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

by Marshall Huffman

  “Do you know what kind of car it was?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea. It was newer and dark, maybe black or a dark blue. An SUV or some kind.”

  “Was it a man or woman driving?”

  “Don’t know. The windows were tinted very dark. You couldn’t see anyone inside,” Mr. Harold said.

  “What about when they were behind you? Did you happen to look back in the rear view mirror?”

  “Yes, but I still don’t know for sure. They had a baseball cap on and pulled down so you really couldn’t tell.

  “I don’t suppose you happened to catch any of the license plate number?”

  “No, just that it was an Indiana plate.”

  “Alright Mr. and Mrs. Harold. If you think of anything at all please give me a call,” I said, handing them each a business card with all of my numbers on it except for my home number.

  ***

  The King wreck could have been an accident caused by someone driving too fast for the road. Hit-and-runs are not all that uncommon either. It seems to be happening more frequently, especially on the south side of town.

  Still, it kept nagging at me. Finally I decided to call Lance at CSI and have him take a look at King’s Corvette, or at least what was left of it.

  “Hey Lance, it’s Angie.”

  “Hi Angie. To what do I owe this unexpected call?”

  “There was an accident on Southport Road. A red Corvette was involved in a hit-and-run. I would like for you take a look at the remains of the Vette and just check it out to see if anything looks out of whack.”

  “You’re working traffic accidents now?” Lance asked.

  “This one involves one of the people that is either involved in the murders of two Nemein employees, or was a target of the person doing the killing.”

  “Yikes. I take it something doesn’t smell right?”

  “It’s not so much that as I just have this feeling that there is more to the accident than meets the eye. I know it wouldn’t be the first hit-and-run in this area but still I would feel better if you could have a look at the car.”

  “How soon do you need it?”

  “It’s not a Red Ball by any means but the soonest you can work it in would be greatly appreciated.”

  “I’ll have one of my guys take a look at it first thing tomorrow. We are just swamped at the moment,” Link told me.

  “No problem. Thanks for doing this for me,” I told him.

  One thing I was sure of, if there was anything wrong with the Corvette, Link and his people would find it.

  After I hung up I decided for lack of anything better to do, to head over to the hospital to see what Ted King’s condition was. I took the Healey so I could just head on home after I finished with King. The weather had been deteriorating all day long and now it looked like it might rain soon. The temperature was dropping as well. It was a cruel reminder that winter was just a few short weeks away.

  As with all hospitals, there is never enough parking. I had to circle three times before I finally found a spot about a thousand miles from the main building. Okay, maybe not a thousand miles but a good five-hundred yards.

  I checked in with information and was sent to the fifth floor. I took the elevator up with a group of big mouthed gangbangers. I could hear them whispering about me and I tried to ignore them. One guy said something extremely vulgar and laughed. From there it went downhill. One of them called me the ‘B’ word. Angie does not like the ‘B’ word. It is one of the things that will set me off big time.

  I reached over and pressed the stop button and turned to face the three dorky looking punks with their pants half down, fake gold chains, and baseball caps on crooked. Geez, don’t they own a mirror and realize how stupid they look?

  “Zup bi...” he started to say and I pulled my stun gun and pointed it at his chest.

  “Now you three jerks listen and listen good. When you get on the elevator with people, keep your vulgar mouths closed. I don’t like the ‘B’ word and if I hear it again, you are going to be dancing for me until I release the trigger. Got it?”

  The three of them just looked at me like I was from Mars. They were totally not ready for this.

  “I asked you a question,” I said, putting my finger on the trigger.

  “Man, you is crazy. You can’t do that.”

  “Want to bet?”

  “You think you can take all three of us down you crazy B..”

  I shot him in the chest and he started vibrating like he was on a cheap .25 cent bed in sleazy hotel. The other two froze for just a second and I pulled my piece with my other hand just as they started to move toward me.

  “I will shoot you. I’m a cop and if you even think about rushing me you will be dead before you know what hits you,” I warned them.

  They froze and I let go of the trigger on the Taser. The guy dropped to the floor of the elevator. I pulled the two darts from his stomach and put the Taser back in its holster. I kept my Sig trained on them. I reached over and started the elevator again.

  “Now boys, when I get off, you had better not even think about getting off. I don’t care if this is your floor. You need to go back where you came from because if I see you here when I leave, it will not be good,” I told them.

  The guy on the floor was trying to sit up but not making much progress. The elevator stopped on the fifth floor and I got off. I waited for the doors to close then put my Sig away. That was certainly different. Why some people think they can talk trash like that in public and get away with it is beyond me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  I told the nurse at the desk who I was and asked to speak to the attending physician for Ted King. Of course that meant I would have to wait so I took a seat and rummaged through the old magazines that were scattered.

  The newest one I could find was a Time with a picture of Henry Ford and his invention of the assembly line. Just kidding, they were old but maybe I exaggerated a bit.

