Free Panic Button by Kylie Logan

killer—if he had,
     he would have brought a weapon with him.”
    “So it could have been random.”
    Thinking, Nev scrunched up his nose. “Weird random. He obviously lured her into the
     alleyway, and what woman in her right mind would allow something like that to happen?”
    “Except Angela wasn’t in her right mind. Not last night. I told you, she was really
     upset.”
    “Nobody’s so upset they completely forget about safety.”
    “So what you’re saying is that you think she knew her killer.”
    “I think…” Nev pressed a hand to his stomach. “I think I didn’t have time to eat lunch
     today and I’m starving. After Jason gets these buttons packed and out of here, let’s
     get a burger.”
    I wasn’t about to argue. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten lunch, either.
     At first, I was too upset. Then, I was just plain too busy printing out all those
     photos and helping the techs match them to the proper buttons. Hungry or not, though,
     I wasn’t done wondering. “Could it have been robbery?”
    Nev shrugged and I knew how much he hated to do that in answer to a question about
     a case. “There was no purse found with the body.”
    I closed my eyes, thinking back to the night before. “I don’t think she had one with
     her.”
    “And that seems odd, doesn’t it?”
    It did, and I tried again to picture everything that had happened when Angela came
     for the charm string. “She had her car keys in her hand,” I said.
    Nev nodded. “We found those under the body.”
    “And when I handed her the hatbox that she’d brought the charm string to me in…” I
     walked through the motions of all I remembered, stepping back toward the workroom,
     then out again into the shop, my hands out as if I were carrying the box. “I handed
     her the hatbox,and it wasn’t like she had to hoist her purse up on her shoulder to take it from me.
     Or move it from one hand to the other. She just grabbed the hatbox and got out of
     here. I’m pretty sure I’m right. She wasn’t carrying a purse.”
    “Which, unfortunately, doesn’t prove much of anything. Maybe Angela’s money is what
     our killer was after, and when he realized she didn’t have any, he got angry. Or maybe
     he thought there was something of some real value…OK, I’m sorry!” He rolled his eyes
     and groaned. “I know you think the buttons are valuable, but a street thug sure wouldn’t
     think that. He might have seen Angela carrying the hatbox, figured there must have
     been something worth stealing in it, and gotten mad when he realized there was nothing
     inside but buttons.”
    I shivered. “That takes a special sort of cold person, doesn’t it?”
    “Unfortunately, there are plenty of them out in the world.”
    That uncomfortable thought was interrupted by Jason arriving with the newest evidence
     bag. “I’ve got them all cataloged,” he said, reaching for the clipboard and the list
     numbered from one to nine hundred ninety-seven that he’d worked on as I matched buttons
     with photos. He added the uranium button to the list. “Now all I have to do is put
     these boxes in my truck and get them downtown.” He looked from me to Nev. “I don’t
     suppose you two—”
    “We’d love to help.” I was smiling when I sidled past Nev and got to work. Helping
     Jason with the buttons gave me one last chance to look at them, and besides, therewas a burger in my future. The sooner we finished, the sooner we could eat.
    We helped Jason pack the boxes and load them into his truck, and once we were done,
     Nev and I returned to the Button Box to turn out the lights and lock up.
    I grabbed my purse out of the back room. “It’s been a really long day.”
    “You got that right. And if I don’t come up with some answers about this case soon,
     it’s only going to be the first of many. What do you think, Josie?” We already had
     most of the lights in the shop off, but when he stopped at my desk and picked up the