DEAD ON ARRIVAL: Angie Bartoni Case File # 14 (Angie Bartoni Case Files)

by Marshall Huffman

  When I got to the station McGregor was already in his office. I was surprised to find donuts on my desk. I looked over at his office and he just waved. I guess he felt a little guilty for getting me up last night.

  Dan came in a half hour later and passed by without a word as usual. He never speaks until he has had his coffee. A few minutes later he came back and plopped down in his chair and just stared into the cup. I often wondered what he saw in there.

  Finally I felt I had let him brood long enough. “Lancaster’s house was broken into last night.”

  “When?”

  “Early morning, around 3:30 a.m. or so.”

  “How do you know?”

  “The captain called me,” I told him.

  “And you didn’t call me?”

  “Why? Would good would that do? He wasn’t hurt and nothing was taken. Whoever it was ran when the alarm system kicked in. It was no big deal.”

  “Angie, it is a big deal. We are partners. Where you go I go,” he said.

  “Why? So both of us should lose sleep over a simple B & E?”

  “That’s not the point and you know it.”

  “Look Dan, don’t get all bent out of shape. It was no big deal. If I had needed you there I would have called you. I was trying to do you a favor. Give it a rest and don’t pout all day,” I replied.

  “Crap,” he muttered.

  I didn’t know what that was for, probably me telling him not to pout. He is such a sensitive boy.

  The captain came out of his office, opened the box of donuts and grabbed one.

  “So what happened?”

  “Just a B & E. Nothing taken. No harm, no foul,” I told him.

  “I kind of thought so but since he was one of the people on your list I thought you should check it out.”

  “No problem,” I replied.

  “Do you think it was really a breaking and entering or did someone want to murder Lancaster as well?” McGregor asked.

  “I’m not sure. Whoever did it wasn’t very smart. They had to know the place was alarmed. Why try to break in by prying the door open? It just seems odd to me.”

  “Not all burglars are smart. In fact, most aren’t,” McGregor said chomping on the donut.

  “I called CSI just to check the place out,” I told him.

  “Good. We need to cover all the bases,” he replied, eying another donut.

  I wanted him to leave before he ate the whole damn box. He has been known to bring them in upon occasion but he is usually the one who consumes the most. Finally he drifted back to his office.

  I went to get a Diet Coke, when I came back two more donuts were missing from the box. Dan’s cheeks were puffed out and there were crumbs all over the top of his desk. I glared at him but he paid no attention to me.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  We blew the rest of the day and I went home feeling like crap because we were making absolutely no headway. The only thing we had accomplished was to set up a meeting with the board of directors for tomorrow. At least we would have a chance to talk to them.

  I went to the refrigerator and looked at the meager offerings. I simply had to go to the store and soon. I rummaged around in the cabinets and found nothing really worthy of the effort to cook. Finally I called for a pizza.

  I vegged out on the couch, eating my pizza, and drinking half a bottle of Pinot Noir that I had left over. That’s when it really hit me, I had to go to the store tomorrow for sure. This was the last wine in the house and that would simply not do.

  I was thankful that I was able to get a good night’s sleep with no weird dreams, just a little tossing and turning. Best of all, no one called. I got up at my usual time, did my bathroom routine, threw on a little makeup and grabbed my badge and gun. I was ready to face the day.

  The clouds looked angry and it was pretty obvious that we were in for a heck of a storm. I hated to drive the Healey in a hard rain. It leaked in around the windows. I was glad I got to the station before it started.

  We went through the normal morning routine with grumpy Dan for the first half-hour, the captain dragging in, and me eating my coconut donuts and drinking Diet Coke.

  When Dan was human again we went over everything we knew about the case so far. That didn’t take very long because no matter how we sliced and diced it, we really had very little to go on.

  “Do you think Lancaster staged the break in?” Dan asked.

  “I don’t know. I can see that if he was trying to throw us off and give the illusion that he was the next victim.”

  “But you don’t know for sure?”

  “Dan, like everything else, I know absolutely nothing for sure. The break-in was half assed that’s for sure. I keep coming back to why try to force the door when it was obvious someone like that would have an alarm system. That makes no sense to me.”

  “Okay, let’s say he faked it. He put the pry marks on the door and then went and called 911. How could he have done that and hid the crowbar or whatever he used?”

  “Pretty simple Dan. He did the door thing before, earlier in the day. Then all he had to do was open the door, run back upstairs, call 911, and wait for the police to respond.”

  “Yeah, I guess that would work.”

  “Not only would it work, but we would have no way of proving it wasn’t legit,” I replied.

  “So here we are again, right back where we started.”

  “Unless someone really did try to break in.”

  “Stop it. You’re giving me a headache,” Dan said.

  “Good, now we both have one,” I replied.

  ***

  We killed time doing paperwork until lunchtime. We were going to eat and then head to the board meeting. Dan was driving one of the unmarked cars and we were sitting at a stoplight when suddenly he unbuckled his seat belt, threw open the car door and took off like a bat out of hell across the street.

