“Is that a question?” he said.
“Were you a participant?”
“Sure.”
“With Mimi?”
“Her and a couple of others.”
“Did you have a personal relationship with Mimi?”
“You mean outside of the theater?”
“Sure, if that’s what you want to call the basement.”
“Not really. I mean I sure wouldn’t have minded it but she was very aloof when it came to that sort of thing,” Finks told us.
“Did you resent that?”
“Resent? No. I think she was a gold digger and I just didn’t have much gold.”
“What about Asher?”
“What about him? He is a creep. I personally didn’t like the man. As far as I was concerned he was a slimeball.”
“When you left that night, did you leave with someone who can vouch for you?”
“Hell I don’t know. I guess Brian Tiller could. He left about the same time. We walked to our cars sort of together.”
“Brian Tiller. What do you mean by sort of?”
“His car was parked fairly close to mine. We just nodded and he went on his way and I went on mine.”
“Where did you go after you left?”
“Home. No, wait. I stopped and got gas and then went home.”
“You’re married. Will your wife verify your time of arrival?”
“You would have to ask her. After all of this hit the papers she has gone back home to her parents. She isn’t speaking to me at the moment.”
“How did you come up with the twenty grand to join Mrs. Rotelli’ sex club?”
“I got a loan.”
“A loan. From whom?”
“Sandy Seals. She is the one who told me about the club and recommended me. I told her I couldn’t afford that kind of money without my wife finding out about it. She offered to float me a loan,” Finks told us.
“And did you pay her back?”
“Some of it. I think I still owe her seven or eight grand,” Finks replied.
“Do you know where she got the money?”
“I didn’t ask. She offered and I accepted.”
“But you knew she was the City Treasurer.”
“So? Maybe she has money stashed away or has a sugar daddy. Like I said, I didn’t ask.”
“One last question. Did you kill Mimi Rotelli?”
“What a dumb question. Hell no I didn’t kill her. What would be the point?”
“Well someone sure the hell did. And they murdered Wesley Asher as well.”
“All I know is it wasn’t me.”
**
“What do you think?” Dan asked as Finks headed down the stairs.
“I think I wanted to pop him in his smirking face.”
“Other than that?” Dan pressed.
“I don’t know. I doubt it. I mean he could have been part of the plan but I don’t see him as any leader.”
“Part of the plan? What plan?”
“
There is something below the surface here and we just aren’t seeing it. Someone didn’t just decide one night to kill Mimi Rotelli. She knew everyone there. These people paid for the privilege of having their perverted little club. Why kill the golden goose?”
“But Angie, someone got mad enough or fed up enough to take her out.”
“Maybe they were just jealous of her relationship with one of the members. Felt slighted and decided to kill her.”
“I don’t know. That seems kind of farfetched to me. Those people go there because they like that kind of thing. They don’t go there for romance,” Dan replied.
He did have a good point but I still believed we were missing something that triggered the whole bizarre string of events.
“We need to talk to Sandy Seals again. That’s two people she recommended for this club and two people she paid for. That’s fifty-five grand total. We also need to have a complete audit of the city’s funds. I’ll bet you they come up short.”
“I’ll get Seals, you talk to the captain about the audit,” Dan said.
**
Sandy was a little less friendly this visit. The first words out of her mouth were ‘do I need an attorney?’ I wanted to say damn right you do but of course I used the standard cop line of only if you have something to hide. That usually works. Fortunately it did this time as well.
“We just spent some time with Councilman Finks,” I said, easing into the conversation.
“How nice. How is the good Councilman?”
“He could be better I suppose. Seems his wife has left him over the big scandal.”
“Bobby never could handle his wife. I can’t see why anyone would vote for him in the first place.”
“Speaking of which, he mentioned that you loaned him the twenty thousand dollars to join, just like you did Captain Tyson. That’s a total of fifty-five grand. I have to ask, where did all of that money come from?”
“I have money. I’m not rich but I have a sum put away. It wasn’t a gift anyway. They were loans.”
“You already said that you took the money from the city and then repaid it. Isn’t that right?”
“I borrowed it for a few days until the captain could get it together.”
“You see here is the problem. We just had a quick audit done and guess what we found.”
“I have no idea.”
“Are you sure? You don’t even want to take a guess?” I asked.
“What did you find?” she finally said.
“The city is missing two hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars. Can you imagine that?”
“I want my lawyer.”
“Are you sure? Once you talk to them there is no going back. No deals, no plea bargain. You might want to think that over.
“Don’t pull that bullshit with me. That’s always what you guys say to get people to give you more information to use against them. I want my lawyer now.”
“No problem,” I said.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Are you going to charge her?”
