“Well I seriously doubt he ate it knowingly. The real question is; was it an accident or did someone deliberately cause it?” Miller replied.
“You’re not suggesting that this was done on purpose are you?” Lawrence asked.
“Can you see any other way?” Miller responded.
“But if it was done on purpose, someone had to be trying to murder him,” Parker said frowning.
“Not just trying, they succeeded,” Miller said.
“We need to notify the police,” Parker replied.
“And tell them what? That we think our new CEO has been murdered? Oh and by the way, he isn’t really dead yet,” Miller said.
“All I am saying is that if he dies and we are just standing around watching it, I doubt that they will have much of a sense of humor about the whole thing. We would be much better off calling them right now and letting them know what we suspect has happened,” Lawrence said forcefully.
“I agree. We need to let them know before Bryan passes and he will soon. We would look much better to the police having told them what we suspect has happened,” Parker said.
“I don’t necessarily disagree but we need to have what we are going to tell them down pat. We will sound like babbling idiots if we just try to stumble through it,” Miller responded.
“Fine. As long as we make that call, and quickly,” Parker insisted.
***
I had a lovely weekend. There was nothing pressing and I spent most of the day Saturday just lounging around. I didn’t even get out of my jammies until 1:00 p.m. and I only did then because I had to run to the store.
I had my third date with a Private Investigator named Garrett Brock and so far I hadn’t managed to scare him off. It was still in the early stages and I’m sure, given enough time, I’ll manage to screw it up like I always do.
Between my work and my personality, it is really hard for me to have a serious long term relationship. It is seldom the fault of the guy; I am the one who causes the problem. First, I’m a cop, Detective First Grade Angie Bartoni. Second, I have a hard time committing to a relationship. I think, if the truth be told, I’m really afraid of getting hurt. Actually I’m not sure that is it either. I don’t honestly don’t know what causes me to get cold feet every time. Everything can be going along as smooth as glass and then I feel the walls closing in and I have a panic attack and just make a mess of everything.
So far Garrett hasn’t put me in that position. He is easy going and a lot of our time has been spent just talking. We talk about everything. Heady stuff like the universe and how it was formed, is there a Creator, the direction the country is heading, and a hundred other topics. It has been fun but he is taking it slowly and I appreciate that. So far we have shared a few goodnight kisses but nothing too passionate at this point.
Garrett is six-two, I’m guessing around one-ninety with blue-gray eyes, a square jaw, and is quite good looking. He reminds me a little of Kurt Russell in the movie Stargate. I, on the other hand, am five-five, have brown eyes and recently had my brunette haircut and frosted. I did not forget to mention my weight; that is none of your business. Women do not discuss their weight unless they are a twig and just bragging. I will say I am not a twig and let’s leave it at that.
Sunday I actually did some house cleaning. My dust bunnies had obviously hatched a new batch because everything was an inch thick in dust. Well, not that bad, but pretty bad. I cleaned out the refrigerator as well. There were things in there that I did not recognize. I think I saw something actually move once but I persevered and finally it was clean enough for the new stuff I had purchased.
After vacuuming, I discovered that my carpet had a nap to it and was really tan, not brown. Will wonders never cease? That evening I treated myself to a long hot bath, a bottle of Pinot Noir, and a good night’s sleep. Mondays are always a bear especially when I have a rare weekend off. All kinds of things would be piled up and Dan, my partner, and I would probably find ourselves up to our eyeballs in work.
I was up fairly early for me. I had been getting up just a little earlier because I was now using a bit of makeup and making my hair presentable. Having a few dates will do that I guess. I drove my prized Austin Healey into work and went up to see what chaos would be thrust upon me.
As usual, no one else was in yet. That was good. I could eat my vending machine little coconut donuts and Diet Coke in peace and wait for it to hit the fan when everyone else showed up. McGregor, our captain and my boss came in, looked over, grunted and went into his office. Nice to see you too, I thought.
Around 8:30 a.m. Dan Roberts, my previously mentioned partner, finally clomped up the stairs, looked at me, grunted, and headed to the break room for his cup of coffee. I was starting to get paranoid. All I was getting was grunted at this morning. I did brush my teeth, didn’t I?
Dan came back, plopped down and just looked into his coffee. I wanted to ask him if he dropped something in it but decided to just wait until he was human. I don’t like it when they mess with me before my Diet Coke so I can empathize.
Ten minutes later he said, “I am officially off all women.”
“Ah.”
“No, I mean it. They always start off all nice but by the third date they are trying to change you.”
“Do you need changed?” I asked.
“Don’t be a smartass. I like me just the way I am. I do not need a newer car, or different hair style. If there was nothing wrong with me on the first date why suddenly suggest changes?”
“You could stand a better car. That thing is an embarrassment,” I said.
“There is nothing wrong with my Ford Crown Vic. It was good enough for the police force and it’s good enough for me.”
“Geez Dan, it still looks like a cop car. It still has the spotlight on it. If you look just right in the sunlight you can see where the decals were,” I told him.
