It was late and I was starting to get bushed. On top of that, we hadn’t had time for dinner. I know Dan must be starving.
“You look rugged Bartoni. You don’t look any better Roberts. Why don’t you knock off for tonight. This Winters woman isn’t going to be going anyplace soon. I’ll make arrangements to have her detained,” he told us.
About the time I get to thinking he is a real booger-butt, he goes and does something nice. That makes me crazy.
“You know boss, I think I will take you up on that,” I said.
Dan nodded his head as well. We both dragged our butts down the stairs and out into the night. I took the short cut home tonight.
***
The next morning the sun was out and the sky didn’t have a cloud in it. It made me feel a lot better. I fired up the Healey and headed to the station.
“You seem chipper today,” the captain said as I came up the stairs.
“I have a feeling this is going to be a good day.”
“A good night’s sleep seems to have done you a world of good or did Garrett come by?”
“I had a great night’s sleep, I’ll have you know. Alone. In my own bed,” I replied.
“Well, whatever it was, you look a heck of a lot better,” he replied and went into his office.
Dan was not quite as enthusiastic about the day as I was. He grumbled and groaned for half an hour before he finally started to come around.
“We have places to go and people to see,” I told him cheerily.
“Great,” was all he said.
“Come on boy. Time’s a wastin’ and we have miles to go before we sleep,” I said jumping up.
“Great, another Robert Frost,” he said slowly following along.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
They had taken Lisa Winters to St. Luke’s on the west side of town. We arrived at 9:50 a.m. mostly due to traffic.
“We need to know about a patient named Lisa Winters,” I said to the lady at the information desk.
“What do you wish to know?”
“Well first of all her condition, when she will be able to talk, the usual stuff.”
“I will have to get permission from the doctor,” she said picking up the phone.
I could do one of two things at this moment. I could reach over and take the phone out of her hand and show her we were the cops or I could just let it ride. I decided to let it go for now.
“Doctor Cochran, there are two people here asking about a Ms. Lisa Winters.”
“Yes. Yes. Let me ask them,” she said and placed her hand over the receiver, “Are you the police?”
“We are,” I told her.
“They said yes. Alright, I’ll send them up,” she replied and hung up.
“Sixth floor,” she said.
So far so good. We took the elevator to the sixth floor and got off. No one was there to greet us so we wondered around until we found the nurse’s station.
“Excuse me. Where can we find Doctor Cochran?” I asked one of the nurses.
The one visible nurse was busy talking on her cell phone and ignored us. I waited while she yapped on about her nails, her new exfoliator, and her shoes, totally ignoring us. I waited a few more seconds and finally I had had enough. I reached across the counter and grabbed the phone out of her hand and closed it.
“Hey, what do you think you are doing?” she said angrily.
“Waiting for you to quit jacking your jaws and page Doctor Cochran,” I replied.
“Give me my phone back or I will call security.”
“Lady, we are security, now page the doctor,” I said, showing her my badge.
She frowned and picked up the phone, “You don’t have to be rude.”
“This coming from the likes of you? Aren’t you supposed to be working instead of sitting on your butt making personal calls on your cell phone?” I shot back.
She was starting to get on my very last nerve. It really irritates me when people are paid to be working and they are making personal calls.
She paged the doctor and we waited for a few minutes before he came walking down the hall. He was a short, bald man with a thin body and a full beard. He looked nothing like a doctor.
“I assume you are the police?” he said with a distinctive New York accent.
“Detectives Bartoni and Roberts,” I replied.
“Yes. Well what can I tell you? The Winters patient is lucky to be alive. She is in intensive care.”
“What kind of injuries did she receive?”
“Ha,” he laughed, “Do you want the serious ones or all of them?”
“The most life threatening,” I replied.
“Her spleen was ruptured, she has a compound fracture of her right leg, she suffered a severely bruised kidney and two of her lower vertebra were damaged. She suffered a concussion and is in an induced coma while we are waiting for the swelling to go down. Obviously, she has cuts, scrapes and, contusions in various parts of her body. We have stitched her up in several places. In short, she is a mess.”
“Is that a medical term?” I joked.
He just looked at me like I was from another planet. I guess he had no sense of humor.
“So how long will she be in this induced coma?” Dan asked.
“We don’t know at this point. It will depend on how fast the swelling goes down. Sometimes it only takes a few days and other times it takes months. We will just have to wait and see. I know it isn’t what you want to hear but, there it is,” he told us.
“Any chance of it happening tomorrow?”
“Oh heavens no. We wouldn’t even attempt to bring her out that quickly,” he assured us.
“So at this point it is wait and see.”
“Essentially that is correct.”
“Thank you doctor. We will check in with you again on Monday to see how she is doing.”
“She will still be here. We have a lot of work to do on her leg,” he said.
We headed for the elevators. There was nothing left for us to do until we had a chance to talk to her.
