The mobile phone mounted on the centre console of the industrial van lights up.

The ringtone is Welcome to the Jungle.

The chorus started to play just before a hand wearing thick gloves snatched it up. “Good evening, this is the Cleaners. Sandy speaking. How can we help you today? Do you need a basic clean up? Or are you needing serious stain removal done? We have a special on non-burnable trash this week.” The voice of the woman speaking is light and airy, someone with many years of training in customer service.

The shaking female voice on the other end of the line, on the other hand, not so much, “H-hello? Please... I was given your number by my girlfriend. She said you do-”

Sandy laughs, “We are cleaners ma’am. We’re one of the best in the business at removing stains and problems in the home. We’re also surprisingly good at industrial jobs now we expanded the business.” the laugh in her voice slides away, “Are you needing cleaning services ma’am? Some garbage disposal needing to be done? Stains removed from your life?” her voice is cold as ice as she asks the last question.

The voice on the other end of the phone stopped for a couple of slow breaths. When the woman spoke again, her voice was a lot more stable, “Yes, a rather large stain to be exact, it’s... all over the carpet. I hope that’s not a problem?”

Sandy laughs again as a smile spread to her lips, “Not a problem at all, we’ll get that out in no time flat. We have a slot open tonight. SMS the address to the phone number you called, and we’ll get on over there in a jiffy.” then she hangs up and looks to the bulky guy in the driver's seat, “Well bro, you called it. The next call was a real job. You get to pick where we stop for dinner.”

The hulking man in the driver's seat chuckled darkly as he started up the industrial van.

The view slides out to watch the van roll out of the parking lot it had been parked in. The yellow van has a pair of cartoon gnomes wearing cleaning gear and red caps. ‘The Cleaners’ written in a bubble font under the gnomes with the saying ‘We remove all kinds of Stains’ splashed under the logo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She doesn’t know why she called the cleaners her friend told her about.

She just knew she had to. It was that or the police.

He finally pushed her too far. He hit her daughter.

He hit her so hard she had to take her to the hospital. The doctor looked at her with eyes that made her want to cry. Her daughter clung to her, telling the doctor that her mommy never hit her. That her mommy always protected her.

So tonight, when he got back, she had. She protected her daughter, to stop him from ever trying to hurt her again. Half a decade she had been married to him, the first year had been so lovely.

Then his real personality had shown itself. When he got drunk, he would take any stress out by breaking things. It didn’t take long until he decided that she was the thing he wanted to break.

She wanted to divorce him, but she had no money. She had no family to fall back on. His damned mother just told her that she should just get used to it when she went to her. That it was a woman’s job to keep their man happy. That it was her fault he was unhappy.

She had almost convinced herself, almost lied to herself enough that she started believing that.

That delusion broke when she saw him hit her little girl.

She was staying at her friend's house tonight, a girl's night with her friend's daughter.

She was going to yell at him. Tell him she was leaving. Then he tried to hit her again when he came through the door drunk.

All she saw was red. And then there was red everywhere. His big body lying on the mat in the lounge room, his blood spilling out, pooling into the mat.

Then she called them. She called the cleaners her friend told her about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The knocking on the front door got her attention, and she went over and opened the door.

After she spoke to the woman on the phone she had quickly gone and showered and changed her clothes. Wanting to get his blood off herself, and not to show up at the front door like a Halloweener out of season.

A woman and a man so huge he would have trouble getting through the door, were stood there waiting for her, the woman spoke, “Hi! I’m Sandy, and this is my brother Davey. We’re the cleaners here to help.” she walked into the house without an invitation, “Now is it a lot of claret? Or a bit more than a bit?” She smiled and stepped into the loungeroom looking around at the splatter pattern. “Wow lady, you had some serious pent up party problems!”

Davey stepped through the door and shut it behind himself, his deep rumbling baritone slipping out “Excuse me miss.” he gently ushered her into the room after Sandy.

The woman started to say, “I can pay using his cards-”

Sandy waved a hand, “Don’t worry about it, from the looks of things we’ll likely need to charge the estate. It’ll be easier if we do it that way. Any nosey family members to worry about?”

