Page 20 of Operation: Sharp Angel

On the top of the pile was a bill from the girls’ pediatrician. Becca recalled that Nicole had taken Riley to the doctor because of the headaches she was having. She smiled, recalling how ridiculous Nicole had felt to discover Riley just needed glasses. She hadn’t even thought that a possibility. Becca chastised herself for allowing her thoughts to wander. This wasn’t the time or place for her to relive the memories. It was a simple sort she needed to do. Bills to be paid in one pile, mail to investigate in another, and junk mail or irrelevant mail in a third pile to be recycled or trashed.

She plowed through the pile of mail and other papers on the counter and slipped the bills that needed to be paid into her purse. It only took her three hours to clear the entire first floor of personal items, and she only used one of the bins. She carried the remainder of the bins upstairs. She knew that was where the majority of the things that she’d want to remove from the home were located.

The office was the first room she started in. It didn’t take long, as most of the contents had been removed by the police. She’d finally got back everything the police had removed from the house, including all the papers from the office. The last of it was dropped off by Detective Davis at her house earlier that day, as she was leaving to come here. She’d placed the box in the trunk of her car as she’d already locked her place up. Besides, she planned to pass most of it to Jackson and Tessman from Shepherd Security to review first. They’d promised her theywould go through it in a matter of days and have it returned to her promptly.

She spent less than an hour in the office and then moved onto the master bedroom where she spent three hours. She’d filled two bins, which she left in the hallway. She’d hire someone to come move all the bins when she was done, as she was packing them full, and they were heavy.

It was more difficult to not take trips down memory lane with each keepsake she touched, as this was the one room with Nicole’s cherished mementos from childhood through present day. Becca found several thick photo albums in a box on the floor of the master closet. There were pictures from their childhood, including the few family vacations they’d taken. She sat on the bed and looked through the albums. They contained a lot of pictures she did not have copies of. She believed Nicole had gotten these photo albums from her parent’s house after their deaths. Becca vaguely recalled seeing them when they went through her parents’ things.

The room was getting dark as it was nearly sunset.

She checked her phone for a missed call from the dealership, assuming the work on her car had to have been completed by now. There were no missed calls. She could always take an Uber home if needed. Her house keys were not on the keyring she’d given the dealership with the car’s fob.

She knew she should get back to work, but she couldn’t tear herself away from the photo albums or the happy memories that were contained within. She turned the bedside light on, got comfortable, and continued to look through the pages. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but she’d looked through all four photo albums, and it was completely dark outside by the time she put the last photo album on the bed beside her.

She glanced around the room and decided to call it a night. She should be able to finish if she put in a full day tomorrow. Several of her girlfriends offered to help go through her sister’s things. She’d take them up on that to do one more check to go through every drawer to ensure she missed nothing. And she’d have someone else go through Riley and Zoe’s rooms. She couldn’t do it. She hadn’t gone into either one even though the crime scene cleanup company assured her all traces of their deaths in those rooms had been taken care of.

She got up and went to the closet to turn the light off. She picked up her purse and stepped into the hallway. She’d leave the bedside light on to give her some light as she went down the otherwise dark staircase as she remembered the light over the stairs was burned out. She’d turned no lights on downstairs.

As she reached the top of the staircase, she saw a beam of light, which she assumed was from a flashlight, sweep across the bottom few stairs. It danced along the wall for a few moments before it withdrew. She froze where she was.

Someone was in the house!

Then she heard voices, male voices. “Looks like that law-yer has been packing things up,” one of the male voices said.

“The police didn’t find it. I doubt she did,” a second, deeper voice said.

“And if she did, she wouldn’t know what it was,” the first voice said.

She tiptoed back into the bedroom and went into the large walk-in closet, quietly closing the door. She leaned against the door and let out a shaky breath. Her heart raced, and she felt light-headed. She took a deep breath and pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans with her right hand, which shook. She brought up the text message string with Carter Tessman from Shepherd Security and tapped out a message.

Help in my sister’s house master bedroom hiding in closet 2 men in the house

Tessman had just driven his car out of the parking garage attached to the Shepherd Security building when the text hit his phone. He was heading to his condo, a rarity that he stayed there.

On my way, also calling police. Do they know you’re there?

He, of course, called Ops for them to notify the police and any other agency personnel in the vicinity to help back him up. And Ops would notify the local LEOs that armed federal agents were on site as well.

I don’t think so

Stay hidden

Oh, she intended to. She tapped out what she’d heard the men say, just so someone would have the info in case something happened to her.

Tessman thought about what she heard the intruders say as he drove, way above the posted speed limit. Ops had also reached Jackson. He was on his way, ETA fifteen minutes. Bravo Team members Flores and Robinson were also en route. Their ETA was twenty-five minutes. Tessman would reach the house way before anyone else. He wouldn’t wait for Jackson to enter. He had to decide how he’d play it. Would he ring the bell and knock, hoping to send the intruders fleeing out the back door? Or should he enter quietly and try to catch them?

Hiding in the closet, Becca watched the minutes tick by on the face of her iWatch. She took purposeful deep breaths to calm herracing heart. Her adrenaline was spiking high, she was sure. She prayed Carter Tessman, or the police, would get there before the men exhausted their search on the first floor and came upstairs.

The intruder, at the top of the stairs, stepped cautiously towards the room with the light on. He also noticed the two doors that led into the kids’ bedrooms further down the hall were closed, which they hadn’t been when he was last in the house.

In the closet, Becca stayed perfectly still, willing her heartbeat to settle down. She strained, trying to hear any sound. For the first ten minutes, she heard nothing. But then she heard the sound of the closet doorknob turning. She also felt the door press against her back. She flattened her back more firmly against the door and braced herself, her feet pushed hard into the carpet. The door hit her back harder as the person on the other side tried to open it.

She dug her feet in more firmly and pressed harder with her back. Would the intruder think the door was jammed by something? Did he have any idea she was in the house? And in the closet?

“What the hell?” the man muttered.

She heard him clearly. He pushed harder, now throwing his body against the door.

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