Victim's Advocate: Angie Bartoni Case Flie # 12 (Angie Bartoni Case Files)

by Marshall Huffman

  “Maybe. You see Detective Bartoni, I am just as tenacious. I believe in what I am doing. Instead of just putting them into a corrupt system, one that doesn’t work, I am getting them off the streets for good. Our criminal system is a joke and frankly I am tired of seeing these scums go free. I am doing this to help you as well. You surely must be tired of seeing your hard work being treated as insignificant. The courts are nothing more than a revolving door for these kinds of people. Do you really think you would have caught those gang members and even if you did, do you think they would have actually spent time in jail? You aren’t stupid. You know the answer to that as well as I do.”

  “You are not the judge and jury. No one has that right as a private citizen,” I said.

  “That’s where you are wrong. But I digress. I just wanted to tell you that I did not agree with what they said in the media. I know you are doing all you can to find me. I look forward to the challenge. Good day Detective Bartoni, and good luck,” he said and then the line went dead.

  I sat there holding the phone. I’m not sure why. I guess I felt like I should have come up with something clever to make him stop this foolishness and give himself up but that wasn’t about to happen. I finally hung up and just sat there for a few minutes replaying the conversation in my head.

  ***

  “I’m confused,” McGregor said when I finished telling him about the phone call.

  “You’re confused? I don’t get it at all. Does he think I need his support? Captain, that was about as bizarre as they come. Why would he even care what they said about me or the police for that matter?” I replied.

  “Why didn’t you have it traced?” McGregor said.

  “What? Have it traced?”

  “Yeah. I saw it on a television show last night. There was nothing to it. The guy just did one of those rolling motions with his finger and sure enough they had it figured out in seconds and even got to the phone before he could hang up. Why can’t you do that?” he said straight faced.

  Sometimes I think he has something in his coffee mug besides coffee. This was one of those times.

  “I guess I can’t make that finger motion thing.”

  “Ah, there is your problem. Too bad, this would all be wrapped up in time for next week’s episode.”

  Okay. It was time for me to leave. I hate to see a grown captain crack up right in front of me.

  “Okay boss. I’ll go back to my desk now and practice,” I said slinking out of the office.

  I heard him chuckling. Sometimes he just cracks himself up and this was evidently one of those times.

  “Do you think he will call again?” Dan asked when we got back to our desk.

  “Beats me. The whole thing is just too weird for me. I don’t think I have ever had anyone actually stick up for me because of what the media had to say. Of course the other part of the message is that he has no intent of stopping. That puzzles me as well. I mean it sounds like he is going around looking for an excuse to shoot these people. I don’t think it is just random.”

  “Wait. You mean he is planning them in advance?” Dan asked sitting up .

  “Something like that. Look, how could you just stumble on to three different situations like that? One where he thought lethal force was the answer. Come on. How often do we stumble upon something like that? Maybe once every few months but this guy finds three situations like that in just over a week. How is that possible?” I asked.

  “Maybe he just cruises the city looking for those kinds of things. They have all taken place in pretty rough neighborhoods where gangs are the norm,” Dan answered.

  “Still. Just happening onto three different incidents at just the right moment?”

  “Dumb luck?’

  “I don’t think so. There has to be something we are missing.”

  “A police scanner?” Dan suggested.

  “I guess that is possible but I don’t see how he could react that fast. Even if someone did call it in to 911, by the time they took the report and sent out the dispatch it would most likely be all over.”

  “There has to be some way he knows about what is going down.”

  “I agree. The question is still the same. How is he getting the information so quickly? How does he get there while the incident is going down?”

  “We need a map to see how close they were to each other and try to figure out a base area of operation if possible,” Dan suggested.

  “I can see that helping but it still leaves the question of how he knows when they are going to happen and how he gets there so quickly.”

  ***

  Dan went to get a large map of the city that we could mark up. He was right about trying to find the comfort zone for this guy. Almost all multiple killers have a zone that they feel safe operating in. I’m not talking about serial killers. They can kill from one end of the country to the other. This guy was different.

  I had the feeling that he lived in or fairly close to the area he was operating in. Maybe he saw it as cleaning up the neighborhood. One thing we knew for sure, he was no dummy. He knew it would be impossible to trace shotshells. They could do a lot of damage at close range but it would be impossible to trace them to a particular weapon. Yeah, yeah, they do it on CSI all the time. Like that is anyplace close to real. Oh look we found a grain of sand. Wait, that looks like sand from the abandoned lot on west 42nd. It is the only place in the country with that kind of sand. Good heavens, that means Joe Smuck must have walked through there. Go get him and bring him in. Cut to commercial. Gag me will you?

  For now all I was doing was mental exercise and I wasn’t even putting much effort into that. I was mostly cooling my jets waiting for Dan to come back with the map. Knowing him, he had stopped to eat both going and coming back. That boy makes a shark look like a minnow when it comes to packing away the food. I hope he brings me something.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Okay, so what do we have?” Dan asked, holding a red marker in his hand.