  I just sat there trying to figure out what had just happened. When I saw Dan body slam some guy and send him flying through the air, I got out and ran across the street. By the time I got there Dan had a second guy in a headlock and was butting his head into a concrete wall.

  “Holy crap Dan,” I yelled.

  He let the guy go, turned and grabbed hold of the other guy who was trying to get away. Dan grabbed him by the back of the shirt and yanked him off his feet. He sat down hard on the pavement. Dan pulled his hair back and smashed the back of his head on the ground.

  “Stop it Dan,” I screamed at him but he just dropped his knee down on the guy’s chest and leaned over so that his face was inches from the guy’s.

  “Dan. Dan, stop,” I said trying to grab hold of his shoulder.

  He brushed me off like I wasn’t even there.

  “You listen and you listen real good. If I ever see you hurting a homeless guy again, I will hunt you down and beat you to within an inch of your life. Do you understand me?”

  “Yeah man. Please just get off me. We won’t do it again,” he whimpered.

  “I’m going to let you up. If you try to run I’ll drag you down and break your knee. Got it?”

  “Yeah, I got it,” he said.

  Dan slowly took his knee off the man’s chest and yanked him up.

  “I want to see some ID,” Dan said, his face just inches from the guy’s.

  He fumbled around and finally got his driver’s license out,

  “Okay Carl Nelson. I have your name and I have your address. You had better hope nothing happens to this homeless man. If anyone causes him harm, I will come looking for you and I will beat you within an inch of your life. Do you understand me?”

  “Man.”

  “Do you understand me?”

  “I get it.”

  “Good, now get your friend and get out of my sight before I change my mind,” Dan said, shoving the guy in the chest.

  The man helped his buddy get up and they staggered down the street.

  We walked over to the homeless man and checked him over. He had a
cut above his eye and a scraped elbow. He was holding his ribs.

  “How bad is it?” Dan asked.

  “I’ve had worse.”

  “Have they done this before?”

  “A couple of times,” he told us.

  “We need to take him to the hospital,” I told Dan.

  “No. No way. I’ll be fine. I don’t need no hospital,” he insisted.

  I wanted to load him in the car and take him but Dan said he should be the one to make the call, not us. This was a side of Dan I had never seen before. His rage was frightening. I think he could have killed those two thugs and not thought twice about it.

  Dan sat down on the ground and talked to the homeless man for several minutes before he finally stood and shook the man’s hand. He turned to me and said he was ready to go.

  When we got in the car, I just sat there. Dan buckled up and started the car. He waved at the man as we drove off.

  “Dan…”

  “Please don’t Angie. I know what you are going to say but I really do not want to hear it. I did what I had to do. I consider them lucky. A few years ago they would be taking them to the hospital or the morgue. Homeless people have enough problems without being harassed and beaten by a bunch of thugs that think it’s funny. I just gave them a taste of their own medicine,” he said.

  “Yes Dan, but we are the law. We can’t go around doing that.”

  “So arrest me,” he replied.

  I decided to let it go. There was nothing I could say that was going to change what just happened. It certainly was an eye opener.

  ***

  When we got to the Sun Trust Building, Dan was back in total control like it had never happened. Maybe that’s how he dealt with things. Put it in a box and lock it away. I don’t operate like that so it is a little hard to understand.

  We were delivered to the nineteenth floor and shown into a large conference room. James Kingman was the only person I immediately recognized. One woman looked familiar but I couldn’t place her.

  “Welcome,” Kingman said.

  “Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions,” I said.

  “Please, have a seat,” he said motioning to several empty chairs.

  Dan and I sat and Kingman went around the table introducing people. We introduced ourselves and got down to business.

  “I know you are all busy people so let me just cut to the heart of the matter. So far we have two candidates for the CEO position murdered, in different ways, but nevertheless, the cases are related from a police standpoint. An apparent attempt to break into Roland Lancaster’s house took place last night. We don’t know the reason but it confirms our suspicion that someone is attempting to either scare off your candidates or eliminate the competition,” I said letting that part just hang in the air.

  “Excuse me,” Alice Fargo said.

  “Yes?”

  “Then doesn’t that leave three likely candidates for the person that is doing this?”

  “It may seem that simple but it isn’t. First of all there are four people not three. We are not sure that the Lancaster break-in had anything to do with any of this. There is also the chance that someone is trying to cause Nemein a great deal of adverse publicity. Let me ask you this. What happened when the murder of Wittman took place?”

  “What happened? In what way?” Donald Troy, President of Milliken Manufacturing asked.

  “Your stock prices?”

  “Ah. They fell eight percent,” Kingman answered.

  “And after Meyers was murdered?”

  “Another six percent.”

  “So, with those two incidents, the stock price fell fourteen percent. What would happen if another person was murdered?”

  There was a general murmur as that sank in.

  “This is crazy,” Kingman said, “Killing employees, just to bring the stock’s price down?”

