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

  “You’re no fun at all,” he replied.

  “I’m not about fun.”

  “No kidding,” Dan said.

  I’m thinking one more comment like that and I’m going to make him stand in the corner. Instead I just headed for the door.

  “Hang on,” I heard him yell as I disappeared down the stairs.

  “Are you mad at me?” he said when finally caught up with me.

  “You mean other than acting like a jerk, telling me I’m no fun and generally pissing me off? Why would I be mad at you?”

  “I was just kidding.”

  “Ah...well that explains it. I guess I forgot to laugh,” I said getting into the car and slamming the door.

  I wasn’t as mad as I was acting but I figured he would spring for the lunch check to suck up. It was a cheap way of getting even for him being so insensitive. Everyone knows how tender and delicate I am...NOT.

  **

  I honestly don’t know of a single cop, male or female who likes to go to a penitentiary. Let’s face it, you don’t exactly have America’s finest in there. Some of them are barely human. The stuff that comes out of their mouths would make a sailor blush.

  We were escorted to the Warden's Office after checking our weapons. I hate not having it with me, especially in a situation like this but I do understand the necessity for security.

  The Warden looked haggard and tired. The media had been calling for his head on a platter. He looked to be about 150 years old but was probably in his 60s. His head was bald and I wondered if that had happened since the escape or had it been like that for some time.

  “Please, have a seat,” he said, gesturing to a worn leather couch.

  It looked like he shopped at the same place Captain McGregor shopped for furniture. Maybe there was a cop ugly couch catalogue they ordered out of.

  “I’m Warden Emory Dill.”

  “Yes sir. You have been mentioned on the news. Repeatedly,” I replied.

  “So it seems. You are?”

  “Detective Angie Bartoni and this is my partner, Detective Dan Roberts.”

  “I’m surprised you aren’t from the FBI,” he said.

  “Oh they are still fighting over who gets the have the glory. Homeland is here as well,” I told him.

  “Homeland?” he said surprised, “What does this have to do with them?”

  “Publicity?”

  “Ah,” was all he said.

  “So Warden, what has your internal investigation found so far?” I asked.

  “We have narrowed it down to three or four guards. Honestly, they all seem like nice guys and have exemplary records. Not a single problem from any of them.”

  “What about background checks? How often do you run them?” Dan asked.

  “Our mandate is every five years. We try to do it every four but with all the cutbacks, it is simply impossible.”

  “Impossible how?” Dan asked.

  “We use American Security LLC to do the actual investigations. They are subsidized by the government and part of the cost is charged off to the facility requesting the backgrounds. The government is running anyplace between 150 to 180 days behind in payments. That has caused them to downsize, meaning our files sit until they get to them. It isn’t just us. They do nuclear facilities background checks, water treatment facility checks and a bunch of others. At one time they had 1500 employees full time and another 300 part-time. Now they have 400 full time and 110 part-time. We just get lost in the shuffle.”

  “How far behind are they?” Dan asked.

  “Three years.”

  “Holy smokes. That means in reality they don’t know anything about the employee going back seven years,” I replied.

  “Essentially that’s correct. Of course we get blamed for it, not the government that has caused this situation by making the country bankrupt.”

  “Warden, I know this won’t help much but I empathize with your position. We will look into the four guards for you and let you know what we find. Do you have their personnel files?”

  Warden Dill slid a stack of folders across the top of his desk. He sat back like he was relieved to get rid of them.

  “We can take these with us?”

  “Absolutely. No use asking if you will return them. Of course you will. I have to say, I was expecting the third degree from the FBI,” the Warden said.

  “They have their way and we have ours. I would like to talk to the four guards as soon as possible. Has anyone said anything to them yet?”

  “Not a word. My internal staff knows better than to leak anything like that or they will end up on the wrong side of the bars.”

  I was pretty sure he meant it.

  “That’s excellent.”

  “Two of the guards, Ben Karr and Ralph Idle are on duty right now. Terrence Lipton is on the swing shift and Baylor is on the night shift.”

  “Good. We will start with Karr and then Idle if you can spare them.”

  “The sooner the better. We need to get this settled once and for all,” Warden Dill replied.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Have a seat Mr. Karr,” Dan said.

  “What’s this all about,” he asked, still standing.

  “Well duh. Please don’t act dumb. It doesn’t do much for your credibility. Now sit.”

  Men. They have to act macho. He made a show of casually sitting down and leaning back.

  “Mr. Karr, you were on the same block with Belk, correct?’

  “Yep.”

  “And you delivered the mail, correct?”

  “You already know that.”

  “Is that a yes?” Dan asked.

  Oooh. My Dan was growing up so fast.

  “Yes,” Karr said.

  “The thing is, Belk got that C4 from someone inside the prison. There is only way for that to happen as you know. One or more of the guards had to have been helping him.”

  Nothing.

  “And it would stand to reason that the person who had a lot of access to Belk is involved.”

  “Lots of guards had access to Belk. In fact we all did. It’s what we do.”

