Juliette
B ecca waited in the room she’s slept in at the Shepherd Security building while Carter and Jackson took a few other men to her sister’s house to retrieve all the bins she’d packed up.
Sitting at the table, she opened her laptop to get some legal work done.
Brielle shared the password for one of the secure internet connections within the building with her.
As she reviewed the will she was working on for one of her clients, her mind wandered to her youthful desire to work for the District Attorney’s office.
She hadn’t thought about that in years.
Her decision to forgo that route was sound at the time, but she wondered if it may be a better choice for her now.
The thought of helping to put criminals away was appealing.
And honestly, she found writing wills and creating trusts to be boring work.
She called the dealership, and her car wouldn’t be ready until later that afternoon.
They’d call.
Her office used Teams and now that she was logged into the firm’s portal, a message popped up from Sue, who was the front desk receptionist and her friend.
Heads up, the partners are asking when you plan to be back in the office.
Becca groaned. They’d been very patient and accepted her need for time off.
And it wasn’t like she wasn’t working at all.
She was. She hadn’t missed any deadlines.
She stayed in communication with them and clients.
Most of what she did could be done from home.
They were just old-school in that they wanted everyone at their desks in the office.
Thanks, I’ll get in touch with them.
There is still so much to do at my sister’s house and with her estate.
It’s overwhelming.
I honestly can’t even imagine.
Anything else I should know?
If I were you, I’d commit to being in the office at least 2 days a week from now on.
Becca groaned again.
She couldn’t tell Sue, the partners, or anyone that she was basically in hiding, being protected, because someone tried to kill her the night before.
She laughed aloud at the absurdity of it.
Thanks
She closed the window and ended the conversation there.
She finished the work she had and emailed the client her will for review.
Then she drafted an email to the partners.
Carl and Brad,
I have just emailed the revised will to the client, Janet Neal.
I anticipate this version will meet with her approval.
Once that is confirmed, I will email her the invoice and copy Sue in for payment.
I appreciate the flexibility you have given me with the extraordinary events surrounding my sister and her family’s deaths and the need for me to settle their estate.
Unfortunately, new events that occurred last evening will most likely result in the police re-opening the investigation in search of the real killer(s).
I am involved in the investigation in an advisory role and will have to dedicate a percentage of my time to help the authorities.
I will need to continue to have a reduction in my workload and work from home for the foreseeable future.
If this is not acceptable, please place me on an extended leave of absence, and if that is not possible, please accept my resignation.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Elliot
She read it over several times to see how it felt.
Did she really want to resign?
She knew she couldn’t go into the office, and actually, even if she wasn’t being protected, she didn’t want to.
Her days of commuting downtown and working for the firm were over.
There were other jobs out there where she could practice law her way, from home, or with a reduced in-office presence.
And even the type of law she wanted to practice had changed.
She was sure she no longer wanted to focus solely on Wills and Trusts.
Satisfied she was doing what she truly wanted, she hit send.
Then she logged off and closed the lid to her laptop.
Shortly after, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in. It’s unlocked,” she called.
The door opened and Angel took a step in.
“Hi. I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
Becca stood.
“Hello. Not at all. Angel, I’m told you keep this room stocked for guests and I wanted to tell you thank you. It has all the comforts of home, and I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. It’s nothing,” she said dismissively.
“It’s hard to be away from home, especially when you’re not expecting it, and when it’s under dire circumstances. If you need anything that isn’t here, just let me know and I will make sure you have it.”
“Thank you, but there’s nothing. You’ve literally thought of everything right down to coffee creamers and toiletries in the bathroom. You even have a basket of packaged items, including toothbrushes.”
“Often people end up in this room with nothing but the clothes on their backs. There are even phone chargers for most phones in the top drawer of the nightstand.”
Becca wasn’t sure what to say about that.
“Well, again, thank you. The room is quite comfortable.”
“The team will be back shortly with your bins. I’ve come to escort you to the room you’ll set up in. It’s just down the hallway from my desk. And I wanted to be sure you had everything you need in here.”
Becca grabbed her phone and followed Angel out of the room.