***
We had burned a lot of hours on this case and decided that we would knock off for the weekend.
“What are your big plans?” Dan asked.
“Nothing much. Do a little shopping, maybe clean out the refrigerator. There are things growing in there that frighten me,” I told him.
“No big date?”
“Nope, how about you?” I asked.
“I have one with a new girl I met named Reagan Sanders. She seems to have her head on straight.”
“Like you would be the judge of that.”
“Ouch. Fifteen yards for unnecessary roughness,” Dan said.
“Okay but you know what I mean.”
“What about you and Garrett?” he asked.
“Nothing going on there. We have decided to be friends,” I lied.
Why did I do that? Why not just tell him the truth. He knows me better than anyone and is my partner and here I am holding out on him. I felt like a lowlife. I headed to the captain’s office before he could ask me any more questions.
I could see the captain through his window with his elbows on the desk and his hands over his face. I knocked on the door.
“Captain.”
“What is it Bartoni?”
“I just wanted to give you a report before we take off.”
“Sit,” he said pointing to the couch.
“Lisa Winters is in an induced coma. She is pretty beat up and will have to undergo surgery. The doctor said she will be brought out only when the swelling goes down.”
“So you can’t talk to her.”
“Correct.”
“If you can’t; you can’t. There is nothing we can do about that. You are holding Stewart?”
“We are. I will talk to the DA on Monday to see if other charges are warranted.”
“Good. Keep me in the loop,” he said.
I sat there looking at him and I could see that he was distracte
d.
“Boss, is there something wrong? Anything I can help with?”
He looked at me for a few seconds before answering.
“No Bartoni. I appreciate the offer. You are always the most perceptive person on the force. I’ll work this out myself.”
“Captain, how many times have you let me rant and bounce things off of you? I know you’re my boss but I also think the world of you. I am more than willing to help in any way I can,” I told him.
“I know you would Bartoni. You’re a good person. This is just something I have to work out on my own.”
“Not really. You can always ask for help.”
“Not about this,” he replied.
“Yes, even for this. The big guy upstairs is always willing to listen. If you need help, maybe you should ask him for guidance,” I told McGregor.
“I doubt he has time for my little problems. I mean, look at the condition the world is in. What he has to deal with is far greater than what I am struggling with,” the captain said.
“Sir. I think you are underestimating his capability. He has infinite ability to handle all problems, big and small. All you have to do is ask. It may not happen at just that moment but what can it hurt?”
“I appreciate that Bartoni but I doubt he wants to hear from me. I haven’t been to church in months.”
“Then this is the best time to renew a relationship,” I told him.
“I’ll give it some thought.”
“Good. Dan and I are going to take some time off while we can.”
“That would be good. Have a nice weekend and thanks for caring,” he said.
“You’re welcome and I do care,” I replied as I went to tell Dan to take off.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I looked at my watch for about the ten thousandth time. I needed to make a decision and I needed to do it now. I had already opened up my cell phone about a bazillion times but each time I closed it just as fast.
Come on Angie. I took a deep breath and opened the phone one more time. I dialed Garrett’s number.
“Garrett,” he said.
“It’s me.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured.”
“Listen about this weekend.”
“It’s okay. I understand. Really I do.”
“No, what I mean is that I would like to go if the offer is still on the table,” I found myself saying.
“Really?” he said excitedly.
“Yeah, really.”
“That is great. No, super. I’ll come by and pick you up around 5:00 p.m. if that’s okay,” he said, his voice enthusiastic.
“I’ll be waiting. I’ll be the one with the shaking knees,” I said and he chuckled.
“This will be great,” he said as I hung up.
At last I had finally made a decision and strangely enough I didn’t feel bad about it. The only thing I didn’t know was what he had planned. I don’t mean that. I meant for entertainment. Did I need fancy clothes or just casual stuff? I decided to take two of my best dresses and one pair of shoes that would go with both of them. I threw in a couple of other more intimate items as well. Those are none of your business, nosy parker.
Garrett arrived a few minutes before five o’clock and was surprised at how little I was taking. A few minutes later we were on I-65 headed to Chicago. Angie, Angie, Angie. I hope you know what you are doing girl.
***
To say that it was a great weekend would be less than honest. It was a fantastic weekend. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself that much and never thought about work once until the ride home.
When he dropped me off at home I was sorry to let him go. I wanted the weekend to last forever but reality was starting to set in. Tomorrow it was back on the job.
I was dreaming of Garrett, snuggled up against me with his arms around me when the alarm when off. Drat. I headed to the bathroom and took a quick shower. I took longer than usual putting on makeup just in case he dropped by today.
I parked the Healey as close to the building as I could and headed upstairs. I grabbed my usual breakfast and Dan came in a little later and went about his usual routine.
“You want me to call the hospital and check on Winters?” Dan asked after a while.
“Sure. There isn’t much else for us to do except paperwork.”
