Naomi,
Nice to hear from you.
Re: the skull fracture, I often see injuries like this with drug overdoses or house fires from people passing out/falling over. Sometimes an old injury. Most likely it was looked into and I would trust the coroner’s decision to not highlight that.
Now in regard to the drug levels, I would say that is uncommon, especially if the deaths took place months apart. Only time you see similar matches in levels of fentanyl/heroin is when drugs come from same source.
Hope that helps,
Glen
Chapter 22
Naomi barely remembers getting back to Joel’s apartment. She’s supposed to have an article ready for tomorrow, but she spent what should have been her writing time obsessing over her sister’s death. She still can’t believe what she found in the autopsies, possible proof that Faye was murdered by the same person as Jade.
And that person was most likely Harlow Hayes.
She expected to feel relieved being back in the city, away from home. But her feelings are only amplified now. A shiver runs up her spine as she thinks of the Toyota tailing her earlier. And the feeling of someone watching her on the train. What if someone followed her back to the apartment too? She double-checks the lock and heads over to her investigation board on Joel’s wall.
Before this weekend, she felt like she was nearing the precipice of the mountain, so close to the truth. But now the wind has been knocked out of her and she realizes she’s at the base of an even bigger, hellishly daunting climb.
A mix of trepidation, anger, and confusion stirs inside her as she shakily writes her sister’s name on a Post-it note and sticks it on the wall, along with a photo and a few questions.
Where did her money come from in late 2021?
Was she sleeping with C?
How did she know J?
Any evidence of her and H crossing paths?
Overlooked head injury?
She runs string from Faye to Harlow, Colton, and Jade. Then, on a sheet of A4, she scrawls Casey Scott’s name in large letters, and notes below anything interesting from their conversation. Like how Colton gave his PR team headaches and how the Harlow she knew all those years ago wouldn’t have murdered anyone. Naomi also flags Casey’s comment about Harlow being jealous and Jade being Colton’s type.
Her eyes flit to Sam Brixton’s photo as she places Casey Scott on the wall near Colton. She traces a line from Sam to Jade, and then writes on a piece of painter’s tape alongside it.
Last seen at SB party before 2021 VMAs—Harlow there too? Saw something that upset her?
Naomi backs away and scans the huge web of photos, papers, and connecting strings, trying to see if she’s missing any other connections. Her eyes flit between Faye, Jade, and Bill Lever, who all died between September 2021 and March 2022. She then narrows her eyes at their potential killer, Harlow, who coincidentally went through a major reinvention throughout the next year, not only in her image and music but in her personal life, cutting out family and friends.
Wanting to analyze these changes more closely, Naomi grabs the roll of red string from her desk and cuts a seven-foot piece, taping it in the blank section to the left-hand side of the wall. She writes three new headers.
Before Jade’s death
September 2021–March 2022
After Faye’s death
She takes her time reordering the wall, moving all her research that references the time before Jade’s death in 2021 to the “Before” side, everything to do with the 2021 VMAs, Jade, Bill Lever, Casey Scott, and Faye to the middle section, and anything that happened after March 2022 to the “After” side.
As she assumed, the first two sections are filled with the most information—tons of lyrics, video references, and Harlow interview clips all relating to hits from her first three albums and her one flop, “Endless Summers.” There are also relevant quotes from Naomi’s interviews with Trevor and Bobby, plus tabloids referring to the singer’s relationship with Colton.
The most interesting details on the sparse “After” side are lyric snippets from Harlow’s two recent albums, interview clips, Trevor’s claim that Harlow gave him the cold shoulder, and the Avant article from Harlow’s Aunt Jocelyn. Surprisingly, there’s little from her new music team and nothing else from her family.
Naomi plucks a note she left for herself from the wall, a reminder to analyze potential Easter eggs in Harlow’s music, and crumples it in her hand. She eyes the Amazon package sitting on the kitchen island and opens it, unwrapping Harlow’s latest two albums,ApotheosisandLegacy, which she ordered earlier in the week. They’re both gorgeous, glossy vinyl versions, accompanied by stunning lyric posters.
Upon her first few reads of the accompanying lyrics, she recognizes a pattern of references to revenge. She writes down some of the most notable lyrics and posts them on the right side of the wall.
