It's a great job, dressing them at the department store. The sales managers lay out the clothes but I get to pick how to drape them, how to turn their head just so to capture that insouciant spring flair, or that pensive autumn moment. While I dress them, I talk to them. Distract myself from their nakedness you know... they looked odd at first to me, naked, but I'm used to it now, they're beautiful in their own way even at the awkward joints and junctures.

I've given them all names. Lana is the blonde with blue eyes, and Lila is the blonde with green eyes, and Jennifer is the blonde with short curls. Maureen is the redhead and Audrey the auburn, Vivian the pale-skinned brunette and Angelica the dark beauty and May the black-haired china doll; and last and perhaps my favorites, Tess and Annie, the bald ones, with their assorted wigs.

I was putting a plum silk shirtwaist onto Lila, adding a black belt with hints of gold, when I first heard the voice. "She's such a tease, isn't she?" it said, a low, masculine voice with a seductive rumble. I glanced around and saw a tall, balding man standing next to May, who I'd just brought in from the window to change her from her current costume into a lavender sweater set with matching leggings. He stroked her high cheekbone with the back of two fingers, possessively.

"What're you doing here?" I asked him. He raised his thin eyebrows and quirked them together, shaking his head silently. I shrugged, and, done with Lila, started to tote her back out to the window. He followed me out, his stride light.

"Just visiting my girls," he said, sounding casual, then he did something that really scared me... he pulled the coppery pageboy wig right off Annie's head and stroked it like a pet, then dropped it, replacing his hands on her bare skull. "I could snap your neck like this," he murmured to her, almost lovingly. I shivered and hoped he didn't see.

Quickly I turned and walked back into the store. I pressed the silent alarm, summoning security. He once again followed me, and as if trying to be helpful, he unbuttoned May's blouse. He slid his hand inside it cupping her hard breast, then kissed her plastic lips... just as the security guards arrived. They looked at me, I showed them my employee badge and pointed, and they escorted the strange man away. As he left he said, "I'll be back for you... you're mine, you're all mine," addressing May, who listened silently.

Mike told me later they took the guy to the state hospital and had him committed -- he wouldn't stop talking about how they were all his girls. All the mannequins. All my mannequins. It was a good thing he didn't get a chance to hurt May, or Annie, or any of them.... I thought about that as I touched my gun, hidden under my arm, then looked at Audrey, who I was dressing in navy poplin that evening. I would've had to have killed him, if he had. After all -- I have to protect my girls.