Chapter 3: Body Language (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 5: Up In Flames
 * Chapter 6: Sleep When You're Dead (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 8: Forging Ahead
 * Chapter 11: Reasonable Doubt (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 12: Sabbatical
 * Chapter 13: A Stab in the Dark (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 14: The Heat
 * Chapter 15: The Final Curtain
 * Chapter 16: The Heart of the Matter
 * Chapter 17: The Long Goodbye (Mentioned)

Your Character
In Chapter 8, when you and Trystan arrive at his shop, he attacks you, stating that he thought you two were with the cult and are there to kill him. When you interrogate him, he lies to you and tells you he has no idea what the cult does, and he just did as they asked. He also explains that a cult member got in touch with him online and he has been doing business with them since then, as they paid him well.

In Chapter 13, when Trystan has a spark of inspiration to look into the trusts behind the Blake Hill Preservation Society, you two find an entity called EB Holdings. Through them, you two find the name of the groundskeeping company that does work at the old Hand of Mahra headquarters, Greenhouse Landscaping.

Trystan Thorne
When you and Trystan find Professor Reese in Chapter 12, Tony stabs Trystan and escapes.

Dr. Calina Navarro
She’s a member of the Student Disciplinary Committee who examined Tony. At first she thought that Tony had a difficult upbringing, but then she realized that Tony suffers from psychiatric illness beyond the scope of her training. She then referred Tony to more specialized care and ceased their sessions. After that, she discovered that Tony was stalking her, and therefore filed a restraining order and alerted campus security. Not long after, her dog went missing and Dr. Navarro believed that Tony was involved, which prompted her to endorse the Committee’s recommendation in expelling Tony effective immediately.

Winston Reese
He is Professor Reese’s killer whom Tony studied occult symbology under. In Chapter 12, it is revealed that he kidnapped him shortly after you and Trystan talked to him, and when you do eventually find him, he passes away from his injuries in Chapter 13.

Bird
If he has no accomplice and instead purchases his supplies himself, he may have used Nick Bastion's alias "Vosegus" to contact Bird via the dark web to purchase novogliterol a few weeks ago. It was a one time purchase, and he met with Bird in person at Bird's club approximately thirty minutes before Sonja called Trystan Thorne. Due to the lighting in the club, Bird doesn't remember what he looks like.

Mahra
Tony seems to be worshipping some unnamed goddesses, and he gives them Sonja's heart as an offering by placing it in their shrine. He then promises them many more, presumably from killing more people. In Chapter 6, the goddesses are identified as Mahra. After you arrest him, he yells that his work isn't done yet and that Mahra needs three sacrifices.

Sonja Dormer
He is Sonja's killer. He kidnapped her, tied her underneath the Calloway museum during a gala, and when she tried to escape, he murdered her by stabbing her, cutting her heart out of her chest, and then hanging her. Shortly before dying, Sonja recognized her killer.

Bethany Delgado
He is Bethany's killer. He killed her by stabbing her in the chest with a kris as she prepared for a meeting with you and Trystan. He took great care to isolate Bethany, switching the room plates so that his execution was not interrupted.

Known Victims

 * Sonja Dormer (Murdered via being exsanguinated)
 * Bethany Delgado (Murdered via being stabbed)
 * Your Character (Non-fatally attacked)
 * Trystan Thorne (Non-fatally stabbed)
 * Winston Reese (Murdered)
 * Maria Thompson (Non-fatally shot)
 * Eleanor St-Claire (Murdered by being shot)

Miscellaneous

 * -|In Game=

Trivia

 * His crimes include kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, arson, and stalking.
 * His weapon of choice is made of Azuran Iron, which is rare, very expensive, and imported from Europe.
 * His true identity is revealed in Chapter 14.
 * He shares the same forename with Tony Rez from Veil of Secrets and Tony Flores from Wishful Thinking.
 * Dr. Navarro believes that he's responsible for her dog going missing, but this has not been proven.