The Symbologist

Chapter 15

Once she arrived back at the station, the first thing Carla did was look into Leanne Hample's past. Sugars was still chatting with his buddy Carlos and Sergeant Carla couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"It says here she changed her name," Carla mumbled to herself, looking at records, "From Selene Crystien to Leanne Hample. She also underwent plastic surgery on her face. It looks like she went to good measures to change herself after she stopped being a model. She never married and apparently...had two children."

Sergeant Carla typed Selene Crystien into Google and tapped on the news section, "Interesting...."

'World-Famous Model Selene Crystien Career Ruined' the title of many articles read. Sergeant Carla clicked on the top one.

"World-famous model Selene Crystien has been top of the league ever since her modeling career started when she was just seven years old. However, just a month ago, the model gave birth to twins David and Renee, the latter of which sadly did not survive. It was, at the time, unsure yet whether or not Selene's career would be affected, or even ruined, by the pregnancy. Unfortunately, her career is now over. Selene has been unable to regain her perfect hourglass, 24 inch waist figure that every modeling company was dying for. In addition-"

Sergeant Carla had decided she'd read enough. Piecing together what she had just read with what Jessica had told her, Carla came to the almost definite conclusion that Selene had started doing drugs when her career was ended. She stopped doing drugs before having Jones as her daughter though. Jones had always described her mother as sweet, patient, and kind, the best mother ever. Was Jones telling the truth? Was her memory different from reality? If so, who was David? Were David and Jones the same people? Carla found that hard to believe, but she decided to look into David.

However, before she did, Sergeant Carla Lostin jotted down everything she had deduced so far, and made a mind-map of the case, what she knew, what she had deduced, and what she didn't. Yes, she was mind mapping.

Later that afternoon, the commissioner dropped in and asked about their progress. DI Sugars had managed to get off the phone right before the commissioner noticed and Carla told them both what she had discovered. She was excited. For the first time since the case had started, Carla felt like she was getting somewhere.

She felt proud!

Of course, the commissioner assumed Sugars helped with my discovery since he was really good at pretending he knew what I was talking about, but that was okay.

"Well, good work, Sergeant Carla Lostin, DI Sugars," the commissioner put his cap back on after taking it off earlier and nodded proudly at both of them, "I feel confident you will solve this case very soon."

"We will, commissioner," Carla grinned from ear to ear.

As soon as the commissioner left, Sugars was right back to chatting with Carlos.

"Sir, with all due respect, you both need to get a life," Carla commented before going back to her own office. Who has that much time to spend on the phone chatting with someone!

After a couple of hours of Sugars being on the phone with his buddy, Sergeant Carla made him think about the case with her.

"Sir, so far, I would say our suspects are Hayden Lemming, Simon Hilltop, Jessica Clyden, and Jones Hample (DI Jones). As for our victims, do you think Jillian Han committed suicide?"

For once, Sugars was being pretty serious and actually thinking about the case, "Yeah, her death just seems different from the rest."

Carla nodded thoughtfully, "Okay, say Jillian Han committed suicide. What similarities are there between victims?"

"Hmm," Sugars looked down at the victims laid out on the table.

Carla moved Jillian aside so only five victims looked lifelessly back at them, forever frozen in time. She looked at the four victims, trying to find any similarities they hadn't already found. She even tried squinting her eyes. Carla was staring intensely at Leanne Hample, aka Selene Crystien, when Sugars spoke, causing her to look up for a second. In that second, Carla almost gasped. Sugars bore striking similarities to Selene Crystien. Carla wasn't sure if that was because of the plastic surgery, or if they already shared those features....