ALPHABET MURDERS - ANGIE BARTONI CASE FILES #1 (Detective Angie Bartoni Case Files)

by Marshall Huffman

  “Yeah, I didn’t sleep much either trying to figure out if we missed something.”

  “If we did, I sure don’t see it.”

  “I have a meeting at two o’clock with the Commissioner and the Mayor. I’m sure they are going to ask me the same thing. How could we have spent so much manpower and not have anything to show for it.”

  “What about the van and partial plate?”

  “FBI is working on it.”

  “Working on it? Why in the hell haven’t they come up with anything yet?”

  “Don’t know. Maybe the partial was wrong or the plates were stolen. Any number of things.”

  “I’m going to go grab breakfast, you interested?”

  “Nah, but thanks for the offer. I have to get ready for the meeting. I’ve been working on a situation report from the time of Amy Long, our first victim right up until this morning.”

  “Need any help? I’ve got my notes if you need them,” I offered.

  The Captain looked like a whipped dog. He usually sat up very straight but now he was slumped over like a heavy burden was bearing down on him. Hell, truth be known, I suppose we all felt that way. This guy was eating away at our egos as well as killing young women. We needed a real break in this case if we were going to get anywhere.

  “Keep your chin up Chief. Something has to break.”

  “Yeah, right,” was all he said as he turned back to writing his report.

  On my desk was today’s paper. I hadn’t even looked at it until now. I picked it up and found I was looking at myself. A file picture from probably five years ago was staring back at me. Under the picture it said; Detective Angelina Bartoni. The headline caption read:

  IPD Detective Misses Catching Killer

  - Acting on a tip from Kathleen Foster who was at the park, Detective Bartoni went to the park. After talking to the suspicious man, who had been watching the kids play, she left the area.

  According to Foster, the man sat there for another five to ten minutes before he jumped up and ran and grabbed Ginny Thompson. Ginny Thompson becomes the seventh victim of the Alphabet Murderer.

  At this time the police have not speculated why Detective Bartoni did not interview the suspect more aggressively..........

  Well Bartoni, it has hit the fan. I wondered if the Captain had seen this yet. Hell, of course he had, he is the one who put the paper on my desk. I decided not to read the rest of the article. I just tossed it into the waste basket.

  Just to make sure the day was going to totally suck Bud Farmington came up the stairs then. He walked over with the paper tucked under his arm.

  “Read the article.”

  “And?”

  “It sucked pond water. They didn’t bother to mention that he had on a disguise. I hate reporters,” was all he said and walked off.

  My God the pod people had finally gotten Bud. It was the only explanation that seemed reasonable.

  I was finishing up my paper work, the bane of every cop, when the rest of the detectives started to drift in. To their credit not one of them had a snide remark, not even in jest. The theme from the Twilight Zone drifted through my brain.

  The captain came out of his office and walked over to my desk.

  “I’m sorry Bartoni. The Commissioner just called. He wants you at the two O’clock meeting as well. You might want to jot down anything you think is pertinent to the cases.”

  “It’s okay. I expected it at some point. Might as well get it over with.”

  “I’ll meet you at the Commissioner's office a few minutes before we go in to talk to them.”

  “See you there,” was all I could think to say.

  Several of the other detectives glanced my way but none of them said anything. I decided this would be a good time to look up culinary schools.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  After lunch I went home and put on my dress blues. I even put on a little makeup which was definitely rare for me. It was nice to see that the uniform not only fit but was a little loose. I checked myself once more then said a quick prayer.

  The captain was waiting in the reception area when I arrived. I went over and sat down beside him.

  “Glad you put on your uniform.”

  “I figured it might help to remind them that underneath it all, I was still just a cop trying to do my job.”

  “It couldn’t hurt. Do you have your cell phone with you?”

  “Yep.”

  “Make sure it’s turned off. Nothing sets the Commissioner off faster than having a cell phone ring when he is pontificating.”

  I took it out of my pocket and turned it off. I had no sooner put it away than the receptionist told us we could go on in. I don’t know how she knew but she did. I took a deep breath, straightened my uniform one more time and followed the Captain into the room.

  I recognized the Commissioner, Mayor, and District Attorney but there were two other suits sitting as well. My guess was they were FBI. They had the standard FBI uniform on. Black suit, white shirt, ugly tie.

  “Sit,” the Commissioner said.

  Not a very good start. They all looked like the Grinch had just stolen Christmas.

  “Captain McGregor, we would like a full update on how this case has been handled.”

  “Yes sir. I have prepared a report and have copies. Well, I have a copy for the Mayor, you, and Detective Bartoni. I don’t believe I know the other two gentlemen.”

  “We will get to that later. You can pass over the detective's copy for now.”

  “Yes sir,” he said and slid my copy over to one of the FBI guys. At least I was pretty sure that’s what they were.”

  I have to give the Captain credit. He was well versed on every aspect of each of the cases. I’ve been involved since the very first victim turned up and I doubt if I could have done as well.