  “Look Karr, you know as well as anyone, everything that goes on in this place is recorded.”

  “I know that. Hell, I work here. You think I would be stupid enough to get recorded doing something like that?”

  “We all do stupid things if we are desperate enough,” Dan replied.

  “I’m not desperate.”

  “Really? You are going through a nasty divorce and your house is being foreclosed on. You are three months behind on car payments and it could be impounded at any time. What do you call that exactly?”

  “Tough times.”

  “Karr, you need to help us and yourself here. The FBI will be here next to talk to you. You know what they are like. This is your chance to tell us what went down. Once we are out of the picture it will be a federal investigation,” Dan implored.

  “Look. I work here. What do you want me to do? Name names? Say I heard this or that? How long do you think I would last. You’re a cop. Put yourself in my place. You know something about a SWAT guy who could take you out anytime he wanted. Would you open your mouth? And don’t give me the bullshit answer of ‘you would do the right thing’. That’s a crock and you know it. You would do exactly what I am doing. Keep your damn mouth shut. I didn’t have anything to do with any of this. The only thing you have right at the moment is Belk had to have had inside help and that means one of the guards. You’re wasting time looking at me,” he said and stood up.

  “We aren’t done yet,” Dan said.

  “Yes we are. Charge me or I’m out that door. You’re a pretty big guy but I deal with big guys every day so don’t even think you can stop me,” he said.

  More of that mano-a-mano stuff but he was right. He had a damn tough job and I was pretty sure he could take care of himself. I just didn’t want to be in the room if fists and elbows started flying.

  “Alright Karr,” was all Dan said
.

  Karr opened the door and left without looking back.

  “Jerk,” Dan said.

  “He has some good points. We have a tough job but can you imagine being cooped up in here with a bunch of convicts to whom life means virtually nothing? If he rats out his brothers then he has no one covering his back. Would you spill your guts under a similar situation?” I asked.

  “I damn sure would think about it,” Dan said.

  I didn’t say anything but I have to admit I was thinking I probably wouldn’t have done much different than Karr. Someone has to have your back in this business.

  “So should we talk to Idle?” Dan asked.

  “I think we have to. If not we are setting Karr up. It will look like he spilled the beans. At this point we need to talk to all of them.”

  “Man, what a waste of time.”

  “Gee, like this is a first. Come on Dan. Just think, we can probably get some of that great prison chow at lunch time.”

  **

  Dan was right. It was a big waste of time. We went through the motions of talking to Idle. His attitude was pretty much the same as Karr’s. I didn’t get the feeling either was involved. They were just CYAing and to survive that’s what they pretty much had to do.

  It’s easy to judge other people until you stand in their shoes. These guys were at risk from the minute they clocked in until they clocked out. One second could mean the difference between life and death. It would be suicide to turn in someone and expect to live through the next shift.

  Should they do the right thing? Of course. That’s not the real point. Would I or you knowing you were signing your death warrant? I think not.

  By the time we got done eating what was passing for food and talking to Idle it was time for Lipton to come on.

  He was different from the others. The chip on his shoulder showed from the moment he walked into the room.

  “What do you want? I don’t have time for this crap,” he said.

  “Have a seat,” Dan answered.

  “You have a seat. I won’t be here that long.”

  Dan looked at him for a minute before going on.

  “Terrence Lipton. Once a cop. Allowed to resign rather than face excessive use of force charges on three separate occasions. Transferred from Covington Prison for insubordination. Transferred from Litton Penitentiary for insubordination. This seems to be your last stop. Looks like one more time and you are out on your ass. How about stowing the attitude and sitting down?” Dan said.

  Lipton looked at him a second longer then sat down.

  “Thank you. Look, we know the rules. You can’t talk about what you know. We have a job to do same as you. What we could have done instead of calling you in was just act like you already gave us the information. You could have protested all you wanted but you would have still been on your own. Get it?”

  “Yeah. I get it,” he said grudgingly.

  “The other thing is that the Feds will be right behind us. Is there anything in your background you want us to know about? It would be better for us to investigate than the Feds,” Dan said.

  Nice. Good way to put it. Doing him a favor.

  He hesitated a few seconds, weighing out how much he should tell us.

  “I have a wife and three kids. I have a girlfriend that my wife doesn’t know about. I’m not proud of it but, well, there it is.”

  “Does the girlfriend know you are married?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Sort of? Either she does or she doesn’t.”

  “I’ve never said exactly but she is becoming suspicious.”

  Dan just shook his head.

  “Anything else?”

  He hesitated again.

  “Nights are the most lax times. I know if I wanted to smuggle something in I would do it at night.”

  “By lax you mean?”

  “Sleeping guard at the monitors. Changing DVDs that take the cameras offline. Breaches in security.”

  “Alright, thank you. No one will ever know about that part of the conversation,” Dan assured him.

