Quebec
Becca kept herself busy going through the bins from her sister’s house and the boxes returned by Detective Davis again while Carter and the others who were setting up Briana’s client’s husband were away.
She would admit that she felt anxious about the safety of Simone Hoch, who technically was now her client as well.
And she was worried about Briana, purposefully provoking a violent man.
She knew she wasn’t cut out for this sort of work because she didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.
She’d also decided that she needed to go home.
She couldn’t hide in this building indefinitely.
She’d talk with Carter about that when he returned.
They had no idea who those men were that had been in her sister’s house.
According to Angel, the man who’d been shot still refused to talk to the police.
And there was no ID on him or the man she’d killed in the closet.
Without knowing who they were, they wouldn’t be able to figure out what they were looking for.
The other decision she made that morning was that she was going to resign from the firm.
She didn’t want to practice estate law any longer, and she didn’t need the money with the inheritance she’d be getting.
She could take her time to figure out what the next chapter of her life looked like.
That decision did bring her a degree of peace.
After finishing going through the last of the bins and boxes, she wandered through the hallway and ended up at Angel’s desk.
“You look lost,” Angel said with a grin.
“Getting bored?”
“Yes,” Becca said.
“I looked through the bins and boxes a third time and I still don’t see anything that anyone would have been looking for.”
“It might not be there to find,” Angel said with a shrug.
“You knew your sister and her husband the best. If they wanted to hide something or put it someplace for safekeeping, what would they do with it?”
“Ordinarily, I’d say in their safe, but Detective Davis went through all that stuff too and found nothing.”
“What did your sister do to hide things when you were kids?” Angel asked.
Becca chuckled to herself.
“She used to hide her treasures in her socks.”
“Did you go through all the sock drawers in the house?” Angel asked.
Becca grimaced. “No, I didn’t touch any of the drawers the clothes are in and neither did the intruders,” she pointed out.
“Well, from what Jackson said, they were stopped before they went upstairs to where the bedrooms are.”
Becca nodded.
“True. And they did rummage through all the clothes at my house.”
“Becca,” Angel said gently.
“What could your brother-in-law or sister have been into that would have caused this? I know you don’t want to believe either or both were into something they shouldn’t have been, but the fact is, this kind of thing doesn’t happen to people who aren’t doing something sketchy or aren’t involved with the wrong people.”
“I don’t know,” Becca admitted.
“I keep thinking it was a mistake. Someone mistook them for someone else.”
“I hope that wasn’t the case. If it is, this may never be solved,” Angel said.
“Has your husband told you the theories they have? Carter mentioned they have a few theories, but he got called to a meeting this morning with Colonel Shepherd after he brought it up, before I could ask.”
Angel bit her lip.
“It’s not my place to say anything, Becca. It’s not my investigation. Ask Carter and Jackson when they get back. They should be back soon.”
Becca felt a wave of disappointment wash over her.
She nodded. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Yes, lunch should be coming soon. Would you get the leftovers out of the refrigerator and put them on the one side of the counter like I do? That would help me a lot. I want to finish the updates I’m making on this spreadsheet before lunch.” She tapped her monitor.
“Sure, no problem. I’m sorry if I was keeping you from your work.”
“Not at all,” Angel assured her.
***
Tessman and Briana got back to HQ just after the lunch order arrived.
Jackson and Smith were still near the Hoch house, watching the feed.
They’d described how things had gotten tense when Jacob re-entered his house.
Simone made herself scarce, obviously staying out of his way as much as she could, and she was nearly a mute when she was near him.
He was looking for a fight and trying to provoke her into doing or saying something that was deserving of a beating, in his mind anyway.
While they watched, Simone admitted to being stupid about things, not caring enough, and being a lousy wife, promising to do better.
Hearing what was going on in that house made Tessman sick.
No one should have to live like Simone Hoch was.
And knowing they needed proof of Jacob Hoch’s abuse, as in footage of him actually hitting her, Tessman couldn’t help but want to camp out right outside of the Hoch’s front door.
He wanted to bust in and defend Simone when Jacob would eventually strike out at his wife.
Tessman and Briana caught up with Becca in the kitchen on the fifth floor.
She sat at the table with Michaela and Angel.
Their plates held the remnants of their lunches.
“Mexican, yay!” Briana squealed when she saw the offering.
“Thank you, Angel.” She went to the counter and grabbed a plate.
“I thought today was Greek day?” Tessman said, his gaze on Angel.
He was disappointed.
“Tomorrow,” Angel answered.
“How’d it go?”