  “The first one was right about here on Woodrow Avenue. Just about there,” I pointed out.

  Dan put an X on the location.

  “The second one was Taft Avenue,” I told Dan and he made the X mark.

  “The last one was at that little park on Lyons Avenue,” I said, tapping the map.

  “Look at that. It is in a triangle bordered by I-74 to the west and Holt Road to the East. To the South are the railroad tracks that kind of parallel Plainfield Avenue. North is Rockville Road. So, are we looking for someone that lives in that area and is trying to clean it up?”

  “I don’t know but it makes a certain amount of sense. Let’s start looking at the number of incidents that have happened in that area where gangs hurt or killed someone. Maybe he was a victim or someone he knows was seriously injured in that area,” I said.

  It wasn’t much but it was more than anything else we had come up with.

  “Let’s go down to see the gang division. Maybe they can tell us something,” I told Dan.

  It’s a sad commentary on today’s society when the police have to have an entire department devoted to gang activity. To me it speaks volumes about the way people raise their kids now days. One of our patrol officers told me he responded to a call about someone sleeping in his back yard. The police responded at 2:00 a.m. and found a sixteen year old girl sleeping in a dirty old blanket. When they went to the parents’ house they didn’t even know if she was home or not nor did they particularly care one way or the other. What kind of parents allow this to happen?

  ***

  A trip down to the gang division is always a hoot. Guys and girls dressed like punks with their pants down and butts half out. I couldn’t do that job for any amount of money. I tried Narcotics once and only lasted about three months before I applied for a transfer. It takes a special kind of person to do that job.

  Phil Keller is the head honcho. He has his hands full with the increase in gang activity. We had worked together in Narcotics for a while befor
e he took over the newly created gang division.

  “Hey Phil, I need some help.”

  “Someone steal that cute little Healey of yours?”

  “Nothing that simple. No, this concerns the recent killing of gang members.”

  “Now that I can help with. This guy has taken about dozen and a half of these guys off our hands. The Tri-Cong is gone, wiped out.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. We have pretty much got it pinpointed as to where the guy is working but I need to know how many gangs operate in that area.”

  “Show me?” he said as we walked to a large map.

  His map was covered with X’s and O’s all over the place. Most in different colors and shaded in areas.

  “Wow. Is this gang activity?”

  “Yep. As you can see, there is overlap in a lot of different areas and that is where we have most of our trouble. One group tries to expand into another gang’s turf and we end up with causalities.”

  “I see you already have the area marked where our shooter took out the gang members.”

  “Things have died down in that area. I don’t know who this guy is and I know it isn’t politically correct to say it but this guy has made our job easier. The Tri-Cong was becoming increasingly aggressive. It was just a matter of time before they murdered someone. They had been branching out into the Surenos’ area,” Phil replied.

  “Surenos?”

  “Mexican.”

  “Any others in that area?”

  “16 Turf is a predominately black gang. That area is mixed and was getting pretty hot until this guy took out some of the members from all three gangs. I take it you caught the case?”

  “We did and we are getting absolutely no place. Do you have any CI’s in that area?”

  “No. We have tried to get some informants but the gang affiliations are greater than anything we can offer. Going to jail isn’t even a deterrent for most of them. They don’t see it as any big deal. They get free housing, clothing, meals, health benefits and are among their own people. What’s not to like? It’s safer than being on the streets,” Phil replied.

  “Are there just the three gangs operating in that area?”

  “What? That isn’t enough. Anyway, to answer your question, no. There were five but with the Tri-Cong gone we still have a fourth gang called TÔI. They are another Asian gang that has cropped up in the last few months. They are extremely aggressive and have had battles with all of the other area gangs at one time or the other,” Phil said.

  “This sure isn’t going to help us much,” Dan said.

  “It’s worse than you think. Besides none of the gangs giving you the time of day, the people that live in that area aren’t going to be shedding any tears for the gang members this guy is bumping off.”

  “You’re right about that. Amazingly, we don’t have one solid eye witness account of what the guy looks like,” I said.

  “That doesn’t surprise me in the least. Look, these people have to live with the gangs doing whatever the hell they want. They break into people’s homes, rob them, and put people out of business. Do you honestly think they are going to help you find the one guy who is actually getting results? I mean if we could just shoot them, sure they would love us too but they know that within a few months the crooks will be back on the street. If they do anything to help put the perp away they know it will come back on them. This guy doesn’t have to operate under the same restrictions. He just lines them up and pops them. He has the best of all worlds. He sees it go down, makes a judgment call, and then carries out the sentence in just a few minutes.”

  “Geez, it sounds like you envy him,” Dan said.

  “No. I simply envy his ability to get the job done. He deals out justice in minutes where it would take years if we arrested them.”

  “Still, when you get right down to it, it is wrong on every level from our point of view.”

  “Yes it is. So how can we help?”

  “How tight a surveillance do you keep on the gangs in that area?”

