"First of all, how can those plants grow without sunlight?"

Inspector Stevens fixed the plastic curtains at the side with some tape while Rachel took another close look at the small trees.

"It's possible for some plants to grow at very little light. They won't grow very fast though. Some even like to dwell in low light or even darkness. Maybe these ones could have been brought here recently though."

She touched a leaf with her glove and turned it to have a look at the bottom side.

"It's hard to say which kind of tree this actually is. I've never seen any like these before."

"Shouldn't be difficult to find out, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Any idea about the one in the basement?"

"The leaves have the same shape, it's just bigger and... well, made of human meat. So yeah, it's very likely the same kind of tree, just..."

Rachel shivered again, this time it felt even more uncomfortable.

"Any further ideas?"

Inspector Stevens suddenly pointed his flashlight on the trees, Rachel gasped and let go of the leaf in her hand.

"It's..."

She took a glance on the strange trees in the bright light.

"Maybe it's... --wait. There are some plants like for example mistletoes, which don't grow as trees. They grow... on trees."

"Sorry?"

"It's a parasite!"

Rachel grabbed the green plant in front of her with her glove and pulled it up.

She screamed loudly, as she suddenly had a half rotten animal in front of her face!

The roots of the plant completely surrounded something which looked like a small rabbit, half dried up and smelling like it had already been dead for quite a while. Rachel dropped the plant and the animal on the ground and jumped up.

"That's so disgusting! That's so terrible! Just let me out of here!"

She ran towards the half open gate, almost vomiting, not listening to the inspectors who were alerted by her screaming and now trying to calm her down.

"Ms Carter, please. It's okay, take some time, but please..."

Rachel wasn't about to calm down though. She walked across the parking lot quickly, pulling the gloves from her hands.

"That's some really, really wicked and wrong thing going on in there! I don't know what's wrong with people putting animals in plant pots and growing trees from their dead bodies but I don't want to have anything to do with any sick stuff like that!"

"Ms Carter, please!"

Inspector Stevens stepped in front of her and tried to slow her down, but she was just too upset to stop.

"That's just sick, just so sick!"

She threw her bag and the gloves in the trunk of her car.

"Ms Carter, please! I ask you to calm down and take a deep breath and then we will speak about it, slowly and calm."

Rachel took a deep breath and held it for a second.

"Okay. Okay, fine."

She finally caught herself again and looked Inspector Stevens in the eyes.

"I'm confused and scared and I don't think I can handle this situation very well."

"That's okay, nobody expected that something like this would happen. You're fine again?"

Rachel nodded slowly, still quite confused.

"Yes, I'm okay, Iguess... I just still can't believe that this is real."

She stared into the distance, without a focus.

"Ms Carter should maybe wait here outside and let us finish the investigation and just give her advice or idea about what this could be about."

Rachel looked up, she hadn't realized that Eddie came walking up to them.

"It's just a bit of work now, but as you pointed us to that important clue with the... dead rabbit it might be easier now to find out for what reason someone put up these plants in the warehouse."

Eddie spoke to her directly now, obviously just trying to lift her mood a bit by making her feel important and needed here and Rachel believed that he just wanted to help as good as possible.

"Yes, if it's not a huge problem I'd rather stay here."

Eddie looked at Inspector Stevens.

"We're about to unpot all of these green plants to check for any patterns and any more clues. Maybe they always used the same animals to let the plants grow on or maybe this single one was just an exception after all and the other ones are just normal growing plants."

Rachel doubted that but didn't say anything. Inspector Stevens looked at her.

"Alright, Ms Carter. You can take a short walk and a deep breath if you want but please stay in distance, near the cars. We'll be back in probably about an hour, hopefully with something helpful."

"Okay, I'll wait here for you to come back."

Eddie nodded while looking at her too.

"Enjoy the sunny afternoon a bit, it's a great day today."

"Come on, Eddie, let's go!"

Inspector Stevens was already half the way towards the warehouse gate. Eddie turned around and rushed to join the other investigators.