Bloody mannequins have been found in various parts of the city of Los Angeles; all dressed in the clothes of missing women, and wearing flower crowns. No bodies have been found, but Homicide Detective, Adrian DeWitt, is the lead investigator on the...
Yellow police tape sectioned off a large area of the woods. I passed through the dozens of officers guarding the perimeters I had set, and stooped down to be at eye level with the blood splatter analyst, Jim. His camera shutter was going off as he photographed the scene. A flower crown was on the head of another blood caked mannequin. I plugged up my nostrils at the oddly strong scent of bleach and blood. It was his signature stench. Flies were buzzing everywhere, swarming certain parts of the mannequin. Jim finished taking his photos then let forensics step in to collect any evidence they could obtain. He extended his legs to stand beside me. Together, we watched two members of the forensics team turn the mannequin over. It'd been lying on a bed of dirt that gave it a dark coat on its backside. They took dirt and blood samples, before loading it into an evidence bag. They spent a few more minutes combing through the ditch then bagged up the crown.
Jim turned to me, informing me that it looked as though the mannequin had only been in there for a few hours. The blood had not completely dried and the bleach smell was still pungent. I lowered my eyes to the ground, searching for footprints, but the area appeared clean. How was this guy so good? Did he float around as he set up these scenes? The two hikers who had discovered it, were speaking to my partner, Kristopher Marner. I walked over to them, nodding my head in a greeting. They were describing the strange bloody-bleach stench and how they followed it to the ditch. Marner diligently wrote down everything they said in his windings-looking chicken scratch.
"Is this like a message?" The female hiker asked.
"Could be, or some teenagers playing a trick." I answered.
"Yeah, but that's real blood, isn't it?" her boyfriend, husband, or whatever, friend, chipped in.
"It could be an animal's blood too." I suggested.
"Are you going to find who did it?
I always hated that question. People tried to make it seem like all we did as cops was sit around eating donuts. It wasn't Tuesday, of course we were going to look for the idiots who pulled this off.
"Well, thank you. If you two remember anything else, please call us." Marner said, handing over his card.
The hikers gathered their things, walking back to the trail. Why was this couple off the trail, anyway? Didn't they know that was how people like them ended up in ditches like the mannequin?
"One of our officers said there's a cabin just a mile up the trail. We should go check it out." Marner told me.
I nodded, following him back to the car. We passed many hikers along the way, reinforcing the idea that whoever was doing this wanted their work to be found. My first thoughts when pulling up to the cabin was that it was old, dirty and deteriorated. It was the perfect disguise for a killing room. However, the killer seemed to be very clean. He would be disgusted working out of a place like this. The mannequin had smelled of bleach after all. He would never go for that. We stepped off the car and trudged up the dirt path. The windows were completely layered in dust and dirt, barely leaving a clear space to look through. Marner pushed the door open, shining a flashlight in with his gun drawn. He took the left and I took the right.
Dust particles got sucked into my nose, threatening to make me sneeze. Another discomfort met with my senses, smoke. My eyes turned towards the fireplace, to find that the wood inside of it was still smoldering. Marner finished checking his side of the house, coming to meet me at the fireplace. He knelt down with me, as I brushed two fingers along the bottom edge. Soot coated my fingertips as I rubbed them against my thumb.
"Could be that a bum spent the night here." Marner suggested.
"Perhaps, but wouldn't he just stay here?" I countered.
"Would you? This place is a mess."
"Maybe the kids that set up the mannequin were here. If they were looking to get into mischief, this would be the place."
Marner shook his head. "I don't know. What would a group of teenagers be doing out here with a mannequin?" He asked.
"It could be one, very lonely boy." I chuckled, dusting off my fingers.
"Nothing compares to the real thing." Marner joked.
"Yes, but this way, he doesn't have to call her back."
The room echoed with our laughter. A sudden whiff of chemical curled up into my nose.
It was light, yet familiar. I knelt down on the floor, breathing in deeply. Bleach, that was definitely bleach. My wife used to kill half the house every Sunday when she cleaned the bathrooms. The floor would have a faint odor just like this for days after. The lonely boy had definitely been in here, but not for long. This was not where he worked. I glanced at Marner debating whether I should bring up my confirmed suspicions. Not yet.
"These are pine floors. I just can't resist the smell of pine." I lied.
"Such bullshit, what crazy idea is going through your head?" He retorted.
When you have someone as a partner for six years, you just can't put anything past them.
"The mannequin smelled like bleach and so do the floors here. It's light, but certainly present. Don't you find it odd that the floors smell like bleach in what is supposed to be an abandoned cabin? The fireplace is smoldering. Someone was in here, and I highly doubt it was a vagabond with a hankering for bleach and fireplaces. The windows have been sealed shut for what looks like years, the smells are concentrated, meaning he probably smelled of bleach himself." I said.
Marner took a quick scan around the room. "So, we agree that it was a lonely boy?"
"It could be, but this is the third mannequin. This boy can't be that lonely and we have not released anything to the media, so it's not a copycat."
"Well, this cabin is in close proximity to where the mannequin was found, and this is the first time we've found anything like this place. We'll need to get people in here to scour and then possibly find tire tracks leading to and from the two locations." I said.
"We need to find out who this cabin belongs to."
Marner and I stepped back onto the porch, making a call to the forensics team to come and check out the cabin. The surrounding woods were as lonely as when we had first arrived. Whoever was doing this was no longer here, but perhaps he was close. Killers and strange people liked to watch their treachery unfold. Forensics arrived within 10 minutes then spent an hour and a half searching the cabin from top to bottom. Not a single hair or skin cell could be found. This guy was blowing smoke, he wanted us to find this place. We wrapped up the search when nothing concrete was produced, then Marner and I returned to the station. Jim had left the crime scene photos on my desk along with the blood test results.
I stopped for a moment reading the first page. It was human blood again, which meant we'd have to file another missing persons report. It was time we spoke out to the public. Tonight, the city of Los Angeles was going to learn about the mannequin findings. I continued reading on, the blood did not match the blood samples from the other two scenes. Three victims, with a month lull between the findings could only mean one thing. We had a serial killer on our hands.
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300 reads on the first chapter alone! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I'm so happy you guys are liking this story and I appreciate all the support. In other good news, the highest ranking was 200 in Horror! Drop me a comment or a vote and share this story :) - Alli <3
P.S. posting schedule for this story is every Friday until further notice!
