DEAD AIM - Angie Bartoni Case File #3 (Angie Bartoni Case Files Book 1)

by Marshall Huffman

  “Please go now,” Hilton said and closed his eyes.

  “Have it your way for now Professor but we will be back and not quite as polite next time,” I said as we opened the door to leave.

  Outside Dan said, “What a strange bird. For a Professor he isn’t very smart.”

  “No doubt, he either gave them what they came after or told them where it was. What I don’t get is why let him live? He can ID the perp. Pros don’t let people live in a situation like that,” I said.

  “The whole thing is kind of screwy.”

  “He is obviously lying or covering for someone. He just doesn’t smell right to me.”

  “Nobody in a hospital smells right,” Dan replied.

  “I didn’t…never mind, I get it. I’m just a little slow today.

  “It’s still early.”

  “Great. All we need is to land another screwball case right now. I can hardly wait to see what kind of crap we can land in before the day is over,” I lamented.

  “You shouldn’t say something like that. You never know when it will come true,” Dan replied.

  “You’re probably right,” I said.

  He was.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Elaine slowly became aware of her surroundings. It didn’t make sense. What the heck had happened? She was riding in the car then suddenly she...what? Fainted? Passed out?

  She tried to move her arms but realized that they were strapped down. She raised her head and looked down. She was on a table of some kind, totally naked. She shook her head. None of this could be real. She must be dreaming.

  “Ah, I see you are awake.”

  “What is going on? Why am I naked? What are you doing?”

  “I am giving you a chance to assist me in refining my invention. I heeded an assistant, so to speak, and guess what? You volunteered.”

  “This is crazy. I’ll help you but not like this. Just let me go and I’ll help anyway I can,” Elaine told him.

  “But you see this is the only way you can help. Elaine, you need to look at this from a different perspective. You are going to be part of a new invention that will make hundreds if not thousands of lives better. This is quite an honor I am bestowing on you.”

  “Help,” she suddenly screamed, “Please, someone help me.”

  “Elaine, Elaine, Elaine. Now honestly, do you think that is going to help one bit? Think about it. If I thought someone could hear you would I have left your mouth uncovered? No, I don’t think so. You can yell until your voice gives out but no one will come to rescue you.”

  “Just let me up. I won’t say a word to anyone about this. Nothing has happened so far. I mean, not really. I’ll just keep this to myself and on one will ever know,” Elaine told him.

  “No. That isn’t true. You would blab to someone. Elaine, just relax. This will be over soon enough and if it proves to be successful, I will include you in the revenue. Say ten percent of the net profit. That could be a very tidy sum.”

  “I don’t want any damn money. Look, let me up right now. I’m not going to be a lab rat for you to experiment on,” she said struggling at the restraints.

  “I think you are quite wrong about that Elaine,” he said placing the pointed end of the suction tube just under her rib cage.

  “You might feel a little discomfort but it will quickly pass. I need to prick your skin a bit,” he said and shoved the point up inside her body.

  She stiffened and screamed but he just kept shoving. She went rigid and let out one long yell before her eyes glazed over and she fell back on the table.

  Blood started running out of the tube and into the five gallon jug he had placed on the floor. He watched fascinated as the jug began to slowly fill. A fresh squirt would shoot into the container each time her heart beat. Maybe it would work this time.

  He continued to watch the bottle fill until suddenly it sputtered and then just stopped flowing. He jumped up and wiggled the hose attached to the prod but nothing else came out.

  “No, no, no,” he screamed wiggling the prod violently but nothing further drained into the bottle.

  “You stupid cow. Can’t you even bleed,” he said, grabbing her face in his hands and pinching it.

  He felt for her pulse but she was dead. What a waste of his time. She was no better than the first one. He pulled the prod out and jabbed it back deep into her chest but nothing happened. Suddenly he flew into a rage and started stabbing her over and over. Spit flew from his mouth as he screamed at the lifeless body.

  Finally he ran out of steam and just dropped down on the floor. Holding his head in his hands he began to cry, ‘Why does everything have to be so hard?’. He was just trying to invent a drainage device that would make the world a better place. ‘Why is everything always against me?” he sobbed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  It had been a rotten day over all. We accomplished virtually nothing other than burning up a lot of gas and doing our part to deplete the ozone layer. On top of that, the weather was starting to take a turn for the worse.

  When I got home, I opened a bottle of Pinot Noir and let it breathe while I got undressed and turned on the water in the tub. I just wanted to let the day slip into oblivion. I poured a glass of wine and let my body slowly slide down into the hot water.

  I drank a little of the wine and tried to let everything go but the nutty professor kept tugging at a corner of my mind. I mean, the guy is obviously well educated and probably pretty smart but why give us a bullshit story like he did? Maybe he thinks all cops are stupid and we are just going to take his word at face value. If he did, he wasn’t as smart as he thinks he is.

  What did he have in his possession that warranted a professional to come and put ugly holes in his body? A disgruntled student? A girl or boy that he took a little too much interest in? What the hell did he have and why not just tell us? He knows damn well what the guy looked like, probably to the number of hairs on his head.

