ONE TOO MANY - ANGIE BARTONI CASE FILE #9

by Marshall Huffman

  “So what do we do now? Just give up?” Mr. Powers asked.

  “No sir. That’s not what I am saying. It is going to take time. I know it seems like forever already but some cases just develop slower.”

  “We don’t have much money but we can refinance our home and maybe offer a reward,” Mrs. Powers told the officer.

  “I can’t tell you what to do on that matter. What I will say is that it often confuses the situation. The minute you offer a reward every nut in the state and even beyond will call and say they know where Alyssa is. We will waste time and manpower tracking down false leads.”

  “We have to do something. We can’t sleep. We can’t eat. Hell it was hard to even leave the house with those vulture reporters waiting. It reminded me of buzzards circling their dying prey,” Mr. Powers told him.

  “We can set up another television appearance if you think that would make you feel better. The truth is, often those only make the person feel even more powerful. I can’t ever remember a case where it leads to someone being released.”

  “Then all we can do is go back home and wait?”

  “I’m afraid so,” he told them.

  **

  “Ah, you’re awake. That’s good,” the man in the mask told Alyssa.

  “Why are you doing this? I’ve never done anything to you. I don’t even know you.”

  “Sure you do. Don’t you remember our introduction yesterday. We are old friends now,” he said chuckling like he was the funniest person in the world.

  “You raped me. I don’t know you and I never want to know you. You are a sick bastard.”

  “Oh my, such language for a teenager. Of course teens today have no respect for adults. You think you can shoot off your mouth and say anything that pops into your head. Parents now ‘negotiate’ with their children. Negotiate,” he said like it was a bitter pill.

  “Things change. We have rights too,” she said.

  “Yes. Yes you do. And one of them is understanding just how far your ‘rights’ extend,” he said slapping her so unexpectedly that she didn’t see it coming.

  She let out a scream and he slapped her again, even harder this time.

  “Stop. Stop,” she yelled but that seemed to enrage him even more and suddenly he was hitting her with his fists in her face and on her arms and legs.

  He continued to batter her until she just lay there whimpering. Suddenly he stopped and took several deep breaths.

  “You have all the rights in the world but you need to understand there are times when you can exercise those rights and times to just shut up. This was one of those times. I told you once and I won’t tell you again, when I say something to you, you will comply and do so respectfully. I am sick of teenagers that think they are equals with adults. You are not, understand?”

  She mumbled, “Yes."

  He reached out and grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head up as far as it would go.

  “Obviously I didn’t get the message across. I asked if you understood,” he screamed at her, his eyes bulging out.

  “Yes. Yes I understand,” she managed to get out louder.

  “Good,” he said and let her head fall back.

  He still had a good handful of hair. He looked at it like he didn’t even know where it came from.

  “Since you can’t seem to recall our introduction last night, this seems like the perfect time to re-introduce ourselves. Maybe I’ll try something a little different to help you remember.”

  “Please. Don’t. I’m sorry for being snotty. Of course I remember our introduction,” she said trying to find a way to stall.

  “Well it must not have been as memorable for you as it was for me. I’ll make sure you don’t have those lapses again. You will certainly remember this day for a very long time,” he said as he started to undress.

  “Please don’t do this.”

  “Relax my dear. This will be like nothing you have ever experienced before,” he said loosening the straps on her legs and feet.

  **

  “Roberts, Bartoni. You guys are up. Little Creek Golf Course. Ninth hole. Young girl’s body.”

  “What about Miller?” I asked.

  “Give it a rest Bartoni. Just get out to Little Creek now.”

  I mumbled a few not so ladylike words as we headed to the car.

  “You know Angie, the captain is right. We need to back off on Miller for now.”

  “I don’t think so. This is no longer a cold case. James is an active file and on the board. I won’t have unsolved cases piling up.”

  “Unsolved? We have the highest solve percentage in the precinct,” Dan insisted.

  “Yes and that is because I refuse to let them stay on the board. I will get Miller and we will close the James case.”

  “Man, you are so hard headed.”

  “Dan, that’s how you get to be the best. You have to be passionate about every case or you will end up like Donavon.”

  “Ouch, that’s a low blow.”

  “I’m just saying. Donavon went from being one of the best to a total joke. It didn’t take him all that long either. Once you start down that slippery slope it doesn’t take long to hit the bottom,” I told him.

  “Okay, okay. Point taken. We’ll get Miller,” he said as we pulled up to the golf course.

  I looked around and immediately thought if I were a bank robber this would be the perfect time. There were at least twenty cop cars there with their lights flashing. I’m surprised that an airplane didn’t land there by mistake thinking it was the airport. Twenty cop cars and probably thirty or more officers were just standing around shooting the breeze. Wow, the tax payers were getting ripped off today.

  “Where is the ninth hole?” I asked one of the uniforms.

  “Around the back. It’s just at the back of the clubhouse,” he told us.

  When we walked away I said to Dan, “I hate it when a bunch of cops are just standing around like that."

  “Oh come on. We all did it at one time.”

  “Not me,” I replied.

