NOTHING TO LOSE - Angie Bartoni Case File # 5 (ANGIE BARTONI CASE FILES)

by Marshall Huffman

  We waited around for the next several hours and joined in helping to look for any survivors. Body after body was pulled from the wreckage. Just as many parts of bodies were also removed and the long process of determining who belonged to what would begin.

  At one point they ran out of body bags and had to improvise. By the time we left two hundred and sixty-one bodies and countless parts had been removed. Dogs were now being brought in. Only three survivors had been found and they were in bad shape.

  **

  I had so many emotions going through me that it was difficult to tell where one ended and the next one began. I was tired, angry, appalled, enraged, numb, and I don’t know how many others. I do know that if I could have found Belk right at that moment he would never make it to trial.

  I opened a bottle of wine, got the tub water as hot as I could stand it and just settled down. At some point the phone rang but I honestly just didn’t give a damn at the moment. They could either leave a message or call back. I had finished the entire bottle by the time my water had gotten too cold to enjoy. That was good. I didn’t want to think, I wanted to go to sleep and just forget everything.

  The next morning I got up thinking I would put on my cheery face and not let the world get me down. When I looked in the mirror, that was my first test. Not to worry, I can do this, I convinced myself.

  I hopped in my little TR6 and headed to the station. About a third of the way there it started sputtering. It would sort of go then just stop. I coasted to the curb and got out and opened the hood. Just so you know, not an easy thing to do. You have to pull the handle on the driver’s side then walk all the way around to the passenger side and feel around until you find the second release. Nice.

  I’m standing there with my butt in traffic trying to get the hood up. I look around, use some unladylike words about the British and their cars and realize one of the vacuum lines is off. Why? Who knows? It’s British, it doesn’t need a reason to be obstinate.

  By the time I got to the station it was going on 9:00 a.m. and that put me behind where I wanted to be. But I was still cheery until I found out that there were no coconut donuts.

  **

  Dan to the rescue once more.

  “Hey Bartoni. I have your donuts for you,” he said opening his desk drawer and sliding them across the desk.

  “What?”

  “It was the last package and I could see someone like Farmington getting them just to irritate you so I got them first.”

  “You know, you keep this up and I just may keep you as a partner.”

  “Yesterday you were going to hurt me.”

  “That’s so yesterday. Coconut donuts buy a lot of goodwill.”

  “Did you see the paper?” he asked.

  “Three hundred and forty-seven dead, sixteen survivors so far and another twenty-seven unaccounted for.”

  I had to bite my tongue to say what I thought about the stupidity of the Mayor. As far as I was concerned he should be arrested and charged as an accessory to murder. Wasn’t ever going to happen, but it should. Butter on popcorn.

  Where are we on Belk’s hideout?”

  “The Sheriff is meeting with all of us later this afternoon. He is gathering material on everything available around County Road 350. It runs from State Highway 267 all the way to North County Road 400.”

  “Between us, the FBI, Homeland, and the Sheriff we should be able to do door to door searches.”

  “The Sheriff seems to be onboard. He wants this guy pretty bad. His friend was killed in the library bombing.”

  “Anything on the Mayor?” I asked.

  “Oh no. Seems he is out of touch for the next few days. Lots of important stuff. No time for the press at the moment,” Dan said.

  “That’s a blessing.”

  “Indeed.”

  **

  Sheriff Bain was a tall rugged looking guy. He could have come straight from the old west. His gun was certainly not regulation. It looked more like a cowboy six-shooter. He had on boots and a belt buckle bigger than my fist. On top of that, he wore a cowboy hat. He did not look like the kind you would want to tangle with.

  “I’m Sheriff Bain. I don’t say a lot. All I will say is my men are your men. Tell us what you want and we will try to give it to you,” he said and sat down.

  I liked this guy.

  “Sheriff Bain, thank you for that. I’m Agent Potts from Homeland Security. Our intent is to utilize the manpower we have available to do a door to door search of the houses running from State Highway 267 all the way to North County Road 400 East. The information we have, gathered by Detective Bartoni and Roberts, indicates that they have been working out of a place in that general area. Teams will consist of four people. Everyone is to have a vest, shotgun, and at least one fully automatic weapon. I have to stress, no heroes. If you encounter them, get backup immediately. We will have a helicopter at our disposal and it will be ready to go on our command.”

  We spent the next forty-five minutes getting teams and areas of responsibility assigned. It doesn’t sound like that big a deal but when you are dealing with someone like Belk who has no regard for human life it is especially frightening. He could easily booby trap someplace and kill a bunch of us before we even knew what hit us.

  We had a good one hundred and fifty residences and another couple of hundred outbuildings. It was going to be a tense few days. Roadblocks would be set up so that no one could enter or leave, and that included back roads as well. Could they get away? Undoubtedly. Our hope was that we could find them before they had the chance to flee the area.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  We were on our twelfth house; I was tired and hot and my nerves were strung like piano wire. The place we were checking out through the binoculars was uninviting to say the least. The windows were shuttered and it had the overall appearance of a bad place to be.

