___-B

As a detective, I was tasked with solving the mystery of the crossword clue ‘___-B.’ At first glance, the clue seemed perplexing, leaving no clear indications as to what word could fit. But with a little deductive reasoning, I began to make some educated guesses. The hyphen suggested that this was likely a compound word, so I started brainstorming potential first words that could end in ‘B.’ It occurred to me that ‘ORAL’ could be a possibility, as ‘B’ is the second letter in the word ‘brush.’ Delighted by this potential answer, I began to consider the second half of the compound word. ‘B-R-U-S-H’ could very well be referring to a toothbrush, which would make the first word ORAL. And just as predicted, ‘ORAL-B’ turned out to be the correct answer. Through my dedication to following leads and my expertise in pattern recognition, I was able to solve this crossword puzzle clue and bring the mystery to a close.