  “I hope not,” he replied on his way out.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Belk waited a week before he returned to Indiana. He found a rundown house that was abandoned. It took him and his crew almost a week to clean it up enough to make it habitable. Even then they had to resort to gas generators for electricity.

  “Did you get everything?” Belk asked anxiously.

  “We did,” Pete replied.

  Pete Anderson was Belk’s right-hand man. They had known each other since the ninth grade and had started exploring explosive devices by making their own firecrackers. Soon they graduated to larger things.

  Like many things, what started as fun turned into an obsession for both of them and they continued to refine their abilities until they became proficient.

  Pete was the first to go to jail when he blew up the science lab his senior year. He would have probably gotten away with it but he posted it on YouTube and was arrested three days later. Unfortunately for him, it was during the time when Homeland Security was scrutinizing everything and decided to make an example out of him.

  He was sentenced to three years; however, all but six months was suspended. He was placed under probation for the remainder of the time. Since the trial took almost six months, he was credited with time served and actually spent less than a week in the county jail. It was enough that he decided he would never go back to jail.

  He had just returned from the hardware store where he had purchased most of the items. He was smart enough not to get them all at one location. Fortunately hardware stores, especially the big ones were all located within spitting distance of each other so it didn’t take a lot of effort to split up the items.

  He bought the pipe and caps along with silicone tape at Lowe’s. The acetone and muriatic acid he bought at Menard’s. Fertilizer and gas cans came from Home Depot. Ace supplied the nails, screws, and washers.

  He had gone with Murray Rice, another of Belk’s crew members. He bought essentially the same items but changed where he got his.

  The third crew member was Justin Hall. His task was to get Bullseye black powder through a connection he had and to stop at three different stores to buy pressure cookers.

  Belk was not making just one kind of bomb. His plan was to make a variety of bombs. While pipe bombs were pretty easy to make, the damage was not nearly as destructive as he was ultimately planning.

  “What is the plan exactly?” Pete had asked.

  “We are going to start small with a few pipe bombs to get everyone shook up. We'll drive the police and the population up the wall. Then we will escalate to our final climax.”

  “Being?”

  “All in good time. All in good time,” Belk told him.

  “We have pretty much everything we need,” Pete told him.

  “No. This is just the start. I want you to go to one of the mega-stores and get several large packages of styrofoam plates and cups. Big packs. I want to make a batch of NAPALM,” Belk told him.

  “Anything else?

  "See if they have any C-4,” Belk replied straight faced.

  “C-4? At a store?”

  “Just kidding. Lighten up Pete. This is going to be fun,” Belk told him.

  “Oh by the way, Justin located a tank of ammonia nitrate. He will steal it tonight.”

  “Excellent.”

  **

  Belk knew the key to survival when working with explosives was paying attention to detail and not rushing. Even when working on pipe bombs he was careful to brush the black powder out of the threads and then wrap them with teflon tape. One small spark caused by a sharp edge could cause the thing to ignite and no more hands or worse.

  He had made twenty by the time everyone was back.

  “Okay Pete, show Murray and Justin how to make Napalm. I need at least five gallons,” Belk told Pete.

  “You got it boss,” Pete said and took the two men off to show them h
ow simple it was to make Napalm.

  All they needed was petrol, the styrofoam, and a container to mix it in.

  **

  I was both beat and pumped by the time I got home. I was ninety percent sure we had found our man. He told us he had no real problems and that was the first tip off. Everyone has some kind of problem they don’t necessarily want to talk about.

  Clue two was that he wouldn’t look us in the eye. That is always a bad sign. Maybe most telling was that he came along like a lamb. All he wanted to do was get out of the room. Giles Baylor was getting my vote.

  “So we concentrate on him first?” Dan asked.

  “That’s what I’m thinking. Notice that he never once looked up at you or challenged you?” I replied.

  “I did.”

  “His knee was bouncing so hard I thought he was going to tip his chair over at one point. It was like it had a spring in it,” I said.

  “I had a bad feeling about him as soon as he walked in,” Dan replied.

  There was a time not all that long ago that Dan was hesitant to use his powers of observation. That is one area he had really grown in and I was proud of him for it.

  “You did a good job on all four of them,” I said, complimenting him.

  “Really? No yanking of the chain?” he replied.

  “Honestly.”

  “Gee thanks Bartoni. That’s a first.”

  “Well don’t expect it all the time.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I dragged my tired butt into the station the next morning. I’m pretty sure I looked like hell. I had no more opened my coconut donuts and popped the top on my Diet Coke than Brad Pendergrass came up the stairs.

  “Hey Bartoni. How are you doing? You never write, you never call,” he said, smiling.

  “You’re like a bad penny, you keep turning up. I see the usual suspects are with you.”

  “Yeah, Eric is flying in later tonight. He thought he was on vacation,” Brad joked.

  Now you have to understand I do not like the FBI...but this batch were different. We had worked together in the past and I enjoyed being with them. The last time they were here Brad had tried to recruit me to the Dark Side, but so far I had resisted. That’s why he made the comment about never writing or calling.