THE CLUB - ANGIE BARTONI CASE FILE

by Marshall Huffman

  “It is adversarial. You brought three attorneys in an attempt to intimidate me. That makes it adversarial. Let me ask you Doctor Rotelli, why is that necessary?”

  “Well I suppose by virtue of my being the spouse and living a somewhat unique life style, I assume I automatically become a suspect. Is that not true?”

  “Yes and no. At this point everyone is a suspect. What I am attempting to do is to throw as many fish out of the pool as possible. This display only keeps you in the pool.”

  “I see. Fine. Why don’t we get on with it and then I will do what I think is best.”

  “Fine with me but with only one lawyer. The law doesn’t say you can have the entire law firm. I assume you are the go to guy?” I said looking at Mr. $150.00 tie guy.”

  “Wesley Asher, Attorney at Law. Asher, Lawton, and Farnsworth,” he informed me.

  “So you will be the one going in the interview room with Doctor Rotelli and me?”

  “Yes, I suppose so. My people can watch if that is alright with you.”

  “Sure. It may be crowded. The captain, ADA, DA, and a few others may be in there as well.”

  “They will find a place to watch, thank you,” he said doing a slight bow.

  “Would either of you like something to drink before we go into the room?”

  “Just water for me,” the doctor said.

  “Water would be fine.”

  I sent Dan to get the drinks and let the captain know we were ready.

  **

  “This is Detective First Grade Angelina Bartoni concerning case number 77822-11. The time is 13:15 on Wednesday, the 9th of February, 2014. With me is Doctor Gill Rotelli, spelled first name : G-i-l-l last name: R-o-t-e-l-l-i. With him is his attorney, Wesley Asher, Attorney at Law with Asher, Lawton, and Farnsworth.

  This interview is concerning the death of his wife, Mimi Rotelli on Monday, the 7th of February at approximately 1:00 a.m.

  “Doctor Rotelli, I would like for you to tell me again about your discovery of your wife’s body.”

  “Alright, as I said, I arrived home from a conference in Miami and Mimi was supposed to pick me up at the airport. When she wasn’t there, I called the house but she never answered. That is not all that usual since she will never talk on the cell phone and drive. I assumed she was on her way so I waited. After forty minutes or so I got a cab and had him deliver me to the house. I went to my room, put my things away and went to bed.”

  “You didn’t go to check on your wife or let her know you were home?”

  “I did not.”

  “Why is that? I mean it seems like the logical thing to do.”

  “Not everyone has the same routine,” Asher spoke up.

  “You are saying that you don’t find that somewhat unusual?” I asked him.

  “Different perhaps, but certainly not of unheard of.”

  “Humm. I guess I missed that part about marriage relationships,” I said but went on before he could respond, “So you went to bed without talking to her at all?”

  “Correct.”

  “And then what possessed you to go to her room the following morning?”

  “I honestly don’t know. A feeling that something was wrong. I guess I had thought about it more and was going to go ask her how she could have forgotten to pick me up at the airport.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I knocked and got no answer. I did that several times. Finally I opened her door and saw her on the floor with that knife sticking out of her.”

  “Go on.”

  “I went over to her and checked for a pulse and found none. I realized immediately from the gas build up and the rigor that she had been dead for some time. I called the police and actually you are the one who answered.”

  “Doctor Rotelli, let’s back up for a second. You opened the door to her room. Do you often go into your wife’s room?”

  “Hardly ever, but this was different. Like I said, I just had a feeling something was wrong.”

  “And what did you think about what she was wearing?”

  “I sorry, what does that have to do with anything?” Asher asked.

  “Doctor?” I said ignoring him.

  “She often wore rather unusual clothing.”

  “They certainly were. So let me ask you this, why call the police? Why not 911?”

  “It seemed more expedient. If I had called 911 they would have sent a patrol car and they would have called the station to report a murder and then eventually the real police would arrive. I just wanted to cut out the middle man, so to speak.”

  “Doctor, what goes on in the basement?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I do not.”

  “Would you like to see a list of what we found? The pictures we took? The entire theater that was down there?”

  “I know nothing about that.”

  “And yet there it is, right in your basement.”

  “I have never been down there.”

  “Wow. Never in your own basement? Weren’t you a tad bit curious?”

  “It didn’t concern me.”

  “Obviously it did your wife.”

  “That was her business.”

  “Oh crap doctor. You were married to her, of course it was your business. Everything in that house was your business. Who the hell are you trying to fool?” I said, starting to get really pissed off at the ‘I don’t know act’.

  “Detective, the doctor has answered your questions. Either proceed with another line or we are walking out of here.”

  “Okay, I have one more question for you. Why did you kill your wife? Was it because you got fed up with her freak shows in the basement?”

  “That’s it. Come doctor, we are leaving.”

  I let them go. What was the point? I had absolutely nothing I could hold him on. I watched from the doorway as the four of them traipsed out and into the snow. I hoped they got stuck.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Dan was tapping his pencil while he and I were looking at the CSI lab reports. It didn’t bother me for a while but let’s face it, even Inna Godda-da-vi-da wasn’t that long.

