DEAD ON ARRIVAL: Angie Bartoni Case File # 14 (Angie Bartoni Case Files)
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“Uh okay, what do you have in mind?” he asked.
“Someone that has access to their nuclear medicine materials may have taken some from the storage facility. If so, I need to know and I need to know how much was taken.”
“Is this about that alpha ingestion thing?”
“Yep.”
“They keep radioactive isotopes there?”
“That’s what Doctor Miller told me.”
“They must have very strict protocols for the use of such materials,” Bobby said.
“That I don’t know about but I need to check out who had access and how they go about it.”
“Alright. We will be there in an hour,” he said.
That was good considering that my food vacuum was getting hungry. If I didn’t feed him soon he would be grumpy.
“I’ll buy lunch,” I told him.
“Whoa. That’s unusual.”
“Not true. I bought on Monday as well.”
“So where are we going?”
“We’re here,” I said pulling over to the curb where a hot dog cart was standing.
“I should have known. Big spender,” he said.
“Hey, if you don’t want any dogs, you can wait in the car,” I said, getting out and heading to the cart.
Of course he followed me and ordered four hotdogs, a bag of chips, and a coke. I have no idea where he puts all that food
***
Bobby and his team arrived shortly after we got there. I was talking to Dr. Miller when they came in the lobby with a mound of gear.
“Doctor Miller, this is Doctor Riley. He is the head of our Bio-Hazard containment team. I’ll let him tell you what they need,” I said.
This was over my head. Dan and I needed to back out and let these guys take over, besides, radiation makes me nervous.
After shaking hands, Bobby asked to speak to the person responsible for all radioactive materials.
“That would be Doctor Karen Falls. She controls everything that comes and goes out of the storage facility.”
“And where is that located?”
“Sub floor four is the actual storage facility. Doctor Falls is here on the main level. I’ll take you to her. She is expecting us,” he said.
We walked down another long hall that contained more expensive looking art work than the Louvre Museum. Okay, maybe not that much but it was impressive, nevertheless.
We were shown into another lavish office where a secretary sat taking on the phone. She hung up when she saw us enter.
“Doctor Miller.”
“Emily, we need to speak with Doctor Falls. She is expecting us.”
“Yes sir. She just got off the phone. Please follow me,” she said and opened another set of massive doors.
Doctor Falls was a tall, slim, very attractive blonde with deep blue eyes. I disliked her immediately. Just kidding, it was jealousy kicking in. Dan, on the other hand, seemed to take a liking to her. I can always tell by the drool and panting. I’m surprised his tail didn’t start wagging.
“I’m Karen Falls,” she said shaking each of our hands.
I was hoping Dan remembered to let go but like a good boy he didn’t embarrass either of us.
“I would like to understand your nuclear material protocols if you don’t mind,” Bobby said.
“Please have a seat. Would anyone like refreshments?”
We all declined.
“Alright. Anyone wanting access to the storage facility first fills out a request that tells how much, what material, the reason, and how it is going to be used. I then review it and if I have additional questions they have to further explain the purpose of the request. If I am satisfied I encode a card,” she said pointing to an encoding machine behind her desk.
“Is it a onetime use card?” Bobby asked.
“That is correct. After they have the card, it is used to take the elevator to the storage facility on sub-floor four.”
“How do they access the material from there?”
“There are lead lined boxes, much like safety deposit boxes except obviously more secure. They must use the encoded card to access the materials. The card is only good for that box and no others.”
“And how do you control the amount taken?”
“There is an electronic inventory reader attached to each box. It constantly records the amount of material inside. It has the ability to account for radioactive decay as well so we have a constant record of the amount on hand at any given time. Once they remove the approved amount, the remaining material is recorded and the new inventory is updated.”
“Everyone who goes in and out is videotaped?”
“Absolutely. We use full color, high resolution cameras,” Falls told him.
“Excellent. We would like to see the facility.”
“Why is that?” she asked, frowning.
“Well, while your measures for protection are sound, there is still one possibility I would like to explore,” Bobby told her.
“A way to beat the system? I find that rather hard to believe,” she insisted.
“I understand. I’m not saying that your system is bad, in fact it is quite good but it can be beat.”
“Alright. How do you want to proceed?”
“I assume you have radium isotopes.”
“We do.”
“Then I need access to .05 ounces of radium.”
“Are you transporting it out of the facility?”
“Not really. I will take that amount and then close the box back up for you to inventory in the usual manor,” Bobby said.
“Alright,” Falls replied and went over to the encoding machine.
A few minutes later she handed the card to Bobby.
“That gets you down to sub-floor four. When you go through the doors, you must use the card again. Once inside, all the materials are marked by their periodical element names. Use the card to open the box and remove the material. A scale, accurate to .000001 is on the work table. Weigh out only .05 and then replace the remaining amount. The inventory will be automatically updated.”
