Every day for a month, a 70-year-old retired woman bought a red nightgown from her usual shop. The shop was the town’s most famous tailor, and the owner was extremely difficult to deal with. One day, the shopkeeper decided to follow her, and when he saw where she hung the dresses, he called the police.

Part 1: The Strange Customer of “The Velvet Needle” Tailoring Shop
Greenwich, Connecticut, is not for the poor or ready-made clothes. Here, Silas Thorne’s tailoring shop, “The Velvet Needle,” is a sanctuary of luxury. Silas is a man in his sixties, grumpy and perfectionistic to the point of extremism. He could kick out a billionaire’s wife if she dared ask for a waistline that didn’t fit her body proportions.

But Martha is the only one Silas never refuses.

Martha, 70, a widow with a stern appearance but always maintaining an old-fashioned aristocratic demeanor, would appear every morning at precisely 9 o’clock, as soon as Silas opened the shop. She never asked for measurements; she only bought one dress: a vibrant red silk evening gown, a classic design in the style of the 1950s, in one size only.

“That same red dress, Martha? I only have a few last bolts of fine Italian silk left,” Silas grumbled, his eyes narrowing behind his gold-rimmed glasses.

“Yes, Silas. It has to be the blood red of a sparrow. She likes that color best,” she smiled, a smile that didn’t reach her empty eyes.

This went on for 30 days. Silas began to feel a chill down his spine. Martha lived alone in the gloomy “Blackwood Manor” on the hill. An old woman couldn’t possibly wear 30 identical evening gowns in a month. What unnerved Silas most was that every time Martha touched a dress, she would whisper nonsensical words as if talking to a ghost.

Silas’s curiosity overcame his prudence. He wanted to know what Martha did with those dresses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Part 2: The Tracking at Blackwood Manor
On the morning of the 31st, after Martha left with the bundle of red silk dresses in her hands, Silas decided to close his shop early. He quietly followed her classic Cadillac up the hill.

Blackwood Manor emerged from the fog, its moss-covered walls and tightly shut windows like blind eyes. Silas crept through the back gate, making his way through the thick bushes toward the main hall.

The front door was unlocked. He crept inside, the pungent smell of preservatives and cheap rose perfume assaulting his nostrils. Silas saw Martha ascending the main hall staircase, humming an old dance tune.

He hid behind a wooden screen, his heart pounding. When Martha opened the door to the large bedroom at the end of the hallway, Silas was horrified to discover where she had “hanged” those dresses.

She hadn’t hung them in the closet.

Inside the room were 30 glass cages placed side by side. And in each cage was a life-sized “mannequin,” standing in various dancing poses. What made Silas want to scream was that all the mannequins had the same face—the face of a beautiful young girl with striking blue eyes.

Martha was meticulously dressing a new “mannequin” lying on the bed in the 31st red dress. She stroked its pale, cold skin and whispered, “Today is a big day, Rose. Your father will be home.”

Silas trembled as he pulled out his phone, dialing 911 in utter panic. “Police… come to Blackwood… there’s a graveyard in Martha’s house!”

Part 3: Climax – The Truth Under the Red Silk
Fifteen minutes later, Sheriff Miller and his team stormed in. They smashed open the glass cages. Silas stood huddled in the corner, unable to look.

“My God, these aren’t mannequins!” an assistant shouted.

When the glass shattered, the horrifying truth was revealed. They were the mummified bodies of young women, embalmed using a cruel and skillful technique. They all shared identical physical characteristics: blonde hair, blue eyes, and around 20 years old.

Martha was handcuffed, but she offered no resistance. She simply looked at Miller with a calm expression: “They are all my daughters. I only wanted to dress them in the most beautiful dresses to welcome their father home.”

Police found a chemical laboratory in the basement and a vast archive of missing girls from across the eastern states of the United States over the past 30 years. Martha, a former surgeon, had spent her life “recreating” her missing daughter, Rose, through these innocent victims.

Part 4: The Twist – The Dress Seller and the Secret of Red
Chief Miller approached Silas Thorne, who was slumped on the floor.

“Silas,” Miller said, his voice filled with suspicion. “Why did she choose your shop? And why has she been buying continuously for the past month?”