  “Really? Never?”

  “Oh look, there is the crime scene,” I said, ducking the last question.

  SEVEN

  Dan and I both stopped dead in our tracks. Sprawled out on the green with the flag sticking straight up out of her stomach lay a totally nude young woman.

  “Now that’s just sick,” Dan said.

  “Totally.”

  I lifted the crime scene tape and carefully made my way over to the body. It looked like someone had beaten her pretty badly from the bruises and cuts. The stick of the pin flag was shoved right under her sternum and looked like it had gone clean through her.

  The grass around her was a rusty brown which was probably from the amount of pooled blood. I could tell without a rape kit that she had been sexually assaulted and abused horribly. She had bite marks on her face, arms, and breasts. I was just stooped down looking at her and shaking my head when Doctor Sorenson, the Medical Examiner, came up behind me. I saw his shadow before he spoke.

  “Well, this is a first, even for me Bartoni.”

  “Pretty sick, huh?”

  “Definitely different. I wonder how he got her out here. It’s a pretty long walk from the clubhouse carrying dead weight,” he mused.

  “Either he was strong or had help. I guess he could have used one of the golf carts,” I replied.

  “Golf cart. That’s what I would use,” Sorenson said.

  “Pretty beat up,” I commented.

  “Lots of bite marks. We can lift those and run it through the data base. Probably won’t do any good but we could possibly get lucky,” he replied.

  “Obviously raped. Lots of DNA samples I hope,” I said.

  “Oh yes. She was raped many times from the looks of the bruising. I’ll do a test when I get her back to the lab. What I’m wondering is how he got the flag through her. I mean I’ve played golf before and the end of that pole isn’t pointed. In fact, it’s rounded and fits i
nto a little cup.”

  “Once CSI techs get the pictures, we can roll her on her side and see what’s up,” I said.

  The three of us walked over to the edge of the green while the CSI team did their usual sweep and picture taking. While we were standing there a man dressed in a get-up that I wouldn't put my dog in, if I had a dog, let alone be seen in public in, came walking up.

  “Excuse me. Do you know how much longer you will be? We would like to finish our game.”

  The three of us turned and looked at him.

  “Excuse me?” I finally managed to get out.

  “How long?” he said looking at his watch.

  “Is that your club?” I asked, pointing to the iron in his hand.

  “Yes it is.”

  “Dan could you check it for me?”

  “Certainly.”

  “My club?” he asked, puzzled.

  “Yes. It’s just routine. It helps eliminate you as a suspect.”

  “Good God. You don’t think I had anything to do with this do you?”

  “Everyone is a suspect at this point.”

  “Here,” he said handing the club to Dan.

  Dan looked it over carefully and then showed the head to Sorenson and me.

  “What do you think?”

  “Looks good to me,” Sorenson said.

  “Yeah, I think it’s probably okay,” I added.

  “Then we don’t need it as evidence?”

  “I don’t think so,” I replied.

  Dan reared back and threw the club as far as he could into a small creek.

  “What the...”

  “Listen Bozo. A young woman was brutally raped and murdered and some bastard jammed the flag through her stomach and you are concerned about finishing your stupid golf game? What the hell is wrong with you?” Dan yelled at the idiot.

  “I’ll sue you for that club,” he said.

  “Good luck with that. You go right ahead. If you want to pay some shark to take me to court over a golf club you just go right ahead. Now you get back away from this crime scene or I’ll haul you in for obstruction,” Dan told him.

  The man stood there a minute longer with his hands on his hips until Dan lifted the tape and started toward him. Suddenly he turned and started running back to the rest of his foursome.

  “My, my, your young detective has come a long way Bartoni,” Sorenson said.

  “If he keeps this up I’m going to have to get him a leash.”

  “The guy was a self-centered blockhead,” Dan replied.

  “No arguments here,” I said.

  **

  When CSI finished with the first round of pictures the three of us carefully rolled the girl over on her side. The pole had gone completely through her but the plug end had been cut off at an angle.

  “Ah,” Sorenson said.

  “That explains it,” I added.

  “Was she dead already?” Dan asked.

  “I won’t know until I get her back,” Sorenson replied.

  “Man that is really demented.”

  “So he abducts her, abuses her, and then brings her out here and sticks the flag through her. Why?”

  “Why? Because he is a demented bastard,” Sorenson replied.

  “Yeah, yeah. I got that part. Why bring her out here and leave her like this? There is a high degree of risk in doing it this way. He had to get the body out here. Cut off the flag pole. Shove it through her body and leave without being seen. I can think of a thousand easier and less dangerous ways to get rid of a body,” I said.

  “Grandstanding. Showing us how smart he is,” Dan said.

  “Man, I hope this isn’t just the first of many. This is pretty ugly as it is. Who knows what he will come up with next,” I replied.

  “So you’re saying there will be more? We are looking at a serial killer?” Dan asked.

  “Not yet. Not officially, but when someone starts out like this it often means we are going to see more. I could be wrong but that’s been my experience in the past,” I said.

