Chapter 5 - The Button in the Laundry Basket
The next morning, Ellie sat cross-legged on the floor of the staff cottage, arranging buttons by size.
Clare had given her a tin of spare sewing supplies to keep her occupied while she folded uniforms.
Ellie was quiet for nearly twenty minutes.
Then she held up a small black button.
“Mama, this isn't ours.”
Clare glanced over.
“Where did you find that?”
“In the laundry.”
“Which laundry?”
Ellie pointed to the canvas basket beside the door.
Clare examined the button.
It was heavier than an ordinary shirt button, with a tiny circular indentation in the center. On its underside was a faint engraved mark: a silver falcon.
Clare had seen the symbol before.
It appeared on Arthur Voss's private security uniforms.
Her stomach tightened.
“Ellie, did you find this in Mr. Voss's clothes?”
“No. In the big black coat.”
Clare tried to remain calm.
“Whose coat?”
“The man coat. The one from the shiny room.”
She remembered the previous afternoon, when she'd collected a stack of coats from the conference wing.
One black overcoat had been hanging outside Arthur's office.
Clare had carried it to the laundry with the others.
She had never examined the buttons.
She turned the small object over in her fingers.
It could have been a coincidence.
But if Arthur's coat had lost a button near the rehabilitation suite, it might help establish where he'd been.
Clare placed it in a clean envelope.
She did not know whether it would matter.
She only knew she could no longer pretend not to notice things.
An hour later, she brought the envelope to Vincent.
He examined the button carefully.
“Where did you get this?”
“Ellie found it in a laundry basket. I think it came from Mr. Voss's coat.”
Vincent did not immediately respond.
“Why didn't you give it to the police?”
“Because I didn't know whether it was important. And I didn't want to accuse someone without proof.”
Vincent nodded slowly.
“You did the right thing.”
He photographed the button and documented where it had been found. Then he contacted the independent investigator Dominic had hired.
Within an hour, the investigator confirmed that Arthur's private security company used the falcon insignia on certain formal coats.
That still did not prove Arthur had altered the brace.
But it was a lead.
And the lead grew stronger when the estate's tailor confirmed that one of Arthur's black coats had recently been returned with a missing button.
Arthur claimed he had lost it during a business trip.
The problem was that he had not taken that coat on any trip.
Security footage placed him inside the estate on the afternoon the brace had been adjusted.
It also showed him entering the rehabilitation wing carrying a hard-sided black case.
Dominic watched the footage twice.
“Can you see what he did inside?” he asked.
“No,” Vincent replied. “The camera in that corridor was disabled for eleven minutes.”
“By whom?”
“The system records show a maintenance override authorized through the executive office.”
“Arthur's office?”
“Yes.”
Dominic's face became unreadable.
“Find out what was in that case.”
Vincent nodded.
Then he hesitated.
“There's something else. The investigator found a payment from a company linked to Arthur's consulting firm. It went to a private medical equipment technician two days before your brace was altered.”
Dominic looked up.
“Name?”
“Peter Lang. He was dismissed from a rehabilitation supplier last year for falsifying service records.”
“Bring him in for an interview.”
“Voluntarily?”
Dominic gave him a sharp look.
“Of course voluntarily. I want evidence, Vincent, not a confession someone can later claim was forced.”
Vincent nodded.
For the first time, the investigation had a name, a payment, a timeline, and a witness who might explain how the brace had been altered.
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And it had begun with a little girl who knew which side of a buckle belonged outside.
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