  “Dan.”

  “Humm?’

  “Dan, could you stop with the drumming?”

  “Oops, sorry. Didn’t realize I was doing it.”

  “Well you are. Let’s take a break. Tell me what you found out about Doctor and Mrs. Rotelli?”

  “Well obviously they are rich. Not rich, but filthy rich. Like in excess of 150 million rich. He holds a handful of patents for medical devices and makes tons of money from those alone. On top of that he gets a pretty big pay check and some nifty stock options from five or six large medical pharmaceutical companies.”

  “And the lovely Mrs. Rotelli?”

  “She didn’t exist until nine years ago as far as I can find. She has no history before she married the good doctor. According to public records her maiden name was Mimi Langhorne. There is no Mimi Langhorne any place that I can find. No record of birth, no driver’s license, nothing.”

  “Did you check with Sorenson?”

  “I did. Nothing. She isn’t even in any databank as far as he could find. He said if she had been a Jane Doe she would have stayed that way.”

  “What the hell, someone must know who she is or was. We need to find out from the good doctor just who the hell he was really married to.”

  “You want me to handle that since things didn’t go quite so well in your last meeting?” Dan asked.

  “Sure. What the hell. You’re a lot nicer than I am. See what you can find out. My best guess, he will tell you that is all he ever knew her by but what the hell, give it a shot,” I replied.

  Dan called but only got an answering service. He left his number and asked the doctor to call him when he got in. Good luck with that sucker.

  “What about the doctor’s story?”

  “It pretty much checks out. He took flight 4578 from Miami at 7:42p.m. Changed pl
anes in Atlanta on Delta flight 5115 leaving at 8:41 p.m. and arriving at 9:45 p.m. His cell records show that he did try to call his wife at their home number once and her cell twice. He took a Metro cab from the airport to his house. After that, who knows?”

  “What about the neighbors?” I asked and immediately knew the answer.

  “Not in that neighborhood. Each lot is close to two acres and full of trees. No one heard or saw a thing at that time of night.”

  “What about fingerprints from the house?”

  “They are on their way and should be here in the next hour or so. They said to be ready for a pretty big shock.”

  “Well that’s just lovely,” I replied.

  **

  “Bartoni,” the captain bellowed from his office.

  I wish he would get off his butt and come talk to me in a civilized manner. Instead he just likes to shout across the freakin’ room. I thought about just ignoring him but he would only yell louder.

  “Yes my lord and master,” I said as I plopped down on his worn leather couch.

  He glared at me like that was going to intimidate me. It was far too late for that at this stage of the game.

  “The FBI will be here tomorrow, weather permitting. Everything is pretty much closed in the Midwest so they may be delayed a while. That gives you a little extra time.”

  “Good. The Lab will have a report for us in about an hour. Hopefully it will give us something to go on.”

  “What about Doctor Rotelli? What is your take on him?”

  “I honestly don’t think he did it. He just isn’t the type. He would have had someone bump her off but he would never have done it himself. I think he is pretty much telling the truth.”

  “Well that has to be a first. You actually believe someone.”

  “It was bound to happen one day. He just happens to be the lucky one. I will tell you what I think. The doctor’s wife was into some pretty kinky stuff and I think she just may have either overstepped or tried to blackmail someone. I think that is exactly what got her killed. It wasn’t a crime of opportunity. It was someone who had been in that house enough times to know the layout. They knew about the knives and knew her husband was out of town.”

  “So who would that be?”

  “If it were that easy I would already have them in the slammer. Whoever it was is going to be a high roller and that is going to make life difficult for all of us,” I warned him.

  “Peachy,” was all he said before tossing me out.

  **

  “OMG,” Dan said when the report came in.

  The list looked like the society page. Half the names on the list were instantly recognizable. I was still studying it when the captain came over and looked at it over my shoulder. I heard him mumble a few naughty words. We all knew it was going to be bad but nothing like this. Judges, Police Chiefs, government officials, and prominent attorneys were just a few of the names on the list. The one saving grace was that neither the Mayor’s nor the Commissioner’s name was on it. That would have totally sucked big time.

  “It’s ugly,” I finally said.

  “Uglier than ugly,” the captain replied.

  “So what do you want me to do? The longer we wait to start getting these people lined up for interviews, the more time they have to lawyer up and put up walls,” I said.

  “Look Bartoni, this is even worse than I had imagined it would be. I recognize about three quarters of the people on that list. As much as I hate to say it, we need to talk to the Mayor and Commissioner before we proceed.”

  “Oh come on captain. They told me to solve the damn case. I can’t run everything by them.”

  “Sorry Bartoni. This time you can. This is just too explosive. Look, we need to put a lid on this big time. This list cannot get out to the press, understand.”

  “Sure but you have another problem.”

  “What?”

  “The lab. If anyone there is leaking information you are going to have a disaster on your hands.”

  “Crap,” he said and took off for his office.