They rode the elevator down to the fifth floor.
Becca recognized the office directly in front of the elevator door, tucked in the corner as Colonel Shepherd’s office.
They walked down the hallway, passing the kitchen.
“By the way, I’ve ordered Italian for lunch. It’ll be here around noon. And we still have some left over sandwich spirals, salad, and Chinese I’ll put out,” Angel said.
“I’ll make sure to get you when it arrives, but if you’re hungry earlier, please feel free to help yourself to whatever is there. Some people eat in the kitchen, others make plates and bring them back to their offices. It depends on their workload for the day.”
“Yes, Carter said you order in most days. That’s quite a benefit for any job! We had some of the Chinese last night. It was good. Yu’s is one of my favorite Chinese places in the area.”
Angel smiled.
“Mine too. Jackson and I ate when he got home last night. When he’s in town, I tend to cook in the crockpot so that it can be kept warm as his schedule is so volatile.”
“That’s right, he’s your husband. I am so sorry he had to come help me last night and interfere with your dinner and night,” Becca said.
They had stepped into the rec room.
“Becca, it’s okay. It was important. Jackson told me all that happened to you last night. My God,” she exclaimed, clutching her chest. “You were attacked. I’m so glad the team got to you in time. Trust me when I tell you none of us ever has an issue when our guys are pulled away when someone’s life is in danger. We all know it comes with the territory.”
Becca was impressed by her attitude.
“Jackson said you have kids.”
“Yes, our son is three and our daughter is nearly one.” She smiled a big, loving grin.
“Well, here is the rec room. We’ll have the guys stack the bins beside the ping-pong table and you can unpack and sort items on it if you want.” She grabbed a high stool and pulled it over beside the table.
“This is the right height for you to sit on while you do that if you don’t want to stand. And if you decide to stand, let me know and I’ll grab you an anti-fatigue mat to stand on.”
“That’s great, thanks.”
“And you saw the bathroom near the kitchen, didn’t you? Feel free to move around this floor.” Her phone chimed.
She looked at the screen.
“Ah, good. They’re back. They’ll be up in a few minutes. I need to go back to my desk. I’ll let you know when lunch gets here.”
Becca waited and five minutes later, Carter and Jackson entered the room.
Each of them pushed a flat cart stacked with the bins she’d packed at her sister’s house.
“Okay, looks like I have a lot of work to do.” She helped them unstack them beside the ping-pong table.
“I was wondering if Detective Davis had the place locked down with it being a new crime scene.” Even as she said it, she shook her head in disbelief that it was.
“He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of us taking them, but we didn’t give him much of a choice,” Jackson said.
“Yeah, we kind of reminded him they dropped the ball on this investigation,” Tessman added.
“Well, it’s true,” she said.
“So, are the police officially investigating my sister’s family’s murders?” It was odd to her how normal it felt to say the words.
Saying the horrific and impossible out loud shouldn’t be as easy as it was now.
It had to be because she’d said it so many times.
“Yes, the coroner has reopened the investigation,” Tessman said.
“We did promise Davis he’d be our first call if we found anything in these bins. He was there when we were and the place was crawling with cops who were searching every inch of the house for anything the intruders could have been looking for.”
“For the life of me, I don’t know what it could be. The one man said even if I found it, I probably wouldn’t know what it was.”
“I’d say go over everything and scrutinize it to be sure it isn’t anything other than what it appears,” Jackson said.
“We’ll be back in a few hours,” Tessman said.
“We’re going to pay another visit to Well-Life.”
“Good luck,” Becca said.
“You too,” Tessman said.
Becca watched them both leave the room.
Then she got to work, going back through what she’d just packed the day before.
***
In the car, Jackson and Tessman drove in silence until they pulled into the large parking lot of Well-Life Pharmaceuticals.
After Jackson put the vehicle in park, he spoke.
“You know, there is one possible motive we haven’t discussed yet, and I didn’t want to bring it up in front of Becca.”
“Her brother-in-law was a chemist,” Tessman said, believing he knew where Jackson was going.
“The cartels are notorious for killing the entire family of an enemy.”
