“Okay. So what are we looking for?”
“I don’t know. Something set this guy off. Something in those files made him go around the bend and start acting like a judge and jury. I’m telling you, the answer is in those files,” I said forcefully.
“Then let’s get to it.”
I have to admit, Dan was the best partner I have ever had. I know he can out eat a shark in a feeding frenzy but other than that, he is the absolute best.
“Did you say chips?” Dan suddenly asked.
“What? I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking chips.”
“I was not.”
“Man, that sounds good right about now. Chips and salsa. And maybe a Chimichanga. Beans. Refried. Come on Bartoni. Let’s go have some Mexican.”
What was I going to do? If I said no he would sulk and say he was going to starve to death. Obviously, all I could do was take him to lunch.
***
Dan and I sat looking blurred eyed at each other. We had been pouring through the case files we found for the past six hours. It wasn’t that we weren’t finding lots of possible suspects, the problem was we were finding too many. In almost every case we would have a list of three or four people that would have reason to want to take it out on the judge. It was obvious that he cared little for the victim of the crimes. Jail was just a stopping off point for the criminals he sentenced. We also found that in almost every case that involved a violent drug dealer, his sentence was reduced to almost nothing.
“I think we need to check into the judges finances,” I said as I closed the last file.
“Kind of strange when you put it all together. Especially if he didn’t come from old money or his wife had a ton. That place of his was purchased for 2.4 million dollars five years ago,” Dan added.
“You think he was shaking them down for a lighter sentence?”
“I’m not sure but what he makes isn’t going to buy a place like that.”
“Then we need to follow the money trail. We also need to see if we can talk to either of the Edgewood’s now,” I said.
“No time like the present,” Dan replied.
We told the captain where we were headed and gave him a brief rundown on the financial status we were going to look at. He didn’t like it much but all he said was to tread carefully.
When we got to the hospital, a number of reporters were camped out there. What a pain. I know they have a job to do but nevertheless they are a real distraction. They shoved a microphone in front of just about every poor sucker that came in or went out of the place. We managed to shove our way through with just “No comment.”
We presented our badges and were escorted to their room on the third floor. The head nurse met us with her arms folded. This did not look good. I was in no mood for some attitude from a nurse.
“Are you here to see Judge Edgewood?” she demanded.
“We are. Detectives Bartoni and Roberts.”
“I’m sorry but the judge cannot have visitors. He is in critical condition. Frankly, I don’t see how he has managed to stay alive as long as he has.”
“That bad?”
“Worse.”
“What about his wife?”
“She was placed in an induced coma early this morning. The concussion she sustained caused swelling of her brain. She was place in a coma with the hope that it would allow the swelling in her brain to subside.”
“Is she totally out of it?” Dan asked.
“Coma means her brain is not being allowed to function normally to reduce the activity. Yes, to answer your question, she is totally out of it,” the nurse said.
“Any time frame?” I asked.
“None whatsoever. Any concussion is serious and there is no one cure that fits all. Some people can snap out if it in a few days. Others take months or longer. Some never come out. They are all different,” she replied.
“Alright, thank you. Could someone call us if either of their conditions change? We need to get the guy who did this. They are the key element in putting this guy away,” I said, handing her a card.
“I’ll post it and let you know,” she said.
All things considered, it went better than I thought it was going to. She looked like she was going to be trouble but as it turned out, she was fairly pleasant.
“So now what?” Dan asked as we got back to the car.
“I guess we can check in with Eric and Agent Miller and see if they have come up with anything.”
“We could stop and eat first.”
I just shook my head.
***
Once again we were all in the conference room. I was starting to hate that place. Agent Farling had just gone over everything they had been doing which in my opinion amounted to nothing. He seemed to be excited about it though. I guess it is a matter of perspective.
He did tell us that so far nothing had turned up on the van used in the Jawan murders. Surprise, surprise. Also, nothing was found on the note or envelope that had been left for me. Another big revelation. I knew they weren’t going to find either the van or anything on the letter.
“Bartoni, Roberts, What have you got?”
“Dan?” I said.
“Uh well, we can’t talk to either of the Edgewoods. Mrs. Edgewood in in coma and the judge is in critical condition. They indicated that his prognosis was not good. They will call us if either of their conditions changes.”
“So we have nothing?” McGregor said.
“Not exactly. We have the files from Edgewood’s house. I believe the answer is in one of those files.”
“I don’t follow. Yes they were from the judge’s cases but none of them concerned our victims. What makes you think you can make a connection?” McGregor asked.
“Agent Conroy said something about having his switch flipped. Something happened that was too much and he just snapped. I think the answer to what it was is in one of those files. Dan and I have been working through them and have found more leads than you can imagine. That was just on our first pass, the most obvious ones if you will.”
“What kind of leads?” Agent Farling asked.