“Show her your video, Moe,” Briana said.
“The piece of shit took a swing at me.”
Becca was shocked to hear her say it, and she said it so calmly, almost jokingly.
“He didn’t actually hit you, did he?” Michaela asked as Tessman handed his phone to Angel, who sat beside Michaela.
Briana flashed her an ‘oh come on’ grin.
“Hello, your Lambchop taught me hand-to-hand. Of course, he taught me how to evade a punch.”
“I thought I taught you that,” Madison said, coming into the room as Angel and Michaela viewed the video.
“You did too,” Briana said.
“STO extraordinaire.” She giggled.
Becca listened to the exchange and picked up on the friendly teasing.
She saw the pistol worn openly on this woman’s belt.
And she was also beautiful.
Was that some sort of requirement for working at this agency?
She wondered if this was Madison.
“You must be Becca. I’m Madison. I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Hi,” Becca greeted.
“I’ve heard a little about you as well. It’s nice to meet you too.”
“Let me see how she did,” Madison said, reaching for the phone.
She replayed the swing, deflection, and faceplanting that followed.
“Oh, nicely done!”
Briana beamed proudly.
“Thank you. I would have liked a reason for a throat punch, but that didn’t present itself.”
Everyone in the room laughed.
Becca couldn’t help but smile and chuckle along.
“She handled herself like a pro,” Tessman said.
“Aw, thank you, Moe,” Briana said, wrapping her arms around him.
“We made a good team.”
The people in the room continued to laugh and conversations broke out.
When Tessman pulled himself from Briana’s embrace, he went over close to Becca.
“I’m going to get a plate. Will you stay with me while I eat?”
“Sure, I have nowhere else to be. I went through everything one more time while you were gone. I still can’t find anything worth killing over.”
“You’ve checked the contents on all thumb drives or other external storage?” Madison asked.
“Yes,” Becca answered.
“Brielle is convinced they have to have an account someplace that we don’t know about where they stored things. She is shocked by the lack of stuff in their cloud storage accounts,” Tessman said.
“She and Smith have gone over their laptops and browsing histories but can’t find a trace of it.”
“What if they used their work computers?” Madison asked.
“When I was in the private sector, people stored all kinds of personal shit on their work computers or the cloud storage attached to their work accounts that they shouldn’t have.”
“Then we’ll never see it. Well-Life has already wiped it, I’m sure. If they aren’t guilty of something, they’re sure acting like it,” Tessman said.
An idea suddenly came to Becca.
Her mom’s cloud storage.
Her sister and Nick, as they worked at Well-Life, took all the information on her parents’ accounts.
She knew her mom had a personal Dropbox, One Drive, and Google Drive.
And she stored a lot on them.
That would be the most secure place to put anything; on a dead woman’s cloud storage.
So where was her mom’s laptop?
It had been found in their home after the plane crash and it hadn’t been at Nick and Nicole’s house that she saw, or the police took.
“There’s another laptop we need to find,” Becca stated.
“Nick and Nicole took my mom’s after her death. It should have been at their house. My mom’s cloud storage is where I’d bet they put things, especially if it was for safekeeping.”
“We need to go back to your sister’s house and search for that computer. If they were using it to store important documents or data, they have it hidden someplace in that house,” Tessman said.
“Do you remember your mom’s account names and passwords?” Madison asked.
“We can have Brielle search for it and try to hack in.”
“I’m not sure. I can make a list of possibles. But if Nick and Nicole were using it, they may have changed the password,” Becca said.
“If we can at least find the accounts, the Digital Team can see about getting into them,” Madison said.
“When are Jackson and Smith due back?”
“Not sure. Shepherd approved them to remain on site, close to the Hoch house in case the husband hits her. He’s wound tight, looking for a fight. And if he strikes out, he’s going to deliver a hell of a beating, I’m sure,” Tessman said.
“They’ll be there to stop it before he does too much damage to her.”
“I hate having to wait for it to happen. When I was solo, I would get the woman out before the guy snapped,” Briana said.
“Yes, and you made her disappear, which isn’t optimal in most cases,” Madison reminded her.
“You’re following the law now and hopefully giving these women a better solution. They shouldn’t have to give their lives up to get away from their domestic abusers.”
“I know. We want to put these guys away in prison,” Briana said.
“But the system is broken.”
“You need to have faith in Shepherd,” Angel said to Briana.
“I do or I wouldn’t be here,” Briana said.
“I’ll talk to Shepherd and ask if Briana and I can come to Becca’s sister’s house with you, as Jackson isn’t available,” Madison said.