“That is so like women. You take her side.”
“I’m not taking any side. I’m just saying I wouldn’t want to be seen in it unless I was on duty.”
“Ha-ha. That is so not funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. The car sucks,” I told him.
He just got up and went for more coffee. He was going to be a grump all day unless something came up that took his mind off his female problems. Dan was such a great looking, smart, successful guy and yet his relationships were as bad or worse than mine. They would last three or four weeks and then just crash and burn.
“Bartoni, Roberts, my office,” McGregor said from his doorway.
I hate it when he does that, yelling half way across the room. I feel like I am being called to the Principal’s Office.
We went in and sat down. Our boss, Captain McGregor, is a pretty cool guy. He gives us a lot of slack and even takes some guff from me…up to a point.
“What’s up?” I asked sitting down on his worn leather couch.
“I honestly don’t know. The Sargent downstairs said he got a call from a Doctor Miller over at Nemein Pharmaceutical and Research Company. According to the guy, their CEO is being murdered.”
I shook my head.
“Being murdered?”
“That’s what he said. Something about a doctor being poisoned and is dying.”
“Did they tell him to call 911?”
“Several times but he kept insisting we should send someone over to talk to them before it was too late.”
“Captain, that makes no sense. If they know he is being murdered, why aren’t they doing something besides calling us? Why not get him to a hospital or just call a damned ambulance?”
“All good questions, but no answers. I want the two of you to head over and find out what this is all about,” he said.
“It isn’t a homicide,” I pointed out.
“Well duh Bartoni, I guess I didn’t figure that part out. Just grab your long faced sidekick and get your butts over to the Nemein Pharmaceutical and Research Company.”
“This is too weird,” I said.
>
“Yeah. Even the Sargent said he had never quite had a phone conversation like that one and he has heard pretty much everything.”
“I still think we should have an ambulance sent as well.”
“Fine. Do whatever you think best but get over there. Something is going on and that’s for sure.”
“Maybe I should take Sorenson,” I said standing.
“I said a murder was going on. He only looks at dead bodies,” the captain said becoming less amused with my repartee.
“On our way boss,” I said and yanked my glum partner up.
“You mind driving?” he said as we headed downstairs.
“Yeah, I do. You need to think about something else. You drive,” I told him.
He just sighed.
CHAPTER THREE
The Nemein Pharmaceutical and Research Company World Headquarters is located smack in the middle of downtown Indianapolis, just one block off the monument circle. It is seventeen stories tall and appears to be solid bronze from bottom to top. When the sun catches it just right it almost blinds you.
Dan pulled up in front and we headed to the main entrance. Two security men were standing there.
“Detectives Bartoni and Roberts,” I said flashing my badge.
“Sorry, we need to clear you first.”
“Clear? What exactly does that mean?”
“You need to go through the scanner and then get a visitor’s badge,” he told me.
“Buster Brown, you guys called us. We didn’t call you. This isn’t a house call for the hell of it. I suggest you find out who wanted us here right away and let’s get on with it.”
“Do you know who called?” he asked unruffled.
“Doctor Miller,” Dan chimed in.
“Just a moment,” he said and dialed a number.
This was really irritating me. This bozo is nothing more than a paid Boy Scout. He was taking his job far too seriously. We are the police. We do not answer to them.
“Alright, but you will need visitor’s badges and you need to check your guns. No guns are allowed in the building.”
“I can’t help but notice that you have a gun.”
“Well of course. We’re the Security Force,” he said like that explained everything.
“You listen to me. I do not relinquish my gun, ever, not to you or anyone else. Now about two more words out of you and I will disarm and cuff you and put in our car until this is all over. Got it?”
He glared at me, and I rested my hand on the butt of my Sig.
“This is against policy.”
“Well boo-hoo. This whole thing is against my policy. Now we need to see Doctor Miller. We have wasted enough time.”
He spoke into his microphone and one of the receptionists came over.
“You want to see Doctor Miller?”
“We do,” Dan said, picking up interest for the first time.
The receptionist was definitely a looker and had no rings on her left hand. That’s my boy Dan. She led us to the elevators and told us to get off on the third floor and that someone would meet us and take us to Miller.
“I saw that,” I said when the doors closed.
“What?”
“You checked her out pretty good.”
“I did not.”
“What do you think one-thirty?”
“No way. More like one hundred and twenty-two if that,” he replied.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you had checked her out too much,” I said.
He was just about ready to reply when the doors opened to reveal a man in a white lab coat standing there.
“You are the police?”
“We are indeed.”
“This way please,” he said and led us down a long hall.
There were several doors that had different lab names on them. Half of them I had never heard of. At the end of the hall was a set of sliding doors with the Nemein Pharmaceutical Medical Facility logo and two large red crosses, one on each door.
“I’ll get Doctor Miller,” he said and scurried off someplace in the back of the facility.
A few minutes later a tall, nearly bald man with slumped shoulders walked up in a lab coat that had so much starch in it I don’t see how he could move.