“Brothers, sisters, uncles and a host of other relatives who could have gone off the deep end. Judge Edgewood was a pretty bad judge. We are looking into his finances as well.”
“Why?” Farling wanted to know.
“We found his house cost 2.4 million dollars. His wife did not come with money and nothing indicates the judge ever had that kind of money. So where did it come from? How does a judge who makes one hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars a year come up with enough to buy a 2.4 million dollar house?”
It was quiet in the room for a few seconds before Farling spoke up.
“You are thinking he was taking a pay-off for easy sentences.”
“Exactly.”
“That certainly puts a new wrinkle in the picture,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
In the spirit of cooperation, we spent the next two days working with the FBI on the case file. Conroy was taking our input and trying to help determine which relatives were most likely to fit the profile…behavioral profile.
It was a long shot in many ways. All we could do was take the most likely and work from there. Obviously, surviving male spouses, brothers, male cousins, and uncles were our first pick. We knew it was a male from the descriptions provided. No matter how bad the descriptions were, no one identified the shooter as a woman so we felt pretty confident on that matter.
“Geez. Look at this list,” Farling said tossing it on the desk.
“Pretty daunting,” Dan replied.
“Maybe Miller and I can come up with some way of eliminating at least some of them,” Eric said.
That’s my boy. I’m so proud of my little geek. Give him something to hunt down and just stand back.
“That would be great. Everyone you eliminate is one less we have to waste time on,” I said smiling and patting him on the shoulder.
Eric and Miller took off jabbering in a language that only they fully understood. It was all I could do to keep from laughing.
“Do you really think they can help?” Farling asked.
“Oh yeah. If there is a way to eliminate some of them he will find it. This is what he lives for.”
“I never understand how those guys think,” Dan said shaking his head.
“No one does. They live in a different world,” I replied.
“Bartoni, Roberts, the hospital called to let us know the judge didn’t make it. You should get over there and talk to the doctor.”
“I don’t see that it will do much good but your wish is my command.”
“Just humor me, okay Bartoni,” he said and stormed off to his office.
“What is that going to accomplish?” Dan asked.
“It will keep us from getting yelled at for one thing,” I replied.
“Ah…well in that case,” he said as we headed out.
***
“You know,” Dan said while honking his horn at some idiot that almost creamed us by rolling through a stop sign, “This whole case is kind of funky.”
“Funky?”
“You know. Strange. It starts out with a guy taking out some gang members. Not legal, of course, but not such a bad idea. Then he suddenly goes looking for trouble and now he is hunting down the judge. It just seems kind of weird.”
“I agree. I guess once he started, he decided to keep going until he got the ones that he felt were the most responsible. I think we need to let the prosecutors of these cases know that they could be at risk as well,” I said.
“That would be a wise decision.”
I took out my cell phone and called the captain and told him what we had just discussed. He agreed it could be a potential problem. Maybe they wouldn’t listen but he would at least warn them of the possibility that they were in danger.
In some ways it was almost funny that I would be worried about a bunch of attorneys. They are my sworn archenemies but, nevertheless, it would be wrong not to at least warn them of the potential danger.
We arrived at the hospital and after the usual hide and seek game we found Doctor Smeltzer.
“Doctor Smeltzer, we are Detectives Bartoni and Roberts. I understand Judge Edgewood didn’t make it.”
“Correct. He was pronounced dead at 10:02 a.m. There was nothing we could do for him.”
“Did he regain consciousness at any point?”
“Just for a brief moment before he died.”
“Did he say anything?”
“Just his wife’s name. Once.”
“Nothing else?” I asked.
“No. Sorry.”
“Alright Doctor. Thank you,” I said and we headed out.
“Well that was useless,” Dan muttered.
“At least we did what the captain wanted. We both knew we weren’t going to get anything. We haven’t caught a break so far.”
***
Eric and Miller were jabbering a mile a minute when we came back to the station. They were like to girls at a sleep-over talking about boys.
“Guys, relax and take a breath. I can’t understand a word you are saying,” I told them.
“We have managed to eliminate twenty-two of the potential people on the list. That only leaves nine unaccounted for,” Eric said excitedly.
“How did you do…wait. I don’t care and I doubt I would understand. You’re sure about this? I mean this is really important.”
“Come on Angie. You know I wouldn’t give you this if I wasn’t a hundred percent sure,” Eric said with a hurt look on his face.
He was right. One thing about Eric. When he said the data was right, it was exactly that.”
“Sorry Eric. My bad. I know that. I’m just surprised you could eliminate so many.”
“It was pretty easy really. We input all the data, including physical characteristics of the people on the list and…yada, yada, yada.”
Geek speak, geek speak and more geek speak. I tuned them out and just shook my head from time to time. I had no idea what they were talking about but they sure convinced me.
“So the remaining people are the ones that have the highest probability of being the person we are looking for.”
“You got it,” Miller said, giving Eric a high-five.