“Another couple sets of hands to look for this laptop can’t hurt and we’re free for a few hours, or until something goes down with Briana’s client.”
“That would be great, Madison, thanks,” Tessman said.
***
Standing outside the front door and watching Carter insert the keys into the lock, Becca mentally prepared herself to re-enter her sister’s home.
Detective Davis wasn’t thrilled that the Shepherd Security crew was going in to conduct a new search.
But he cleared the crime scene none-the-less because, as Carter had said, the police had no leads on the two men who’d broken in or of who killed her family.
He was hoping for some help to solve it.
Madison and Briana got out of the black SUV that Madison drove after she parked it behind Carter’s Jeep.
Madison pulled her pistol from the holster, which was tucked into her jeans at the small of her back as she reached them at the front door.
“I’m assuming nothing,” Madison said.
“We conduct a thorough search of the place by the numbers first to be sure no one is here.”
Tessman nodded.
“Becca, stay behind me.”
All three of them had their weapons drawn when Tessman opened the front door.
The air was tinged with the metallic smell of blood.
As soon as he entered, he stepped farther into the living room, Becca following right behind.
He led her to the front corner of the living room and stood in front of her, his aim in the room.
Madison rushed forward through the hallway and into the kitchen.
Becca watched as Briana closed the front door and kept her aim up the stairs.
In the corner of the stairwell, and on the tiled floor of the entry, Becca saw the bloodstains from the man Carter had shot.
“Clear,” Madison called from the kitchen area.
Then she reappeared through the open doorway that led from the kitchen to the dining room.
“Where are the stairs to the basement?”
“Around the corner from the stairs leading up,” Tessman replied.
“Bree, you’re with me,” Madison ordered.
Becca remained in the corner behind Carter for what seemed an eternity before Madison and Briana came back into view.
“Basement is clear,” Madison said.
Then she checked out the powder room and laundry room.
“Door to the garage is locked. We’ll leave it that way and search the garage last.” She then stepped over the dried blood on the tile in the entry and started up the stairs.
“Bree, you’re with me again. Tessman, stay down here and cover our six.”
Becca watched the two ladies aggressively mount the stairs.
Seeing how capable they were, Becca respected them even more than she already did.
“They’re both really something,” she said quietly.
“Yes. I hadn’t really worked with Briana before today, but I’ve worked with Madison on many occasions. She’s fearless.”
“What really impresses me is that you all just know what to do.”
“We all receive the same training and the teams train together often. And of course, we deploy on missions together frequently too, so there is a comfort we all have with each other,” Tessman said.
“It shows,” she remarked.
“Your team is impressive, Carter.”
He smiled.
“Yeah, Shepherd Security is impressive.”
Before long, the two ladies came back down the stairs.
Their pistols were re-holstered.
“Okay, it’s clear. Becca, if your sister or her husband were going to hide a laptop, where would you think that would be?” Madison asked.
“I’m not sure,” Becca answered.
“I have about four places that are the most possible. In the boxes in the basement labeled Christmas decorations is my first guess because when Nicole purchased things for the girls she wanted to hide, that’s where she’d stash the stuff. Second would be in the garage. Nick hid things out there sometimes. I think we should check the tops of all the cabinets in the kitchen because of a joke Nicole made one time about where she’d hide drugs.” She stopped talking when all three of the others gave her a questioning look.
“We were watching a movie, and the cops raided a house, looking for drugs. On top of the cabinets were the one place they never searched. It was Nicole’s sense of humor in pointing that out, that’s all,” she said, clearly defending her sister.
“And the fourth?” Tessman pressed.
“In the sock drawers.” Becca shrugged.
“She always hid things in her socks when we were kids.”
“We save the garage for last,” Madison said.
“Briana, you go back downstairs and search through all the Christmas boxes and bins. Look for anything that doesn’t fit, laptop or not.”
“Got it,” Briana said.
She turned and walked towards the stairs to the basement.
“I’m going upstairs and will start with the sock drawers, but will search all the drawers in every room,” Madison said.
“I haven’t gone through any of the drawers yet,” Becca said.
“We’ll look on top of the kitchen cabinets,” Tessman volunteered.
Becca watched Carter hop on top of the counter and stand so he could see over the top of the cabinets in the kitchen.
After checking over all of them, he hopped down, disappointed.
No laptop computer, nothing that shouldn’t be there.
“I was hoping for at least a thumb drive or something,” he said.
“Let’s go upstairs and help Madison search.”
