I FINALLY CALL my friends, hitting my head into the desk as soon as they come on screen.

"Hey Kati.... what's wrong?" Echo asks.

"There are too many of them! Young, old, white, black, poor, rich, popular, not... I cannot see any reason for these murders and the only thing in common is the bloody tongue thing!" I say.

"Then there must be something to it....," AJ says.

"I seriously can't understand why they—," I say.

AJ hits her hands on her desk.

"It's proof!" AJ says.

"AJ, you're an absolute genius!" Echo yells.

"I'm sorry I haven't slept more than two hours this week between cases and research and meeting people and interviewing people and apologising to people.... can you explain?" I ask.

"You know how some people higher up in the industry want to get proof of the fact someone has in fact been taken care of?" Echo asks.

"Oooooooh," I let out.

"Yeah! AJ, you are absolute genius! But then these were deliberate!" Echo says.

"But they have nothing in common!" I say.

"Let's see. Sarah, James, Jamie, Alexander, Heather, Evan, Samantha, Shawn.... is there anything in common with these people?" AJ asks.

I shake my head.

"Nothing really," I say.

"Let's put our best options. James was involved with druggies, that's a possible reason. But it wouldn't fit with most of the others," Echo says.

"Do we know political views?" AJ asks.

"We do, they are opposing on many fronts," I say.

"Many fronts.... is there a certain front they don't disagree on?" Echo asks.

"Not that I saw, they were pretty opposites," I say.

"Oh so that doesn't work," AJ says.

She looks down, seemingly thinking.

"Yeah. What about their histories with mental illness or illness as a whole?" AJ asks.

"Few had depression and some other illnesses were there but none where they'd have diagnosis's that are recognisably alike," I say.

AJ nods.

"Any addictions?" AJ asks.

"As far as I could see, Sarah was going to get out of rehab soon. I don't know what it was for, as sad as it is," I say.

"Nobody else?" AJ asks.

"Most of them never have come forth as addicts... other than Sarah that is," I say.

"Drugs maybe?" AJ asks.

"I mean I doubt it's possible. Echo, what do you think?" I ask.

"I think we are having a case and that I want to die. I don't know about anything else, I'm not exactly a genius," Echo says.

"Echo we are not doing this again," I say,

Echo falls silent, nodding. They then start going on their computer, probably looking through some shit about the victims.

"So Jamie and James were involved with each other. Was Jamie a bad person like his mom said a lot of people around James were?" AJ asks.

"I wouldn't say bad but druggie for certain," Echo says, scrolling through something on their computer.

"So you're not bad if you're a druggie?" AJ asks.

"No, that doesn't necessarily make you a bad person, that's just straight up stupid," Echo says.

"I've met a lot of bad people who are druggies," AJ says.

"But being druggies doesn't make them bad people," Echo says.

"I don't know, it's illegal.... is it not? Sure not all of them are bad people but they are doing a bad thing. Why would it be illegal across the world if it wasn't a bad thing to do?" AJ asks.

"Yeah, I believe so. But don't base what you do on what someone else does. Drugs are wrong but the people using don't always have the freedom of leaving after a stupid mistake. I gotta feel bad for them. When they want change, drugs get in the way of becoming a better person. It's rather horrifying for me to think about," Echo says.

"This is like the pedophiles all over again," I say.

"I don't feel bad for the people that do all these things because they're bad people, I feel bad for those who have to live with it. I don't believe in pedophile rights, I believe that some of them do the right thing by locking themselves up. I could never feel bad for anyone who touches a child that way," Echo explains, as quickly as they can.

"We know," AJ says.

Echo nods, turning quiet again after their stupid monologue.

"That's three involved with drugs," AJ says.

"We have five not involved in any drugs," I say.

"It's still possible they were," AJ says.

I nod.

"Let me look through the register for a hot minute," I say.

I take the papers and scam through them.

"Oh. What's this one?" I ask.

I put my finger on one thing.

"What is it?" AJ asks.

"These are from America. Our friend across the sea caught Evan driving while high," I say.

"That's four and four that have no evidence against the—," AJ says.

"Violent assault?" I ask.

"Hey Echo! There is a Finnish person in these!" AJ says.

Echo bursts out laughing.

"Shut up, AJ," they say, smiling kindly. Their tone doesn't say they actually want her to shut up.

"Who did the assaulter assault?" Echo asks.

"Adam Hemings, a man in his early fifties, apparently the hit in the head wasn't as bad as it could have been but did cause a hospital visit," I say.

"So is Adam Hemings a subject yet?" AJ asks.

I sigh.

"Let me pull up the case real quick," I say.

I read through it, eyes widening.

"The man attacked Hemings while high or heavily intoxicated," I read.

AJ's eyes go wide next.

"That's five out of eight! Look at the others one last time!" AJ says.

"One last time," Echo starts singing in their terrible singing voice.

I just sigh at the ear rape and start looking through the papers yet again.

"Alexander is with a sexual assault actually," I say.

"FUCK NO!" Echo yells.

"Now I can't be sure if he was maybe high," I say.

"Is there a case file?" AJ asks.

"Apparently it was only an accusation, the evidence weren't strong enough," I say.

"Oh fuck off, Britain! Did the case even get properly looked into?" Echo asks.

"Not really," I say.

"Fine, I guess. We can add that to a maybe," AJ says.

"I can figure it out, the assaulted persons number is still in the register," I say.

"You figure that out. Can you send files? I could look into Samantha a little," AJ says.

"From what I see, she has a very party filled life," Echo says.

"Are you assuming she does drugs based on that?" I ask.

"No but she was at a party that made it to Finnish news for the sheer amount of drugs and the amount of people that jumped out of the houses third floor thinking they were actually birds," Echo says.

"I can believe that. Is there anything else we should know about in these then?" AJ asks.

"I don't think so," Echo says.

"So we have Shawn left,"AJ says.

"It's likely he was considering most of the others only shared that details. So for these to be deliberate, there must be a reason. This is a reason we've seen before," I say.

I get the person calling Alexander her assaulter's phone number onto my phone and call.

"Hello ma'am, we're looking into the murder of Alexander Black—," I say.

"I didn't do it! I can assure you, I did not do any of it! I have an alibi!"

"Ma'am, we were more looking into the assault accusations," I say.

"Oh yes! He was either on drugs or very drunk! He came onto me at a bar and I said 'no' multiple times over. He did not take that."

"I'm sorry, ma'am.... but because of certain matters (Alexander being dead) we will have to lay that case to rest," I say.

"If you want to check my alibi, I'm a flight attendant. I wasn't in the country when it happened. I'm almost certain they will gladly confirm it. I did not have any interaction with the killer."

"We will check it, ma'am. Thank you for your time," I say.

"Goodbye!"

I send Laurens a text asking to confirm the story.

"What did she say?" AJ asks.

"Alexander was either drunk or high," I say, nodding along.

"So these are drug murders then. Helps me a lot in ruling out about nine tenths of my list," Echo says.

AJ hits her desk.

"I have to go, I have an apartment to get search permission for," she says.

"You know who it is?" I ask.

"I have a hunch and when I played clue to get ready for this job, my hunch was correct most of the time," AJ says.

"Who are they?" Echo asks.

"One of the people I interviewed had a record of drugs," AJ says.

"But don't you have a lot of druggies?" I ask.

"Drugs that come from all around the world he would sell on, according to a few people," AJ says.

"Hopefully you get lucky!" I say.

"I hope so too," AJ says.

She puts on her shoes.

"But right now, I have got to run," she says.