He extended a hand that was pale and soft, “I’m Doctor Miller.”
“Detectives Bartoni and Roberts,” I said as we shook his wimpy hand.
“We have a most unusual situation,” he said.
“So I have been told. Actually we don’t understand any of this. Perhaps you could elaborate.”
“Alright. Our CEO is Doctor Wittman. Actually, today is his first day in his new position. He came in feeling quite unwell. I decided to do some blood work on him and to make a long story short, found that he has been poisoned with radiation, Alpha radiation to be specific.”
“Radiation?” I said, taking a half step back.
“It is completely safe. He is in isolation at the moment.”
“Okay. So you figured out that he has been poisoned, then what?”
“We tried treating him. Of course we went for the quick fix, Potassium Iodine but that didn’t work.”
“No of course not,” I said, having no clue what he was talking about.
“Since then we have tried Prussian Blue and as a last resort we even tried DTPA.”
“I see.”
I didn’t ‘see’, but what else was I going to say?
“I’m afraid he simply isn’t going to make it.”
“Then why is he here? Why haven’t you gotten him to the hospital?” I asked.
“Detective, our facility is superior to any medical facility in the entire state. We are more advanced than any hospital and we have our own labs on site and get results in minutes, not hours or days.”
“Yes, but you haven’t been able to save him, have you?”
“Without sounding condescending, if we can’t come up with a remedy, then no one can.”
Actually he did sound pretty pompous. It sounded like bragging but what do I know?
“And that is what you meant by ‘he is being murdered’ when you called the station?”
“Exactly. He was essentially DOA when he arrived for work this morning.”
“You are certain that this couldn’t have been an accident?”
“Not with ingested Alpha particles. The only way Alpha particles are a threat to our bodies is inhalation, injection, or ingestion. We have ruled out inhalation and injection. That means someone had to intentionally give it to him.”
“What does he say about that?”
“Doctor Wittman?”
No the Long Ranger, twit.
“Yes,” I said, trying not to show my irritation.
“He has no idea how this could have happened.”
“But he is alive at the moment?” Dan asked.
“That is correct.”
“How much longer does he have?” Dan asked.
“Maybe twenty-four hours,” Miller replied.
“Nothing can be done to save him?” I asked.
“Nothing. His internal organs are essentially turning to mush. They will fail and in the end, simply stop functioning.”
“Damn,” Dan said and shivered.
“Do you want to speak with him?”
“Geez, I don’t know. He’s radioactive.”
“It is contained to his insides,” Miller assured us.
“Still. I need to check with our biological hazard department.”
“We have bio hazard suits if that would make you feel better. We can put you in one of those and you can go in and talk to him.”
“Dan?”
“Yeah, I guess that would be okay.”
“Alright. We will do it if we have the suits on,” I told Miller.
“This way,” he said, leading us to another door.
Inside were several people working and along the back wall bio-hazard suits were evident. They found one that would fit me and one for Dan. It took us a lot l
onger to get them on than I had expected. Everything has to be totally sealed and taped off. They hooked oxygen to the suit and that helped cool it down. It was getting really hot.
Once everything was checked and re-checked, they took us into the isolation room. Dr. Wittman was lying on a bed with his feet slightly elevated. He had more tubes running in him than I thought humanly possible.
When we got to the bed I reached out and touched him. His eyes opened slowly.
“Doctor Wittman, I’m Detective Bartoni. This is Detective Roberts. Sir, we are trying to find out what is going on.”
“That makes three of us. Actually six, if you count the rest of the team,” he said.
“They tell me that you have been poisoned by Alpha radiation.”
“Either Alpha radiation or some alpha emitting isotope.”
“How can that happen?”
“I would guess I ate something that had that in it.”
“Could it have been an accident?” I asked.
“I honestly don’t see how. Someone had to have put it in my food and I ingested it. It doesn’t take very much. I take pills every morning and night. Someone could have slipped it in my pill container and I doubt I would have noticed.”
“You mean something no larger than a pill could do this kind of damage to your body?”
“Strange isn’t it? It won’t even penetrate your skin or clothing and yet if it gets inside the body, you are as good as dead,” he said.
His voice was weak and I could see the hair he had shed covering the pillow. Obviously that was one of the effects.
“Do you have any reason to suspect that someone intentionally did this to you?” Dan asked.
“The position of CEO was hotly contested among several of us. I won out in the end. Do I think that would make someone kill me? Maybe, but surely not. I would hate to think that someone in the company wanted the position enough to murder me for it.”
“Anyone outside of the company who has a grudge against you?”
“Not that….” he started coughing and blood was spurting out of his mouth.
I grabbed a towel and held it up. Dan pushed the emergency button and several people rushed in the room. We were shuffled out of the way. There wasn’t anything that we could do so we went back to the bio-hazard lab. We went through decontamination, got out of the protective suits, and waited. Miller came out a little later.
DEAD ON ARRIVAL: Angie Bartoni Case File # 14 (Angie Bartoni Case Files) Page 2
