Page 18 of Operation: Sharp Angel

“Like how clean the house is?” she asked.

Tessman nodded.

“Now what?” she asked.

“We have several more things to check out,” Jackson said. “We’ll be in touch in the next few days.”

Tessman and Jackson walked Becca Elliot out. After she’d driven away, Tessman got into Jackson’s car for the drive to the Illinois State Police Forensic Service Center on West Roosevelt Road in Chicago. They had an appointment with Kai Nguyen, a civilian technician, who was also Becca Elliot’s source. Brielle had already checked her out to confirm her identity. She was who Becca Elliot said she was. She’d been with the State Police Crime Lab for eight years.

Tessman went over Brielle’s report as Jackson drove. “Kai Nguyen and Becca Elliot graduated the same year from Illinois State University in Normal. Becca Elliot graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice before she was accepted to law school. Huh? Makes you wonder why she went into a firm doing estate planning when it looks like criminal law was her original intention.”

Jackson chuckled. “It shows how smart she is. There has to be a lot fewer headaches where she is than if she was with the DA or defending criminals.”

As previously planned, Tessman called Kai Nguyen when they arrived onsite. She exited the building and met them at their car, sliding into the backseat. Kai Nguyen was a confident young Vietnamese-American woman who had demanded confidentiality from them before she agreed to the meeting. “I could get into a lot of trouble by talking to you,” she saidafter she was in the car. “Becca will file a lawsuit against you personally if the police find out I talked to you.”

“They won’t,” Jackson assured her.

“We appreciate you being willing to talk to us,” Tessman added.

“Like I told Becca, the GSR pattern on Nick DeSoto does not support the conclusion that he shot three people. It supports the suicide, but not the murders.”

“She also mentioned lack of fingerprints on the weapon,” Tessman said.

“It was wiped clean,” Kai said. “We only lifted prints in two areas. On the grip and trigger and along the top, where you’d grasp it to rack the slide.”

“And there were no prints on the magazine or the rounds?” Jackson asked.

“No, none.”

“And the police did not send to you a box with ammo in it to test for prints either?” Tessman asked.

“No. If they were recovered, they would have been sent to the lab for testing. They always are,” Kai said. “I think the coroner screwed up on this one and the detectives assigned let it pass, and not just because Becca and I are friends.” She handed a flashdrive over the seats. “Everything you need is on that. I copied the entire forensic file to it. It’s for your eyes only. I’m only doing this because I believe the real killer is out there.” She opened the door, intending to exit the vehicle.

“One last thing,” Tessman said, stopping her. “Was there any injury to the webbing on Nick DeSoto’s hand between his thumb and index finger?”

“No, there was no slide bite.” She got out of the car and walked quickly back to the building.

Tessman retrieved his tablet from his backpack and plugged the flashdrive in. He reviewed the files and gave Jackson arunning narrative of what he saw in the files as Jackson drove back to the northwest suburbs and their headquarters. He also read off the list of what was sent to the lab regarding this case. There was no box of ammo, no gun case, no cleaning kit.

***

Due to what they found on the flashdrive, Tessman and Jackson made the request for an update meeting with Shepherd. He set the meeting time for thirty minutes after they were due back at HQ. They also contacted Brielle, hoping she had dug into the DeSoto’s accounts. Earlier that morning, Detective Davis had dropped off the phones and laptop computers belonging to Nick and Nicole Desoto. He’d also had a brief conversation with Shepherd, which both Tessman and Jackson were eager to hear about.

They settled around the conference table in Shepherd’s office. Tessman handed the flashdrive to Brielle, who had her laptop plugged into the docking station that would project its contents onto the large television that served as a monitor on the wall.

“Kai Nguyen provided copies of the forensic files and reports. The tox screens aren’t back yet, but everything else is here,” Tessman said.

Brielle inserted the flashdrive and brought up its contents for all to see.

“The key points are there was no spare ammo, no storage box for the gun, or cleaning kit taken from the residence and we didn’t find one either when we searched,” Jackson said.

“And there are no finger prints on the magazine or rounds in the gun. Just two sets of Nick DeSoto’s prints on the grip, trigger and the racking slide. There were exactly five rounds fired,” Tessman added. “The casings were found where you’d expect them to be in the house. No surprises there.”

“I’m finding no trace of the purchase of the weapon or ammo in any of their accounts. And there are no unaccounted-for large cash withdrawals from their bank accounts. I also checked every range in Wisconsin and Illinois. Nick DeSoto did not visit one at any point in the last six months,” Brielle reported.

“What else?” Shepherd asked.

“As Becca Elliot said, the forensic report confirms the GSR patterns and counts don’t support the theory that Nick DeSoto killed anyone besides himself,” Tessman said. “And even that, after reviewing the lack of blood splatter at height where Nick DeSoto supposedly killed himself, the technician even concluded he had to be sitting on the floor when he pulled the trigger.”

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