CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Laura tried not to vibrate with pure rage as she got out of the car, slamming the door harder than she needed to just to get rid of some of that negative energy. The warehouse was right ahead according to their GPS – the entrance around the back of the converted office block they had been to so recently to speak to the therapist.
Oh, if only they had known back then. Maybe all of this could have been avoided.
“Where are we going?” Nate asked, his head whipping from side to side as Laura pointed ahead to the side alley she had already seen. There must have been another entrance which allowed larger vehicles to load and unload at the back of the warehouse, but she couldn’t see it and there was no way she was going to waste time insisting they park there now.
She led the way down the side alley and past the side of the office building, then around to a more cavernous entrance that clearly led into the warehouse. Instead of knocking, she tried the door. She didn’t want to wait. Even the small delay caused by a person walking over to let them in could be crucial at this point. The door opened and she rushed inside, taking only the minimum time required to assess that she wasn’t walking directly into danger.
The doorway led them directly into an entrance way, clearly designed for checking in shipments, completing paperwork, and perhaps loading and unloading smaller orders. There was a desk with someone standing behind it – a balding man with a rail-thin build who appeared to be scratching a few marks on some paperwork, who looked up and pushed his glasses up his nose as they entered.
“Hello,” he said, glancing them over. “Can I help? Are – are you the agents I’m supposed to meet?”
“That would be us,” Laura confirmed, nodding grimly. “We need your staff roster as quickly as possible.”
“I heard, and I have it here,” he said, quickly lifting up several sheets of paper. “I was just adding a couple of notes next to anyone who was fired in the last couple of years as to what happened to them.”
“Fantastic,” Laura nodded, turning to look at Thorson. “Detective…?”
“On it already,” Thorson said, stepping forward to take the paperwork, her cell phone ready in her hand.
“As for us, we need a tour of your facility,” Nate said. “Have you been able to complete a stock check for us?”
The manager paled a little. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It takes us a full day to do the stock check. That’s with two of us.”
“And you’re the only one in today?” Nate clarified, as they walked towards a door at the other side of the short entrance area, leaving Detective Thorson behind at the desk.
“No, I’m the only manager,” he said. “I’ve got a couple of employees with me today. They’re here for help with loading and unloading, and organizing the goods in the space. They aren’t authorized high enough to do the stock take.”
“Got it,” Nate nodded. “This is, what, the onboarding area?”
“Something like that,” the manager nodded. “Typically the drivers come into this area to show us their paperwork, getting everything signed off, and figure out where to unload. Then one of us will go with them, get the truck unloaded at the bay doors, and start transporting everything where it needs to be by forklift.”
They moved through the doors, and Laura felt a gasp escape her throat without any way to prevent it. The space they were walking into now was the one she had seen in her vision – she was sure of it. Here, it was brightly lit, and she could make out the back wall of the warehouse to easily define just how large it was. But no matter what the vision had concealed and blurred for her, the details she could remember were all there.
Right in front of them, stretching out into the distance but facing towards the right-hand side of the room, was a veritable army of mannequins.
“Yes, it’s a little creepy if you aren’t used to it,” the manager said, chuckling lightly. “Newcomers often have that reaction.”
Laura didn’t bother telling him that he was wrong – that she wasn’t afraid. No, she was pleased. This meant they were close – closer than they had been for the whole case. They were finally in the right place. She gave Nate a significant look, and he nodded in understanding.
This was it.
A chill traveled up her spine as they moved fully into the huge open space, looking right out across the storage area. Now that she could see it from this angle and in clearer light, she saw that there weren’t only the standing mannequins in lines – though they did seem to take up the majority of the occupied space. There were also other kinds of mannequins arranged behind them – seated ones, partial body forms such as disembodied torsos that were probably used to display lingerie, and, if she squinted, what looked like one area of only heads. She shuddered again. It was a good job the killer had chosen to use the full mannequin and not just heads. Somehow, that would have been even creepier.
“This is your full stock?” Laura asked, looking around. She couldn’t imagine there was any more. The collection was vast – and now she understood why it would take a full day to do a stock take.
“Yes,” the manager said. He had a kind of pleased, satisfied look as he admired the neatly-arranged rows. It had probably been his guidance to set them up this way and not just in a ragtag arrangement. “A lot of them are just here temporarily, waiting to be transported to the stores and boutiques that order them. Some, particularly the mannequins closer to the front, are overstock. We sometimes experience a rush on our services and need to make sure we have some spares around to cover it.”
It made sense, of course. Laura found herself drawn to the right, walking down the side of the rows of mannequins and then out in front of them. There was another opening right at the front of the room before all of the mannequins, the place where she knew she had been standing in her vision. She couldn’t resist stepping into that exact spot, turning, looking up to see the weight of all the collective mannequins seemingly gazing back at her…
And up ahead, somewhere in the middle of the huge collection, she saw one of them move.
“Over there,” she said, turning to the manager who had followed her over. “Is that one of your employees?”
He squinted ahead and then nodded. “Looks like that’s Dan. I asked him to take a look at the rows, see if there were any obvious gaps where someone might have taken something. Seems like he’s almost done.”
Laura felt something in her gut. She had no reason to suspect that this Dan was the person they were after. Not really. After all, he was just a random person she’d spotted among the mannequins.
But he was the one person moving in the field of unmoving bodies, just like she had seen in her vision, and that had to mean something.
“Can we speak to him?” she asked, glancing at the manager. “Just a quick interview, to see if he’s spotted anything.”
“Sure,” the manager nodded. He raised his voice suddenly, lifting his chin as if to physically throw his voice further. “Hey! Dan! FBI here want you!”
There was a pause, and Laura saw the mysterious Dan emerge from behind a column of mannequins and stare right at them.
Before she could fully process the realization that he was going to do it –
He turned and ran.