Page 17 of Operation: Sharp Angel

She again averted her gaze as they passed through the kitchen. She gave the spot where Nick died a wide berth and then forced herself to climb the stairs. They went first to the office. Jackson and Tessman were correct. The room was clean and tidy, too much so. Though she did think that it was possible the police took every paper that was on the desk to go through. That would account for Nick’s stacks of papers no longer being there.

“There were a dozen stacks of paper on this desk,” Becca said after looking the desk over. She opened and closed all the desk drawers. They were all empty. “Do you think the police took everything from the desk?”

“It’s possible,” Tessman said. “We’ll add that to our list of questions for Detective Davis. Now that they’ve closed their case, they should be returning anything taken from the home to you. We’ll find out when and if it’s okay with you, we’ll see if we can take a look at it first.”

“That’s fine.” Becca knew settling their estate was going to be a lot of work. She needed everything back that was in this office to make that easier for her. But she had hired these men, and she knew they had to see everything. “But I would ask you go through it as fast as you can, please.”

“Of course,” Tessman said.

Becca took a look at the rest of the office. The safe in the closet stood open and emptied of its contents. She’d provided the combination for it to Detective Davis. He’d given her a list of the items removed from it. It looked accurate to her.

Next, they went to the master bedroom. There were many footprints in the high-pile carpet that had otherwise been freshly vacuumed, Becca noticed. She pointed it out to the two men.

“We noticed that when we were in here yesterday,” Tessman said.

Becca shook her head. “This is all wrong. It wasn’t like this that last night I was in the house. This carpet should not have been vacuumed recently. Nicole rarely vacuumed up here. And their housecleaner only came once a month, on the first Tuesday, which was two weeks before they died.”

“Did the housekeeper have a key?” Tessman asked, knowing the police had already talked to the housekeeper.

“No, she let herself in with the garage code while they were at work. Nick and Nicole had an app on their phones that alerted them when the garage door opened and closed. Do you need to speak with her?”

“Maybe. We know that the police already did,” Tessman said.

They all stepped back into the hallway, intending to return to the first floor.

“Was this light over the stairs burned out when you were here last?” Jackson asked her, his hand flicking the switch on and off with no results.

“No, it wasn’t,” she said. “The police didn’t mention anything about it.”

Tessman knew it was because the police rarely ran operations where they’d knock out all the lighting in the area to help conceal their movements, which was standard for SpecOps teams. He now understood that the experience they had given them a different perspective, which could help in cases like this.

His gaze caught Jackson’s, and the two men had a silent moment of acknowledging the same thought with a slight head nod to each other. Neither man would voice the possible meaning of the malfunctioning light to Becca Elliot.

“Just checking,” Tessman finally said.

Becca doubted anything they asked was superfluous. She sensed they were highly competent, which made her wonder exactly what they thought had happened to her sister’s family.

“What are your plans for the house?” Tessman asked her, breaking in on her thoughts.

She thought it was an odd question. “After I’ve removed anything valuable and all family pictures and mementos, I plan to donate it to a woman’s crisis shelter to be used as emergency housing. I’ll leave all the furniture and furnishings in it, even the clothing and toys. Someone can use them.”

“That’s admirable,” Tessman said.

“This is already known as the murder house. I don’t think many will be flocking to buy the place.”

“You never know. People can be attracted to the macabre,” Tessman said.

“Yeah, I guess they can,” she agreed.

Jackson motioned her to go down the stairs. They remained in the entry. Becca Elliot’s gaze swept between the two men. “What do you think happened here?”

Tessman and Jackson exchanged glances.

“We prefer not to speculate until we’ve reviewed everything,” Jackson said.

“I won’t hold you to any opinion you’ve formed,” she said.

“There are things here that are just off,” Tessman said.

---