The woman nodded, “His mother.”

Sandy started to grin, “Oh. That should be easy to deal with then. Come on, we’ll sit down and start getting all the paperwork we need in order while Davey does what he does best.”

Davey smiled at the woman, a gentle look in his eyes. “We’ll get this cleaned up in no time.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two cops strolled down the sidewalk. This neighbourhood was well known for being in the upper end of the city. As such the police tasked with patrolling the area were generally given alternating drive-through and walk-through shifts.

The pair had an older cop and a younger cop. Their conversation made it obvious that the younger cop had only just started working here in the city. As the older cop had been yammering on about all kinds of interesting historical facts.

As they strolled along the road, they spotted the big industrial van, and the young cop turned to the older one, “Is it normal to have a cleaner van visiting this area at this time of night? I mean, you’d think there’d be noise complaints.”

The older cop just laughed, “Don’t worry about it, you’ll get used to it. This company is pretty well known by us beat cops. They usually do some of the dirtiest jobs, and the station is known to hire them to clean up after homicide cases from time to time. Come on I’ll introduce you to them. It’s a family outfit.”

The young cop looked confused for a moment, but shrugged and followed after the older cop, he figured he might as well learn about the locals.

The older cop called out, “Evening, Davey! Just cleaning up?”

The huge man was deadlifting a forty-gallon drum into the back of the cleaning van, he turned and looked to who had called out to him and smiled, “Officer Mahoney. Yes. We just did a bit of stain removal. A couple of bottles of claret got dropped. Looks like an expensive rug just got written off on insurance.” he motioned to the rug rolled up in the back of the van, “Had to do a full washdown of the polished floors. Luckily, they were polished and not just stained. Those are very annoying.”

The old cop just laughed and patted his young companion on the shoulder, “Davey, this is our new beat cop, Rodgers. You’ll probably see him around this area. I’ll be sure to educate him about the local issues.”

Davey grinned and took his gloves off before offering the young officer a hand that could be mistaken for a shovel. “Nice to meet you, Officer Rodgers.”

The young man shook his hand, fearing he was about to lose the hand to this huge man, then after a few more pleasantries, Mahoney lead Rodgers off back on their patrol.

Rodgers said, “I swear I smelt blood. Should we c-”

Mahoney grabbed Rodgers's shoulder and propelled him forward, “Here’s a quick and dirty breakdown. You smelt nothing. Probably some chemicals mixing in the air giving your nose the runaround. They were there to clean up some stains. Ones that have no interest to the police. Just some party in the rich part of town that got messy. Nothing to see here.”

Rodgers gulped, “So. When you said ‘family’?”

Mahoney barked out a laugh, “Oh the mafia wishes they were in charge of them. They’d save some serious cash. No. They are the Cleaners. They remove stains. Remember that.” he looked over his shoulder, looking right into the eyes of Davey who had been watching them walk away.

“They are way above our paygrade. Probably above the chief of police’s paygrade. They don’t bother us; we don’t bother them.”

Rodgers shuddered and nodded to Mahoney, “Thanks. I’ll make sure to remember that.”

Mahoney smiled wide, “You catch on quick, kid. You just might make it to retirement, like me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The doors to the van slammed shut and Sandy had a grin on her face that could only be matched by the Cheshire cat. “Feels good to clean up something messy like that. We have a commission to clean up an older stain.”

Davey nodded and started up the van, “Got the address?”

Sandy pulled a notepad out from her top pocket, then flourished it like a sword, “That I do brother dear.” then laughed, “It’s the kind of stain I like to make sure gets a proper removal.

Davey nodded and smirked back at her, “So since it turned into two jobs, is that two nights of my choice of dinner.”

Sandy laughs and slaps his shoulder, “In your dreams. Get driving. I’ll get the address into the GPS.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day an older woman was found by her Neighbour that had let herself in to see why the dogs had been howling, she had found her half-eaten by the woman's pet dogs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six months later, the missing person's report had been closed, and the man was declared dead. His estate which included his deceased mother's estate had been passed to his only surviving relative. His daughter. The wife he had left behind gave a statement to the press that she hoped he found peace wherever he had disappeared to.