Latest / Slice of Crimes | Serial Crime Story & Audio Drama / Heartbreak in Hartville Episode 3: The Unprotected Heart

Transcript

Heartbreak in Hartville Episode 3: The Unprotected Heart · Slice of Crimes | Serial Crime Story & Audio Drama

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Music.
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Episode 3 the unprotected heart hey
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there sleuths i'm casey your resident slice
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sleuth and i'm beyond excited to be back on this case when we last left off
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daisy had been missing for hours though it remained unclear exactly when or
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how she disappeared mary and dane marks entrusted with her care,
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had left her unprotected.
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Not only did they fail in their responsibility, but they compounded their mistakes.
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Procrastinating, hesitating, offering up confusing and often contradictory answers.
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It's almost as if they're afraid of being blamed more than they're afraid for Daisy.
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Incompetent, lying, guilty, or simply negligent.
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Whatever the underlying cause may be, it's clear they have hindered the search
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for her. The question is, why?
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And what is the true cost of those wasted hours?
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Detective Robbins is growing suspicious. If Mary and Dane are truly innocent,
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then why do they act like they have something to hide?
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And why does every explanation they give fall apart under scrutiny? Let's dig in.
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Mary and Dane Marks, still reeling from the horror of Daisy's disappearance,
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have been grilled by Detective Robbins for two hours when Mary suddenly remembers
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something, or rather, someone.
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A man had come by the school just a week ago, asking for a tour.
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He seemed like any other parent interested in enrolling his child,
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but now, with everything that's happened, something about him feels off.
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Dane, do you remember that guy last week? The dad who came by for the tour asking
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all those weird questions?
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Yeah. Now that you mention it, he was a little off. Kept asking about the cameras,
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wanting to see every part of the school.
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I thought he was just overly cautious. A helicopter dad, you know.
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Allow me to insert the obvious thought that has come to your mind,
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I'm sure, just as it has mine.
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Mary, really? You just suddenly remembered this after hours of questioning?
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And Dane, an unknown guy, asking extensive security questions,
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didn't set off alarm bells when a kid went missing? This is a hard sell.
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Okay, write down his information here, and I'll have someone bring him in now.
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And I'll put a line up together so it will hold up if I want to get a warrant
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on him. You up for identifying him for me?
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He may have given a fake name, so I don't want to start questioning the wrong
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guy. But don't get your hopes up.
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If he used a fake name, we could be chasing a ghost.
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I need you both to identify him for me. If it's the wrong guy,
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I need to know sooner rather than later.
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Mary clung to the hope that remembering this detail, the man from the school
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tour, would somehow restore Duke and Maggie's trust in her, maybe even Dane's.
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They all seem to be blaming her. But why? Just because she didn't want to overreact
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when Daisy first went missing?
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Anything could have happened. And as soon as she realized Daisy wasn't where
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she should be, she acted. She went looking.
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She sent Dane out to search too.
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Why didn't they understand that?
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Why did it feel like all eyes were on her, waiting for her to slip up?
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That feeling was starting to drive her mad.
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She jots down the name and address she pulls up from her business contact file
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on her iPhone, Derek Steiner.
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He doesn't live in Hartsville, so it takes Detective Robbins a couple hours
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to track him down and arrange for a lineup.
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When he is brought in, Mary and Dane are asked to see if they can identify him. The lineup is tense.
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Every face scrutinized. But Mary's hands tremble as she points to the man who
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stood in her school just a week ago.
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She assures Detective Robbins with a sigh of relief.
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It's him! The man who saw everything, who knew the layout, the cameras.
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That's definitely the guy!
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Dane nods in agreement. He is feeling the first sliver of hope. There's a lead.
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I'll hold him for questioning, but we need more to keep him. This isn't enough.
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As the investigation into Steiner deepens, Detective Robbins has Mary and Dane
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Marks, along with Duke and Maggie
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Hart, studying the surveillance video of the last time Daisy is seen.
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Maggie is in a silent trance. Duke can't sit still. He wants to be out there
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doing something useful.
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But then, while watching the video loop for the fifth time, Mary makes a disturbing observation.
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The outside camera, the one that should have captured Daisy's every move,
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was supposed to show more.
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But something's wrong. The angle is off. The sensitivity lowered. How could this happen?
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Dane, this camera, it should have caught her. But it's not showing enough.
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Like it's been moved. I turned down the sensitivity.
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I was fixing something that morning.
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You know, Mary, I was repainting the shutters on the upper windows.
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I was up and down all morning. The camera would have recorded me on the ladder
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the whole time. I guess I... I must have forgotten to reset it.
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Dane's words hit Duke like a bombshell. His patience snaps. And the pent-up
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frustration finally spills out.