  “Honestly? Pretty loose. We step up when they start causing more than normal problems but as long as they aren’t at war or causing an undue amount of problems we just keep a tag on them.”

  “You don’t have anyone on the inside?”

  “With some gangs, yes, we have someone on the inside. Others that are lesser threats we don’t try to infiltrate. We were keeping an eye on the Tri-Cong but obviously that little problem has gone away,” Phil replied.

  “You mind if we copy your map so we know where their main area is?” I asked.

  “No problem. Just make sure no one else sees it. That has taken a hell of a lot of work to refine. You need to understand that it isn’t written in stone. It ebbs and flows and different gangs gain in strength. The core areas pretty much remain the same but the edges are flexible.”

  “Got it. Thanks,” I told him.

  When we got back upstairs the captain asked if we got anything useful. I told him all I got was a headache. He was not amused. We decided to set up a whiteboard and start trying to work our way through what we did know.

  KNOWN FACTS

  FIRST INCIDENT:

  Victim: Mr. Waters - Died

  Three shot from Knock Out Game

  16Turf Gang

  Tyrone ‘Big T’ Lippton

  Kyreen ‘Bad Dude’ ‘BD’ Johnson

  Jaymar ‘Fangs’ Soto

  .41 Magnum used (maybe)

  No clear description from those shot

  Twelve witnesses

  No clear description

  Arrived by car no know type or even color

  Revolver used

  SECOND INCIDENT:

  Victims: Charlie Stein and Benny Taylor

  Lincoln Park

  Surenos Gang -Mexican

  Victims DOA

  Gonzalo Castillo – Gang Leader

  Raul Rios,

  Gerardo Guzman

  Cristiano Valdez

  No clear description

  No known vehicle

  Large revolver used with shotshells (.41 Magnum?)

  THIRD INCIDENT

  VICTIM: Chi Fong, store owner

  TRI-CONG VIETNAMESE GANG

  Victims DOA

  Ky Yang

  Song Fa

  Phuc Tri

  Chien Chi

  Ca Bao

  No clear description

  No know vehicle

  Large revolver used with shotshells (Same .41? Magnum?)

  Suspected associated activity: TRI-CONG Gang members killed in fire.

  While it looked like a lot of information on the board, in fact we had very little. Right now we had to go on the premise that whoever called me was in fact the shooter and was responsible for everything that had happened up until this point. Of course what we don’t know is who that person is and what is the real motive behind the killings. I get that he has decided to take matters into his own hands but what triggered this reaction? If we could figure that out then maybe we could find the person responsible.

  The problem was that going back over the last year we had turned up thirty-seven gang related incidents in that area alone. That didn’t include all of the ones that people were too afraid to report nor did it include the drug arrests, prostitution, and extortion cases. What was even more amazing to learn was that this wasn’t even the hot spot in the city. Two other areas had more gang related crime than our little triangle. It didn’t say much for where we were headed as a society.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The captain came in and took one look at the white board and shook his head.

  “Looks like you have a whole lot of nothing.”

  “”That pretty much sums it up,” I agreed.

  “So, do you want help?” he asked.

  “Help? You don’t mean…”

  “I do.”

  “No way. Come on captain. That isn’t even funny,” I said.

  “I’m just saying. I can see what you h
ave and it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. The biggest thing you are missing besides the obvious, meaning the perp, is a motive. You need insight as to why this just began.”

  “I know. We are going over all the cases that involve gang activity. We are having Phil give us a hand but frankly that isn’t looking to helpful either. We have a lot of gang problems in that area but the biggest percentage goes unreported due to fear of repercussions. You know how it is when you are stuck living there.”

  “So why not get the FBI involved before you are forced to bring them in,” McGregor asked.

  “I don’t want to do that until we are ordered to. I don’t mind working with certain agents but I still don’t like it really,” I said.

  “Me either,” Dan added.

  “Then I suggest you get this guy before none of us has a choice. I am surprised the Commissioner hasn’t called.”

  “Maybe gang killings aren’t very high on his list.”

  “I doubt that they are but whatever the reason, you won’t have much time if another one happens.”

  “Any change of getting extra patrol cars put into that area?” Dan asked.

  McGregor just laughed, “Oh sure. We have so much extra money lying around. No Dan, there isn’t a chance in hell of that happening.”

  “Just thought I would ask.”

  “Forget it. Bartoni, any further contact with the guy?”

  “Nope. He doesn’t write, doesn’t call, no Christmas card. I guess it was a onetime thing.”

  “Okay. Bartoni, I need to see you in my office.”

  “What’s up?”

  “My office,” he said and turned and walked off.

  “What’s that all about?” I said to Dan.

  “Hey, don’t ask me. He wants to talk to you. Go.”

  I racked my poor pea-pod brain all the way to his office but couldn’t come up with a thing.

  “Close the door,” he said when I got inside.

  Now what? I haven’t done anything particularly unusual for me. At least not that I knew of.