Becca ignored the blood stains as much as she could, but knew she had to call the crime scene clean-up crew back to paint the hall stairs and maybe even replace carpeting.
She might be better off just having the house torn down.
Who’d ever want to sleep in a house where five people died?
Madison was in one of the girls’ bedrooms, looking through drawers.
She hadn’t searched Nick and Nicole’s room yet.
That was where Becca and Tessman started.
Not only did they search the drawers, but they went through the closets with a renewed focus.
Nothing.
Becca stepped into the master bathroom and gazed at the white cabinet that ran down the left side of the vanity area.
“Carter, check on top of that cabinet.”
He hopped up on the counter and stood.
Raising up on his tiptoes, he peered over the top of the cabinet.
“Oh, hello.” He reached his hand up and retrieved the silver laptop computer, which sat nestled perfectly in the top quarter round that framed the top of the cabinet.
He handed it to Becca and then hopped down.
“Found something,” he called
Becca ran her hand over the smooth silver lid.
She opened it, recognizing it.
“It’s my mom’s.” It didn’t power up upon opening it as it should have.
“Was there a power cord up there? It’s not powering up.”
“The battery could be dead,” Tessman said.
“And no, there wasn’t a cord.”
Madison and Briana entered the room.
“Where was it?” Madison asked.
“On top of the cabinet,” Becca said, her eyes looking at the top of the bathroom vanity cabinet.
“Nice job,” Madison said.
“You knew your sister well.”
“We’ll have to take it back to HQ and find a compatible power cord. Looks like the battery is dead,” Tessman said.
“We’ll grab a bag from the closet to bring it out in. Just in case this place is being watched, we don’t want anyone to see us bring it out.”
***
Becca was nervous as the laptop powered up, once a compatible cord was plugged into it.
The four of them, plus Brielle, were in Brielle’s office on the seventh floor.
They all huddled around the desk where Becca sat in Brielle’s desk chair.
Once it powered all the way up, a family picture of her mom and dad, and she and her sister from Nicole’s wedding, appeared.
A smile curved Becca’s lips.
She had forgotten her mother had set this photo as her screen background.
It was one of her mom’s all-time favorite pictures.
The box popped up to enter the passcode.
“This is easy, unless Nicole or Nick changed it. Mom always used Dad’s birthday as her passcode.”
“Not very secure,” Brielle said.
Becca typed it in. All the icons and files her mom had created populated the screen.
“Yes!” she exclaimed.
“Okay, let me in to search the files,” Brielle said.
Becca rose from the chair, but stayed beside her, leaning in to watch the screen in anticipation.
It didn’t take long for Brielle to find the last few files that had been saved on the laptop.
There were seven of them, saved after the date of her parents’ deaths.
The very last was a video, saved just three days before Nicole’s family had been murdered.
Tessman laid his hand on Becca’s shoulder.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
Becca gave him an emotional grin.
“No, but I have to see it.”
Brielle hit play on the video.
Becca’s sister Nicole displayed.
She was clearly in the master bathroom at her house.
“I hope it’s you watching this Becca, and if you are, that means Nick and I are no longer alive.”
Nicole became upset as she spoke.
Becca clutched her hand to her chest as tears filled her eyes.
So many emotions swept over her.
“I am so sorry I couldn’t tell you what was happening. It was too dangerous, and I didn’t want to put you in danger.” She nervously glanced behind herself.
Then she turned back, facing the camera.
“Nick doesn’t even know I’m leaving you this message. Please know I didn’t know the world was going to crash in on us this soon the last night you were at our house for dinner. I don’t want you to feel I lied to you or deceived you. It wasn’t like that.”
Tessman watched Nicole swipe at her eyes to brush away the tears the same way Becca did.
He tightened his grasp on Becca’s shoulder.
“We are all sick. Nick accidentally poisoned himself in the lab and somehow, it was transmitted to me and the girls. The first symptom was the headaches,” she said.
“We had dull headaches on and off for weeks.”
Becca gasped.
She reached down to the laptop and hit pause on the recording.
“I remember the week before I went over for dinner, the whole family had what they thought was a case of the flu. They all had horrible headaches. Nicole said they’d all been plagued with headaches for weeks. She even took Riley to the eye doctor, who said her headaches were due to eye strain.” Then she un-paused the recording.