  An hour went by and my tummy was starting to chew on my backbone. I went down to the vending area and got a Diet-Coke and a Snickers bar. I figured the Diet-Coke cancelled out any calories in the Snickers.

  It was into the second hour before Dr. Hillman came out to talk to me.

  “You’re Detective Bartoni,” he said as a statement, not a question.

  “That’s right. How did you know,” I asked looking around the waiting room were several men and women were sitting and looking at books or electronic devices.

  “You dated Dr. Warman. You were hard not to notice,” he said and smiled.

  Whoa. Where did that come from and what did that mean exactly?

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” I replied.

  “Indeed. That was the way it was intended.”

  “Stop, you’re making me blush,” I said.

  It was true. I could feel my neck getting red.

  “You shouldn’t. You’re a very attractive woman,” he said sending a fresh wave of blushing over me.

  “Well thank you very much,” I managed to get out.

  “You are here about Mr. King I presume?”

  “Yes. How is he doing?”

  “He is banged up pretty badly. He required stitches in his forehead and right leg and has a broken left ankle and three fractured ribs. All things considered he is darned lucky. From what we were told about the crash by the EMT’s, he could very easily have been killed.”

  “When will he be able to talk?”

  “Unless there are other complications, I would imagine that he will be able to speak to you tomorrow. He has a deep bruise on his kidney that has us somewhat concerned. We will be watching that closely for the next forty-eight hours,” the doctor told me.

  I thanked him for his time and headed back to the station. When I got there Garrett was waiting.

  “Hey Angie,” he said greeting me.

  “What brings you here?”

  “You of course,” he replied.

  “Okay, so what’s the o
ccasion? We don’t have a date tonight.”

  “Can’t I just drop in to see how you are doing?”

  “Yeah, and that’s really sweet of you but I am in the middle of a big murder case,” I said.

  “Angie, I know that. Look if it is a big bother I’ll just go,” he said and started for the stairs.

  I hesitated and then reached out and grabbed his arm.

  “I’m sorry Garrett, this case has me bummed out. So far I have absolutely nothing solid to go on. Just about the time I get a feeling about someone, along comes something out of the blue that changes everything.”

  “You know I go through the same thing. I have found that the best course of action is to take a step back and get away from it for a few hours. We get so focused on what is in front of us that we often miss the big picture. By nature we want answers. Think about it. Why do we care when a plane is missing and we have no one on board that we know? It doesn’t really affect us but we still want to know what happened. It is just the way we are wired,” Garrett replied.

  “Yes, but I am paid to solve mysteries. That’s what I do for a living,” I answered.

  “I understand that but what I am saying is that sometimes you have to back off to see the picture clearly,” he said.

  “That sounds nice but how do I do that? This is my case and my responsibility. Where would I go to back off?” I asked.

  “Chicago.”

  “Chicago? Why would I go to Chicago?” I said puzzled.

  “I have a friend who has a condo right on Michigan and Canal overlooking the water. He is going to Europe for a month and has offered it to me. I thought maybe we could go and see what Chicago has to offer,” he said.

  “Garrett,” I said, louder than I had intended.

  “It has three bedrooms if that makes you feel any better,” he replied holding up his hands.

  “Gee, I don’t know. I appreciate the offer but…”

  “What?”

  “I just don’t know.”

  “Angie, I won’t attack you,” Garrett replied.

  “It isn’t that. I’m not afraid of you or anything like that. It’s just that a weekend away from my case is a long time.”

  “Are you telling me that taking off for a couple of days will somehow jeopardize the entire case?” he asked.

  “No, it’s just, oh hell, I don’t know,” I replied.

  “Well the offer is there. Today is Wednesday. I’m heading up on Friday around 5:00 p.m. You have my number. If you want to go, give me a call and I’ll come by and pick you up. If I don’t hear from you I’ll go by myself.”

  He kissed me on the cheek and headed for the stairs. I watched him go with mixed emotions. What in the world is wrong with me? Why can’t I just go with the flow for once? Can’t I ever do something spontaneous without having to figure out all the angles?

  I was pretty disgusted with myself. At some point in my life I was going to have to make a commitment. Why it was so hard for me to do that was a total mystery?

  I was saved from beating myself up further by my ringing phone.

  “Detective Bartoni.”

  “Angie. It’s Link. I have had a couple of people going over the Corvette that they brought in. I can’t believe the guy lived through that.”

  “Not much left of the car,” I agreed.

  “Anyway, we found something very interesting on the car.”

  “Don’t keep me in suspense. Give.”

  “A transponder.”

  “What? Why would that be on the car?”

  “So someone could keep track of him. It’s pretty high tech too. The range is well over five miles so anyone who wanted to follow him could do so from a good distance and he would never know they were there,” Link told me.

  “Unbelievable.”

  “There is more. It has a built in range finder. They can tell their distance from him at any point in time.”