“Yeah,” Jackson agreed.
“But there were no unaccounted-for funds in their accounts. If he was cooking up drugs, where are the proceeds?”
“Offshore accounts? That’s where I’d put it,” Tessman said.
Jackson raised an eyebrow behind his sunglasses.
“Given it that much thought, have you?”
Tessman chuckled.
“Just saying. Knowing how easily U.S. bank accounts can be checked, I’d either stash it off shore or in a shell company account.”
“That could have been what they were looking for, any documentation on that account,” Jackson said.
“I’ll send Becca a text and have her look for something of that nature without telling her what we’re thinking.”
“I’ll loop Brielle in on this line of inquiry as well,” Jackson volunteered.
Once both men were done sending their text messages, they exited the vehicle and walked to the main entrance.
Once they stood in front of the receptionist, Tessman held up his badge.
“Agent Tessman, FBI. We don’t have an appointment, but we’d like to speak with either someone in your Human Resources Department or the head of your Research and Development Department.”
“And eventually, the head of your Marketing Department too,” Jackson added.
The young woman behind the elevated counter looked flustered.
“Um, I’m sorry, as I’m sure you understand they are all extremely busy and see no one without an appointment.”
Jackson pointed at the waiting area where a half-dozen people were seated.
“We’ll just wait and talk with the others to pass the time.”
The woman looked horrified.
“Do you have a warrant?” she asked a beat later.
“It’s in process, but we’d prefer to have a friendly chat and not need to serve you with a warrant because that’s a lot of paperwork and we’ll be taking files and all sorts of things then, which we really don’t need to. We just need five minutes of someone’s time to ask a few questions,” Jackson said.
“But we can have a warrant in about fifteen minutes if we need one,” Tessman added.
She rose from her seat.
“Follow me. I’ll have you wait in the conference room, and I’ll get someone from Human Resources right away.” She led them to a hallway through a set of double doors on the left.
Within, the first door opened into a small conference room.
“Please, have a seat and someone will be right with you.” She closed the door on her way out.
Jackson flipped his wrist up and gazed at the face of his watch.
“I’ll give them seven minutes.”
Tessman chuckled.
“And then what? We take a walk and find the people we want to talk to ourselves?”
“Or wait in the lobby and make it known to all their visitors the FBI is here,” Jackson said with a laugh.
“She was horrified by the thought of us talking to anyone.”
Five minutes later, a woman in her sixties dressed in a black pant suit came into the room.
Her face had a lot of work done to it, and her lips looked like a recent Botox session had gone a bit wrong.
“Hello, I’m Shirley Craig, V.P. of Human Resources.”
Neither man had sat.
Tessman again displayed his badge.
“Hello Ms. Craig. Agents Jackson and Tessman, FBI. Thank you for taking the time to see us. We’ll be brief.”
“I’d appreciate that.” She motioned to the table.
“Please sit.”
They all sat, Shirley Craig on one side of the table, the two men on the other.
“We’re investigating the deaths of Nick and Nicole DeSoto and their children,” Jackson said.
Shirley Craig looked confused.
“I thought that was ruled a murder-suicide?”
“New information has come to light, and the investigation has been reopened. Nick DeSoto did not kill his family,” Tessman stated as fact.
This news visibly upset Shirley Craig.
“And why is the FBI investigating it and not the Schaumburg Police Department like the first time?”
“I’m sorry, we’re not at liberty to say,” Jackson said.
“We’d like to see their personnel files and speak with their immediate supervisors and coworkers or be provided their names to follow up with them outside of work.”
Shirley Craig appeared shocked.
“I, I can’t provide that information. Do you have a warrant?”
“We can have one in about ten minutes,” Jackson said.
“We’d prefer you cooperate with any part of our request. Let’s start with their personnel files. Is there a reason you wouldn’t allow us to see them?”
“I’d have to take the time to redact our confidential information. Nick was a lead researcher and worked on the development of proprietary drugs.”
“Then Nicole’s file. Surely there isn’t confidential information in a marketing associate’s file,” Tessman said.
“I’d have to review the file to ensure that is the case.”