“Have you told anyone else yet?” I asked.
“We were just on our way. This is hot off the press,” Eric said.
“Okay. You let the FBI know and I’ll tell the captain. You might want to be ready to go over what you just told me in case anyone has any questions.”
“You bet,” Eric said and they headed off to find Agent Farling.
I went with Dan to see the captain.
“What?” he grumbled when I stuck my head in the door.
“Nothing on Edgewood. He died at 10:02 a.m. and only said his wife’s name before he passed. Nothing else.”
“That figures,” he said and tossed his pen on the desk.
“I do have some good news.”
He looked at us suspiciously like we were going to yank his chain.
“Honest.”
“What?”
“Eric and Miller were able to eliminate twenty-two of the potential suspects. That just leaves us with nine to check out.”
He sat up and seemed almost happy for the first time.
“No kidding?”
“No kidding.”
“Well, well, well. That is a ray of sunshine. I have been going over his finances. He was definitely getting paid off by someone. Sixty or more percent of the cases he handled were from the Simon brothers drug ring. They’d get caught and for a tidy sum, he let them practically walk. I guess it was considered a business expense for the Simon brothers.”
“Maybe we can close them down as well,” I said.
“I’ve already turned everything over to the Attorney General’s Office.”
“Hey boss, we are finally on a roll. Let’s go see if we can wrap this other thing up,” I said.
He smiled for the first time in days.
***
“Listen up folks. Eric and Agent Miller have managed to eliminate a high percentage of our suspects,”
“73.529 percent,” Miller interjected.
The captain went on without breaking stride.
“That leaves us with nine possible suspects. Obviously we need to interview each one and check out their stories from top to bottom. That means leg work and lots of it. I want to get this guy off the street before he strikes again. This is the first viable lead we have had and I don’t want any moss growing under your feet. I want all of you to hit the streets and start rounding these guys up,” the captain said.
“I have one question,” Agent Conroy said.
“Yes?”
“I have an initial behavioral analysis. We could use that to further eliminate any of the suspects. Sort of prioritize them so we could go after the most likely first,” she said.
No one said a word for several seconds.
“Would you mind sharing that analysis with us?” he asked at last.
“Certainly. He is between the ages of 30 and 40. Rather plain looking. Some place near six feet tall and dresses conservatively. He is somewhat shy and doesn’t like a lot of attention. He feels he is doing the community a service and will be dangerous when he is cornered. I suggest you use extreme caution when you approach him.”
Again there was silence. I was fighting mixed emotions. I think she had part of it right but I didn’t see him as a danger to us. He wasn’t about to fight it out with the police if we closed in on him. The rest I felt was pretty much accurate.
“What do you think?” Dan asked after we left.
“For the most part, she was right but to tell you the truth, we knew most of that already. We knew he was near six foot tall from the older gentleman’s description. We knew he was fairly youn
g from him bouncing across the street. You don’t do that if you are older. Yes, he is cautious and avoids attention. That’s why we don’t have much to go on. As for dangerous when cornered, I’m not so sure. He isn’t going to shoot it out with the police. It isn’t his style. He will either give up or it will be death by cop,” I told him.
“Yeah, that’s kind of the way I see it too,” Dan said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
We split up. The FBI took four of the names and we took the remaining five. The object was to talk to them first, get a feel for them. We would bring them in if they appeared to fit the profile, even if it was a stretch. The ones that obviously did not fit for one reason or another we could come back to, if necessary.
Our first stop was to visit a guy named Ted Greenly. According to the information we had, he was five-eleven, weighed two-hundred and ten pounds, and had no arrest record. Our information had come from the DMV. He was on the list because his father and mother had been murdered during a break-in. The father had come into the room with a baseball bat and found two men with guns going through the house. They shot him. When the mother came in to see what had happened, they killed her as well. The two men had gotten only ten years because it was plea bargained down. It seemed like a likely place to start.
“Mr. Greenly. I hate to open old wounds but we need to talk about the murder of your mother and father.”
“What’s to talk about? They got them. They went to jail.”
“But for only ten years. Not a very long time, considering.”
“Look detectives, I don’t want to be rude but there is nothing to say that will change any of that. Why even bring it up?”
“Because someone is going around handing out their own brand of justice for what criminals like that have done. Did you know that Judge Edgewood was murdered?”
“I knew he was shot. I thought he was still alive. Besides, I hope you don’t expect me to be all teary eyed for that scumbag. He practically fell all over himself making sure they got off with an easy sentence. If it is a crime to be glad he is dead, then arrest me right now. Otherwise, I’m finished talking to you,” he said.
“You may be finished but we aren’t and we outrank you. Now I need to know where you were on these dates and times,” I said handing him a paper that we had printed out to save time with the questioning.
Victim's Advocate: Angie Bartoni Case Flie # 12 (Angie Bartoni Case Files) Page 14
