The Cleaner (Professionals 9)

"Their houses smelled like that solution?" he asked, looking up at me, something strange, but unreadable in his eyes.

"Actually, no," I admitted. "They all lived at home," I clarified. "With their parents. I couldn't get access. Why?"

"I think you need to rethink this whole thing," he told me, waving a hand with the picture of Maggie in it toward my wall.

"What? No. I've put a lot of work into this," I objected.

"I can see that. But there is a flawed premise here. These three women don't fit."

"They went missing at the same time."

"Yeah, but no," he said, grabbing some tape, then putting them up in their own line below the others. "These are the missing dates?" he asked, pointing to the numbers on the top.

"Ah, yeah," I agreed.

"There haven't been others in the area since them?" he asked, chewing the inside of his cheek.

"I mean, these three were all in an eighteen month period," I told him.

"Where?"

"Don't you watch the news?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Not if I can avoid it," he said, then stiffened, like he thought he wasn't supposed to admit that. "It's the same shit on a loop," he added.

"Yeah, but just to keep up-to-date on big things like missing girls."

"That's what your podcast is for," he said, and I had to give him that. I often saw a true crime content creator doing an update on a case before I even saw the local news covering it. "But you haven't talked about these girls."

"Because they were part of all of this," I told him, waving at the wall at large.

"No," he said again, voice firm. "You need to cover these girls," he told me.

"That makes no sense."

"It does if you realize these are two separate things entirely. These three girls are one case. The others are a different one."

"You think we have two serial killers in the area? I'm pretty open-minded about this kind of thing, especially in this town, but even I don't think that is possible."

"Think about it. When I leave, just give it some thought. I think you should do a podcast about them. Get some more eyes on their cases. See if anyone else can link other cases."

"You think I've been too hyper-focused on this one pattern that I missed another," I said, feeling a bit deflated, but also a bit relieved. It had always nagged me how poorly Maggie, Denise, and Shayna fit in with the others. I had them there because the timeline was pretty perfect. Maybe I'd been forcing them to fit when they never did.

"I think it's possible," he said, looking over at me before taking a few steps back to look at the new wall. "Work your magic on them, then get back to your other case."

"Okay. I will look into it," I agreed, feeling a pang of guilt as I looked at the pretty girls' smiling faces.

Even with just a glance after he changed it, I knew he was right.

They fit together, but separate from the other case.

Damnit.

I was supposed to be better than that.

This was why some armchair detectives drove themselves downright crazy over their theories sometimes, leaving them ranting and raving on discussion boards, or looking crazy-eyed in their own videos where they got dragged mercilessly in the comments.

You needed objectivity with this sort of thing.

And sometimes the only way to get that was to bounce ideas off of someone else.

Now, I had a ton of people to do that with. Other content creators. Actual true crime authors. Even a few retired detectives. Hell, I had an audience of millions.

But I'd let my ego get the better of me.

I wanted to solve it myself. I wanted to break the case. I wanted the bragging rights.

And in being that cocky and self-involved, I'd forgotten to focus on what was most important. The victims. Their stories. Their justice.

"Ugh, I'm an asshole," I grumbled, letting out a sigh, drawing Finn's attention back to me, finding his brows drawn together. "I mean, I can be a real asshole a lot of the time. But I'm a different kind of asshole for being so stubborn about all of this."

"You had a hunch. You were working on it."

"And overlooked these poor girls' cases," I said, taking a deep breath. "I am going to dive into this tomorrow, and push it up in my schedule."

"I'll be happy to tune in and see what you come up with," he said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"So, what do you think about the other case?" I asked, hoping for a confidence booster.

"I think you could be onto something, but it isn't nearly enough to go on."

"Yeah," I agreed, sighing. "Alright, come on," I said, making my way to the stairs, then waiting at the landing. "You have to go up first," I told him.