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How many mistakes can you make,
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Dane? We're like family. I thought you'd protect Daisy with your life.
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But all you're doing is covering your asses.
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Mary, it's been two days. Two days. How could this happen?
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You don't know the stress, the scrutiny we are under. It's our school,
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and everyone wants a scapegoat, so it's us, well, me, actually.
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It's my name on the school.
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Mary, come on. Nobody is making you the scapegoat.
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We run the school, not just you, and that's why they are demanding answers from us. We were there.
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No, Dane, whose side are you on? I'm getting blamed for everything.
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Sides? Well, she isn't on team friendship, that's for sure.
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Whose side am I on? I'm on Daisy's side. We all are.
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There's only one side, Mary. I can't stand here with y'all staring at me,
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waiting for my next mistake.
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You know attacking me isn't helping Daisy. But I guess it makes you feel less guilty.
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Is that it? Displaced guilt? Seems like there's plenty of that going around.
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Duke decides not to get involved in Mary's tantrum. He will leave it to Maggie.
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She should be able to get through to Mary.
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Anyway, this is a waste of precious time and energy.
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They need answers, and they need them now.
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That's when Dane takes a drastic step. He approaches Duke privately,
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telling him he's planning to bring in cadaver dogs.
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Duke's face pales, the weight of that decision heavy on his heart.
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Cadaver dogs? What are you saying? Do you know something, Dane?
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No, no, but Duke, listen. We need to be thorough. We'll tell Maggie they're
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search dogs. No need to scare her.
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This decision is gut-wrenching. It feels like he is giving up.
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And he can't stand lying to Maggie, but he wants,
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So, reluctantly, Duke agrees. When they bring the idea to Robbins,
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he also agrees, and Duke's stomach drops.
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Will this help them locate Daisy, or bring unbearable heartbreak?
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Robbins calls up the county canine team and requests two dogs with handlers
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for the following morning.
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It's been 40 hours so far, and the searches have yielded no trace of Daisy.
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Detective Robbins, Duke, Dane, Maggie, and Mary all drive to the schoolhouse property together.
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Mary and Maggie were insistent they wanted to watch the search dogs find Daisy's trail.
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Duke and Dane remained silent.
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Duke's heart ached seeing Maggie so hopeful. He silently prayed the dogs wouldn't find anything.
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Robbins explained to them that the dogs need room to do their job.
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In other words, he wanted them to stay away. They ignored him and climbed into
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the SUV with their husbands.
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Music.
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Two dogs and their handlers were waiting in the school parking lot.
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The search began on the backfield where the kids play and where Daisy was last
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seen on a surveillance camera.
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From there, they concentrated on the parking lot area and the outer buildings,
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like the storage sheds alongside the main building.
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Neither of these areas were covered by cameras, and it became painfully obvious
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how Dane and Mary's negligence allowed wide open lanes of opportunity for child predators.
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They didn't have enough information to target areas, more specifically.
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Dane also brought his Lexus in for the dogs to check.
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Mary and Maggie stayed inside the schoolhouse, so neither saw the dogs thoroughly sniff Dane's car.
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It would have traumatized them both.
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It had been washed inside and out, which Robbins noted, but Duke knew pristine
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was the usual state of the car.
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Getting so muddy at the park probably drove Dane crazy, he thought.
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His OCD couldn't handle it.
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So while it raised a red flag for Robbins, Duke wasn't concerned.
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All in all, the dogs were there over an hour when one of them alerted.
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The second canine was brought over and also alerted at the same spot.
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Music.
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Robbins found Emily, who was working in the classroom, without students,
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of course, and began to re-interview her then and there.
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At the same time, a forensics team came in to process the car in place before
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bringing it in for further detailed testing.
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As far as what Maggie and Mary thought about all of this, they were not told.
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Not yet for Duke's request. He'd rather Maggie be sad they didn't find anything.
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Music.
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Than know the truth. The possibility?
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No, instead, Duke brought the four of them back to the ranch to wash up, eat, rest if they could.
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First of all, I need you to understand that right now, it is perfectly clear
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that your original interview left a whole lot of information out.
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I'm going to ask you a few questions right here.
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Right now, because I need immediate answers. But in a few minutes,
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I'll be having an officer bring you to the station for a more thorough interview.
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I would very much like your cooperation.
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I don't understand. I told you everything I know. As soon as I realized Daisy was gone, I called 911.
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Mary said she was going to look for her, but no way I was waiting for that.
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And besides, I had all the other kids by myself, and I didn't want to scare them.
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I didn't see Daisy after recess. That's it. You're scaring me.
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Yes, I imagine you're frightened. Emily, the dogs, the ones we brought out to search today.
