The fact is, we don't know who the knife belongs to.

Turning to Throck, Varney added the question: "Where does this knife belong?"

Somehow, the knife belonged there, unfortunately.

The knife belonged here; it couldn't be tied to anyone but the victim.

Some hand had removed that bag; and whose hand could it be, if not that of the man to whom the knife belonged?

Versus would find out the next day that the knife belonged to a corrupt guard who had been hiding it, presumably to threaten other inmates.

If the knife belonged to Petersen, you'd expect to find his prints.

And if she talked with him as I suspect she did, then he may have learned the knife belongs to her husband.

That knife, I had no doubt, belonged in the Devonshire dump.

At the top an argument broke out over which knife belonged to whom.