  As I finished off the last of the glass of wine I decided that tomorrow, the good Professor Hilton was going to give me some answers. Shot or not, I intended to press a hell of a lot harder.

  ~~

  When I sleep, I really sleep. The house could fall down around me and I doubt if I would hear it. I probably snore and heaven knows what else I do when I sleep. I know I drool because I have found my pillow wet on many occasions.

  I don’t know how long the phone had been ringing but when I did finally hear it, I knew it had to be the captain. No one else would be that persistent. He has called me before and knows he has to let it ring forever.

  I finally managed to unravel the blankets from around me and locate the phone.

  “What?”

  “Hey sunshine. I thought I was going to have to send a car to your place to roust you out.”

  “Captain, I really don’t want to exchange pleasantries at this time of the night. What time is it anyway?”

  “Four twenty-three.”

  “Great. What’s up?”

  “We have another floater. Same place. Looks like the same MO to some extent.”

  “The same to some extent. What the hell does that mean? I know it’s early but either it is or it isn’t.”

  “This sounds like a good job for a grumpy detective I happen to know. How about you getting your rear in gear and check it out,” he said and hung up before I could give him a snappy comeback.

  That is if I could think of one. Or even think for that matter. I sat on the side of the bed cogitating that this would be a good time to have an eight-to-five job. I went to the bathroom, did the usual morning routine which isn’t much and threw on my shirt and jeans. I sure as hell wasn’t going to dress up for a trip to the river.

  Shoving the gun into my holster I headed out the door and stopped dead in my tracks. Who the hell ordered winter back? There was a good four inches of snow and it was still coming down. Excellent. Just excellent.

  I went back in, changed into my warmest clothes, put on two pair
s of socks, a heavy jacket, gloves and a scarf. Oh joy, oh joy, I get to go play in the winter wonderland.

  Driving was a hoot. The TR6 slipped and slid around corners and up hills. Thank goodness we don’t have very big hills or I would never have made it. I could see the lights flashing, lighting up the falling snowflakes like twinkling Christmas lights. I finally found a place to pull over where I wouldn’t be stuck when I was done.

  Trudging through the snow I looked down at the army of police standing around. No one seemed to be actually doing anything. You would think they were highway workers. I could see the ME by the body. He appeared to be the only one actually doing anything constructive.

  I started down the slope and I had only taken two steps when I fell on my butt and slid the rest of the way down the embankment. Of course every cop had to be looking at me at just that moment. Two of them rushed over to help me up. At least no one laughed. Not now anyway. Later, oh yeah.

  I brushed the snow off my butt and as dignified as I could, went over to the ME.

  “Hey Doc.”

  “Nice entrance.”

  “You could have been nice and just not have mentioned it,” I replied.

  “Like that’s ever going to happen. Nice night for a murder, huh?”

  “Lovely. What have we got?”

  “Looks like the same MO. At least initially it appears that way. She still has some blood in her but the puncture marks are almost the same. Maybe slightly different.”

  “Yeah but look at her chest. She has been stabbed repeatedly.”

  “True, but the puncture marks are the same. My guess is that whoever did this lost control when his experiment or whatever the heck he is doing didn’t work. I think he just went postal for a while. I count thirty-five stab wounds.”

  “What the heck is going on? What is the nut case trying to do? Why is he draining the blood out of these women?”

  “Vampire?”

  “Oh sure. Doc, you’ve been going to too many of those stupid movies.”

  “You have a better idea, she who slides on butt?” he shot back.

  I glared at him but he just laughed. He had me and he knew it. What was I going to come back with?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “What the hell good is this?” Bentley Ashton fumed.

  “He said it was the SD card. I had no way of knowing what was on it. You instructed me not to look at was on the card. I had the camera and could have checked right then. You are the one that gave the orders to not look at it first.”

  “I consider this very sloppy work,” Bentley replied.

  “Let me see if I have this right. You tell me to get the SD card but don’t let me verify what’s on it and you are standing there telling me that I did sloppy work. I would say you are a damn fool to not have let me check it out before I left.”

  “Look you. I’m paying you for results. I don’t consider this satisfactory results,” Ashton said tossing the SD card in the fireplace.

  “Fine. Just pay me the remaining amount and get someone else to retrieve what you want.”

  “I said I was paying for results. I do not consider this satisfactory results. I am not going to pay you one penny more,” Bentley said.

  The man looked at him a few seconds before he spoke again.

  “Mr. Bentley. You are going to pay me. In fact, you are going to give me a bonus for putting me at risk with your stupid orders. Now you owe me fifty thousand and let’s say another fifty for all the trouble I went through.”

  “Are you out of your mind? I will not pay you anything further, do you hear me?”

  The man just shook his head.

  “You know, for a rich man you sure are stupid. I know you are used to getting your way but so help me, you are just dumber than a brick if you think you are not going to pay me. Now get this straight. You will pay me right this minute or I will kill you and your wife. Then I will hunt down that worthless son of yours and frame him for your murders. It won’t be hard to do since he is a lot like his old man. Stupid. Never, never threaten a professional killer you dumb shit,” he said and pulled a silenced pistol out of his coat pocket.