“Understood. What is on the other three sub-floors?” Bobby asked.
“Level one is for decontamination in the event of an accident. Sub level two is for virus containment work and sub level three is government contract work,” Falls replied.
We all just looked at each other. ‘Government contract work’ had an ominous sound but none of us asked what that meant and she didn’t elaborate.
She handed the card to Bobby.
“I need to talk to the detectives alone for just a second. Is it alright if we use the outer office for just a moment?”
“I don’t see why not.”
When we were alone in the outer office, he pulled us together and whispered his plan.
“I see a way to beat this. In fact I’ve actually been involved in a case that was very similar. They have a pretty good system but it has one glaring deficiency. I intend to take advantage of that and demonstrate how to get around the inventory check,” he told us.
“How?” Dan asked.
“Watch and learn.”
When we were done talking we went back in to Falls’ office. We were all going to watch as Bobby went down and performed whatever magic he had conjured up.
“When will we see him?” I asked.
“From the moment he steps off the elevator all the way through the process.”
“There he is,” Dan said as Bobby stepped out of the elevator and walked to the two heavy doors.
He slid his card into the reader and a click was heard. Bobby stepped inside and looked around for a moment. He was obviously checking for where the where the cameras were located.
He walked over to the radium box and swiped the card. The container slid open and he reached in and removed the contents and moved to the work bench.
“Weighing out .05 grams of radium,” he announced and proceed to carefully measure the granules a few at a time until the scales said .05 grams.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bobby returned to Falls’ office with the lead pig under his arm.
“Alright. So the point was?”
“Have you checked the inventory?” he asked.
“I have. I did it immediately after the door to the containment box closed. It shows a reduction of .04998 grams,” she replied.
“But that is not what happened. I actually removed .075 grams,” he assured her.
“Not possible. That simply cannot be,” she said frowning heavily.
“It is a fact. What color is radium?”
“Well, it starts off white but after exposure to air it turns black.”
“How about you and I go back down to the facility and let’s weigh out how much I actually took.”
“Are you are saying that while we stood here and watched you and monitored your every move, you somehow managed to take more than what the inventory is showing?”
“That is correct.”
“I don’t understand. How is that possible?” she asked.
“I actually took more than I was supposed to. I blocked the scale reading for just a second to get the additional amount into a vial I had with me. I then added in ground ionic salt to make up the difference. I didn’t want to hit .05 exactly or you might have been suspicious. I just wanted to come very, very close so it looked realistic. I then put the vial in the pig along with the correct amount and that is what I have under my arm.”
“I…I don’t believe this. I mean, how is that possible to pull off?” she said.
“Well I did it and it is my first visit to the facility. Think about someone who has visited many times. They would already know the best angles to block the camera. I had to take my best guess. As it turned out, it worked pretty well,” Bobby said.
“We need to do a complete purity inventory of all of our elements,” she said grabbing her phone and issuing a string of orders.
When we left, Bobby and Falls were still talking about ways to beat the system and all sorts of stuff that was way over my head. I barely made it through Chemistry in College and that was by the grace of an understanding professor who knew I was never in this lifetime going to work in that field.
“This place sure hires some good looking chicks,” Dan said.
I stopped walking and just looked at him.
“What?”
“Chicks? Did you just say ‘chicks’?” I asked.
“Chicks? Heavens no. I said nice looking females,” Dan replied trying to look innocent.
“After four years together you would think you would know better.”
“It wasn’t meant as derogatory.”
“It can’t be anything else unless you are talking about young chickens you dweeb,” I said and stormed off.
***
It was a tense ride back to the station. He knew I was miffed. He knows I don’t like anyone to talk about women like they were just some object. ‘Chicks’, what the hell was he thinking?
I went straight to the captain’s office and plopped down on his couch. He looked at me and took his reading glasses off.
“You know Bartoni, I was just thinking about going home, cracking open a bottle of Scotch and having a relaxing drink and unwinding with the wife and girls. Suddenly you appear like a bad dream. Why don’t you just spill your guts so I can enjoy what is left of the rest of the night?” he said.
“We just came from Nemein Pharmaceutical. We had Bobby Riley from Bio-Haz meet us there to review their system of control with radioactive materials.”
“And your point?”
“He found a flaw in the system that would allow someone to waltz out of there with radium. That emits alpha particles and that is what Doctor Wittman ingested.”
“Ah. So someone found a way to spike the good doctor’s food and that led to his demise.”
“That’s the current theory.”
“Very good. But you know what would be even better?” he asked.
Yeah I already knew. It was the same thing he usually said.
“Go catch them,” I replied.
