Apparently, I’m an "Influencer" now. God help us all.

Look, I’m going to keep this brief because I’ve got other things to do, and I suspect you do too.

My name is Pressley Cliffman. I spent thirty years on the force and the last handful as a freelancer, which is just a fancy way of saying I pick my own headaches now. Most of those years were spent in rooms that smelled like stale cigarettes and desperation, not staring at a glowing rectangle trying to figure out where the “post” button is.

The author, who cut me in on enough to tolerate this, has convinced me that “building a community” is part of the job description for this book I’m helping with. He says people want to hear the real story. Personally, I think people just want to feel like they’re smarter than the guy with the badge, but hey, if he’s buying the ink, he gets to call the shots.

So, here’s the deal:

I’m told I have to “serialize” the development of our upcoming book. That means I’ll be dropping a chapter every week or so. I’ve been going over his drafts to make sure he didn’t turn me into some cliché. I’ve already corrected him several times on how to navigate public records acquisition, so the version you read here is as close to the truth as a publisher will let us get. Plus, it’s amazing how many misspellings you catch right after you correct the misspellings.

Beyond the book, I’m being “strongly encouraged” to record some audio. Apparently, it’s called a podcast. To me, it’s just me talking into a mic about the cases that didn’t make it into the book, the ones that were too messy, too quiet, or just plain weird.

If you’re here for the “exclusive content” and the case files, stick around. I’m digitizing my old notes (with some help from a machine that’s smarter than my last real partner) so you can see the evidence for yourselves.

I’m not a social media guy. I don’t “do” hashtags, and I don’t care about your “engagement.” But I do care about the truth. So if you want to see how this story actually went down, before the ‘creatives’ get their hands on it, this is where you’ll find it.

I’ve got a 10:00 AM meeting with a guy who swears his wife has been stashing money in several bank accounts. I’ll check back here when I can.

Don’t expect emojis.

— Pressley Cliffman