Inktober 2025 - 22 - Button

"Your Honour, may I please present exhibit A?"

"Please, proceed."

The judge gestured to the barrister to take the floor. She picked up a small plastic bag from a cardboard box on her side of the tribunal aisle, and brought it to the witness already sworn in on the stand.

"Detective Finnigan, do you recognise this object, and could you describe it to us, for the record?"

"It is a shirt button, which I found in the corner of the crime scene."

"Is this button special in any way?"

"Not in its shape or make, no."

"Then why was it that it caught your attention?"

"Well, when we got to the murder site, we observed that the place had been thoroughly cleaned. The killer had vacuumed, dusted, and wiped every single surface of the apartment, from top to bottom."

"Is this unusual? For a killer to clean after themselves, I mean?"

"To this degree, in my experience, yes. But, to be fair, the unit where the victim's body was found was the only one uninhabited in the building, which is itself pretty secluded, so they had had a lot of privacy to clean up after themselves. Any murderer with the sense to try and cover up their crime would probably go to such extents, when under such ideal circumstances."

"Where was this button found, again?"

"I noticed it during my third sweep of the place. It was wedged between the foot of a lamp and the wall."

"Could it have been stuck there prior to the murder?"

The investigator shook his head.

"Blood splatter confirmed that no, it could not already have been there before the murder took place."

"And how long after the murder could the button have been dropped where you found it?"

"Forensics concluded that, given the fact that blood got into the four holes of the button, and soaked a few fabric fibers stuck to it, it must have been dropped there while the blood was still liquid, meaning around the time of the murder."

"Did the button by any chance belong to the victim?"

"It did not match the clothes he had on him, nor any we found in his closet."

"Then it is safe to assume this button could have been worn by the killer, or at the very least somebody who witnessed the murder from up close?"

"Objection! Conjecture and leading the witness!" interjected the defense attorney.

"Pick a lane, counselor. Denied."

"We did operate under this assumption when we ran DNA and fingerprint analysis on the button, yes."

"And where did those tests lead you?"

"To the defendant, and no one else."

"Were you able to confirm this button belonged to him?"

"His dry cleaner testified that, a few days after the murder, the defendant dropped off a shirt with buttons matching the one we found, missing one, and with very strange staining he had already tried to deal with himself."

"Given the fact that the defendant lives alone, I rest my case."