House Cleaners - by Ben Smith — S e r i a l i s e

"You know the deal, I just find these people and you have take it from there. I don't know why psychotic people are drawn to me. I don't use them or betray their trust that is your end of the arraignment. I just find them and tell you if they are more than just talkers." Jason Hilton looked at his handler with concern as she probed about his knew friend. "What makes you think this is the right one for the job? How should we approach him?" Chelsea if that was here real name got right to the point. "This guy has his own set of morals and thinks that anyone without his world views or standards is a piece of shit and needs shot or worse. He has all of the signature traits extremely narcissistic and doesn't have a weak stomach. Now I have gained his trust but I'm the submissive personality. If I approached him with the tasks you're wanting he would likely try and disguise his violent nature. You can probably come at him two ways, you could convince him you work for the CIA and need his skills or use his Sicilian heritage and convince him he is working for the mafia. It is already in his nature he just needs a reason." Jason said as he took a deep breath. "What do you think would work the best?" Chelsea inquired. "Well if your not in a hurry the mafia approach would work better but it needs to seem like a random encounter. Probably use a male with similar heritage and convince him this is a starting point that might lead to more. Invite him to dispose of bodies and not to tell anyone. I would likely be the friend he would tell because he trusts me. If he tells me than take him out but if he can keep the secret.

The other approach is faster and more to the point. Approach him at the gun range with a file on him. Find out absolutely everything and convince him that only by bugging his residents, phone, and any computer communications. He is obviously a private person and a little paranoid not having any social media accounts." Jason reported his assessment as Chelsea asked "You don't think he is a creep, pervert, or sadist?" "No I just think he fantasizes about killing people he thinks are pieces of shit as he would put it. He might kill someone who abused a woman he had interest in. According to his stories he had killed a few animals growing up, typical of a killer but never tortured them. He talked about wanting to kill a guy by stabbing him with a screwdriver that was getting out of prison because what the guy and his brother did to a teacher that came from one of those countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union. I guess they killed the teacher and put him in the trunk of his own car before taking the car out to the middle of nowhere and burning it. The neighbors had seen the brothers driving the car and that's how they got caught. They tried to say the teacher raped one of them but it wasn't true just a self defense strategy. One of the brothers was due to be released and he talked about offering him a ride and beating him and stabbing him to death with a screwdriver. He seemed like he was serious at the time but played it off as if it was just tough talk and not his actual desire."

Jason told Chelsea as he wondered who she actually worked for. "Well we are not in a hurry so we will try the mafia approach this time. We don't need a repeat of last time creating a rampage that got out of hand. This guy sounds like the role of house cleaner is perfect. I got the pictures of groupings all the way out to 1100 yards, not bad for a hunting rifle imagine what he could do with something a little more precise. So let's say we approach him at the range, how would you go about it?" Chelsea wanted to develop her strategy before taking action. "Well on one of the days that I would normally go with him I will just say I have a job interview or something believable. Your guy should probably have a couple of high end rifles and loading equipment in a van. 375 or 408 would be preferable with some kind of military background story. You could also use a 338 but your guy needs to be a good shot. He will naturally want to approach him and ask questions about loading ammunition. Your guy will have to leave an opening to improve the process for example use depth or powder recommendations straight out of the book. He will likely talk about his own strategies to figure out depth and powder for each load. If your guy has a Sicilian background and maybe an East Coast accent he could invite him for dinner. If you wanted to inject yourself you could play the wife or girlfriend." Jason's phone rang as he finished his description. "Is it him?" Chelsea asked giving Jason a funny look and smirk. "Yes, I could call him back if you want." Jason let it ring before answering. "No, answer it I got to get going and get everything arranged."