  “So they knew exactly where he was,” I said.

  “Within a few feet.”

  “Is there any way to trace who bought it or where it came from?” I asked.

  “I doubt it. It’s not military grade which means it could have been purchased in numerous places and even on the internet. They have a number on them and when they are sold, they are supposed to be registered to the buyer but a lot of the sellers don’t bother with it.”

  “Give me the number and I’ll have Eric see what he can find out,” I said.

  “Okay. You ready?”

  “Yep.”

  “N454-897H-023P-6671-9050Z,” he read off.

  I repeated the number and he said I had it correct.

  “Thanks Lance. Once again I owe you.”

  “Always a pleasure,” he replied and hung up.

  ***

  On the way home, I put the top down on the Healey and drove the long way. I made a quick stop at the grocery store and bought a few items and gassed up the car.

  I could hear my phone ringing as I came in the door and I put the sacks down on the table and answered it.

  “Bartoni.”

  “It’s Dan. I get to come back tomorrow.”

  “I know. We have a lot to catch up on.”

  “Anything major that I need to know about?”

  “Several things. Ted King was forced off the road and is seriously injured. It hasn’t been determined if it was an accident or if someone did it on purpose.”

  “Geez, at this rate we won’t have any suspects left.”

  “It’s not looking too good. The only one who hasn’t had some kind of mishap is Walter Pike,” I told him.

  “I guess we should be taking a hard look at him,” Dan replied.

  “Either that or he is being made to look like he is guilty. It could be a clever way of throwing us off the track and keep us spinning our wheels.”

  “Angie, since I have had time to think, something else is bothering me.”

  “Okay, what?”

  “If no one knows who the next CEO is going to be, why do all this now? Why not wait like they did with Wittman? Once the new CEO is named, then they can kill him or her off.”

  “That’s a darn good question,” I replied.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  I was surprised when Dan rolled in. I thought he would be all refreshed and full of vim and vigor. Instead he was his usual grumpy self as he dragged his way to the break room for his coffee. I had written out a synopsis of what had happened in his absence.

  When he came back I passed it over to his desk. He sat looking into his coffee cup for several minutes.

  “You know, what I did wasn’t so bad. I’ve thought about it a lot and I would do the same thing all over again.”

  “It’s water under the bridge. It’s over and done with. We have more important fish to fry,” I told him.

  “Still.”

  “No still. I don’t want to talk about it right now. What we need to do next is pull Pike in and grill him on his movements. As you can see from the list I gave you, Link is trying to trace the transponder. I have Eric on it as well. Hopefully one of them will turn up where it was sold.”

  “What about King?”

  “I want you to call and see when we can talk to him. I don’t want to waste a trip if he isn’t able to talk yet,” I told Dan.

  “I’ll get right on it.”

  While he was doing that I went to tell the captain about what I was going to do.

  “Pike will lawyer up,” the captain said.

  “Probably.”

  “You don’t have anything to hold him on.”

  “I know. I just want him to think we are closing in on him,” I told McGregor.

  “Good luck with that. If he is sharp enough to have pulled all of this off then I doubt he is going to be too impressed with innuendos,” McGregor replied.

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  “Talk to King first. If he was intentionally run off the road he should have a description of the car or if you are really lucky, he may h
ave even recognized the driver.”

  “Dan is calling right now to see if he is able to talk yet. I’m not a total idiot,” I said rather sharply.

  “Then get out of here and get this wrapped up,” he replied.

  What a horses a.., well, you know what I mean. It isn’t like we were setting around doing nothing. Besides putting Dan on leave didn’t do much to help. I guess he had forgotten that part.

  When I got back Dan was hanging up the phone.

  “We can go talk to him at any time. He might be a little groggy but other than that, he can talk to us.”

  “Great. I need to get out of here anyway. McGregor is in one of his moods,” I told Dan.

  The drive seemed to take forever. It was raining and cars were crawling along. There were at least three different fender benders along the way. When we got to the hospital I realized that I didn’t have my umbrella. Great, we were parked out in the boonies and I would be drenched by the time we got to the doors.

  Oh goody, just as we started running toward the building the heavens opened up and poured buckets on us.

  To add to the misery, a car came by and splashed us. Finally, I quit running and just walked. You can only get so wet.

  Inside the hospital I wiped as much water off as I could. My coat was soaked and I’m pretty sure I looked like a drowned rat. Dan’s hair was plastered to his head. I could only imagine what I must look like.

  “Restroom,” I said.

  He nodded and we headed to the restrooms. I almost screamed when I looked in the mirror. I did look like a drowned rat. I dried as much as I could using paper towels. I just hoped I didn’t give King a heart attack when he saw me.

  Dan was waiting for me in the corridor and he looked a heck of a lot better than I did but then that was typical. We asked where we could find Pike and were directed to the fourth floor. When we got out of the elevator we walked to the nurse’s station.