Jackson and Tessman exchanged side glances.
“You do realize that if we get that warrant, we see all the info in those files and any other info we deem relevant,” Jackson said.
“We will take a lot more than we actually need.”
Shirley Craig’s face hardened with a stare that told them she dared them to do that.
“How long have you been employed at Well-Life?” Tessman asked.
She looked disturbed that she was being asked about herself.
“Ten years.”
“Then you knew Nicole DeSoto’s mother, Dr. Madeline Fuller.”
“Yes, her death was a great loss to the organization,” Shirley said.
“Why didn’t Nick DeSoto get promoted to her position after her death? We were told he would have been her choice and was in line for it.”
“You were told wrong,” Shirley said, looking flustered.
“He was never considered for the management position.”
“So, a lead researcher wasn’t considered for a management position,” Tessman said, reminding her that she’d just said that Nick was a lead researcher.
“Not Nick DeSoto,” she said with no explanation.
“Why not?” Tessman pressed after a pause when she did not continue.
She blew out a huff.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but Nick was excellent at what he did, but he wasn’t a people person. He was actually very abrasive with his coworkers, no one we’d want in management.”
Tessman knew they’d ask Becca about that, about all of Nick’s personality traits.
“Were there any specific incidents noted in his personnel file?”
“No, nothing noted. Madeline would never have allowed that to happen,” she answered.
“Would his immediate supervisor or coworkers have any examples of his abrasive personality to share?” Tessman asked.
“We’re interested in speaking with them to also see if they noticed anything different about him in the days leading up to the murders,” Jackson added.
“The police already talked with them,” Shirley moaned.
“If it wasn’t Nick, who did it? Couldn’t it have just been random violence? Someone broke in and killed them.”
“And made it look like Nick killed them and then killed himself?” Tessman questioned.
“Some psychopathic serial killer who did it just to see if he could get away with it,” Shirley suggested.
“Unlikely,” Tessman countered with no explanation.
“This next question is merely an inquiry. We have absolutely nothing to even suggest this but we’re looking at all possibilities,” Jackson began.
“Is there any chance Nick DeSoto was doing side work for any other organization or for his own personal gain?”
“Moonlighting?” she said with a gasp.
“I suppose it’s possible, but I don’t know why he would. He and Nicole made more than enough money here at Well-Life and I know Nicole inherited quite a bit from her parent’s estate.”
“What happened with Madeline Fuller’s interest or ownership in the company after her death? Did her children inherit it?” Tessman asked.
“No, per the agreement the partners made at the organization’s inception, her share of ownership was divided equally between the two remaining partners.”
“That would be James Standish and Marvin Ackman,” Tessman said.
“Yes,” she agreed.
“So, if one of the other partners dies, their full share goes to the last remaining partner, correct?” Tessman asked.
“Yes,” Shirley confirmed.
“And if they were both to die together, what would happen then?” Jackson asked.
“Per the terms of the agreement made by the owners at the organization’s inception, ownership would then be an employee-owned company.”
“How does that work?” Tessman asked.
He’d never heard of such a thing.
Shirley’s face scrunched up in an exasperated scowl.
“I’m not going to explain the principle to you. Google it when you get the chance. Now, if there are no other questions, we’re finished here until you have a warrant.”
Jackson checked his phone and smiled.
He held his phone up.
“I actually have it right here. We’ll take those two personnel files now, please.”
Shirley Craig’s face turned pale.
“I require a printed copy.”
Jackson swiped on his screen.
“I see several printers in the building in the print menu. Which shall I send it to?”
Shirley abruptly stood.
“Come with me to my office. We’ll do it there.”
Tessman shot Jackson a satisfied smile as they followed Shirley Craig from the conference room.
Indigo
“Lunch is here,” Angel announced from the doorway, bringing Becca’s attention to her.
“Thank you,” Becca said, looking up from the stack of papers she was going through.
“I’ll probably come grab something in about a half hour. I want to finish this bin. It’ll still be out, won’t it?”
“Yes, I usually leave it out for an hour. Feel free to come to the kitchen whenever you’d like,” Angel said.
