Synopsis for
"The Cleaner"
Rag Dolls (2008)

William paces outside his truck. He clutches the funeral card for Mickey and looks to the heavens.

"This doesn't even come close to making sense," William says. "You tell me how you justify this one."

CUT to a dingy bathroom. A young woman named Paula is overdosing. Blood pours from her nose. Another young woman, Jackie, cradles her. A third young woman, Lollie, enters. "Jackie, we got to get outta here!" she says. But Jackie refuses to leave the girl.

CUT to William. "Why?" he asks. "I put my trust in you, my faith and I'm not even a religious man ... Am I supposed to continue doing your work?"

CUT to Jackie. Apologizing to Paula, she finally relents to Lollie's desperate plea. "I'm sorry," she says ... before leaving the bathroom.

CUT to William, crouched over Mickey's grave.

CUT to Paula. The girl is dead.

CUE opening credits.

William awakens from a sexy dream starring Melissa only to find that he is sleeping alone. Again. William enters the kitchen to find his wife at the kitchen table. "So I had the dream again," he tells Melissa. She blushes ... and then brushes him off.

William goes out to visit a rock star he has been babysitting when a woman named Irene Kemp approaches. She thinks that her daughter has a drug problem -- despite the fact that the girl has tested clean three times. Mrs. Kemp then hands William a matchbook that she found in her daughter's room. The book has a phone number written on it.

"I'll give it some thought," William says.

William gets a call. He's late for a meeting with Lula's teacher. Sister Alma complains that Lula is perfect, explaining that such flawless behavior is not normal for a 14 year old. She wonders if Lula feels safe at home and if her controlled demeanor isn't a defense mechanism of some kind.

William gets up in a huff, insulted. His ringing cell phone provides a perfect excuse to exit the parent-teacher meeting. Sister Alma follows him outside and hands William the matchbook. He had dropped it while storming out.

"A message?" William asks the skies.

William and Darnell are picking a lock at a dingy motel. It wasn't a phone number on the book, after all, explains William. It was a dealer code. The number is for this specific motel room. Darnell, meanwhile, proves adept at breaking and entering. William gives the man a wry smile.

Inside the room, William smells bleach. "It feels like everything's been erased," William says. "Somebody wanted to make sure this place had no history." But they got sloppy. Using a black light, William spots blood on the bathroom tile. He calls Mrs. Kemp. "I'll take your daughters case," he says.

Later, Mrs. Kemp and her daughter, Jackie, arrive at a surf shop where William pretends to work. While he talks up the unsuspecting girl, Arnie plants a GPS on her car. The team is working like a well-oiled machine. For now.

Melissa and Lula, meanwhile, are grabbing lunch. "If you do something wrong, its normal," says an awkward Melissa. "Everything's fine," Lula snaps.

Back at the garage, Arnie and Akani are hazing poor Darnell. They've pulled up his dating page on Akani's laptop. Turns out that the Akani and the new guy match in 20 different categories. Darnell is mortified.

William enters. He explains that Jackie is an 18-year-old surfer with good grades who has just tested clean ... again. The team is doubtful, but William has decided to trust his gut on this one. Even worse: It's going to be a pro bono case. Arnie groans.

Darnell and William trail Jackie and Lollie. Bikini-clad Akani is stationed at the nearby beach. Cowboy hat clad Arnie pretends to search the beach with a metal detector. Jackie is getting ready to surf and spots Paula's mug on a missing-person poster. Jackie panics but Molly -- snorting something as usual -- tells her the cops "can't tie us to her."

The two teens surf. Akani, working undercover introduces herself as "Echo" and makes fast friends. Later, the surfers gather for a beachside party. A lifeguard/ dealer named Tim asks the pair if they're up for "tonight." They most certainly are. Jackie asks Tim about Paula. Tim explains, rather unconvincingly, that Paula is just "resting" somewhere. Akani suddenly appears, introducing herself to a smitten Tim.

The two girls then jump into Lollie's car, leaving Jackie's GPS-equipped car in the lot. Darnell is assigned to tail them. William warns Darnell not to "get made." Meanwhile, Arnie spots Akani taking a pill from a guy at the party. Arnie confronts Akani, who spits out the pill in William's hand.

"No need to jump to inappropriate conclusions," a shamed Arnie says.

Later, William gets a visit from Mickey's ex wife. She hands William a baseball that belonged to Mickey. "He loved you William and even you couldn't have saved him," she says. William still feels much guilt.

William arrives home. He apologizes for his reaction to Sister Alma, but asks that they "try to keep things in perspective when it comes to Lula." "She's trying to be the perfect little girl to keep us together," Melissa says. William doesn't want to hear it. He heads to bed.

The next morning, William is awoken by a call from Akani. Darnell lost the girls for an hour, but then found them in a parking lot. William agrees to head over. What did they do in that missing hour?

Lollie sits in her car shaking. The girl is obviously high on something. Jackie, meanwhile, is in a nearby bathroom. Akani stops by, says hello and then takes Lollie's water bottle when her back is turned. It's glycerin, a laxative. Akani calls William with the news.

"Jackie's a drug mule," William sighs.

Arnie emerges from the bathroom gagging. The mule theory has been confirmed. Balloons of heroin are stashed under the toilet bowl. Akani notices Tim watching with binoculars. He goes into the bathroom and finds that the stash is one balloon short. The team watches as Tim and another thug accost Jackie on the beach, accusing her of stealing the balloon. It then dawns on Tim that Lollie probably took it.

"That crazy dope whore b****," as Tim so elegantly puts it.

It's time for Akani to drop her cover. She brings Jackie to William, who shows the girl the missing-person poster and demands to know where Lollie is going. It could be one of two spots. The team splits up. Jackie admits to William that the girls were carrying balloons for Tim when "something happened" to Paula. Jackie doesn't feel so hot herself.

Akani and Darnell call. They've found Lollie ... and she doesn't have the balloon. "That means Jackie has still got a balloon of heroin stuck inside her and she doesn't know it," William says. "She was feeling sick earlier. The balloon mustve broke inside her!"

Jackie falls to the ground, coughing up blood and bile.

Some time later, a group searches a brushy area near the beach. They find something. It's Paula's body. She has been buried. SPLIT SCREEN: We see Tim being taken away in handcuffs.

At the rehab center, Lollie and Jackie embrace. We learn that Jackie has only recently been released from the hospital. "Hey, once we get out of here we do one more job and bounce, OK?" asks Lollie, who has obviously learned nothing. This time, Jackie doesn't listen to her friend. "No," she says. "I'm done, Lollie." Lollie leaves in a huff.

William arrives, carrying a surfboard.

"Is that for me?" Jackie asks.

"It's not for me," William says.

Back at the garage, William examines the baseball. He misses his friend.

"Just take good care of him," William says to the heavens.

Later, he arrives home and finds Lula studying in bed.

"One of the best ways to learn in life is by making mistakes," William tells his daughter. "Does that make sense?"

It does. William kisses his daughter goodnight.