VANISHING ACT - Angie Bartoni Case File # 11: Angie Bartoni Case File # 11 (Angie Bartoni Case Files)

by Marshall Huffman

“Pardon my French, but bull. We are partners and we go together.”

  We had that ‘dead man walking’ look as we went to see the captain.

  “Oh, oh. Not good,” he said looking up at us standing in the doorway.

  “Not good,” I replied.

  He put his pen down, leaned back, and folded his clasped fingers over his stomach.

  “Just spit it out,” he said at last.

  I handed him the report from Eric and he started reading it over. When he was done reading it a second time, he looked up. He looked slightly pale.

  “He is absolutely sure?”

  “He is. I had him check it twice.”

  He ran his hands through his hair a few times. He does that when he is really thinking hard.

  “Pull him in. This has a direct bearing on the Milliken case. IA can have it after we talk to him. For now the Milliken case takes precedence,” he said.

  “I was hoping you would say that,” I replied.

  “Go get him. I’ll call his captain and the Commissioner and give them a heads up. He can put some muscle on the other captain if necessary,” McGregor told us.

  ***

  When we got to the 3rd Precinct we found Detective Donner waiting in his captain’s office.

  “Bartoni,” he said not bothering to stand.

  “Detective Donner. This is my partner, Detective Dan Roberts.”

  “So?”

  “So we would like to talk to you about the Milliken case.”

  “Yeah, my captain was just telling me that. I’ve already sent for my union rep.”

  “That’s good. A very wise move in this case. You will probably need a good lawyer as well. Since you don’t seem interested in talking to us, I guess IA will have to get second crack at you,” I told him.

  “You’re a rat Bartoni; you know that?”

  “I know. I also know you took twenty-five thousand as a bribe to sweep the murder of Janet Lewis-Milliken under the rug. I wonder how many others we are going to uncover once we start really digging. I may be a rat, Donner, but you are a rat turd. You are going down big time and it will not be pretty when you end up in the same prison you put others in.”

  “If you live that long,” he threatened.

  “Shut your pie hole,” his captain snapped at Donner, “You are a disgrace to the department. I hope they burn your butt big time. Detectives would you take this piece of trash to one of the interview rooms until his rep comes. He is stinking up my office.”

  “Captain…”

  “I said shut up. You make me sick. I’m going to turn every case you ever worked on over to IA. I am personally going to make it my business to get to the bottom of this,” he said.

  “Thank you captain,” I said.

  I have to be honest here. I was expecting a hard time from Donner’s captain as well. It was nice to have him backing us up. As we were taking him to the interrogation room…interview room, he slowed down.

  “Don’t try anything,” Dan said.

  “Look, my partner was in on this. I’ll give you everything if I can cut a deal,” he said.

  I laughed, “You pathetic boob. You called me a rat and now you want to sell your partner down the road. How stupid are you Donner? We already know about your partner. He is going down the same as you,” I told him.

  That was pretty much the end of the conversation.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Detective Shipman had handled the Beverly Mason-Milliken case. She had been Edward’s first wife. There was no bribe involved in this instance so we had some hope that we could glean insight into the case.

  Shipman had retired and now lived in Brown County. That brought back a flash. My last big case had transpired there. A bunch of jerks killing co-eds. Anyway, we called and he agreed to go over the files and pull out any of his old notes. We set up a time to go and visit him.

  The captain wasn’t too pleased with sending me back down there but we still had the outstanding case and he wanted it cleared up as much as we did. I had gone up and down that road many times during my last case but I was in the Healy and it was a lot of fun. Something about police cruisers makes me get sleepy when I have to travel long distances. I let Dan drive and I snoozed.

  The next thing I knew we were pulling into a tree lined drive. The place was rustic and that is really stretching it. Honestly, it was pretty much a dump. Two old trucks were perched on cement blocks. A 50’s something car was just rusting away.

  A man came out on the dilapidated porch and waved. I assumed it was Detective Shipman. We got out and went to meet him.

  “You must be Bartoni and Roberts,” he said offering a rough hand to shake.

  “Thank you so much for seeing us,” I said.

  “Not sure I can offer much but I’m always glad to try to help you young kids.”

  Wow. I liked this guy immediately. I know. He was probably talking about Dan but, any compliment in a storm, is my motto. He led us up some rickety steps, across a rotting deck and inside. It was a lot better than the outside. At least it was clean. Spartan, but clean.

  “Have a seat. Would you like something to drink? I just made some coffee,” he offered.

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’d take a cup,” Dan said.

  “Black?”

  “Great.”

  “Just a second,” he said and disappeared into what I assumed was the kitchen.

  He was back a few minutes later with two huge cups of coffee. He handed one to Dan and sat down across from us.

  “What can I do for you?’

  “Well, we have a few questions about the Beverly Mason-Milliken case.”

  “Yeah. You said that when you called. What do you want to know?”

  “Look, I know it was a long time ago, but there is something bothering me about the case.”

