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

by Marshall Huffman

  “You going to turn him in for sexual harassment?”

  “No. That would just make things worse. Farmington and the others would have a field day with that. I think your message was pretty clear. By the way, thanks. Can you believe that jerk? Right in front of the police station in the damn snow no less. What a blockhead.”

  “You really should tell the captain about it. Someone needs to know in case he gets to feeling macho again some night. You need to have this on record.”

  “I know you’re right. I just need to think about it before I do anything impetuous.”

  “Sure, whatever that means.”

  He dropped me off at my house and offered to sleep on the couch in case Cromwell came around to apologize but I didn’t feel like having anyone around. I just wanted to soak my aching body in a hot tub of water. And that is exactly what I did.

  In fact, the water was starting to get downright cold by the time I climbed out and dried off. I threw on my jammies and hopped into the bed. I felt like I could sleep for a week.

  ~~

  When the phone did its little happy tune I struggled out of bed and put my feet on the cold floor. I pulled them back under the covers just as quickly. I reached as far as I could without falling out of bed and was able to pull the phone over to me.

  “This had better not be a wrong number,” I grumbled.

  “Detective Bartoni?”

  “Unfortunately. What’s up?”

  “This is Sargent Foster. The Hamilton County Sheriff’s office called to let us know they found our missing person. She was naked, wandering around in the snow when a patrol car spotted her. She is in shock and they took her to the Riverview Hospital in Noblesville.”

  I was fully awake now. In fact I was walking to get my clothes and didn’t even realize the floor was cold.

  “Okay. Would you call them and tell them that we are on our way?”

  “Consider it done.”

  “Thanks Sargent,” I said and flipped the phone closed.

  I grabbed a pair of jeans and an IU sweatshirt and threw them on. I did take the time to put on two pairs of warm socks. We would probably be out in the cold at some point.

  I grabbed my ski coat and wooly mittens and headed for the car. I stopped and thought for a minute. I was forgetting something. Dan.

  I flipped open my phone and dialed his number. He sounded wide awake. No one should be alert and happy at this time of the morning.

  “Dan. It’s Angie. Our missing girl turned up in Hamilton County walking down the road with no clothes on. They have her at the Riverview Hospital in Noblesville. I’m heading to the station. I’ll meet you there,” I told him.

  “No you won’t. That little doodlebug isn’t going to even make it out of your driveway. I’ll come pick you up. I still have the four wheel drive.”

  “Okay but make it quick. We really need to talk to that girl.”

  “I’m almost there. See you in a few,” he said and rung off.

  I went back inside instead of waiting like a twit out on the sidewalk. My neighbors already think I’m a little strange.

  Fifteen minutes later I saw the headlights sweep across my front windows. I ran out and jumped in the SUV.

  “How bad is she,” Dan asked as I strapped in.

  “Don’t know yet but if she has been out in this weather with nothing on, she can’t be in very good shape.”

  “You think she got away from our killer?”

  “I doubt she was trying to get a total body tan. Yeah, that’s exactly what I think.”

  “This is what we have been needing.”

  “If she makes it,” I added.

  ~~

  Even with virtually no traffic and four-wheel drive it still took a little over an hour to get to the hospital. We saw four or five cop cars in the lot. There could have been others but large piles of snow had been shoveled in various places to try to keep the lot cleared. They weren’t having very good luck.

  Inside we showed our badges and were taken to see Lieutenant Kimber. Kimber was tall and lanky with kind of wild gray hair. He had gray eyes and a lot of lines around them. He was not a sit behind the desk kind of guy.

  “I’m Detective Bartoni and this is my partner, Detective Roberts.”

  “Nice to meet you. You got here faster than I thought you would. Roads are pretty rough out here in the country,” he said.

  “How is she doing?” I asked.

  Chitchat was nice and all but I wanted to know how she was holding up.

  “They are heating her up using something or the other. He told me but I didn’t pay much attention. Anyway, she is in pretty rough shape. Her feet are severely frostbitten. I don’t know how long she was out there like that.”

  “She was just wandering around?” Dan asked.

  “Yeah, it was just luck one of our guys spotted her. She was totally out of it and headed toward a grove of trees. A few minutes one way or the other and they would never have seen her.”

  “I take it she didn’t say anything?” I asked.

  “No, like I said, she was totally out of it."

  "We're just glad your men spotted her."

  He was just about to say something else when the doctor came to talk to the sheriff.

  "Sheriff."

  "Doctor Wilson. These are Detectives Barton and Roberts."

  "Detectives," he said and turned back to the Sheriff. He was obviously used to dealing with him.

  "She is in a precarious state at the moment. She has suffered severe frostbite to her extremities. She is going to lose several of her toes. We have her pretty much stabilized at this point and will know more by tomorrow I should think," he told us.

  "Any idea when we can talk to her?" I asked.

  He gave me an attitude look like I was slime for even asking. I do not do well with attitudes.

  "Look doctor, you have a job to do but so do I. I have two dead young women and Leigh would have made number three. The killer is probably already searching for number four. The sooner I talk to her the faster we can catch this guy," I told him.

