“What am I looking at?”
Teddy pointed at the button.
His eyes widened. “How did we miss that?”
“Who did Mrs. Worthingham say was at the party?” Teddy asked, referring to the numerous conversations they’d had with the owner of the country club about giving them a guest list. She’d refused each time, swearing up and down that it was all upstanding members of her club, incapable of the atrocities done to it, and they had to be looking at one of the lowlifes around Arcstead, jealous of their riches.
“Her posh posse,” Saint recited.
“And who did she explicitly tell us wasn’t there?”
Saint tilted his head. “Her son. Because he was on a business trip.”
“And Mr. Worthingham has beenblissfullyburied for about a decade.”
Saint put on a glove of his own and reached for the button, holding it up in the air and tilting it until the light from a nearby window caught it perfectly.
“Then who was the man wearing a suit with buttons carrying their family crest on it?” Saint asked, pulling out a necklace with a sharp tooth dangling from one end of it. He swished it over the button, frowning when the leather cord went straight and the tip of the tooth pointed to the middle of the button. “And why did they have contact with the drug?”
“Direct contact?” Teddy asked.
Saint nodded. “The curse trace is on the button itself. The room was so contaminated last time that my diagnostics didn’t pick up the specifics, just the presence of a curse all around. But the button specifically has traces of a curse on it. They’re barely there, but they are there. So whoever wore this that night either was the cause of all of this under the influence, or was somehow in contact with that someone.”
“It could explain the rush to remodel and pretend this never happened if mummy dearest is trying to cover for her son,” Teddy said.
“We should pay him a visit.”
“Let’s do a little digging first before jumping the gun. We don’t want to tip them off with only a button as evidence. It’s too circumstantial to really stick, especially since we know they have the local PDs under their thumb and friends in high places. It’s why they haven’t touched this place.”
“But it’s our first lead!”
“Which is why we’re going to tail him and see what he gets up to. This drug is spreading fast, seemingly overnight, which means the addiction rate must be astronomically high or there’s another reason why people want this drug so badly. Either way, if it is Worthingham Jr., he’ll need another fix soon. If not, then maybe we can at least take note of the crowds he hangs with and get some new faces pinned up on the suspect board.”
Saint raised a brow. “I’m not saying no…but isn’t something like this PUMA’s job?”
“You know what the red tape is like. We have probable cause and this could go cold fast.”
“Trace is going to get pissy.” Saint wagged his finger. “He hates it when we bend the rules and he gets it in the neck at the precinct.”
Teddy peeled off his gloves. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Even your sweet-talking won’t be enough.”
Teddy hummed. “I think it’ll be fine.”
“So confident in your skills,” Saint scoffed.
“Trace likes me better than everyone else; that’s half the battle won right there.”
“That is…actually very true,” Saint said, then clapped him on the back. “I’ll leave it up to you, then, designated human shield. Have fun being turned into sashimi via knitting needle.”
Teddy rolled his eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Do we want to drop by the other scenes?” Saint asked, bagging up the evidence.
Teddy nodded. “Best to be sure. Just keep your eyes peeled for more buttons.”
Saint laughed, this small breakthrough putting a pep in his step.