  “Just something? The whole case smelled from day one. First of all, I need to give you some background. I went back over my notes and I’m not too proud of what is in the official report.”

  “Why is that?”

  “At the time, almost ten years ago, I had only six more months until I retired. My captain wanted this case gone. His basic order was, no body no murder. Do a quick investigation and let missing persons deal with it. We had a pretty big knock down, drag out, about it but with six months to go, I decided it wasn’t worth the fight. I did a cursory investigation, at least on paper, and put it in the cold case file,” he told us.

  “What do you think happened?”

  “The husband killed her and got rid of the body. The place was tossed but it didn’t look right to me. Beverly Milliken weighted one-hundred and twelve pounds. The entire house was a mess. I guess it was supposed to look like a burglary gone wrong but it just didn’t add up.”

  “And you told the captain this?”

  “I did and he said, no body, no foul, or something like that.”

  “The record doesn’t mention any follow up.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Because?”

  “I had nothing to follow up on.”

  “According to you or the captain.”

  “Look, Ed Milliken did it, pure and simple. I wish I had not given in like I did. I should have kept digging. I understand he did it again.”

  “This is his third time.”

  “Son of a gun. I should have nailed him. I let retirement get in the way. All I wanted to do was finish up and get out.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. It sounds like your captain wanted this to go away and I know how that can be. Is there anything you can tell us that will help us nail this guy?”

  “One of the neighbors said they fought a lot and that he was abusive, both physically and mentally. She could hardly ever leave the house. I did get the name of one of her close friends. Gloria Swift. I don’t know where she is now but she used to live right behind the Milliken’s place. She could see into their back yard from the upstairs window. She saw him hit Beverly several times. He was a real
piece of work,” Shipman told us.

  “We can run her down. Was she very old?”

  “No. Probably in her forties or early fifties.”

  We looked through his logs and made a few notes to follow up on. There wasn’t a lot but it wasn’t a wasted trip. I, at least, felt better about Shipman’s efforts. He had been caught in the middle and had taken the easy route. I couldn’t very well judge him on that because I’m not sure what I would have done in the same situation.

  ***

  “Learn anything useful?” McGregor asked when we finally got back.

  “Not as much as I would have liked. At least we know why the investigative work was so shoddy. Between his getting ready to retire and his captain wanting it off the board, it just got swept under the rug.”

  “Speaking of which.”

  “Don’t tell me.”

  “Look Bartoni, we need to show some progress or move on. His captain was right. You can only carry a case for so long. We have no body and no real proof except for the money and that isn’t going to cut it.”

  “Captain.”

  “Bartoni.”

  “Come on. Don’t pull the plug on this yet.”

  “I’m not, but I’m telling you right up front, I won’t spend a big chunk of man hours on a case that is going nowhere. I need results.”

  “Captain, we are doing everything we can,” I protested.

  “I realize that, but that is not the same thing as getting results. Look, I have ten detectives where we are supposed to have sixteen. We have eleven cases still open. Three are just like yours. They are getting no place fast. At some point I will have to move them off the board. It’s not personal, it is just a fact. A few years ago I could have let it go for quite a while but with the budget the way it is, I have to shift manpower where it will do the most good.”

  “How long do we have,” I asked resignedly.

  “A week at most,” he told us and headed to his office.

  A week and we had nothing.

  “We are so cooked,” Dan said.

  “Fried.”

  “Toast.”

  “Stick a fork in us,” I replied.

  “Over easy.”

  “Banana nut bread,” I added.

  “Sti…what? Banana nut bread? What the heck does that mean?”

  “Beats me but I was running out of things to say.”

  There are times when I think Dan feels I am missing a few marbles. This was one of those times.

  ***

  I was a little depressed by the whole situation. When I sat down, I saw the file Eric had place on my desk about Milliken’s background, including a bunch of financial data such as credit card purchases and a lot of other stuff. It was almost an inch thick.

  It gave Dan and I something to do, if nothing else. We started digging in.

  “Hey, do you remember when I ask Milliken if there were any marital problems?”

  “Sure, that was obviously a lie. He beat her up.”

  “No. I mean besides that,” I said.

  “I don’t know. What are you getting at?”

  “I specifically asked about an affair.”

  “Yeah. I do remember that,” Dan said.

  “Well check this out.”

  I passed over a long list of credit card charges.

  “Check it against your list and see if you find the same thing,” I told him.

  “Okay.”

  He went down the list checking it against mine and at last looked over at me.

  “Holy smokes. Either he was lying or he really likes room service.”

  “Yeah. Let’s go check it out,” I said.

  “Expensive taste. Guess it must be nice to use your wife’s money,” Dan said.

  We told the captain about our discovery and that we were going to check it out.

  “Have fun kids,” was his parting shot.

  Like leg work was fun. We drove to the downtown Hilton and asked to see the manager. It took a few minutes to round her up but they did locate her.

  “I’m Wendy Flanders the General Manager, how can I help you?”

  I introduced Dan and myself.