  “You know don’t you that if there is a leak, it’s already too late?” Dan asked.

  “I do. I suppose the captain does too. What we need to do is make sure the Mayor and Commissioner know it didn’t come from us. There will be a lot of finger pointing if this does hit the papers.”

  “Then the captain was right. We really do need to talk to the Mayor.”

  “For once, yeah, he is right.”

  “I’ll set up the appointment, you get the car,” I told Dan.

  I sure didn’t want to drive in this crappy weather any more than absolutely necessary. I have already totaled my quota of cars for this year.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Are you sure about this,” the Mayor said, his eyes bugging almost out of his head.

  “Sir, all I know is what the lab sent over. This is just the first run. They still have more stuff to go through.”

  “Oh for heaven’s sake. This is a nightmare! A total bloody disaster! What were these people thinking?”

  There was nothing I could say to answer that. People just are what they are and do what they do. You can dress them up, give them gobs of money but in the end they are still just as stupid as the next guy. It is never going to be them that gets caught. It is always some other smuck. They have too much money and are too smart for that. Yeah, right.

  “That’s why I wanted you to see the list in advance. I realize some of them are probably supporters of yours and will bring a lot of pressure on you but I am going to have to interview a great many if not all of them. There is no way around it.”

  “If this gets out...” he said dropping the paper on his desk like it had burned his hand.

  “We just have to hope it doesn’t”

  “But you think it will, don’t you?”

  “I’d say there is at least a 60 percent or greater chance,” I told him.

  He looked physically ill. His face was ashen and I could see his hands trembling. I thought he might have a heart attack. To him the list was more important than the death of Mimi Rotelli.

  “Where do you intend to start?” he finally asked.

  “The city manager, Rob Calloway.”

  “Oh my God. You don’t think Rob had anything to do with this, do you?”

  “I don’t know but he was there. His prints are in several places so I need to find out exactly what he was doing and when.”

  “Alright Detective Bartoni. I appreciate your bringing this to my attention. It is going to get really ugly but I know you have a job to do. I’ll do what I can to protect you during the investigation. The big problem is going to be Kyle Rothman,” he said.

  “I know. Anytime a State Representative is under investigation by the police a lot of heat is turned up. I’m sure we will both get a lot of pressure.”

  “Hand this off to the FBI if it gets too intense. I will certainly understand,” he said.

  “Hopefully it won’t come to that.”

  **

  It took an hour to get back to the station and while the snow had let up to some extent it was still coming down in small flakes, adding to the already seven inches that had accumulated so far.

  Dan was looking over the latest list that had come in and it certainly wasn’t getting any better.

  “Did you show this to the captain yet?”

  “Yeah. He turned green a couple of times. He knows a few of them personally and a bunch by association. How did the Mayor take it?”

  “Probably worse than the captain. I would venture to guess that he knew well over half of them. Probably a good many helped get him into office. That means pressure,” I told Dan.

  “And that means pressure on us as well.”

  “He said we could hand this off to the FBI if we wanted. What do you think?” I asked.

  “Hell no. This is a routine murder case. We don’t need the FBI poking their noses in our business. It makes us look bad.”

  “Holy
smokes Dan, you’re starting to sound like me.”

  “Oh God. Just shoot me now and get it over with.”

  “No problem,” I replied.

  “Hey just kidding.”

  “Yeah, me too...I guess.”

  **

  This is one time I decided it would be best to visit the crime lab in person. Usually I just read the reports and go from there but this was complicated.

  Johnny Riker has the head honcho and one of the smartest guys I knew. In all the time I have been working with him he has never steered me wrong.

  “Hey Johnny,” I said as we entered his office. This is my Partner, Dan Roberts.”

  “Yeah. I’ve talked to him many times. Nice to put a face with the name. Come on in and make yourself comfortable.”

  His office reflected his personality. Everything was in its place. There was no clutter and I would venture to guess that he knew where very piece of paper was. He was a very squared away guy.

  “What can I do for you besides be sorry I ever sent you the suspect list?”

  “That certainly has stirred up the pot,” I told him.

  “I know. I’ve had the Commissioner asking me how sure I was on some of the names on the list. What could I tell him? The prints match and unless someone else borrowed their fingers, they were there. It’s all pretty cut and dried.”

  “I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this but would you confirm something for me,” Dan asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Can you tell which prints are newer and which are older latent prints?”

  “We can to a limited extent with today’s technology but I doubt it would stand up in court. The oil on our fingers does eventually break down but at what rate depends on a number of factors. One new technique being tested is electrostatic detecting. Fingerprints do change in electrical decay activity over time but for now this is just in the testing stage. Maybe someday we will be able to pinpoint exactly when the print was made. For now, it’s mostly interpretation.”

  “So we don’t have any idea if someone was there that night or a week ago or even longer,” Dan said.

  “Unfortunately that is correct at this time.”

  “From all the evidence, fingerprints, DNA, and drug paraphernalia you guys collected, is there anything that could be linked to the murder of Mimi Rotelli?”