“I guess that depends on the Mayor and the DA. I can’t imagine them letting this go or trying to sweep it under the rug.”
“It certainly doesn’t say much about their bookkeeping if they can be missing over two hundred thousand and not notice it.”
“Too much power in one office.”
“What about the murder? Anything on that?” the captain asked.
“I have several theories but none that I can prove. I need to keep digging.”
“Well you know this is already starting to lose steam. The House of Sin was only mentioned in one column in the paper and there was nothing on the TV about it last night,” McGregor replied.
He was about to say something else when the phone rang.
“Captain McGregor.”
“Oh, yes. Yes. In holding. We have the interview tapes and audio. I see. Okay. Right away.”
“Not good news I take it.”
“That was the Mayor. He wants you to bring everything you have on Seals to his office immediately.”
“What’s going on?”
“He didn’t tell me. All he said was that I needed to have you over to his office along with anything you have on Sandy Seals.”
“I don’t get it.”
“You don’t have to. Just get the stuff over there.”
**
“What the hell?” Dan said.
He was driving and I was glad. My leg was still killing me and I needed to take a pain pill but there was no way I was going to do that before we talked to the Mayor.
“Beats the heck out of me.”
“He didn’t give the captain a reason?”
“Nothing that he shared with me. Just to get over there will all the material on Seals.
“Do you suppose there is even more money missing?”
“Beats me. But even if there was, what in the world would that have to do with us and the interview?”
“This is crazy,” Dan said.
“The whole doggone case is crazy if you ask me. We got a bizillionaire who doesn’t know what is going on in his own house, a wife who takes money from customers to put on sex shows, some of the high rollers in the city connected and a city treasurer who has skimmed off two hundred grand. You add all that up and what do you have?”
“I give, what?”
“Not a damn thing that makes any sense. We are missing a piece of the puzzle and we need to find it if we are ever going to get to the bottom of this mess,” I said, disgusted.
“I have a bad feeling about this meeting,” Dan replied.
“I’m not too happy about it either.”
**
When we got to the Mayor’s Office there was none of the usual ‘take a seat and wait’. We were immediately hustled into his office.
“Detectives, thank you for coming so promptly.”
I wanted to use one of my witty repartees but it just didn’t see like the time for it.
“Always glad to be where you need us Mr. Mayor.”
“You probably know why I wanted to see you.”
“Actually, I’m not sure at all. I know it is about Seals but other than that, I don’t have the foggiest,” I told him.
“Well, we have done a full audit now. In fact I got the results just before I called Captain McGregor.”
“And this concerns us how exactly?”
“We are missing a little more than what I was originally told.”
“A little more. How much is a little more,” Dan asked.
“The total is just over a half million dollars.”
“Holy smokes. The city is missing a half million dollars and no one has noticed it until the Rotelli murder?” I asked, flabbergasted.
“It seems that Seals has been very good at hiding what she was doing.”
“Someone’s head should roll for this,” I replied.
“Yes. Unfortunately it could well be mine.”
“I don’t understand,”
“I am ultimately responsible. I trusted her and didn’t keep proper tabs on the budget.”
“I still don’t see what that has to do with the murder investigation and our interview with Ms. Seals.”
“I was hoping their might be something on there to help us discover where the money went.”
“Wait. You mean it is missing but you don’t know where it has gone?” Dan chimed in.
“We know where some of it went but we can’t account for almost four hundred thousand. Does the interview give any insight into what might have happened to it.”
“Mayor I hate to burst your bubble but all she says is that she loaned Captain Tyson and Councilman Finks the money to join Rotelli’s sex club. She doesn’t say anything about the other money.”
“This is a nightmare,” he said rubbing his face with the palm of his hands.
“It’s going to get pretty ugly,” Dan said softly.
“What I need the two of you to do is stonewall the press until we get to the bottom of all of this,” the Mayor said.
“Stonewall?”
“Just say the usual ‘no comment’ when anyone asks about the missing money.”
“How do they even know about it?”
“One of the auditors says he might have been overheard while he was discussing it.”
“Discussing it?” I asked.
“Yes. With his wife.”
“Good Lord Mayor. This couldn’t be any more screwed up if you tried. Who in the hell did the audit, the New York Times?”
“I know, I know. We don’t know that the cat is out of the bag but if it is I want the standard ‘no comment’ from the police.”
“Mr. Mayor we will do as you say but believe me, you don’t stand a chance on keeping this suppressed. They will come after you with both barrels, especially if they think a cover up is going on. You, of all people, should know that.”
“I just need to buy some time.”
“I sincerely doubt you have that luxury. Someone right this very minute is sitting down at a computer terminal and starting a story about the missing money, the city treasurer and the lack of diligence by your office. I think you would be better off just getting it out there and dealing with it rather than trying to sugar coat it. All that will do is make people think you are somehow involved.”
