“Interesting.” She laughs, crossing her arms. “This case isn’t straightforward, that’s for sure.”
It’s hard to believe the arraignment only happened earlier today. With the way she’s been uncharacteristically fixated on Harlow and her alleged crimes, Naomi feels like she’s spent weeks rather than days looking into everything. “Oh, and once again, thank you SO much for…” She lets her words trail off, not wanting to say it out loud.
“No worries, it was about to be made public within the hour anyway, so thought I’d give you a sneaky head start.”
“Well, it’s much appreciated. You didn’t happen to find out anything else, did you?”
Leo shakes his head as he takes a sip of his drink. “So I couldn’t get you anything official—only the detectives have access to the actual evidence and other official documents…” He places his beer bottle on the bar. “But I did ask around. Word is they have some type of video.”
“Video evidence?” Naomi gasps. “Do you know of what? Of who?” Naomi imagines footage of Harlow slaying Colton or Jade.
Leo shrugs apologetically. “No idea, sorry. But,” he holds a finger in the air. “Here’s where things get interesting… One of the other cops said he was working in the Bronx when Jade’s body was found. He said they didn’t make the connection until last week, after Colton Scott’s death. Said it was a weird case at the time because while she clearly had needle track marks, there were also bruises around her neck…”
Naomi raises an eyebrow. “Bruises?”
“Yeah, like she was strangled—that’s what he said, at least.” Leo nods knowingly at Naomi, whose eyes are now wide with horror. “The guy said he pushed for it to be investigated but that it never was.”
“What? That’s—” Naomi opens her mouth and closes it, fumbling over her words in disbelief. “Her family didn’t push for a full investigation?”
“Apparently not. He said he was told to stop wasting time looking into it.”
Naomi scoffs, shaking her head. If she was told Faye had strangulation bruises, she would never have let that go, pushed until she had answers and found out who hurt her and why.
But maybe they were never told, she thinks, feeling unsettled.
The thought is galvanizing and she’s even more motivated now to get answers. Not just to satiate her own curiosity, but for Jade and her family too, who no one really seems to care about.
*
Naomi tries to fall asleep but can’t, thinking of Leo and his bombshell that Jade could have been strangled—a fact that was clearly covered up.
Could sweet, fragile Harlow really have choked someone to death? Physically holding her hands around Jade’s neck until she died? It’s difficult to imagine; although, it fits with the “jealous rage” theory—still the most popular one among internet sleuths.
Naomi reaches for her phone, wanting to read some more of the fan conspiracies with this new information in mind. As she scrolls through the Harlow Hayes hashtags on social, she views posts ranging from plausible, to unlikely, to completely ridiculous, including one from a user convinced that “Harlow is a robot who malfunctioned and killed.” There’s another one that’s also far-fetched, but Naomi can’t help but be intrigued by the prospect that “Harlow is a serial killer.”
After watching ten ridiculous videos on this theory, Naomi is about to write it off completely until she stumbles upon a user called @BobTheFlopppp. He has a boyish face that suggests he’s in his late teens or early twenties. His curly, unkempt hair is crying out for a barber and his pale skin is praying for some sunshine. Appearance aside, @BobTheFlopppp makes a very convincing argument. The crux of his theory hangs on the fact that in between the death of Jade and Colton, another one of Harlow’s enemies died under mysterious circumstances. A third murder, which, if proven, would indeed classify Harlow as a serial killer.
Video transcript from @BobTheFloppp
9.26.24 8:00 p.m. EDT
Hi guys, Bob the Flop here! How we all doing? We’re all in our feels, aren’t we? Obviously absolutely tragic about Colton bae and Jane, Jade whoever, but let’s not leave out my fellow Hazies. We are going THROUGH it, okay.
Well, I don’t mean to stir the pot or anything, but I think I might be onto something. Before I get into it, though, don’t forget to click like and subscribe if you want more piping-hot tea and celeb goss!
Okay, so here we go:
In early 2022, executive producer Bill Lever was found dead in his apartment. It had been ruled a suicide. But the ruling was sus. Bill didn’t leave a note. He didn’t have a history of depression or mental illness. And according to his friends and family, death by suicide didn’t make sense to any of them.
Upon further digging, I found out that a sexual assault allegation against Bill had been made by an unnamed artist and that it was settled out of court. About six months later, he hung himself. Allegedly.
I know. I know. I’m clowning. Like I’m putting my red nose on and am clowning so hard over here but I want you to take a look at this…
So this is an image of Harlow’s second-album credits. And yes, that is Bill Lever’s name circled in red under “One Heart.”
Now look at the lyrics from “Midnight,” a song from her fourth album,Apotheosis.
“I know who you are / I know what you did / Don’t act surprised / You know I’m right / You deserve what you got for what you did at midnight.”
