Right now, in another life, she is on a stage in a theater full of people. Her performance of a lifetime is coming to a close as she pictures reviews that cite her as a breakout star. In this other life, she didn’t puke all over the stage at her audition, no, she thrived and everything she dreamed of was no longer a dream. Yes, in this life, she’s a star.

“Do you have my investigating lipgloss?” Her boss, Paige Adams, asks, holding her camera up as she studies her appearance.

Her question is a reminder that Pearl Miller would never be a star in this life. No, for she was too busy being a meteorite stuck in the ditch of her own creation.

“The pink or the clear one?”

“Whichever one feels more investigatey,” Paige unhelpfully replies.

She grabs the clear gloss from the makeup bag inside a tote she’s carrying and applies it to her boss’s puckered-up lips. Once done, she's shooed away and stuck standing on the sidelines as Paige goes live. Years ago, when she applied for the job, she expected it to involve picking up coffee or packages not…

“Hi, guys! It’s me Paige Adams, and I’m live with you guys at an actual murder scene, I’m investigating!”Paige announces, enthusiastically.

This. This is exactly what she hadn’t expected from the job. When she first applied Paige was a known beauty influencer but out of nowhere( after binge-watching a true crime podcast) Paige decided to become a personal private investigator influencer and yes, Pearl’s still unsure of what that is. At least, this crime scene is fresh and the smell of a rotting corpse isn’t an unpleasant beacon of dread. She watches as Paige goes over to the corpse, lifting its arm as she tells her viewers perfect ways to prevent arm wrinkles.

How did they always end up at a crime scene? Usually, they were hired for missing person cases that sounded cut and dry but somehow these missing people always ended up dead. The police had warned Paige against contaminating these crime scenes but every time without fail she would. This time around, the police are quicker to the scene than usual, coming just as she’s explaining the best way to prevent blackheads

“Hey! What are you doing?” An officer shouts, making his way out of the car.

“Investigating,” Paige responds, a bit offended. “Privately.”

“You’ve been told several times that this isn’t what a personal investigator does but you just don’t listen do you.” The officer replies back.

“Please,” she says, scoffing. “You’re just bitter I’m way better at my job than you. And I’ll have you know this is my case, Pearl show him the file!”

Pearl scrambles to open the bag she's wearing and brings out the case file for the officer to look over. As he does so, his partner leaves the car, checking over the scene himself.

“Look, there’s another confetti heart!” He says with dismay.

“It’s the pink heart killer again!” Paige says , her tone dramatic.

The pink heart killer is a serial murderer that seemed to follow them wherever they went. The police theorized it’s probably an obsessive fan of Paige trying to gain her attention. Most likely, they gained the information from Paige’s current case livestreams where she recruited her followers to help her. Paige herself’s methods of research was just googling someone and groaning that someone’s socials didn’t have their government name in the handle. If there was a list of private investigator rankings Pearl is sure that Paige’s rank would rightly be put in the negatives for her zero capabilities in investigating. Yet, somehow, they still always had a case even though they always turned fatal.

The officer going over the case file pushes it back into Pearl’s hands as he curses loudly. He moves for the radio on his waist and motions for his partner to do something. His partner approaches Paige.

“M’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Paige huffs in annoyance.

“You guys are just mad that I’m so great at my job!”

With a frustrated sigh, she addresses the viewers of her livestream. “Sorry guys, I gotta go but come back in an hour where I’ll do my vent stream. Bye! Love you, my paigers!”

Ending the live, she walks away from the crime scene in a huff. Pearl follows after her and they head to Paige’s car. Once inside, Pearl takes the drivers seat as Paige stews in the passenger side.

“Can you believe that?!” She shouts in fury. “You would think after I’ve made several citizen arrests and did their job better that they’d actually respect me!”

“None of the people you accused were guilty of being the pink heart killer,” Pearl says, starting the car.

Paige glares. “I tried. And my process of elimination has definitely helped the case. Plus, who was the one who found out the commonality of all the killings?”

“That would be the viewers of your livestreams.” Paige’s glare intensifies, causing Pearl to clear her throat. “I mean, you did after you made that clue board.”

Pearl starts driving, heading to Paige’s house which is thankfully close.

“Exactly! I’m so great at my job that the actual job description can’t confine me, you know? Like, I could even psych evaluate the killer!”

“Is psychology going to be your new thing?”

“Umm no, I’m just an empath. Like, I just know these things though I would make a great therapist. Probably too good, you know?”

“Uh yeah.”

They reach Paige’s house, and Paige bolts from the car, desperate to update her fans. Pearl stays back, gathering Paige’s stuff before she even attempts to leave the car. She spots Paige’s jacket. Picking it up, something drops from the jacket which makes her notice the jacket pocket is torn. She goes to look to see what has dropped. Confetti. All in the shape of pink little hearts.