  “I’ll get you a positive ID just as soon as I can. I’m pretty sure there are some parents out there who are very worried about their daughter,” Doc Sorenson said

  “We will look into missing persons. She sure doesn’t look like a runaway. No track marks on her arms or anyplace else that I can see,”

  “No, she’s clean,” Sorenson confirmed.

  “Probably abducted,” Dan added.

  CSI took their final round of pictures that the doctor requested. He wanted close-ups of the flag pole and the cup itself. Finally we bagged her up and had her body hauled back up to the ME’s van and off she went to be autopsied.

  “That was totally depressing,” Dan said.

  “Yeah, there's something about kids and young adults that gets to me too.”

  “I’ll start with the missing person reports,” he said.

  “I’ll fill the captain in while you are doing that.”

  EIGHT

  We were both pretty quiet on the ride back to the station.

  Finally Dan said, “What are you thinking?”

  “The usual. It never ceases to amaze me at how inhumane humans can be. I mean, here was a young girl with her whole life ahead of her and someone just comes along and ends it. Not just ends it but totally destroys the family as well. Those left behind will have to deal with this until they die. It changes the whole dynamics of the family. Even if she had lived it would have screwed up her life forever. She would never have been the same. Honestly Dan, I just don’t get it,” I said.

  “You know you always get like this when a child or adolescent is murdered.”

  “That’s right and I don’t ever want to change. It’s what will drive me to get this guy. This case will not go unsolved even if I have to work seven days a week, sixteen hours a day. I will bring him down.”

  Dan was silent for a second and then said, “You mean we. We will get him if it means working seven days a week and sixteen hours a day.”

  “Yeah Dan. Sorry. You’re a really good partner and a damn good detective. Sometimes I forget to tell you that.”

  “Don’t do it too often or I might get a big head.”

  “Bigger head,” I replied.

  “Ah, that’s my Angie.”

  **

  We got back to the station to discover a large bouquet of flowers on my desk. I know I was blushing when I read the card. It was simple but still made me tingle inside.

  “WOW! THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES,”

  Love BEN

  “Nice flowers. Either someone was a very good girl or a very bad girl is my guess.”

  “Put a sock in it,” I said and stuffed the note into my pocket so he wouldn’t nose around.

  “Did you get a meal out of it?” he taunted.

  “In fact I did. One you wouldn’t understand. You think a seven course meal is a cheeseburger and a six pack,” I said, heading to the captain's office.

  “So what did you find?” McGregor asked after I plopped down on his beat up couch.

  “A terribly depressing sight. A young girl, early teens, sexually assaulted, and the flag pole shoved right through her stomach so it was still sticking up. When we got there the flag was still fluttering in the breeze.”

  He scrunched up his face.

  “I don’t like the sound of this,” he replied.

  “Me neither. When someone does something like this is shows they have no regard for human life.”

  “Or the police. Usually the ones that like to showoff are thumbing their noses at the cops,” McGregor said.

  “You know the press will be all over this.”

  “You know the drill. Ongoing investigation, can’t give out the details. No comment. I want you to play it that way. I want this to die out as quickly as possible. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of having their fifteen minutes of fame.”

  “I have a feeling that no matter what we do, they are going to get it. We both know this probably isn’t
the end of it.”

  “I know but I want to stall on this as long as we can. Maybe something will turn up and you can get them before they strike again,” McGregor said.

  “You got it. Dan is doing missing persons. If she is in the system we should have an answer as to who our Jane Doe is pretty quickly.”

  “Get this guy Bartoni. One way or the other, get him,” the captain replied.

  He felt the same way as I did. He was married and had two teenage daughters and a son and cases like this struck a nerve with him. He was much looser in letting us investigate as long as we didn’t blatantly step over the line.

  **

  When I got back to my desk Dan held up a picture. No doubt it was the same girl in much happier times.

  “Her name is Alyssa Powers. Lives just off of High School Road near the city limits. She was reported missing by her parents six days ago. They had gone to the lake for the weekend and when they came home they discovered her missing.”

  “Let’s go see Sorenson. I want a positive ID before we go talk to the parents.”

  “Man, I hate this part,” Dan replied.

  “Everyone does but it is part of the job. When you don’t hate this part, that’s when you need to worry.”

  We headed to the morgue once again. I guess I am always hoping they will somehow make the place less ugly but unfortunately nothing had changed.

  “I understand you know who our victim is.” Sorenson said when we came in. Poor Alyssa was lying on the stainless steel table almost like we had last seen her. The only difference was the flag pole was missing.

  “Flag pole and DNA are on the way to the lab,” the ME said like he was reading my mind.

  “Her name is...”

  “Alyssa Powers,” he said before I could finish.

  “You got the fingerprints back that fast?”

  “Yep. They just came in. I don’t want to make your day any worse than it already is but Alyssa was indeed still alive when the flagpole was shoved through her. She died right there on the ninth green. I just hope she was already unconscious,” he told us.

  “But you don’t know?”

  “No way to tell for certain. I would say from the beating that she took, it was highly likely that she was already unconscious or close to it.”