Morley gave Stax a lop-sided smile at that explanation, then turned his back on the detective. The chief had never been much of a fan of Matt Stax. Rumor hinted that Morley's dislike for Stax had progressed to outright hatred after the chief had caught the young detective with his daughter. Nonetheless, Detective Stax was very good at his job, so both men agreed to let bygones be bygones--well, more or less.

After Stax and Morley's round of 'I'm the Man', they headed up to the warehouse-sized second level to continue searching for the murderer. With guns drawn, the men carefully explored every shadowy corner of the loft, until they came upon a half open door.

The young detective began to make his way inside, but was halted by his less anxious partner. "Whoa, we can't just walk right in there. What if he's waiting for us?" Morley asked.

"We have the chain saw, remember," Stax said. "I'm pretty sure he has nothing else to attack us with."

"Well, okay, but you go first. If anyone is going to get an axe in the forehead, it might as well be you."

"Gee, thanks, chief," Stax said as he moved into the darkness.

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine," Morley said, quietly.

After several hours of searching and finding an even dozen mutilated and decaying corpses scattered throughout the mill, the police decided to give up the search and came to the conclusion that the killer had somehow gotten away. Not surprisingly, the victims all appeared to have been killed and dismembered with a chain saw. A closer view of the bodies revealed long, deep lacerations, mainly to the face and torso, while each body was missing an appendage; an arm, a leg and the occasional head.

They had uncovered the lair of a creature who held host to unthinkable madness.

"Let's get these bodies outta here, before the media catches wind of this," Morley barked out. "All I need is for those god forsaken reporters to be crawling all over this bloody place," he continued, as he started to walk away from the group of officers. "I'm gonna go get the murder weapon. C'mon, Matt. You come with me just in case that lunatic is still wandering around."