  When he finished, he sat with his hands folded, waiting for the questions to come.

  “Well, ah..you seemed to have covered everything pretty well. Mr. Mayor, do you have any comments or questions?”

  “Yes. Detective Bartoni, as I understand it you went to the park after you got a tip. You sat right down next to the man but didn’t do anything more than talk to him. Why is that?”

  “Well sir, the last time I looked at the legal codes, I didn’t see anything about sitting in a park being a felony.”

  “Detective Bartoni,” the Commissioner said, glaring at me.

  “It would serve you well to just answer my question without the flippant remarks,” the Mayor said.

  “I’m not being flippant. He was doing absolutely nothing that I could see that was in any way breaking the law.”

  “And you sat right next to him and didn’t recognize him from the sketch?”

  “Sir, his hair was different; he had on glasses and a mustache. He looked nothing like the sketch.”

  “Really? To a trained professional like you?”

  “Yes sir. I doubt anyone in this room would have recognized him.”

  “That’s not our job, that’s yours.”

  “Yes sir.”

  I was liking this asshole less and less every minute. I can take quite a bit before I get really pissed but this guy was getting to me. I took a deep breath and tried to let it go. Who am I kidding? It had me by the throat and was trying to turn me inside out.

  “Did you ask him why he was sitting there?”

  “I did. He told me his family had just been killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. He was just sitting there trying to remember better times when his kid used to play there.”

  That isn’t exactly what he said but they weren’t there so how the hell would they know?

  “And nothing seemed...unusual about him?”

  “Not really. Just a guy who had lost everything and was trying to forget for a while. At least that’s how he came across.”

  “Captain. What do you think about Detective Bartoni’s handling of the situation?”

  “Mr. Mayor. I wasn’t there. I’
m sure none of us can make an accurate assessment unless we were. Detective Bartoni is one of our very best detectives. If she says the guy did nothing to arouse her suspicion, I absolutely believe her.”

  “I see,” was all his said.

  “Captain McGregor, these two men are from a special serial killer task force. They work under the FBI but are part of a separate elite unit. They are going to take over from Special Agent Pendergrass. You will act as support for them. Your job from this point on is to see that they get whatever they need and that includes manpower.”

  “Sir. We are stretched pretty thin as it is. No one is working on our regular cases.”

  “Yes, well that will just have to take a backseat to getting the serial killer. Understood Captain?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Oh, and Detective Bartoni is off the case for now,” the Commissioner said.

  “Sir,” I said, starting to stand.

  The Captain put his hand around my arm and tried to pull me back down. No frickin’ way. They were going to punish me no matter what anyone said.

  “Detective. Stop right there. You are looking at a suspension if you say another word,” the Commissioner said.

  I just stood there glaring at him. It was all I could do to not walk out of the room.

  “Commissioner...”

  “That’s it. You’re suspended for two weeks.”

  “Fine. hen since you have suspended me I might as well say what I have to say. I resign as of this minute. I don’t do this Mickey Mouse crap. I’ve been working nonstop for two months. Sixteen and twenty hour days. I really don’t need this crap,” I said and pushed back my chair and walked to the door.

  “Detective,” the Commissioner said.

  I stopped and turned around. I know my face was beet red and my eyes were probably bugging out of my head.

  “Detective. Hold on. We have to do something. The press is killing us and you. They want your head. It may seem unfair but it has to be this way.”

  “Not for me it doesn’t” I said and walked out the door.

  I was climbing into my car when the Captain came rushing over.

  “Hold it. I talked to them and they have agreed to make it look like a suspension but to assign you to the Serial Killer Task Force. You will be working with Special Agents Donner and Neil. They're the two suits that were upstairs. They want you to come back up and we can iron this all out.”

  “Captain, I appreciate what you did but I’m not going to be jerked around just to make the press happy. What kind of message does that send the rank and file that have to go out on the streets every day?”

  “I understand but I want you to stay. I don’t care what they want. Please reconsider. We can get through this. You sent them a message loud and clear. One they didn’t expect to get. They are trying to backpedal now.”

  “I’ll stay, but for you, not the Commissioner and certainly not the Mayor.”

  “Good girl. Come on, we need to get this over with so we can move on.”

  Damn. I had already made up my mind that I didn’t need this crap and here I was reneging. What a wuss.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The man picked up one of the jars and shook it. The lifeless eyes floated in the watery substance. He didn’t exactly know why he liked this particular pair more than the others but something about Carrie Jones' eyes fascinated him. He placed them back on the shelf between Brenda Bolton’s and Danielle Worthington's. This time maybe he had the perfect girl. His very own daughter that he could treat the way he had been treated when he was growing up.

  He went downstairs and took the two locks off the sturdy hasp. He flipped on the lights and opened the door. Ginny was sitting against the wall and appeared to be sleeping.

  “Ginny.”

  Her eyes fluttered and then opened. She looked over and saw him standing in the doorway. He had a mask over his eyes and nose.

  “Who are you, Zorro?” she said, sitting up.