“Exactly. Now vacate the premises,” he said shooing me out the door with his hand.
Dan was packing up to head home as I sat down at my desk to finish my remaining paperwork before heading out myself.
“Detective Bartoni,” I said when the phone rang.
“Hello Angie.”
“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you to call,” I told Garrett Brock.
“I was just heading out after finishing up a case. I got a big fat check and thought you might want to help me spend some of it,” he said.
“Not in some dive I hope.”
“I’m talkin’ shrimp cocktail, big fat steak with all the fixin’s,” Garrett replied.
“In that case, since you have money to burn and I can’t think of a better person for you to spend it on, count me in.”
“Great. I’ll swing by and get you in a half hour.”
“I’ll be the one with the dress on.”
“Dress? At the station?”
“I keep one here now in case some rich dude happens to be going my way,” I joked.
“In that case, I’ll be the guy,” he said.
Well things were definitely picking up. I had met Garrett Brock on a previous case. He was a PI and was rather forced down my throat by my boss, captain McGregor. Garrett not only proved to be very good at what his does but he helped crack the case and we got a conviction. It was actually a sad ending to a very sad case.
The one good thing that came out of the whole case was that I found I liked Garrett and he asked me out. So far we have had five dates. Well, four real ones and a dinner after work one night that I don’t count. So far he has been just great and I have really enjoyed spending time with him. As always the problem is me.
I am lousy at relationships. I am afraid to commit and usually find a reason to bolt if it gets too serious. Right now, everything was cool with Garrett but I know at some point I will be faced with a decision.
I put on my new dress, hose, and pumps. I actually took some time to fix my hair and put on some blush and lipstick. By the time I was finished I almost looked like a woman. When I walked out of the locker room Garrett was sitting at my desk and watched me approach like he was apprising me.
“What?”
“You look more beautiful every time I see you,” he said.
Oh crap. Now what do I say?
“Thank you, kind sir. You look pretty darn good yourself.”
“Shall we go? I’m starved,” Garrett said.
“Please. I haven’t had much to eat either.”
We went in Garrett’s car for a change.
“Nice car.”
“I like it.”
“What’s not to like?” I said.
“It’s a tad on the flashy side.”
“Maybe a tad. Where in the world did you fine this thing?”
“This thing, as you call it, is a Bentley. I actually found it in a barn in Kentucky of all places. It took me hundreds, if not thousands of hours to finally get it to this state.”
“You must have spent a fortune restoring it.”
“To put it mildly,” Garrett told me.
“Then why do it?”
“This coming from the lady with the Austin Healey 3000? Just looking at that thing costs money.”
“Touché,” I replied.
He took me to the Cathedral Restaurant. It’s a high end, yet funky kind of place. The Maître d’ had on Monk style robes as did the rest of the staff. It had once been a huge church but now it had been turned into a restaurant complete with a giant golden harp that some lady in a flowing white dress was playing.
The seating was plain wooden benches with a well-worn wooden table between us and candles on the table for lighting. It really was romantic in an unusual kind of way.
The food was to die for and the dessert bar was simply unbelievable. Garrett looked stunning in his dark suit, white shirt, blue tie, and a matching blue handkerchief in the pocket. We talked about everything and nothing. Little stuff like how many brothers and sisters we had, where we grew up, what our parents were like. It was comfortable banter.
“May I ask you a more personal question?” Garrett said.
Crap. Everything was going so well. Hell no, you can’t ask personal questions, I thought.
“Sure,” I replied.
“You were married once, for a short time?”
“I was, so?’
“What happened?” Garrett asked.
Dilemma. Did I really want to share that part of my life with him? That was a pretty personal question even for the fifth date.
“Alright. My husband decided that my working conditions and hours interfered with his social life so he took up with another more compliant woman. I found out and that was end of the marriage,” I finally told him.
“Obviously the guy was a jerk. I sincerely doubt he was going to find anyone as good as you to share his life with,” Garrett said.
I wasn’t sure how to reply so I just didn’t.
The monk brought the collection plate and Garrett paid the bill. On our way out we bumped into none other than Captain McGregor and his wife Kayla.
“Garrett, Bartoni. You know my wife Kayla.”
We did the hand shake thing.
“How was dinner” Kayla asked.
“Absolutely fabulous,” I replied.
“I have been wanting to try this place forever,” she said.
“Well I think you will enjoy it. Save room for the dessert bar. It is truly unbelievable.”
“Thank you, I will,” Kayla said.
We excused ourselves and walked out to the car.
“That was not good,” I said as Garrett opened the door for me.
“Why is that?” he said puzzled.
“I will get raked over the coals about how the night went,” I told him.
“No way.”
“Then you have been out of the squad room far too long.”