Crime and Punishment #31

When Eddie Belson's wife dies during surgery he can't afford to prevent, he makes a devil's bargain with mobster Joe Greco—trading his integrity for blood money and promises of wealth for his young son. But as Belson climbs through the ranks of municipal corruption, he finds himself haunted by a presence only he can sense, a silent shadow of disapproval that follows him through every crime and compromise. Officer Common Sense watches as the man who chose dishonor over principle discovers that some debts can't be paid with cash.

When Anton Norda hears fellow criminals at the precinct swap stories about how even the tiniest clue—a button, a toothpick, a watch chain—can send a killer to the chair, the words plant themselves in his mind. Later that night, desperate and broke, he's forced to commit a robbery that goes terribly wrong, and in the struggle a button tears from his coat. Now, hunted by his own paranoia and the fear that a single piece of evidence will doom him, Norda must search the dark streets for the lost button before the law does.

A mysterious drifter arrives at a boarding house in Dunville, claiming to be a fund-raiser and armed with a letter of introduction from the missing sister of the landlady, Miss Layton—but he's actually the "Spinster Killer," a cunning psychopath who uses charm and misdirection to mask his true nature. As he insinuates himself into the lives of the residents through gifts and flattery, Officer Sayers and the local police remain unaware that the killer they've been hunting across seven states is living right under their noses.