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They're cadaver dogs, and they alerted at the trunk of your car.
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Is there anything you want to tell me? This is your chance to help here.
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Wait, what? Alerted? What? What's alerted?
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Look, my boyfriend borrowed the car that morning. He dropped me at work around
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7.20, and then he dropped my car back off around 11.
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He left the key in the car so I could get home.
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Your boyfriend was here? We need to speak with him. Where is he now?
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He's... he's in Cancun. Deep sea fishing. You can't reach him.
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I can't even reach him at least until tomorrow.
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Her boyfriend's unreachable? Things are not looking good for Emily.
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But Detective Robbins doesn't react.
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He doesn't want her to end the interview. He has to ask the hard questions, though.
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As soon as he does, Emily's story begins unraveling. And when they ask about
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the cadaver dog's alert, her explanation only makes things worse.
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What do you think about the dogs alerting to your car, Emily?
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My boyfriend. He cleans fish in the trunk in a cooler. Maybe something spilled?
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Cadaver dogs only alert to the scent of human decay, Emily. Not fish.
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The realization hits her like a freight train. Emily's breathing becomes erratic,
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her hands shaking as the panic sets in.
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The pressure is too much and she collapses into a full-blown panic attack,
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leaving the detectives with more questions than answers.
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She's taken to the hospital, sedated, while the police focus on her,
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her car, and her elusive boyfriend.
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The interview is to be continued.
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While Emily checks into the hospital, Detective Robbins checks in at the police station.
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All hands on deck, they have called in nearby law enforcement to conduct the
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ground searches, air searches with heat detection, and organized community volunteers.
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His guise are deep into the digital research, forensics, following up leads.
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Music.
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And the heavy influx of tips.
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As a team is assigned to hone in on Emily, the situation with the suspicious
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dad from the lineup takes another twist.
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He claims to be a county school board inspector allowed to perform clandestine
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inspections on privately run schools to assess safety compliance.
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But his story doesn't quite add up. This could be a cover story.
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He doesn't have a child and his explanations are vague.
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Now he'll need to prove his claims or face the consequences.
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We're going to need proof of that inspection, or this is going to escalate quickly.
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Yes, sir, I'll call the department he claims to work for and see if they can
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provide the inspection report for that visit immediately.
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If everything checks out, he says they failed the safety inspection.
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Apparently, the school needs way more cameras, inside and out.
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Even the parking lot doesn't have one.
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He mentioned there are plenty of ways someone could move around the school without
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ever being caught on camera.
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Convenient, isn't it? An inspector who happens to know the school's vulnerabilities
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inside and out just before Daisy disappears.
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Let me know as soon as you hear back from them. If he's telling the truth,
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I want that report on my desk.
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Robin's mind was racing. How had this man, Derek Steiner, known so much about
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the school's weak points?
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Just too much coincidence. Detectives rarely believe in coincidence.
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If the department he claimed to work for verified his credentials,
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the Marxist school was already skating on thin ice. But if he'd lied,
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the investigators had just unearthed a much more sinister possibility.
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As the minutes dragged on, Robbins couldn't shake the feeling that Steiner was hiding something.
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If Steiner had found the holes in the school's security, had someone else taken advantage of them too?
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Or had Steiner himself been involved in Daisy's disappearance?
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Perhaps they should be looking for more than one suspect.
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Robbins wouldn't rest until he found out.
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Episode three is history. Any of you sleuths have a theory about Daisy's demise?
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Or maybe you're sticking to no body, no murder?
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Well, it's true, nothing is ever exactly as it seems on Slice of Crimes.
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That means the possibilities are wide open.
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It seems like this episode raised tons of questions. Will they be answered in episode four?
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Join me next week to find out. Until then, keep your eyes sharp and your theories
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sharper. Infinite thanks for listening.
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How do you feel after an episode of Slice of Crimes?
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One step closer to the truth, if you haven't cracked the case yet,
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no worries, you're not alone.
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But before you go, remember, the mystery doesn't end here.
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Enjoyed this episode? Show some love, share, slice of crimes with your friends,
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family, or even that neighbor who's a little too interested in true crime.
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Oh wait, that's probably you.
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Your five-star ratings and killer reviews help keep these investigations coming.
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And I couldn't do it without you.
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Got your own theories? Burning questions? Or maybe a case you think I should
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tackle next? I'm all ears.
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Send your ideas and suggestions my way.
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The more you engage, the sharper my sleuthing gets.
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So until next time, fellow sleuths, keep your wits about you.
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Stay curious. Stay sharp.
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You never know what the next slice of crime will serve up. And trust me,
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you won't want to miss it.
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Infinite thanks for listening today and for tuning in next week. you.