Storage

 What would you like to put in storage?

I pulled up the shutter door to the warehouse, and groaned as the sunlight revealed its contents.

"Jesus Christ, Jackson," my partner let out over my shoulder. "Where did he get all of these?"

Mannequins. The warehouse floor was covered in piles of department store mannequins. Every shape and color. Our job just got a lot harder.

"I don't know," I replied. "But I think you should call over a K-9 unit, ASAP. If this is really where he was throwing the bodies, we'd be digging for a while."

The media called him "The Taxidermist". He is easily the most eccentric serial killer I encountered, so far, on the force. He ran a taxidermy shop on Flint Street. We already caught him about two weeks ago. He was completely calm and collected, which almost made it worse.

In his shop, he kept meticulous records of every one of his taxidermy jobs, including his murders. To our horror, the logs listed several "jobs" where we did not have a body.

A record search for other properties owned by him led the two of us here, to a warehouse filled with mannequins. Finding a stuffed and preserved corpse in here will not be easy. I can imagine him chuckling at us.

"Alright, K-9 unit on the way," Dunn said, walking back up to me. I had not walked far into the warehouse, and was gently nudging mannequins with my foot.

I sighed. "Well, let's get started."

(written 2021 February 2)