Page 24 of Criminology of a Character

Olivia grippedher wineglass and stared at the crimson liquid before she drained it in one long sip. “A missing scar and an entirely new personality. Now I’m really invested.”

“Anne is older than me,” Bel said. “She’s bound to be a different person now than in college.”

“I’ll give you that.” Olivia sagged against her seat. “People can hide scars with makeup or prosthetics… although prosthetics in the heat sound unrealistic. But in a world where everyone pays for perfection, the wife of a well-respected surgeon wouldn’t flaunt her flaws. Is it possible she was covering it up?”

“Maybe? It didn’t look like it, though. She had the most amazing figure and the smoothest skin, but I guess she could’vebeen wearing makeup.” Bel shrugged as she brought her dirty dishes to the sink. “I think I’m inventing things that aren’t there. Everything about Anne has a reasonable explanation. Thanks for humoring me, but we should let it go. It’s getting ridiculous.”

“It’s not ridiculous,” Olivia said. “You saw something weird that led to a successful FBI raid, so you’re worried ignoring the gum wrapper means you’ll miss something. It’s a valid response after what you experienced on the island. Did the phone call with Kelsey put you at ease, or did I make it worse?”

Bel searched her emotions as she collapsed back into her chair. “No, I don’t feel better. That stupid butterfly is driving me crazy. Every explanation for its presence and Anne’s behavior are realistically plausible, but they feel wrong. They’re too convenient. I can’t explain it, but something’s off.”

“Do you mind if I ask why this is bothering you?”

“I don’t know.” Bel refilled their wine glasses, but Olivia reached across the table and stilled her hand.

“Yes, you do.”

“It’s stupid.”

“No, it’s not. So tell me why you can’t let this go. You said it yourself. All these rational explanations, yet you don’t believe a single one, so why is this bothering you?”

“It was the way Anne looked at me,” Bel blurted, embarrassed to admit that the vacationers’ judgment had bothered her. “I got a lot of looks during our trip, and I brushed most of them off because they weren’t a reflection of me. Everyone on that island was wealthy, yet I live in a single room.” She gestured to her cozy cabin. “Surgeons obsessed with perfection surrounded me, but I walked around with my scars always on display. You’ve never seen me in a bathing suit, but these aren’t just on my neck. They run down to my belly, and while Dr. Victors did an amazing job, they’re visible. People stared. It was sometimes uncomfortable, but it’s hard to carewhat others think when the man you’re falling for stares at you like you’re the entire world.” Bel blushed involuntarily at the memory of Eamon’s gaze. He’d made more than one resort guest blush with his reactions to her, and she would gladly endure hundreds of judgmental glares if it meant he’d watch her every move with love dripping from his eyes.

“His opinion of me is what matters, and he has never once made me feel insignificant,” she continued. “It’s almost embarrassing how he speaks about me, but it makes me feel safe. Especially in the face of the island’s single women and their death glares. Their behavior conveyed how much a wealthy, eligible bachelor dating a woman like me annoyed them. They fought over Eamon’s attention, treating him like prey right in front of me, but the man acted blind. He sees no one but me, so I got over their stares quickly. But Anne? She wasn’t jealous or judgmental like the others.” Bel sipped her wine as the peace of Eamon’s memory vanished. “You should’ve seen the hostility in her eyes. It was unsettling because I could rationalize everyone else’s stares. I wasn’t one of them. They were uncomfortable around me, but Anne’s aggression was different. She was afraid of me, and she hated me for it. That’s why this is bothering me.

“She knows I’m a detective, so the only reason she’d be afraid was if she had something to hide. She was nervous that I would learn her secrets, so when I saw the gum wrapper origami, I knew. That clinic was why Anne was afraid.”

“So that butterfly didn’t end up in that hallway by accident, did it?” Olivia asked. “You believe Anne was there?”

“I do,” Bel said. “I just don’t know if the reason is harmless and I should leave it alone, or if we need to worry about her.”

“Is it possible you didn’t see a butterfly? Maybe you saw blue, and your brain filled in the blanks.” Gold asked as she migrated to the couch so she could sit next to the comfortable Cerberus.

“No. It was there. I’m certain of it.”

“Okay.” Olivia chewed her bottom lip as she thought, her fingers scratching the dog’s cropped ears absentmindedly. “Do you mind if I play devil’s advocate since this conversation will probably never leave your house?”

“Sure.” Bel grabbed the wine and joined her friend on the couch.

“What if something happened after college that drove Anne to that clinic? And I don’t mean a medical procedure that Hyde helped her hide from her husband. I mean something drastic enough for her to drop her friends and vanish from her old life.”

“What if that’s how she met her husband?” Bel said, her brain sifting through the theories racing through her mind. “Many of the criminals who filtered through that operation used the resort to recover. Anne would’ve been no different, and Charles, assuming she was another vacationer, fell for her charms.”

“But in reality, she was hunting for a surgeon,” Olivia finished for her. “Someone who could maintain whatever procedure she’d received in the jungle.”

“The question is, what did Hyde’s clinic do to her? Why did she need unlicensed doctors when her parent’s death left her wealthy?” Bel paused as her questions formed. “Was she running from something? Did she have a tattoo or birthmark that tied her to a crime, and she wanted it removed?”

“You said Anne Blaubart seemed like a totally different woman than the Anne Chambers Kelsey described.” Olivia tucked her feet below her and shifted to face Bel. “What if it’s because she is?”

“What?” Bel’s eyebrows contorted.

“Devil’s advocate, remember? This conversation isn’t meant to be rational, so conspiracy theories are fair game.”

“Okay… so they’re two different women?”

“Think about it,” Olivia said. “The surgical operation’s entire M.O. revolved around changing criminals’ appearances. Thesimplest explanation is they offer facial alterations, and that’s why whoever Anne really is sought them out.”

“You think someone assumed Anne’s life and used Hyde’s clinic to transform into her?” Bel asked.

---