  “Maybe you should find out who started buying it up when the price fell. If you knew that, it might help find some answers,” I said.

  “You mean someone would actually do something like this just for profit?” Alice Fargo, Executive Vice President of Fargo Enterprise, said.

  “Money is always a motive. People kill for a lot less,” I told them.

  “So what can we do to help?”

  “I know that you are anxious to name a CEO and move on but we really need you to hold off until we can catch whoever is responsible for these murders.”

  “Alright,” Kingman replied.

  “Please look into who is buying up the stock at the lower price. That would be a help as well.”

  “We have people we can put on that,” Troy answered.

  “Good. Just be patient and we will get this person.”

  “You have leads?”

  “We do,” I lied.

  With that we all shook hands and left.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  When we got back to the station Dan just sat there for several minutes. I didn’t say a word. I knew he was struggling to explain what had happened and he knew I didn’t approve. Dan and I have been partners for going on four years and know each other’s moods pretty well by now.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he finally said.

  “I’m thinking nothing.”

  “You thought I freaked out.”

  “You did freak out. I have never seen you that angry. You were borderline out of control.”

  “If I had been out of control they would be in the hospital.”

  “Dan.”

  “No Angie. No one has the right to rough up homeless people. Do you know who that guy was?”

  “No.”

  “He is an Army vet who is suffering from PTSD. He has two purple hearts and a bronze star. You don’t get those from hiding behind your mother’s apron. The man put his life on the line and for what, punks like that running around thinking it’s funny to beat up old guys?”

  “I understand. I really do Dan, but what you did was technically against the law,” I told him.

  “What? Protecting another human being? I sure would like to see that stick in court.”

  “I don’t mean court. I mean our ethics code. We don’t just start beating on people. We arrest them. We cuff them and put them in jail. That’s what we are supposed to do, not punch their headlights out,” I said.

  “I never punched either one. I just grabbed them.”

  “And pounded the guy’s head into a cement wall.”

  “I lost my balance,” he said.

  “Yeah, four or five times. Look, it’s over and we have other fish to fry,” I replied, unbuckling my seat belt and climbing out of the car.

  Dan sat there for another few seconds and then got out and followed me upstairs.

  When we sat down at our desks, Dan asked me, “Where did that stock thing come from?”

  “I just took a wild guess. I wasn’t sure but you know how the stock market is, someone gets gas and everyone panics. You have to be a real glutton for punishment to deal in that arena.”

  “You mean you actually didn’t know if the price had gone up or down?” Dan said.

  “No, but it made sense. Two murders of employees, especially on that level is bound to get investors stirred up. I figured since it is a conservative company, most of the stockholders are probably conservative as well. Bad publicity usually causes a sell off of stock and that is what I was banking on,” I explained.

  “Pretty impressive. That sure got their attention.”

  “Of course. Money always does.”

  ***

  When I got home that night, the red light on my phone was blinking. It was a message from Garrett asking if I felt like going to dinner tonight. I had a long talk with myself and couldn’t convince myself to go. I decided that I just wasn’t good company tonight.

  Instead, I went to the grocery and finally did some shopping. One hundred and thirty-seven dollars later, I still didn’t have enough to fill the refrigerator or restock my shelves. I can’t imagin
e trying to feed a family with the current cost of food. One hundred and thirty-seven dollars and I still didn’t have squat to eat.

  I ended up eating cheese and crackers and drinking three glasses of Merlot. After that, I slipped on my jammies and crashed for the night.

  I knew something was up when I got to the squad room the next morning. Dan was in the Captain’s office. This did not bode well. I couldn’t see what was going on but Dan was standing and the captain was talking to him with his hands flat on the desk while on his feet as well.

  I was sure it was about yesterday but how could the guy know where Dan worked? He never showed him his badge. He just roughed him up. I couldn’t see Dan’s face, he had his back to me. All I could do was wait.

  It was a half-hour before the door opened and Dan came out. He was red in the face and walking with his head down. He went to his desk, placed his gun and shield in the drawer and locked it.

  “I’ve been suspended for two days without pay,” he said.

  “Oh, man. Yesterday?”

  “Yeah. A citizen witnessed it and took down our car plate number. They said the police were using excessive force on two men for no apparent reason.”

  “You told the captain what happened, right?”

  “To some extent. He did most of the talking. It was going to Internal Affairs but he managed to stop it before it could. He is suspending me but that will be the end of it. Nothing in my record.”

  “Be thankful for that.”

  “Bartoni,” the captain’s voice boomed from his desk.

  “I may be joining you,” I told Dan.

  “I doubt it but he isn’t very happy with either of us at the moment,” he replied.

  “I’ll call you later,” I told him and headed to the principal’s….I mean captain’s office.

  “Sit,” he said when I came in.

  His face was flushed and he was still breathing fairly hard. He clasped his fingers and rested his elbows on the desk before leaning forward and putting his chin on his knuckles.

  “This is about yesterday, right?” I asked.