“Thank you, I will,” Becca answered.
Then she got back to work.
About an hour later her stomach growled and she figured a break from scrutinizing every piece of paper in the bins would do her good.
She was sure by now that no one would be left in the kitchen, not that she knew how many people worked in the building who would be getting lunch.
She just preferred to stay out of their way.
She made her way through the hallway.
Passing Angel’s desk, which she was not at, she continued to the kitchen.
There, she found Angel, two other women, and a little girl who was probably around four or five.
The little girl sat far back on the kitchen table and one of the other women, a stunning woman who was very pregnant, adjusted an ankle bracelet on the little girl.
“Sweetie, it hasn’t been on long. It hasn’t gotten tighter. You’re just not used to it yet,” she said.
“That’s what I told her. She needs to give it more time to get used to it,” the other woman said.
“It has to be tight to keep you safe,” the first woman said.
Becca watched her insert two fingers beneath the metal chain.
Then she looked up and saw Becca standing in the doorway.
“Hello,” she said with a smile, which made her look even more beautiful.
“You must be Becca.”
“I am,” she answered, her gaze darting to Angel.
“I’m Michaela. I work here,” the pregnant woman said, taking a step towards Becca with her hand reaching towards her.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” Becca said, shaking her hand.
“And this is Rae and her daughter, Lilly,” Angel introduced.
“Hello,” Becca said, glancing their way.
“Hi, how are you?” Rae greeted.
“Good, thank you,” Becca said, a pleasantry.
No, she wasn’t good, but she wouldn’t go into any detail.
Her gaze landed on Michaela’s belly.
“When are you due?”
Michaela caressed over her large baby bump.
“Not for three more weeks,” she moaned.
“I doubt you’ll go that long,” Angel said.
“I have the earliest date in the baby pool. I have you going next week.”
“That’d be great by me,” Michaela said.
“Will Lambchop be back in town by then?” Rae asked.
“Yes, he’s on his last mission until after she comes. He’ll be assigned to the office beginning Saturday when his team gets back,” Michaela answered.
Becca surmised Lambchop was the baby’s father, Michaela’s husband based on the rock nestled beside the diamond crusted band on the ring finger of her left hand.
Becca would be afraid to wear something that cost as much as that set had to have.
She watched Rae replace the sock and shoe on the little girl’s foot noticing the diamond solitaire on the ring finger of her left hand.
“Are you coming to get something to eat?” Angel asked.
“I was just going to put it away.”
“Yes, if that’s okay,” Becca said.
“Of course, it is,” Angel answered.
“I need to get a plate also,” Michaela said.
“Rae, will you and Lilly be joining us?”
“Thanks, but we already ate, and I need to get Miss Lilly home for an afternoon rest time. We don’t officially nap any longer, but we take an afternoon rest. Right sweetie?”
“I don’t nap anymore,” Lilly said.
“But Mommy says it’s good for me to lay down and close my eyes for a few minutes.”
“I love to nap,” Michaela said, beaming a grin at Lilly.
“I’m going to go back up to my office and lie down after lunch.”
“You are?” Lilly asked with wide eyes, making all the women chuckle.
“Yes, I am,” Michaela confirmed.
“Come on, sweetie, we should go and let these ladies get back to work. Thank you for checking on that, Michaela,” Rae said.
“No problem. Better today than after Stephanie comes and I’m on maternity leave for a few weeks.”
“Months,” Angel corrected her.
“We’ll see,” Michaela said.
“Nice to meet you,” Rae said again to Becca.
“See you later, Angel.” Then she ushered Lilly from the room after both Michaela and Angel gave Lilly a hug and said goodbye to them both.
Michaela fixed her gaze on Becca.
“I’m planning to eat here. Would you like to join me?”
“That would be nice, thank you,” Becca replied.
“I’ll be back in to put everything away in about fifteen minutes,” Angel said.
Becca watched her leave.
“Angel gave me the cliff notes version of your case and I know that you signed the NDA and Shepherd read you in on the agency,” Michaela said, surprising Becca.
“And she also said you’re an attorney.”
“Yes, to all three,” Becca said.