  "Sorry, it just seems like no one ever really cares about the patient. She is my main concern"

  "I understand, but we have to get this guy so you don't have more like her to worry about."

  "Tomorrow she may be able to answer your questions. I'll keep the Sheriff informed and he can pass along the information."

  "Thank you, I would appreciate that."

  "I'll let you know as soon as I hear from the doctor," the Sheriff said.

  "I would really appreciate that. It's hard getting here," I replied.

  "It's not going to get any easier. The wind is supposed to pick up. We always get a lot of drifting out here."

  "That's just great," Dan muttered.

  CHAPTER FORTY -ONE

  The wind was already starting to blow snow across the roads. It was kind of eerie. One minute you could see the road and the next it would totally disappear. I could see the tension in Dan as he tried to keep us on the road.

  It took even longer to get back to the station than it did to get to Noblesville. Dan looked whipped by the time he parked the SUV.

  ~~

  When I got to my desk I spotted a large folder sitting there. I opened it and found the lab report from the SD card along with twenty or so pictures. I scattered them out on the desk. They had obviously been taken at night but with surprising detail. It was easy to see that a man was in the act of attacking a young woman and then raping her.

  Dan came over and looked at them.

  "Well, this looks pretty brutal. It looks like he is really viciously choking her. Damn good shot of his face in several of them."

  "I would say this is the reason Professor Hilton was murdered. He must have witnessed the rape."

  "So why didn't he call 911 or contact the police?" Dan asked.

  "Blackmail."

  "It cost him his life. I don't think it did him much good. He obviously underestimated who he was
dealing with."

  "We need to run this through facial recognition. With any luck we will get a hit. Someone like this has probably done this before," I told Dan.

  I looked up at him and realized how haggered and tired he was. He had a three day stubble and was getting dark circles under his eyes.

  "Dan you look really exhausted. I know you haven't been getting much rest," I told him.

  I wasn't trying to be mean, I was just concerned. I'm pretty sure he could've said the same thing about me. He was just nicer than I am.

  He closed his eyes for several moments. Long enough that I was beginning to think he might have fallen asleep. Finally he opened them them.

  "My ex-wife just got permission to move my son out of state," he said, his voice choked.

  "Geez. Dan I'm sorry to hear that. Where is she taking him to?"

  "Hawaii."

  "Ouch," was all I could say.

  He kind of shrugged and said, “That’s the breaks sometimes. This time the bear got me. Anyway, what is our next step?”

  “Actually we can’t do much more until we get the results from the facial recognition program. It’s too late to head over to IUPUI and frankly I don’t think you’re up to another trip,” I told him.

  Honestly, I’m not usually the nurturing type but between the way he looked and his ex hitting below the belt, I did feel sorry for him. This sort of thing could ruin my reputation. I needed to snap out of it.

  “Yeah, I think I’ll head home under one condition.”

  “Dan, I don’t do conditions. I want you to go home and get some rest.”

  “Look, my car is in the garage where I picked up the SUV. I’ll drive it home if you will drive the SUV to your place.”

  “You need the four wheel drive. I can get a cab or one of the patrol officers to take me home.”

  “My car got me here, it will get me home. It has front wheel drive and does pretty well in the snow.”

  I looked at him for a minute thinking this was probably not a good idea.

  “You could take me to my house and crash on the couch. It’s pretty comfy. I’ve slept many a night on it.”

  “I don’t know. You know how this place is. If anyone found out they would think all kinds of things,” he replied.

  It was nice to have him worry about my reputation. At least I think it was mine he was worried about. Sure it was, wasn’t it?

  “Then I guess we just won’t tell anyone. You have been picking me up and dropping me off for a couple of days now. No one has said a word.”

  “That was before the Jimmy Cromwell incident.”

  “Do sweat it. You’re my partner. You are supposed to have my back. Come on, we just won’t broadcast it,” I said gathering up my things.

  ~~

  “Hey Sarge,” I said as we came through the door.

  “Bartoni. Roberts. How is the case going?”

  “Slow.”

  “Don’t they all? What can I do for you?”

  “Dan has borrowed a four-wheel SUV but you know my car. It can’t make it in this kind of conditions. Having just the one vehicle is really difficult. Dan has to pick me up and drop me off each night. It isn’t very productive. Can you pull some stings and get me one too?”

  “Hell, just have him stay all night. That solves the problem,” he said grinning.

  I frowned and crossed my arms. I certainly didn’t even want to give the impression I was amused. He stopped grinning.

  “Guess that was a bad idea.”

  “I guess. Can you do it or not?” I said trying to sound indignant.

  “Let me see what I can do. I’ll let you know. Are you going to be at your desk?”

  “Captain's office first and then my desk.”

  “I’ll ring you. Sorry about the comment.”

  “No problem. It takes more than that to ruffle my feathers,” I said but he was still feeling guilty and that was okay with me.

  “You got a hit. The guy’s name is Terrance Ashton. His home address is listed at 7 Claymore Country Club Drive. He is a student at IUPUI. He lives off campus at 7113 Exiter Street. He has a sheet but everything has been reduced down to a misdemeanor. Two attempted rapes were dismissed. An assault charge against a Vicky Lane was dismissed when she refused to testify.”