  “What do you think?” Dan asked.

  “I think I want to go home and take a bath,” I replied.

  “I mean about the house.”

  “Oh, that. Not so good.”

  “I don’t see any movement,” he replied handing the binoculars over to me.

  “Maybe it’s the shuttered windows,” I said trying not to sound too sarcastic.

  Maybe a little. Come on, what did he expect to see?

  “We aren’t going to find out anything here, let’s go check it out.”

  “Should be call for back up?” one of the deputies asked.

  “No, let’s have the helicopter do a pass over the place and use the IF to see if anyone is inside,” I replied.

  “Hey, now that’s a plan.”

  It took a good fifteen minutes before I could hear the chopper blades slicing into the air. A few seconds later it was hovering over the house using infrared to see if anyone was inside.

  “No one’s home,” we were told a few seconds later.

  “Any hot spots at all?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Okay, thanks. We are going in,” I told the pilot.

  I picked up my shotgun and adjusted my vest.

  “Dan, you’re around the back. Deputy Mann, you have the west side, Deputy Morris, you have the east. I’m going to knock on the door.”

  “Be really careful,” Dan said.

  Don’t get the impression I am some glory hunting hotshot. I just think it is the job of the team leader to do anything you would ask any of the others members to do. You can’t just say go do this and go do that unless you are willing to take the same risk.

  I checked the safety on the shotgun and used the butt to knock on the door.

  No reply so I did it again.

  “This is the police. If you are in there you need to open the door so we can talk to you,” I yelled.

  Nothing.

  “Look, open the door or we are going to break it down,” I yelled but still got no answer.

  I placed the shotgun where the hinges were and got ready to pull the trigger but for some reason I stoppe
d. I’m still not sure why but I did. Instead I backed away from the porch and called the rest of the team back to the car.

  “We need a long rope.”

  “In the back,” Deputy Morris said.

  I backed the car up and strung the rope up to the door and tied it around the handle. Dan tied the other end to the crash bar on the Sheriff’s car. We pulled back until the rope was tight.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  Everyone said yes, I put the car in gear and floored it. It yanked the door off the hinges and suddenly the house just disappeared. Wood, bricks, and all kinds of stuff were thrown in the air. It was such a powerful explosion that it actually cracked the windshield.

  “Damn,” Morris said.

  “Good thing you didn’t blow the hinges,” Deputy Mann added.

  “That was too darn close. It would have taken us all out,” Dan replied.

  “One thing for sure, we know where they were.”

  I could hear sirens, so I had Morris call the others and let them know everything was okay and that we had found the house.

  When they all got there everyone was wanting to know how we managed to blow the place up. Deputy Mann did most of the explaining.

  Potts seemed a little put off by the fact that we had no crime scene to investigate. I really didn’t care. We were all alive and that meant a heck of a lot more to me at the moment.

  “Nice job,” Sheriff Bain said and tipped his hat.

  Like I said, he doesn’t say much but you know what he is thinking. I really did like the guy.

  “So I guess we are done?” Dan asked.

  “I honestly don’t know. I doubt they would still be around here. My best guess is they moved their operation just as soon as they found out Hill was still alive. I know I sure would have.”

  “He would have been a fool not to,” Dan replied.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The media was calling every two minutes to try to get me to say something but I just kept saying ‘no comment’ until they finally gave up. I was so sick of the phone ringing I was tempted to unplug it and only answer my cell phone.

  I was writing up my report, one of my favorite things in the world to do, when the phone rang again. I wanted to ignore it but it seemed to be insistent.

  “Bartoni,” I said, none too kindly.

  “Detective Bartoni, Doctor Warman.”

  “Oh. Oh sorry doctor. My phone has been ringing nonstop. I didn’t mean to be so grumpy.”

  “No problem. I totally understand. I just wanted to let you know that Hill is ready to be released from a medical standpoint.”

  “Yes. I got the notification this morning. He will be picked up by the Marshal.”

  “Oh, sorry. I guess I should have known you would be informed. I just didn’t think about it.”

  “No problem but it was nice of you to call.”

  “Look Angie, I’m not real good at this sort of thing. I mean I understand what you said when we were talking at lunch but you see the thing is, I would at least like to have the chance to know a little more about you.”

  I was silent for a few seconds.

  “Angie?”

  “Yes. Ben, I think you are a very interesting guy. You are obviously very intelligent. You have a caring heart and are very attractive but the thing is, I’m just not a good person to be around much. I get mad when I shouldn’t, laugh at the wrong things and sometimes don’t even want to talk. You need to find someone a heck of a lot better than me.”

  “I see. So you already know what I need. That is very good because I haven’t figured that out yet. I know I certainly am attracted to you. I guess I just don’t see the harm in trying to peel back the layers and finding out what is under them.”

  “That’s a medical metaphor right? Peeling back the layers.”

  “See, you have a great sense of humor. Come on Angie, we can just have dinner and talk. No pressure. Heck we can shake hands if you want. I think it would be interesting to spend some time with you,” Ben said.

