Page 58 of Criminology of a Character

“And are you sure you’re okay?”

“We’re fine.” Bel rubbed the M.E.’s arm. “Thank you. We’ll talk soon.”

“Bye,” Olivia said as she followed Bel to the exit.

“Goodbye,” Lina called after them, but neither detective acknowledged her as they raced for privacy.

“What are the chances that this is a coincidence?” Bel asked as thewomenpiled into her car. “This isn’t a popular brand, and I’ve never seen anyone fold gum wrappers into origami, yet in the past few weeks, I’ve seen this exact butterfly in three vastly different locations, two of which were crime scenes.It’s impossible these three instances are related, but when have you ever seen this flavor and brand folded into this specific shape?”

“Twice,” Olivia answered. “The photo you took on your vacation and the one in your hands.”

Bel pulled out her phone and selected the photo she’d snapped of Anne’s discarded gum wrapper. She held the image next to the evidence bag, but there was no mistaking it. The origami butterflies were identical.

“They aren’t connected, right?” Bel asked. “They can’t be. How could they? A respectable plastic surgeon’s wife, an illegal surgery operation, and a frozen girl in Bajka have nothing to do with one another. This has to be a coincidence.”

“Remember my theory?” Olivia asked. “Where I wondered if Anne Chambers and Anne Blaubart were so different because they weren’t the same woman?”

“Yes, but that was our imaginations playing devil’s advocate.”

“It doesn’t change that the easiest way to become someone else is to steal an identity,” Olivia continued. “Anne Chambers was a bit of an accident-prone daredevil. It’s not unreasonable that she might have taken it one step too far, and someone who looked similar to her took advantage of her death. Someone like a girl who’d escaped the clutches of The Matchstick Girl Killer.”

“But how did Hazel Wyatt get the butterfly?” Bel asked.

“Same way Lina found it. It fell. Maybe whoever Anne was dropped it in her escape, and Hazel picked it up whenshe waslocked inside the freezer. It’s such a small cute thing. A young girl who knew she was dying might want to hold on to it.”

Bel lifted the evidence bag and stared at the origami with the overwhelming urge to cry. Was that what happened? Had poor, innocent Hazel found the abandoned butterfly and clung to it for comfort?

“If you’re right, why wouldn’t she have gone to the police?” she asked. “You escape a serial killer and change your face instead of going to the police? That seems extreme.”

“Except she was drugged,” Olivia said. “The police could’ve thought she was a junkie spouting nonsense. Most of the women Frost took were runaways or working girls. I hate to say it, butplenty of cops don’t take the words of intoxicated prostitutes seriously. Maybe she felt she had no choice. The police wouldn’t help and a monster knew what she looked like, so when Anne Chamber’s death fell into her lap, she seized the opportunity and became Anne Blaubart.”

“She would’ve been one of Frost’s first victims,” Bel said. “The Blaubarts have been married for years.”

“Makes sense why she went after a plastic surgeon, too. She could hide her differences from Chamber’s college pictures by merely requesting he perform touch-ups. She must’ve had criminal connections to find the island, which would explain why she was on the run. You don’t think she killed Anne, do you?”

“This is all hypothetical without evidence,” Bel said, “but no. If Anne Blaubart isn’t Anne Chambers, but a woman who escaped Frost’s violence, I doubt she would inflict harm on another woman after what she witnessed. My guess is Anne died accidentally, and instead of reporting it, whoever Mrs. Blaubartwas stoleher ID and became her.”

“I know this is theoretical.” Olivia sank back in her seat as Bel finally started the car’s engine. “But how else do you account for these butterflies? One is an oddity, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern. Three murders make a serial killer. I think three butterflies signal a concern. The only question is, how big a concern is it?”

“Before I let you go,I want to say how proud I am of how this station operated in my absence,” Sheriff Griffin said as he closed the morning briefing. He’d been absent the past few days while Jax Frost’s shooting was investigated, but it had grantedhim the much-needed rest with his wife after his dismissal from the hospital. The investigation ruled his actions were justified, as everyone knew it would be, and the entire station lovingly welcomed him back.

“Thank you, thank you, but that’s enough.” He smiled as the officers applauded him. “Now, back to work.”

The room laughed as they dispersed, but before Bel could leave the briefing, her boss limped toward her and cupped her elbow.

“Thanks for holding down the fort,” he said.

“It was no problem. I’m glad you’re back, though.” She wrapped him in a hug.

“Tired of handling my paperwork?”

“My god, there was so much paperwork,” she laughed. “But everything is done. Youjustneed to sign off on them.”

“Thank you. Ireallyappreciate it, but I’m back now, so I wanted to talk to you. You weren’t injured, nor did you fire your gun, but you were still involved in an officer-related shooting,” he said. “Work the rest of the day since you’re already here, but tomorrow’s Friday. Take a long weekend. Getting shot out is traumatizing, but getting shot at by a man unloading an assault rifle into the wall is a whole different nightmare. You’re running on adrenaline, but you might crash soon. I think you should get some sleep and see your therapist before that happens.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” she said. “I just feel bad leaving you guys with all this work.”

“The long weekend won’t make a difference. There will be a mountain of paperwork waiting for you on Monday.”

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