She followed Michaela to the counter where the food was lined up in a buffet.
Michaela handed her a paper plate.
“What do you do here at the agency? If I may ask.”
“I play with new technologies, try to improve them, and implement them with the teams,” she answered as she served herself a plate-full of food.
“I’m not even sure what that means,” Becca confessed.
“For one, I invented that ankle bracelet you saw on Lilly’s ankle. It’s basically a compact version of an AirTag. That heart charm has the tech in it and the chain is made from tungsten, which is one of the strongest metals out there. We put them on all children of agency personnel. I have to add links when it gets tight. There’s no clasp to prevent them being taken off by anyone but me or someone with the tool to do so here at the agency.” She smiled.
“I could see you had questions about it.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be nosy, but yes, I was curious when I saw you examining the ankle bracelet. And that’s really incredible that you invent those kinds of things.”
“I also get to mess with weapon modifications and explosives.” She grinned a big smile when she saw Becca’s reaction to that.
“Which is very cool. My most recent project has been working on fortifying our drones, so they withstand inclement weather better.”
“Wow, that is pretty cool,” Becca agreed.
Michaela laughed. “I crashed about a half-dozen in the process. That wasn’t so cool.”
“I bet not.” They set their plates onto the table and took seats.
“Colonel Shepherd told me the majority of his personnel came from the military. Did you serve?” She couldn’t envision this beautiful woman in uniform.
“Me, no. I’ve been a lab rat my whole life, literally. Both my parents were engineers who worked for the Department of Defense and other U.S. intelligence agencies. That was how I made it here.”
Becca nodded, digesting that.
“Do you like working here?”
“Yes, there’s no place I’d rather be. Shepherd’s the best to work for. I’ll be able to bring my baby with me to work as often as I like as long as she doesn’t interfere with what I’m working on, and I’ll be able to work from home if what I’m working on allows for it. There is always a documentation portion that goes along with my job, which I’ve done from home in the past and will still be able to. Angel has brought both her kids to the office and Brielle brings her son at least once a week. She generally works from home a few days a week too, so she only has to have a babysitter a few days a month. I’m planning the same. I like that Shepherd is so flexible.”
“That’s great.” She was surprised to hear that Colonel Shepherd was so accommodating.
She would have thought that he’d have been a strict military man.
“So, you’re having a little girl. Are you telling what her name will be?”
Michaela finished chewing her bite.
“Oh, yeah, this baby’s name was decided long before I even got pregnant and everyone here at the agency knows. Her name is Stephanie and had she been a boy, it would have been Stephan. She’s named to honor my husband’s best friend, Stephan Arnott. They were in bootcamp together, both volunteered to be SEALs, and went through their training together. They were assigned to the same SEAL Team and served together in the Middle East, where Stephan died. Landon told me about their special friendship and told me if he ever had a child, it would be named after his friend. But I get to name the next one,” she added with a smile.
“That’s a very special name for your child.”
“It is,” she agreed.
“Angel told me you’ll probably be around the building for a few days while the team resolves the threat against you. Will you be able to work from here?”
“I have been working from home since my sister and her family were killed. I emailed the partners this morning to tell them I need a few more weeks to work from home.”
“You must have a pretty flexible work situation then too,” Michaela said.
“I’m not sure how much longer they’ll be flexible. I may have resigned from my job this morning.”
“May have?” Angel asked from the doorway.
“Sorry, I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I couldn’t help but hear you.”
“It’s fine,” Becca waved her off.
“Yeah, I think their flexibility has been stretched as far as it will go. I heard from our office manager that the partners were wanting me back in the office, which obviously right now can’t happen. And in all honesty, I don’t think I want to go back.”
Another woman entered the room.
“Hi,” she greeted everyone.
“Angel, can I have a word. I need to vent and need you to talk me down.”
Angel glanced at the food, which still lined the counter.
“We’ll get it put away,” Michaela said.
“If you need anything I can help you with, Briana, just let me know.”
“Thanks,” she said before she left the kitchen, followed out by Angel.
Becca had finished her meal.
She rose from the table and began putting the food back into the refrigerator.