  “I smell money changing hands. We need to see just who Terrence Ashton is.”

  “I’ll do a Google and see what turns up,” Dan said and went to work pounding the keys.

  By pounding the keys, I mean that is exactly what he was doing. He acted like he was mad at the damn thing. I wondered how many keyboards he went through in a year.

  “Got him. He is the only child of Benton Ashton III.”

  “Oh damn. You talk about money. He loans the mint money when they run short. Man oh man, this does not look good. We need to see the captain about this. This one will have to go to the top. We are going to be cooling our jets until someone decides what we are allowed to do.”

  “Hell, we have the evidence. You can see what he is doing. How can they cover this up?” Dan insisted.

  “Remember I told you there were three kinds of justice. There is really a fourth. It pertains to the filthy rich who can buy their way out of anything.”

  “No way can he get away with this,” Dan said shaking his head.

  I just let him be disillusioned. Maybe with the help of Leigh we might have enough to nail the guy. I didn’t put much stock in it however.

  We went to see Captain McGregor.

  “Come,” he said when I knocked on the door to his office.

  I stuck my head in, “I need to see you about Leigh Leonard.”

  “Excellent. I need an update on your progress.”

  “Well, we have most of it pieced together. It seems that Professor Hilton was murdered because he witnessed something he shouldn’t have. Actually he did more than that. He took pictures and then we’re pretty sure he was going to use them to blackmail the perpetrator. He got some good shots; that’s for sure,” I said sliding them across his desk.

  We waited as he looked at each one carefully. When he was finished he stacked them neatly and passed them back.

  “Obviously there is more. Don’t make me drag it out of you,” he said.

  “We ran the face through the FBI’s VeriLook Biometric Facial Recognition System. We got a hit. The guy’s name is Terrence Ashton. He has a previous sheet.”

  “Ashton? Please don’t tell me he is the son of the Ashton,” the captain said suddenly looking a little green.

  “The very same,” I replied.

  He let out a big sigh and leaned back in his chair. It was suddenly very quiet in the room. Dan looked like he was holding his breath. The captain opened one of his desk drawers and took out a large bottle of Tums. He offered us one as well but I declined. Dan took a couple.

  “Bartoni you know we have to be absolutely certain before we start poking around. Someone like Ashton will not take kindly to someone investigating his son. Especially for murder.”

  “That’s another thing. The girl in the photograph isn’t one of our vics. We haven’t been able to ID her yet. We are going to have Marcus and LeRoy go out to IUPUI and see if they can get an ID hit.”

  “Good luck with that. You know they closed the school. It won’t open until tomorrow,” the captain informed us.

  “Super. We need to waste more time. The guy is probably already scoping out his next victim.”

  “Maybe not. A report that the last woman survived has already made the news.”

  “How?” I almost yelled, coming out of my seat.

  “Easy Bartoni. How the hell should I know? Look, we had half the Sheriff’s office involved along with the people at the hospital. Anyone of them could have leaked it.”

  “Crap. We need to have someone guarding her or she will end up like Hilton did,” I said.

  I was pissed. The damn press never thinks about the victim. Right to know my butt. They need to have someone they love put in a si
tuation like this and then see if they think everyone has a right to know.

  “Calm down. I’ve already arranged for the Sheriff’s office to put a watch on her until we can shake someone loose.”

  “Sounds like a job for Farmington,” I said just loud enough for the captain to hear.

  “Easy Bartoni,” he admonished.

  “Fine. We are going to head to Noblesville as soon as we get a chance to show Leigh the pictures. If she can confirm it is the same guy then you are going to have to decide what you want us to do next.”

  “Just make damn sure she is willing to testify if it really is Ashton’s son.”

  “Got it. I’ll get Marcus and LeRoy on the IUPUI end of things.”

  “Just don’t do anything until you talk to me again,” were his parting words.

  CHAPTER FORTY -TWO

  I sent Marcus and LeRoy off to IUPUI to see if they could find out anything about the girl in the photograph. Dan and I headed to the hospital in Noblesville. The roads were marginally better. It was a typical midwestern winter day.

  "So if she recognizes the guy in the picture, then what?" Dan asked.

  "We let the department bigwigs handle it. Essentially our part is over except for trying to find who killed Professor Hilton."

  "What if the Leonard woman refuses to testify against Ashton?”

  "That is certainly a possibility. That's why I want to talk to her before anyone else does. That’s one of the reasons I wanted security on her room. If Ashton or one of his minions gets to her and offers her money, which could well happen."

  “Rich people suck.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Reporters were still milling about but most of the trucks were gone. It was another day and they were moving on to new stories to exaggerate.

  We went up to the third floor and checked in with the head nurse. She was far too overweight to represent what a healthy person should look like. What kind of message was the hospital sending?

  “Excuse me. I’m Detective Bartoni and this is my partner, Detective Roberts. I don’t see a guard down either hallway. Can you tell me what’s going on?”