  What the heck was I going to do? It sounded so good. What could possibly be wrong with having dinner with the guy? I did like him so why be a dumbass? Just go with the flow for once in my life. I am wound so tight that even I don’t always understand why I do half of what I do.

  “I’ll tell you what Ben. Let me think about it. I just need to think this through a little bit. I haven’t been on a date in so long I’m not sure I even know how to act.”

  “How about acting like Angie Bartoni? That’s who I am interested in getting to know. Do you know how many ‘real’ people I talk to each day, other than the patients? Probably one other person a day. The rest want to impress me with who they are or who they know. I deal in phony people from the time I get here until the time I get home. You’re worried that I might see the real Angie Bartoni but that is exactly whom I want to see.”

  “You are persistent,” I said.

  “I happen to think it will be worth it,” Ben replied.

  How could I refuse a line like that? It was so...perfect.

  “Alright. Dinner. That’s all. I pay my own way,” I said.

  “Sorry. My male ego will not allow that, unless we are having hot dogs. Come on, let me have a little dignity after practically begging you to give me a chance to know you better,” Ben said.

  Male ego. Macho stuff. Posturing. I guess it doesn’t matter how smart, successful or good looking they are, they have to play the male ego card.

  “Fine,” I finally said.

  “Thank you. When is good for you?”

  “We are in the middle of a pretty big case if you haven’t been following the papers.”

  “I read Angie. I just didn’t know what kind of schedule you were on.”

  I thought about stalling but decided if I was going to do it, I should just commit.

  “How about tomorrow night?” I suddenly said.

  “Terrific. That’s great. Edward’s okay with you?” he asked.

  “That would be perfect.”

  “Great. 8:00 p.m at Edward's. I’ll be the guy with the goofy grin.”

  “And I’ll be the one that looks like a cop.”

  “Perfect,” he said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “How did they know?” Belk ranted.

  “I have no idea. Just lucky I guess,” Pete replied.

  “Lucky. Lucky. No one is that lucky. They should have just kicked it in.”

  “They are a little more cautious now. They know what you are capable of,” Pete said.

  Belk stopped and looked at him.

  “You are right. They know to take me seriously. Yes. That’s why they didn’t just rush in.”

  “Look at what you managed to do with the condos. You brought down the entire building.”

  “That was good work wasn’t it.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Wait until they see my next work of art. It will make the condos look like child’s play. Go get Murray, I have a job for him.”

  “He is in town getting some other supplies you wanted.”

  “Right. Right. Well when he gets back we will need a lot more stuff. I intend to give them something that they will talk about for years. Not just a condo. This is going to be spectacular,” Belk said.

  “Will we need Napalm?’

  “Heavens yes. Gallons and gallons of it. It may take a little time to get everything in place but it will be worth it in the end,” he said.

  “Then I’ll get started on the Napalm.”

  **

  Murray Rice was becoming a little uneasy about Belk and Anderson. Especially when Belk started throwing his tantrums. His sudden outburst unnerved him. He knew the guy was crazy but he was scary crazy and that was even worse.

  He was also pretty shaken up when he found out about the condos and all the people killed. They hadn’t mentioned a word about that and now he was a part of the deaths of all of those people. He had considered just walking away from the whole thing but Belk was j
ust crazy enough to track him down and blow him up. His ex-wife and three kids were still in the city as well. It wouldn’t take long for Belk to track them down and kill them out of revenge.

  Murray wasn’t paying as much attention as usual and didn’t notice a lady on her cell phone looking at him as he stood in line to pay for a cart full of boxes of nails, washers, and screws.

  “Take a break,” the store manager said coming over to relieve the cashier.

  “But I just came on.”

  “I’ll take over. Pull your drawer and go to the office.”

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  “Brenda, just do as I ask,” he said.

  She pulled her drawer and ran a report before the manager took over. It slowed down the line and several people were becoming impatient.

  He was much slower at checking out customers than the previous cashier which caused even more grumbling. Finally he looked up and saw that the exit was covered by security.

  “Boy, you must have some project,” he said to Murray when it was his turn.

  “I’m a contractor.”

  “Did you know we have a contractor’s discount department? You could save a substantial amount. All you have to do is verify your contractor status. It doesn’t take very long.”

  “Maybe next time. I’m in kind of a hurry,”

  “No problem, I just hate to see you pay more than you have to,” the manager said and started ringing up the sale.

  “Would you like some help with that?”

  “I can handle it,” Murray said and started pushing the cart towards the exit.

  When he finally looked up he stopped. He knew instantly something was wrong. He acted like his shoe was untied and bent down looking around. He could see immediately that he was covered in all directions. He had nowhere to run.

  “Murray Rice. Detective Bartoni. I want you to stand up slowly and put your hands behind your head. Nice and slow. One sudden move and I will shoot you.”

  “How did you know?” he said slowly standing.

  “Hands behind your head. Do it now,” I snapped.

  I was pretty happy that he did what he was told. The last thing I needed was a shootout in a large hardware store.