Chapter 34
Naomi lets out a long exhale, shaking as she tries to keep focus. Pieces of information, pictures, lyrics, videos—so many things—race through her mind as she grapples with her new theory.
She swallows, trying to ignore the burn at the back of her throat, and studies the section of the wall that denotes when Harlow seemed to change in style, personality, and behavior.
It all happened after Jade died. On the left-hand side, or before Jade’s death, Harlow is described as being depressed but nice, while on the right, or after Jade’s death, Harlow is described as being cold-hearted and rude.
Naomi slams the enter key on her laptop, impatiently waiting for it to wake up. Once she opens Chrome, she searches for celebrity body doubles. She scans through all of the results, learning it’s not as uncommon as one would think.
It turns out management companies use body doubles often, kind of like how actors use stunt doubles, to fill in for certain things like promos and meet-and-greets.
Naomi even learns that Miley Cyrus briefly used a body double for a small part on her “Best of Both Worlds” tour.
After a fan recorded Miley sneaking through a trap door while someone else dressed as her Hannah Montana alter ego continued to perform, management had to come forward and admit the truth.
Of course, Miley was playing two characters, so the situation was understandable.
But the most notorious pop star body double-related theory out there is about Avril Lavigne, who tons of true crime enthusiasts believe died and has been covertly replaced by her body double, Melissa.
When Harlow reinvented herself for the launch of Apotheosis, the album was all about revenge and other dark themes, and while Legacy was similar, it also had other themes running through it.
Rebirth, immortality, and remorse. Naomi scans the various excerpts of lyrics stuck to the wall and on the table next to her, landing on “Garden of Bones.”
A garden of bones, watered by tears. Blood-soaked soil, saturated with fear. No one knows I laid her here. Alongside a part of me buried here for years.
Naomi exhales a shaky breath as the words take on a brand-new meaning.
In the “Garden of Bones” music video, Harlow is pictured burying herself.
And while Naomi used to think it was all metaphoric, now she wonders if it was Imposter Harlow reenacting burying the real Harlow.
Then there’s the music video for “Cruel Delights” where Harlow is wearing an orange jumpsuit and dancing behind a cage.
Was she hinting she should be in jail for what she did?
Naomi removes the header above the red string and replaces it with “Imposter Replaces/Kills Harlow!” and “Addia S. Howler Anagram for HARLOW IS DEAD.” Then she takes a step back, stopping to think about the implications of it all.
She thinks of the Avril conspiracy theory, how management was rumored to be behind it. She tenses as an uneasiness washes over her. Sam Brixton recognizing her at the funeral. Then the Toyota following her. The man on the subway. Joel mentioning how angry Sam was and to back off…
Did Sam want to make sure no one found out about Harlow’s replacement? And he knew if any reporter would go digging, it would be Naomi, since her sister was a victim in all of this?
Nausea ripples through her as she considers how big a cover-up this could be. She can’t stop digging, though, not when everything is finally starting to fall into place. Not when she’s finally figured out that Harlow Hayes was replaced by an imposter at some point after her third album.
This can’t be real.
This can’t be real.
This is crazy.
But what if…
Naomi freezes, a thought occurring to her.
Could this be the blackmail Colton was holding over Harlow—fake Harlow? That he knew she was an imposter?
Naomi never thought it made sense for Harlow to kill him so long after he killed Jade.
It was one of the major holes in her latest theory that Harlow witnessed Colton kill Jade and felt guilty about covering it up.
But with this theory, killing Colton when she did makes all the sense in the world.
He was going to reveal her secret and she couldn’t have that happen.
Bingo, she thinks, adrenaline gushing through her like electricity. Got ya, bitch.
Naomi inhales and picks up the album, to search for any more clues as to her identity.
She thinks of all the Easter eggs in Harlow’s music, realizing they were all from the imposter since she took over during Apotheosis.
Maybe she left more clues, ones Naomi didn’t even know to search for.
She’d have to study everything from a completely new angle now…
She looks over the back cover again, the one of Harlow’s imposter in the strawberry field. She hits herself on the head, guffawing, as she realizes something else she didn’t see before. She feels giddy, delirious.
She recalls the block lettering on the back cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover and how fans realized that by organizing the blocks, a message was formed: “Be at Le Abbey RO.” According to fans, the RO is part of the message as they refer to the eighteenth and fifteenth letters in the alphabet.
And if you add them together, you get thirty-three.
Since C is the third letter in the alphabet, the message would be “CC.” CeCe is a nickname for Cecilia.
And so, fans believe the message says Paul was buried at St. Cecilia’s Abbey, a monastery in Ryde, Isle of Wight.
Naomi puts the block letters together and frowns at the message they form, “H7W2QR.” She cocks her head to the side, wondering if it’s even a message at all.
But then she wonders if it’s like the RO in the Abbey Road secret message.
She writes down the corresponding number to each letter of the alphabet and tries multiplying, adding, dividing, and even subtracting.
But nothing makes sense.
She wonders if this is even an Easter egg at all and if she’s lost the plot completely.
So she discards it and goes back to the song where she found the anagram for “Harlow is dead” and searches to see if she missed anything.
And there she notices two out-of-place letters—N and Y—capitalized in the songwriting credits in a phrase under the name Denis Saint.
She looks up “Denis Saint songwriter” and, like Addia S.
Howler, the name doesn’t seem to exist. At all.
Blood pulses in her ears. Another anagram? But for what?
She tries to decode the name but again, none of the combinations make sense. She stares at capital N and Y, and the state comes to mind. Her heart drops the second her brain pieces together the location: St. Denis Church in New York.
Naomi blinks rapidly as she types the address into Google Maps, a horrible sinking feeling setting in.
“This can’t be happening,” she mutters, the hairs on her arms standing to attention.
But as she clicks into the directions, she lets out a gasp, realizing it really is. Because on the bottom of the Google sidebar is a pin location with the matching code “H7W2+QR.”
She sits back in her chair, not believing where the trail of clues leads.
To her sister’s gravesite.