Chelsea put some money on the restaurant table to pay the bill and cover the tip. Jason answered the phone as he headed out the door. Jason's dad was a borderline psychotic so Jason often gravitated to people with similar personalities. He seemed to know how to make these type of people comfortable around him. He was submissive enough not to be threatening and empathetic enough to understand how they thought. This particular target was what was known as a house cleaner, someone who wanted to take out people they saw as worthless. Jason was used as a recruiter for whoever Chelsea worked for. He actually didn't want to know and figured the less he asked the longer he would live. They just seemed to want to find people for tasks that they could eventually blame it on and distance themselves from. They were grooming murder for hire without having to build trust over long periods of time. They would never suspect Jason as being part of the setup because all he did was find them and turn their information over. Chelsea and her group were the ones escalating things beyond words. Jason just made sure they didn't become chatty.

Supposedly John Gotti was the end of the Cosa Nostra in the United States. The Dapper Don and his high profile antics allowed authorities to shut down the majority of mob activities in the United States. There is still some activity but nothing like it once was. Gotti learned in prison that the mafia no longer had control or got special treatment. The Aryan Brotherhood had extorted the mob boss in prison. Since then what is left of the mob has been using their network to carry out contract killings. Most of the Itallian Mafia in the United States has gone legitimate opening Casinos and controlling unions. Most people are unaware of these changes and a group has taken it a step further but using the mafia or intelligence agencies names as a way of getting contract killings done by amateurs. This organization would scout for potential candidates to get sucked in to committing crimes they thought was for the mob or intelligence agencies like the CIA.

The new tactic was to profile potential candidates and convince them they are working for someone else. It didn't really matter if they got caught the information they had wasn't real. They would get paid for the jobs upon completion and provided with the resources they needed. Normally investigators use their crimes to flip them and work their way up to the top. John Taylor had a knack for attracting psychopaths and gaining their trust. His role was simply to find them and inject himself into their life as a submissive personality that they felt comfortable with. John would find out enough about them to decide if they were just talk or could actually be convinced to carry out actual crimes. His specialty was house cleaners which is a specific profile given to killers that think they are doing society a favor by taking out what they consider bad people. These were not actual serial killers they were just people with this world view that we're susceptible to manipulation. The actual serial killers often target prostitutes or have some kind of religious or moral driven quest. John was not sure who it was he was working for and figured the less he knew the better. He would just find these people and through conversations report the details of their life to his handlers. These people had certain traits that seemed to stand out for John.

A certain percentage of people who join the military do it for the possibility that they would get to shoot someone legally. This is a small percentage and most of them will never see combat and get the chance to live out their fantasy. John himself was not a psychopath but his dad who had died in prison was definitely. This is how John acquired the skills to find these people and make them comfortable around him. The people he worked for would often provide leads and he would find a way into their life. If they went to a shooting range for example he would show up with weapons that they were interested in. Most people don't spend several thousand dollars on a rifle but the chance to shoot one would be an instant way to find common ground and gain their trust. John learned to be a patient listener most of these people were extremely narcissistic and liked to talk about themselves and their world views. He wasn't looking for anyone delusional, he was looking for focused and well organized. John's handlers would take over once they were convinced the person was the right candidate. John's job after the handlers took over was to make sure the targeted individual would not disclose information to him. They would be told by the handlers that they were being watched and kept track of. With the information John collected it was easy to convince them that everything they did was being watched. Some of these people would respond better to being convinced they were doing a job for government agencies but the anti-establishment people were convinced they were working for criminal enterprises. Whoever they were definitely had an agenda of some kind. John just hoped he wasn't helping a foreign agency.

John figured everything he did was being watched and he would be a liability if he knew too much. He couldn't actually identify his handlers nothing about them standard out in the rare encounters. Most communications were done electronically on an encrypted website. If the information was especially sensitive he would pick it up at dead drops indicated on the website. John got involved in all of this after responding to an ad on a website. He thought he would be meeting a date but instead was lead to a file someone had gathered on him, possibly someone his dad knew in Prison or in his criminal career. The pay was good and gave John a lot of financial freedom despite being monitored. John had just picked up the newest file on a potential target. This target had actually been a descendent of a mafia family in the United States. A small time drug dealer who's hobby was long range shooting and load development. When this new target started investigating John things began to take an unexpected turn.