  “Very amusing. No, I’m going to be your father from now on.”

  “Really? Just like that I get a new dad. I didn’t think it was that easy.”

  “Young lady, you seemed to be rather sharp tongued. I don’t think you will find things too amusing after I adjust your attitude.”

  “My attitude? I've got news for you. You have the attitude problem if you think you are going to be my father just because you grabbed me and stuck a needle in my neck. What was in that anyway?” Ginny asked.

  “Ginny, Ginny, Ginny. I can see that you are going to take a lot of work and that’s okay. We have lots of time.”

  He stepped into the room and Ginny didn’t make any effort to move.

  “Are you afraid of me?” he asked.

  “No, not particularly.”

  “Really. How strange. All the others started crying and wanting their mommies.”

  “And did it go them any good?” Ginny asked.

  He stopped and looked at her. What was it with this girl? She didn’t seem the least bit afraid. In fact, she seemed defiant.

  “Pull your shorts off. I want to see your underpants.”

  “Fine. I don’t care; you can look all you want. You can’t do anything to me that hasn’t been done before,” she said, starting to unzip her shorts.

  “What? What did you say?”

  “You can’t do anything that hasn’t been done to me a hundred times before.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Are you dense? Molesting me. My brother and uncle have been doing it since I was nine or ten.”

  “No. No, no, no. That can’t be right.”

  “I didn’t say it was right. It’s just the way it is.”

  “And no one did anything about it?”

  “My mom knows but she acts like she doesn’t. It’s her brother so she just pretends it isn’t going on,” Ginny said.

  “Ginny, no. No you are lying. You have to be,” he wailed.

  “Hey, go on and do what you want. You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”

  “This isn’t fair,” he shouted.

  “Life’s not fair,” Ginny replied.

  “This can’t be happening to me. Why? Why is everything going wrong? I don’t understand. This is just so wrong,” he said and turned and went out of the room slamming the door.

  Ginny smiled as she heard him snap the locks in place and still screaming, went back upstairs. She let out a big breath. It was all a lie but as long as she could keep him fooled, just maybe She could get out of this alive.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  I was introduced to the two FBI agents. They both seemed different from your standard agent. Carl Donner was six one, probably two hundred pounds and it looked to be all muscle. He had rugged good looks and I could tell he spent a good deal of time outside. Agent Francis Neil was a tad shorter with a slight bit of paunch starting to show. He was a lot paler than Donner.

  “Detective Bartoni we have been reading the synopsis the captain gave us and I will tell you right up front, I don’t see a lot you could have done differently.”

  “That’s good I guess.”

  “As for your Mayor’s accusation, he is just full of it. He was just trying to feel important. I wouldn’t worry about that too much,” Donner said.

  “So, what’s next?” I asked.

  “We need to go back and reinterview each parent. They may have noticed something that they didn’t even realize was relevant. It happens more times than you can imagine.”

  “Yeah, I've seen that too.”

  “While we are doing that, I’ll have some of our people start looking at known predators that have vans.”

  “We have done that already.”

  “We have a little more sophisticated matrix system that we can use. It is a lot more powerful than people trying to cross-reference vehicles to molesters.”

  “Hey, whatever works is fine with me. I think we need to talk to the Tolberts again. Something about the wife, Toni, has bothered me ev
er since we talked to them.”

  “Fine. We’ll interview them again as well.”

  “So where do we actually start?”

  “Let’s talk to the Welch family first. We can kill three birds with one stone.”

  Now isn’t that just the cutest thing. Three birds with one stone. I tell you, those FBI guys are a laugh a minute.

  “I’ll tell the Captain and we can take off.”

  I went and told McGregor where I was going to be and he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Whatever.”

  I guess he didn’t care because I was technically on suspension.

  Donner drove and I rode shotgun, steering them to the Welch residence. Marsha was taken aback when she opened the door.

  “Detective Bartoni. I wasn’t really expecting you.”

  “Sorry to drop in like this but this is Special Agent Donner and Special Agent Neil. They are with a special unit of the FBI. If you have the time, we want to go over what you remember one more time.”

  “Again? ’ve told everyone what I know, which isn’t all that much.”

  “Please. It will help Donner and Neil understand the situation better than reading it in a file. They may see something we missed.”

  “Well, I guess it’s alright but...”

  “I know. You just want to get on with life. The problem is another little girl just like your Fran was taken and we need all the help we can get.”

  “Okay, come on in,” she said, resigned to the fact that we were probably not going away until we got what we wanted.

  “Is Fran home?” I asked.

  “Yes. She is upstairs resting. She still can’t sleep more than a few minutes at a time at night. Even with all the lights on.”

  “Marsha, please. We need to get this guy before he does it again. This kind of predator will not stop. Ever.”

  “Please have a seat,” she said showing us into the living room. It looked exactly the same as the last time I had been here. Even the magazines seemed to be in the same order.

  “Mrs. Welch, I know it is difficult but could you just walk us through what happened when Francesca was taken?”