“But when he reported it to Neil, his boss at Well-Life, something really suspicious happened. The matter was referred to the partners, and they insisted it be handled in-house with their new in-house medical staff. Even the girls, they insisted we bring them to see their doctors and implied we’d both be fired if we didn’t comply. I went to see James Standish myself and he insisted it was nothing sinister, just trying to keep a lid on it so no one from the FDA or OSHA came in to investigate. We saw their doctors, and they insisted a vitamin cocktail would nullify the poison in our bodies. And we felt better. But Nick ran his own tests, and they lied to us. I have a bunch of documents as proof loaded up in Mom’s Dropbox. The password is the name of our favorite vacation as kids. I hope you remember.”
The recording abruptly stopped.
“That’s it,” Brielle said.
“This is bigger than we thought,” Tessman said.
“I’m sending Shepherd a message to let him know what we’ve found. I’m sure he’ll loop in his federal contacts.” He tapped out a text message.
Brielle brought up the Dropbox account.
“What do you think the password is, Becca?”
Becca shook her head.
“I’m not sure what Nicole was going for with this. We went on a combination Disney Cruise and Walt Disney World park vacation one summer. That was my favorite, but Nicole got seasick and then the heat got to her in the park. It wasn’t her favorite by far and we never went again as a family until a few years ago to bring her kids. And one winter we went skiing in Vale. That was her favorite. The altitude gave me headaches and I really don’t like winter. I hated skiing, and we never went again.”
“Anything else?” Tessman pressed.
His phone buzzed with a new message.
He viewed it. A text from Jackson.
“No, just several long weekend trips to the Dells. Mom called them mini-vacations. We always had a good time.”
“The Wisconsin Dells?” Brielle clarified.
Becca nodded.
Brielle typed in several variations of the words.
Nothing unlocked the account.
“Try WiscDells, all one word,” Becca suggested.
The second attempt, capitalizing the W and the D, did it and the drive opened up.
Everyone leaned in close to examine the many files that displayed.
“It’s going to take me some time to go through these files and find the proof your sister uploaded and anything else that may be of value,” Brielle said.
“I’d really prefer to go through them alone, without all of you leaning over my shoulder.”
“That’s fine. Jackson just messaged. Briana, Becca, and I need to go have a conference call with him and Smith,” Tessman said.
They went down the hall to Tessman’s office.
He dialed Jackson and hit the speaker.
“Hey, you’re on speaker. It’s me, Briana, and Becca on the line,” he said after Jackson answered.
“Mister Wonderful is still primed to blow. I talked to Shepherd. He’s sending Flores and Robinson to take over so Smith and I can get back to HQ.”
“I should be on scene,” Briana argued.
“Negative. Hoch has already seen you. If anything goes down and they go in to intervene, they’ll call you to come in after the local LEOs have carted him away. It’s going to happen today; there’s no doubt in my mind. So stay available, Woods,” Jackson said.
“You’ll need to help your client obtain the order of protection as soon as her husband is arrested.
“Okay,” Briana replied, understanding, but still disappointed.
“Did Brielle find anything on the laptop?” Jackson asked.
Tessman had kept him apprised of their find at the house.
“Yes, Nicole DeSoto left a video telling her sister that Nick accidentally poisoned himself in the lab and somehow it infected the entire family. They knew they were sick. The in-house doctor at Well-Life treated them and said they were fine, but Nicole knew they weren’t. She also directed us to a cloud drive with proof, not sure what kind. Brielle’s pouring over it now.”
“Makes you wonder if the toxic chemical he was working with came with an MDS or SDS,” Smith interjected.
“If the company purposefully hid that from the guy working with it, that’s a big OSHA no-no.”
Tessman fixed his stare on Becca.
“Would you know anything about that at Well-Life?”
“Here’s about all I know. Material Data Sheets, or Safety Data Sheets are included in all chemicals and compounds that are in any lab, even organic compounds. The last time I was at Well-Life was well over a year ago, before my parents died. The sheets were prominently displayed in the labs at that time.”
“So, this is looking more and more like it’s linked to Well-Life,” Jackson said.
“Yes,” Tessman agreed.
“Once we have whatever proof Brielle finds, we need to go back with a new search warrant and go after their in-house medical charts and MDS sheets.”
“Is there any way to see if anyone else who works at Well-Life has died in the last year?” Becca asked.
Tessman nodded his head.
“You’re thinking if Nick accidentally poisoned himself and his family, did anyone else?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Becca said.
“Nick was experienced. I don’t believe for a second that he accidentally poisoned himself or didn’t know how concentrated and potent a compound was that he was working with.”
“We’ll have Brielle look into that after she’s done with the cloud storage,” Tessman said.
“Okay, we’re signing off now,” Jackson said.
“I’ll catch up with you after we get back to HQ.”