“I… I don’t know! She’s just a wealthy customer!” Silas stammered.

Miller took out a small notebook he had found in Martha’s handbag. He read aloud: “Silas promised that the 31st dress would be the last. He has given me 30 ‘ingredients’ over the past 30 years. Today, the final red dress will be draped over me to complete the ritual.”

Silas’s face turned pale. Miller flipped up the collar of one of the embalmed bodies. There, an extremely delicate stitch, a symbol in the shape of a cross, was visible.

The gold sewing needle—a symbol exclusive to Silas Thorne.

“So,” Miller looked directly into Silas’s eyes, “you’re not just a tailor. You’re the one providing identities and ‘arranging’ for the girls for her. These red dresses aren’t for the girls. The red of this Italian silk is dyed with a special dye containing a poison that penetrates the skin to preserve muscle tissue while they’re still alive.”

Silas Thorne wasn’t just a casual shopkeeper. He was the “architect” behind Martha’s madness. Every morning she came to buy dresses was actually to pay for each murder Silas committed. 31 dresses corresponding to 30 victims, and the last one was for Martha herself to erase the evidence.

Part 5: The Extreme Climax – The Final Sentence
Silas tried to run, but Miller was faster. At that moment, Martha burst into a shrill laugh, a laugh that tore through the gloomy atmosphere of the mansion.

“Silas, have you forgotten? The 31st dress…”

Silas suddenly realized his hands were stained with the red dye from the fabric he had used to wrap Martha’s dress that morning. A terrible burning sensation began to spread from his fingertips.

“Italian silk…” Martha whispered. “I’ve poisoned it with the same poison you always give me. If I must go, you cannot stay either.”

Silas Thorne collapsed, his hands stained a vivid red, like the blood of a sparrow, the very color he had always been so proud of. Blackwood Manor was finally freed from its silence, but at the cost of a cruel truth that Greenwich would never dare mention again.

Martha was led away, and Silas Thorne breathed his last on the bedroom floor amidst the shattered glass cages. The vibrant red of the silk dresses shimmered under the police lights, a reminder that extreme harshness is sometimes just the perfect disguise for a demon stitching together shattered lives into a masterpiece of hell.

When the FBI task force flipped over the Persian rug at the back of Silas Thorne’s dressing room, they discovered a sophisticated, silent hydraulically operated basement access point.

Chief Miller descended, his flashlight sweeping across rows of oak shelves along the limestone wall. There was no silk or velvet here.

1. The Bio-Spools
Instead of ordinary thread, Silas stored spools of fiber made from real human hair. They were meticulously sorted by color: platinum blonde, ash blonde, honey blonde… Each spool had a small label attached indicating the name, age, and date of “harvest.” This was what Silas used to sew the “biological stitches” on Martha’s victims’ bodies, making them appear alive.

2. The “Leather Fabric” Collection
At the end of the basement, next to a large stainless steel cutting table, was a wooden frame stretched with pale, thin sheets of “fabric.” Silas wasn’t just a tailor; he was a skin manipulator. When Martha discarded her victims because they were no longer “fresh,” Silas would collect their skin, chemically treat it, and use it to create accessory covers or linings for those horrific red dresses.

“He’s not just making dresses,” a police officer whispered, seeing the collection of buttons made from polished human bones. “He’s dressing Martha in the entirety of those girls’ existence.”

3. The Final Twist: The 32nd Fabric Pattern
On Silas’s desk lay an unfinished sketch for the 32nd dress. What sent shivers down Miller’s spine were the measurements noted next to it. They didn’t match Rose, nor did they match any of the younger victims.

They were Martha’s own measurements.

Silas Thorne knew Martha wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. He had secretly prepared to turn his only accomplice into his “final masterpiece” as soon as she completed her collection of 31 corpses. But Martha, in her madness, was one step ahead. She not only dyed the silk red with poison to kill Silas, but also to ensure that if she had to die, Silas would be the one to “sew” his own fate into the darkness.

The End: The Velvet Needle shop was permanently sealed, but from then on, whenever the ladies of Greenwich touched the red silk, they would shudder and wonder: Did the red truly come from the dye, or did it carry the warmth of a soul stolen by Silas Thorne?