“I’m not involved.”
“Then get out there and deal with it,” I told him.
“They will crucify me.”
“I’ve got news for you. You are going to be crucified if you don’t act on this before it all comes out. You should be the one breaking the news along with her being arrested and charged.”
“Do you really think so?” he asked hopefully.
“I don’t know for sure but it is certainly what I would do,” I answered.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“What are we going to do?”
“Not panic. If we panic and do something stupid it will be all over for us.”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Like I don’t have the same risk that you do? That’s just a stupid thing to say. Of course I’m worried but if we start doing something suspicious we won’t last five minutes. You just have to stick with the basic story. Don’t give Bartoni anything that she can use. She is like a damned ferret. You slip up and she will be all over us. Don’t let her rattle you.”
“Christ this is such a mess.”
“What did you think would happen? We talked about this and you went right along with the plan. You can’t start crying ‘I didn’t know it would be like this’. If you crack, everything comes down.”
“I won’t crack.”
“You don’t sound very convincing.”
“I won’t. I just needed to talk to someone. I know they will find something I overlooked. What do I do then?”
“You keep your damn mouth shut. They can accuse you of anything but unless they have solid proof they can’t do a thing. Suspecting is one thing but proving is another. If anyone knows that it should be you.”
“Alright, I’m cool. I’ll just not say anything. I’ll let my lawyer handle all their questions from now on.”
“Well just make sure you have a good one, someone who won’t let them back you into a corner.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t call me again. I don’t want any evidence of us talking. You shouldn’t have called this time but we can’t do anything about it now.”
“Sorry.”
“Yes you are,” they said and hung up.
**
“You know Dan, I still think the key is to find out who Mimi Rotelli really was. Yeah we dug up the name she used when she married Gill but before that who was she?”
“I don’t see how that really matters. I mean that was some time ago and if anyone wanted to track her down and kill her it wouldn’t have been too hard. She was in the papers every other week it seems.”
“Granted, but what else could it be?”
“My personal opinion is it was all about lust or love or whatever the hell they call what they do. Someone got jealous and killed her.”
“I suppose that could be but killing someone isn’t easy, especially with a knife. It becomes very personal when you have to get that close to someone to kill them.”
“That says love triangle to me Angie.”
“In that case we need to figure out who was involved in the triangle. We have Mimi dead, Asher’s now gone, who is the third person and did they kill the other two?” I asked.
“If I had to guess, it would be either Tyson or Seals.”
“Unless there is someone we haven’t even stumbled across yet,” I said grimly.
When we got to the station reporters were ten deep. Trucks, lights and talking heads were positioned everywhere.
“This does not look good,” Dan said when we pulled into the lot.
“Just remember what the Mayor said, ‘no comment’.”
As soon as we stepped out of the car it started.
“Bartoni, Detectives, Angie and on and on. I know they have a job to do but so do we. I mean come on, did they really think we would share some big secret with them. I like a few of them, I really do, but most are just mouths that like to hear themselves talk.
I was thankful for Dan. Being as big as he is he was able to clear a path through the crowd and within a few minutes we made it to the safety and sanity of the station.
“It’s been like that for the past hour,” the desk Sargent told us.
“Where is the snow when you need it,” I replied.
I limped up the stairs, sat down at my desk, and propped my leg up. I probably needed to ice it but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it at the station.
“Your leg hurting?” Dan asked, watching me rub it.
“Just a tad. Nothing I can’t handle.”
“You need to ice it down.”
“Yeah. Like that’s going to happen here.”
“Hey, screw these other guys. Hell if it was them they would be out on disability. No one is going to say anything and if they do I’ll kick their butts,” Dan replied.
“I appreciate the concern but it’s nothing a couple of aspirin can’t handle.”
“Right macho-woman.”
As we were bantering back and forth Brad came over to my desk.
“What’s up?” I asked.
He had such a serious look on his face.
“We need to talk. Privately.”
“Dan goes where I go.”
“Fine. I hate to be the one to tell you this but the FBI has been ordered to take over the case. Hold on, before you kill the messenger, I just found out a few minutes ago. It wasn’t a request. It came down from the top of the food chain. I have no say in the matter whatsoever.”
I sat there just letting it all sink in. Yes we were stymied but that isn’t unusual in a murder case, especially a complicated one like this. So what happened to cause the sudden shift in concern?
“And you will be running the case?” I asked at last.
“Actually no. They are sending in someone from Washington. A Special Agent by the name of Byron Falls. He is in line to become the assistant director at some point,” Brad said.
“So we are essentially off the case.”
THE CLUB - ANGIE BARTONI CASE FILE Page 8