  “Every two weeks room 925 is booked. We need to see if it is being billed to Mr. Edward Milliken.”

  “Oh dear. I can confirm that we have a standing order for that room every other Friday night. It is one of our VIP rooms.”

  “Yes, but we need to determine if it is Mr. Milliken using the room. We know his credit card is being billed from the Hilton. All we need is to confirm it.”

  “I wish I could tell you but it is against our policy to give out any information about guests. The courts have been very clear that they consider that private information and if we give it out we could be held liable,” sweet Wendy told us.

  “We are not going to use this in a court of law, Ms. Flanders. His credit card indicates that he has been here. We just need to confirm that. It is not for court,” I tried to stress.

  “Sorry, I simply can’t. I could lose my job and the hotel could be sued,” she replied.

  “If I showed you a picture of the man could you at least give me a nod?”

  “Sorry. I would need a court order,” she said.

  I sighed deeply. It seemed so simple. We have his credit card and all we need is confirmation. Now we are going to have to do it the hard way. I was feeling very discouraged.

  “Everyone has to cover their butts,” Dan said when we got back to the car.

  “It would seem that way. There have been way too many lawsuits over the years and now you can hardly ask a question without the potential of getting in trouble. It has gone way too far,” I replied.

  It didn’t really matter what I thought. We were going to have to have a court order if we wanted to get the information.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “So now what are you thinking?” Dan asked.

  “We are going to re-interview Milliken. He doesn’t know we can’t actually put him at the hotel. We can just bluff our way through.”

  “Do you really think that will work? He is pretty smooth and on top of that he will have his attorney with him.”

  “That doesn’t bother me. I want to spring this on him and see how he dances.”

  “We gonna’ go bring him in or call and have him come in?”

  “Dan. Now what do you think?”

  “I just had to ask.”

  “We go get him.”

  “Of course,” he said.

  We drove to Milliken house and were taken aback when we pulled into the drive. Some kind of low slung sports car was parked at the front driveway.

  “Pretty fancy,” Dan said.

  “What is it?”

  “An Austin Martin Vanquish convertible. Some place north of a hundred and fifty grand for the things,” he informed me.

  “Interesting.”

  “The car?”

  “No. Is it his or did we stumble on his secret honey bunch?”

  “You’re right. That would be something.”

  We knocked on the door and a few seconds later it opened. I could see Ed’s face fall as he realized who was standing there. Obviously it was not who he was expecting.

  “Hi Ed. We were just in the neighborhood and thought we would drop in and have a chat. By the way, nice toy in the drive. Yours?”

  “What? No. I mean yes the car is not mine.”

  “Really? Well we have the license plate number so we can check that little detail out with the DMV. Nice car.”

  “Actually it belongs to a friend of mine. They loaned it to me for the day.”

  “Really? Must be a very good friend to loan out a hundred and fifty grand car.”

  “What do you want?” he suddenly demanded.

  “To talk. I know you are very worried about your poor missing wife. We have a few questions that may help us get her back for you. That is what you want isn’t it?”

  “Of course. Don’t be ridicules.”

  “Good. Mind if we come i
n?”

  “My friend is here at the moment. Just dropping off the car actually.”

  “Okay. No problem, we can wait while you make the exchange,” I said.

  “Look it may be awhile. Can you just come back a little later?”

  “Oh don’t worry about us. We can just wait in the car,” I said and turned to leave.

  “Hold on just a minute,” he said and closed the door.

  We stood there waiting. I wanted to put my ear to the door but Dan wouldn’t let me. I could hear a heated discussion going on. Finally the door was yanked open and a very tall, leggy blond came storming out. She jumped in the Austin Martin and took off at the speed of light. Obviously the discussion had not gone as planned.

  “Upset?” I asked.

  “Just a misunderstanding,” he replied.

  “Well at least you didn’t hit her or is that just reserved for your wives,” I said smiling.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  “Really? We checked your wives’ medical records. Lots of ‘accidents’.”

  “It happens.”

  “Yes. That’s what the neighbors indicated. They don’t much like you. They seem to have the impression that you are a bully and an abuser. Just not a very nice person all around,” I said.

  “Pretty tough on women, are you?” Dan asked.

  “Look. No one ever accused me of abuse. I have never been arrested or even charged,” he said.

  “What do you think Bartoni? Should I show him how you can hurt someone so it looks like an accident?”

  “I don’t know Dan. I have the feeling he already has that part down pretty well,” I replied.

  “I’m calling my lawyer,” he threatened.

  “Good. That would be very good. I’m sure he will want to hear some of what we have been able to discover. The number of trips to the hospital ER for each wife, how much money they inherited, what you ended up with, and…what was that other thing?” I said to Dan.

  “1125” Dan replied.

  “Oh, yeah. Room 1125 at the Hilton. It’s all pretty interesting. Listen, give him a ring and tell him he will be able to find you at the station.”

  “You can’t do this.”

  “Oh you silly man, of course we can,” I said.

  ***

  “Who’s that?” McGregor asked.