Michaela finished eating and tossed her plate by the time Becca had it all put away.
“I’m going to go to my office and take that nap,” Michaela said.
“I wasn’t joking about that.”
“Yeah, I better get back to work,” Becca said.
“It was nice talking with you. Best wishes for the baby.”
“Thanks,” Michaela said.
She headed left when she exited the conference room, Becca turned right.
Angel and the other woman were not near Angel’s desk.
Becca passed by it and returned to the rec room where she’d been working.
This time, the door within that room that had been closed all morning, and had the name placard J.
Cooper, was open. As Becca approached, she heard Angel and the other woman’s voices.
She stopped before she reached the doorway, not intending to listen but after hearing the first few exchanges, she couldn’t pull herself away.
“I mean, I know Shepherd is right. I’m just frustrated,” Briana said.
“Hon, you haven’t been with us that long. It’s only natural you’d feel frustrated not working your missions your way.”
“I knew when I agreed to come under the Shepherd Security umbrella that I’d have to change how I operated, especially when it came to women with children, and this is the first referral since then that involves children. I just can’t sit back and wait, knowing that my client could be killed by her husband at any time. It was easier to just pull new identities for them and make them disappear.”
“How long does he want you to wait?” Angel asked.
“Until we can plant cameras and mics in the house and get proof that will stand up in court that this guy is an abusive asshat. I want this guy more than arrested. I want him convicted and sent away for a long time, certainly until those kids are over eighteen. I’ve seen the legal system screw over the abused and let these monsters out and even order visitation with their minor children. Just divorcing someone who is this abusive isn’t enough.”
“And what are your concerns with doing it Shepherd’s way?” Angel asked.
“That he’ll kill her before we have other evidence. And if he finds out about the cameras in the house, he’ll kill her someplace else. I even asked Shepherd to let me be there with our client as a houseguest who she’s given permission to stay at the house, so I can protect her.”
“That sounds like it could put you in danger,” Angel said.
“I can protect myself. If this guy or anyone else ever laid a hand on me, it would be the last thing they ever did.”
“You could ask Shepherd to assign one of the guys to go with you,” Angel suggested.
“One with a badge, given that you haven’t earned your FBI creds yet.”
“Ugh!” Briana moaned.
“I know it’s going to take maybe six more months to get them. And I’m really okay with whoever Shepherd assigns to work my cases with me. Everyone’s been great. I’m just frustrated I can’t move fast enough to help this woman legally.”
Becca took a step past the open door.
She gave them a small, guilty grin.
“I guess it was my turn to eavesdrop. I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. There are a lot of legal avenues available to help women in abusive relationships. And Colonel Shepherd is right, cameras and mics, that one of the residents of the house agrees to have installed, that capture the abuse is one of the best ways to prosecute the abuser. But that has to be combined with an order of protection filed immediately at the time of their arrest in conjunction with divorce papers being served. It’s a highly coordinated effort. And then the obvious continuation of the campaign is to have protection in place to catch the accused in the act of violating the protection order. That is the ideal situation that most abused women can’t do because they can’t find someone to provide that protection, and the cost involved.”
“Straight from a lawyer’s mouth!” Angel said.
“I’ve done a little family law. I’m not an expert by any means,” Becca said.
“I bet you could be with a little more experience,” Angel said.
“By the way, Becca, this is Briana Woods, one of our new Operatives.”
“Hi, Becca. Nice to meet you and thank you for that legal advice. You and I should talk with Shepherd together. With your help, we could revamp our protection program for our domestic violence cases,” Briana said.
“I like it!” Angel said.
“You have a little time for the foreseeable future, don’t you Becca?”
“I’m flattered, and yes, I do have some time, maybe permanently if the partners accept my resignation, but I’m not really sure family law is something I want to dive deeper into. It’ so messy.”
“Maybe you could work with me on a limited basis, to research legal ways to get past the obstacles I’m facing so we can get down a process that we’ll use moving forward,” Briana suggested.
Becca nodded. “Yes, I could probably do that.”
“I’ll see what time I can get you two into a meeting today with Shepherd,” Angel said.