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Neil sat. “Adam’s lead on this.”
She shrugged.
I rubbed my knee as I sat and opened my laptop to send the first video to the screen. “Let’s start with the outdoor feed.”
The image wasn’t crystal clear, but it was what it was.
“Here’s where they pull up.” I stopped it where the suspects’ car pulled up and then started again. “Two suspects get out, and the driver remains.” The two moved across the frame to the area of the door. “One vehicle, three robbers this time. Two go inside, and one drives. Next we go to the inside feeds.”
I changed it to the inside feed, which was a split screen with four camera angles. “Here we have a man and a woman. The woman is your vic.” I moved the video forward a bit and stopped again. “Here they pull out guns and start issuing commands.”
All four screens showed the panic that ensued. I stopped and started again. “He fires one shot into the ceiling for effect, and the woman goes to the tellers to collect the cash.”
Looking over, I could see the concern in Dennis’s face. He was getting the idea now. This was no school fight. His relative was carrying a gun in a serious crime and headed for real jail time. So much for the Benson reputation. It would finally get the update it deserved.
“Hold it,” Newsom said.
I halted the playback.
She pointed. “Why is the man masked and the woman not?”
I shrugged. “She’s not smart enough is my guess.” I would have rather stated the obvious and said it was because she was an arrogant Benson, but I held that back. Nothing they ever did came back to haunt them the way they deserved.
I started the video again. “These three are amateurs, dangerous amateurs. The driver and the man have pulled off two other jobs nearby, but this is the first time they’ve brought her along.” I pointed at the woman on the screen. “She’s our best lead so far to get this group. Let’s go on and see the rest.”
The video continued as the woman put the gun in her coat pocket, then stopped, probably surprised, and looked straight at the camera for a second before going down the line, collecting cash in a duffle bag. That face shot and the DNA had given us our first good lead on this crew.
I ran it forward through the cash collection and stopped again. “This is where it went wrong.”
When I restarted it, you could clearly see the woman bring the money back to the man, who then pivoted and fired at the teller, which caused the rest of them to hit the floor.
“What’s the teller’s condition?” Parsons asked.
“Stable,” Neil replied.
“Good thing he was a terrible shot. We’ve been worried about exactly this, because the guy likes to shoot his gun,” I added.
“Why did he shoot?” Newsom asked. “Get anything from the witness statements?” The question was a good one, but one we still couldn’t answer.
Parsons leaned over to whisper to Dennis, who nodded at the comment.
I shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe she said something or moved too fast. So that’s the first screwup, and here’s the second.”
I restarted the video and on the screen, the pair left, the man followed by the woman.
“What did we miss?” Parsons asked.
I backed it up and went forward in slow motion. The man turned, and the woman leaned over a bit, then straightened and followed.
I would have missed it too, except that the loan officer had pointed it out.
“See it?” I backed up and restarted it.
On the second try, Parsons saw it. “She spit on the floor.”
Neil spoke up. “That’s right. Forensics pulled DNA from that spit, and that’s when you got the call.”
“Why did she do that?” Newsom asked.