  “You won’t kill me. Everyone knows who I am. The police would track you down in no time.”

  A bullet shattered a huge mirror over the fireplace. Shards of glass fell on Bentley's head and shoulders.

  “Don’t you get tired of being wrong? The next shot will be in your knee. And I will keep shooting you until you either pay me or die. At this point I don’t really care which you choose.”

  Bentley glared at him but kept his mouth shut.

  Finally he said, “I’ll go get the money. It is in my office.”

  “I think it would be better if we went together. Kind of like pals. I wouldn’t want you to do something else stupid.”

  ~~

  “What do you have?” the captain said when I finally made it back to headquarters.”

  “A sore butt and frozen feet.”

  “I meant on the murder victim,” he said rolling his eyes.

  “I know what you meant but that was the good news. It gets worse from there.”

  “We have a serial killer on the loose.”

  “Not yet. I suspect it will be official soon if we don’t get the guy.”

  “Did you get anything?”

  “Nothing. Snow covered any tracks. So far no one has said anything about seeing anything suspicious. She was dumped up stream probably pretty near the same place that Alice Harding was dumped. I checked around that area but couldn’t find anything that proved or disproved it one way or the other.”

  “The stab mark was the same?”

  “Actually it was multiple stab wounds. The ME thinks the perp lost it and just went to town on her. He thinks she was probably already dead when he went ballistic. He will know more after the autopsy.”

  “We have a killer preying on women students at IUPUI. This is not going to be good. You know all hell is going to break loose once the media gets on this,” the captain said.

  “They already are. They were there in mass by the time the body was being carted off.”

  “So the Commissioner will wake up to cheery headlines announcing a second IUPUI student has been murdered. Great. Just great,” he said as he headed to his office shaking his head.

  Hey, this is why he gets the big bucks.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “Hey Bartoni, you’re here bright and early. You don’t look too perky but you’re here,” Dan said as he took off his heavy coat and draped it over the back of his chair.

  Obviously the show was still falling, his hair had flakes in it.

  “What are you working on?” he asked.

  “We had another murder last night. Pretty much the same MO as the Harding one.”

  “Whoa. Why didn’t you call me and let me know?”

  “Look, it was snowing outside, colder than hell and 4:00 a.m. I saw no reason for both of us to be miserable. It was no big deal. The snow covered any tracks and once you’ve seen one floater you have pretty much seen them all.”

  “Yeah but I need the experience. You should have called,” he said starting to sulk.

  He was probably right. I know I would have been mad as well if it was the other way around but there really wasn’t much to see. Okay, I didn’t think about it. I totally forgot about Dan. I’m just used to working alone.

  “What we need to do is go take another run at Professor Dunderhead. He knows exactly why he got shot and I intend to find out. I don’t know what his game is but I’m not going to play.”

  “Do I go along this time or do you want me to just stay here?” he sulked.

  “Oh please, by all means. And guess what? You can drive,” I said, grabbing my piece and slipping my coat on.

  I dug my gloves out of my pocket and tugged them on.

  “I’ll let the captain know where we are headed,” I told him as I headed for the boss's office.

  “Hey captain, Dan and I are going to
take another run at Professor Hilton.”

  “Who?”

  “The Egghead that got shot at IUPUI.”

  “Ah. You know that’s three incidents in the past few days. We don’t get that much activity in a year normally. What the hell is going on?” he asked.

  It was more of a rhetorical question but I said, “That’s what we are going to find out.”

  “Well hurry up. The media is gathering and will start hounding us pretty darn quick. We need to get ahead of this.”

  I laughed.

  “I would settle for being on the same continent at this point. We don’t have a thing except for two dead students and one Nutty Professor.”

  “Go, get something. Do your job,” he said as a way of dismissing me.

  I nodded to Dan and we headed downstairs. The show was near whiteout conditions as far as I was concerned. I could only see the outlines of the buildings across the street. Good call to let Dan drive. I already had my quota of banged up cop cars this year.

  “Man, this is treacherous,” Dan said as we crept along trying to stay pretty close to the middle of the road. The wipers were going a mile a minute but were doing little more than spreading the white stuff around.

  It took over an hour to cover the two and a half miles to the hospital from the station. Even at that rate it was pretty hairy at times. Dan slid into a spot and we made our way carefully to the entrance. I think this was the first time I was happy to be in a hospital.

  We took the elevator to the fourth floor and walked down to the professor’s room. He was sitting up in bed reading when we walked in.

  “You’re back,” he said, removing his glasses and putting down the book.

  “Yes we are. And we will keep coming back until you tell us exactly what is going on,” I replied.

  “I’ve already told you as much as I can. I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

  “Well here is the thing Professor Hilton, what I do know is that no one just comes in and shoots another person without a good reason. Or at least what they consider a good reason. The guy didn’t just happen to be walking by and suddenly decide to shoot someone. He was looking for you. He shot you twice but neither shot was fatal and they could have been. That means he wanted something from you and shooting you was the best way of getting whatever it was that he was sent to get.”