Obsession & Eyewitness. Carol Ericson

didn’t figure you had, which means someone else did.”

      “How old is that stuff? It could’ve been my dad.”

      He rolled the adhesive between his fingers. “It’s still sticky. Old stuff wouldn’t be sticky anymore, or it would be covered with sand. This isn’t.”

      “I don’t get it, Colin.” A note of panic had crept into her voice and he cursed himself for being the one to keep bringing bad news into her life.

      “Help me search the ground.” He tapped the window to replace the adhesive and dropped to his hands and knees. Michelle liked to keep active, to be involved.

      “Wh-what are we looking for?”

      “Anything out of the ordinary. A button. A cigarette butt. A chewing gum wrapper.”

      She skimmed her hands across the sand, sifting her fingers through the silvery grains. “A button?”

      “A button?” Colin sat back on his heels.

      Michelle held out her cupped hand to him. “Not a button like from someone’s shirt, but a black button that looks like it could’ve broken off some machinery or something.”

      Colin’s heart jumped in his chest as he held out a surprisingly steady hand to receive Michelle’s discovery.

      She turned her hand over, dumping the object into his waiting palm.

      He wedged the black disc between two fingers and brought it close to his face. He ran the pad of his finger along the smooth side of the disc, but it wasn’t so smooth.

      The same sticky substance he’d collected from the window was present on the disc. He closed his fist around the button and cursed, a black fury beating wings in his chest.

      Michelle dug her fingers into the sand. “What is it?”

      Colin drew in a steadying breath to keep from smashing his fist into the wall of Michelle’s house.

      “It’s a camera.”