While he called I finished up the file I was working on. I glanced at the captain’s office and saw that he still wasn’t in. The clock said 9:22 a.m. and that was unusual for McGregor. By 10:00 I was starting to get worried.
“Have you seen McGregor?” I asked Dan.
“Nope. Must be in a big pow-wow.”
“I hope that’s it.”
“Why?’
“Nothing. It’s just that something is troubling him and it has me kind of worried.”
“McGregor? He is a rock. There isn’t anything wrong with him,” Dan replied.
“Even rocks have bad times,” I said.
By noon I was really starting to worry. This was so unlike the captain. I went down to ask Sargent Baker if he had heard from McGregor.
“Hey Sarg, have you see the captain?”
He looked at his watch for a second.
“Right on time,” he said.
“Right on time for what?”
“The captain said that you would be checking on him just about noon. It’s 12:05 p.m. He nailed it pretty darn close.”
“That is all very amusing but what in the heck is going on?”
“He is taking a few days off,” Baker said.
“Captain McGregor taking time off?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked.
“Bartoni, I keep my nose out of the captain’s business. I strongly suggest that you do the same,” he said.
Well excuusssse me. I went back upstairs to sulk. Dan was just hanging up the phone.
“That was Doctor Cochran. Winters is making great progress and should be able to talk to us tomorrow.”
“What? I thought she was in coma. He said it took several days.”
“Hey, all I know is what I was told. We can talk to her around four o’clock tomorrow.”
“I don’t understand but it sure is good news,” I said.
The day dragged on and Garrett didn’t call, not that I was expecting him to. I’m sure he had a ton of work to catch up on.
***
I headed home around five o’clock and stopped at the grocery store to stock up on a few things I still needed to make a decent meal. How much cereal can you eat for dinner? I carried the groceries in, all six bags at once. Why do we do that? We would rather carry all the bags at once and kill or fingers rather than make two trips. We are a strange breed.
After I had put things away I changed into shorts and a tank top. I went out and got the mail and was going through it when Garrett pulled into the driveway.
He got out, walked up to me and without so much as a word, planted a deep kiss on me.
“Wow,” I finally said when we broke apart.
“Yeah. Wow. I’ve been thinking about doing that all day.”
“Then why don’t we try that again?” I suggested.
He did and it was even better and longer. I could get used to this.
We went inside and I opened a bottle of wine. I was glad I had gone to the store. I whipped up some spaghetti with meat sauce. I had him make the garlic bread while I stirred the sauce.
He told me all about his crazy day and it was fun to just listen to his stories. Easy Angie girl, I thought, you are getting in pretty deep. You need to keep a cool head.
We showered together and later made love in my bed. He had to catch a red-eye flight to New York and had to leave by 11:00 p.m. for the airport.
“I’ll only be gone a couple of days,” he told me.
“Alright Garrett. Have a safe flight,” I told him after walking him to his car.
We kissed once more and he was gone. I couldn’t
believe how empty I suddenly felt. Not Angie Bartoni who needs no one. What in the world was happening to me?”
***
We brought Megan with us to see Lisa in the hospital. I wanted to see if I could figure out the dynamics. Was Lisa the one pulling the strings or was it Megan? I needed to know exactly who did the killing and the DA needed the information to bring charges.
Our 4:00 pm. window to talk to her came and went. Then it was five and finally at 6:30, Doctor Cochran came to talk to us.
“She is awake and lucid. She still has some pain medicine in her but she should be able to answer your questions. You still need to be gentle. No rough stuff, understand?”
“Got it Doc,” I said as he led us back to her room.
I was glad to see the guard was awake and alert. Half the time they were asleep. We went inside the room. The lights were low but you could see her resting in the bed in the middle of the room. She slowly looked over at us and then did a double take. She wasn’t expecting to see Megan there with us.
“Megan?”
“Hi Lisa. How are you honey?”
“I’ve been better. I feel like crap,” she replied.
“Oh baby, I feel so bad for you.”
“Why did you bring her here?” Lisa demanded.
“We need to sort all of this out. Right now we are going to charge you with attempted murder and conspiring to murder. Megan is going to be charged with the murder of Meyer’s and Wittman.”
“What?” they both said in unison.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Megan protested.
“That’s the way it is going to go down. You had access to the nuclear materials. You could easily have slipped the material into Wittman’s food or drink. You were setting right next to him at the table that night.”
“That’s crazy. Why would I do such a thing?” Megan said.
“To get the CEO position. You have motive and opportunity. That usually equals murder,” I told her.
“Lisa, tell her it isn’t true,” Megan begged.
“You guys are out of your mind. Does she look like she could kill anyone?”
“Murder isn’t determined by looks,” Dan replied.
“You cops are so stupid.”
DEAD ON ARRIVAL: Angie Bartoni Case File # 14 (Angie Bartoni Case Files) Page 15