FORGOTTEN (11 page)

“I’ll see you at 1500 for the briefing. We should have a better handle on this after the meeting.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at 1500.” Bryan said as he ended the call.

Pat realized the evidence that Forrest Butelli had been murdered was starting to add up. In his gut he was almost certain. In addition to Margaret Butelli’s initial concerns about the files, there were problems with the forensics, with the bullet not matching, and the absence of blood in the car. The attempt on his life and now the bug on Margaret Butelli’s phone made all of this quite compelling. He hoped they would know more after the next briefing which would give the investigation more direction. This case had a lot of intrigue to it and the fact that Daniel Pellegrino was involved just fueled his conspiracy theories. Pat knew patience was important in a case like this, and he hoped proceeding in a deliberate, methodical manner would lead to establishing the facts. The questions were; Who was really behind all of this? Was it Daniel Pellegrino? Was it Judge Robert Fitzpatrick? Was it the Assistant District Attorney Franklin Donovan?  Was it Harry Pittsford, the retired court officer killed in New Jersey? There were a lot of possibilities. The only thing Pat knew for certain at this point was the fact that Forrest Butelli did not commit suicide.

Chapter 26

Thursday, February 3 - Day 16

Major Crimes Conference Room - One Police Plaza

Borough of Manhattan, New York

1500 Hours

W
hen he walked into the Major Crimes Conference Room, Pat found the task force members laughing and joking. A new investigation always created a certain buzz. These detectives were the best of the best and being called into One Police Plaza to work out of the Chief of Detective’s office was recognition of their excellence.

Pat walked to the podium and the rumble of voices subsided.

“Good afternoon, guys and gals. I trust we’re making some progress. By now, most of you have heard of the incident with the FBI last night. The commissioner and I have met with their bosses this morning and have been assured this won’t happen again. I firmly believe they were using me as bait in their mouse-trap. But, we set our own trap and they drove right into it. Seeing their soggy, wet asses in handcuffs was quite humorous.”

Bryan Flannery spoke up while the rest of the task force members were laughing. “Did they offer any explanation as to why they didn’t tell you they were following you, Chief?”

“They said they assumed we knew. I guess that’s why they refused to tell me why they were following me, go figure.”

“It could have gotten somebody killed.” Bryan said.

“I agree. Go ahead and update everyone on the sweep of Margaret Butelli’s house.”

“Sure, Chief. This morning we sent a tech crew into Margaret
Butelli’s house in Brooklyn. They found a wireless transmitter on her phone line. Since we last talked, they’ve also located a single camera across the street in a vacant house. They used a lens detector, which is some kind of high-tech gadget which finds camera lenses. We are trying to get information on the vacant house and will get a search warrant for the house and go inside. Margaret Butelli has been given a safe phone to carry, and she’ll only talk to us on that phone.”

Pat nodded his head in agreement.

“We’ll use the tapped phone to ease some minds on the other side. We need to find out who is behind all of this. We want them to think we’ve dismissed Margaret Butelli’s concerns.” Pat explained.

“That’ll be a good ploy, Chief.” Karla Adams said.

“I hope so. Karla. What’s the latest on Daniel Pellegrino?”

“He hasn’t been heard from since you saw him at DHA International on Park Avenue in the Rodriguez investigation. We have all of his accounts flagged and he hasn’t touched a penny. There’s a lot of money in those accounts. I mean millions.”

“Wow. I wonder how he’s supporting himself.”

“I have no clue, Chief. Our Financial Surveillance Group with the Marshal’s Service is working him as an active fugitive on the old warrants, but it looks like he fell off of the face of the earth.”

“Are there any family members?”

“Only a sister in Queens. We have a court order for her phones, but there are no unusual calls.”

“Thanks, Karla. We may approach his former partners in the law firm.”

“That would be one partner.  Arnold Kemp died of a heart attack a few years ago, but I think Roland Brewster is still living, but retired. He’s about 80 years old.”

“Maybe he wants to clear his conscience.”

“Do you want us to approach him, Chief?”

“Not yet, Karla. We may do something from this end. What have you been working on, Mary?”

“This is really strange,
Chief. I’ve reviewed all the reports and read the part which said Margaret Butelli was unaware of her husband making prior funeral arrangements. I went by the funeral home and talked with the funeral director. He says the morning they received Forrest Butelli’s body, Margaret Butelli came in and asked for the body to be immediately cremated and paid for everything in cash.”

“That’s very odd. I’m certain she was surprised by the cremation unless I read her wrong. Did she have to sign anything?”

“Yes, she did, and I’ve got copies of the documents. I want to question her about this and then get some handwriting exemplars.”

“This is an interesting development and unless I’m losing my touch, I’m certain Margaret
Butelli wasn’t lying to us about not being aware of Forrest’s funeral arrangements.  If they still have the original documents, we may want to see if we can recover any fingerprints or DNA. I know it’s a long shot.”

Sergeant George
McBain offered a suggestion.  “I’ll work with Mary on this one, Chief. We might get lucky if we’re very careful about collecting the documents. If someone was pulling a scam, they were likely nervous and probably sweated DNA all over the documents.”

“Thanks, George. I’ll let you and Mary work that out.”

“That’s a good idea. After over 12 years, did the funeral director remember what she looked like?”

“Not at all. He was reading from his notes in the file.”

“I appreciate it, Mary. Have we talked to the original detective, Jerry McAllister, yet?”

“Yes sir, Chief. Mike and I talked to him this morning. Do you want to give the Chief the rundown, Mike?”

“Sure, Mary.”

Mike O’Neil was in his
mid-30’s, but could pass for 25. He wore his brown hair short and well-trimmed. He was full of energy and was well-known as a good homicide detective and a computer geek on the side.

“We met Jerry McAllister this morning over a cup of coffee. He really didn’t add much. I guess you would call it an excuse, but Jerry says after 9/11 there was so much going on and so many people were pulled in to work
Ground Zero
,  he just didn’t do much with the Butelli case. The ME ruled it a suicide and moved on to other cases, Chief.”

“Was he aware of Margaret
Butelli’s concerns?”

“Yes, and he told her to contact Captain Beck. He says Beck told him to move on, because he had other cases to work. He also admitted not seeing any blood in the car, but once the suicide note was found, he just assumed it was a suicide and didn’t think much of it.”

“I don’t like excuses for not doing a thorough job even in extraordinary times, Mike. There should’ve been red flags all over this case.”

“I agree, Chief. I think his captain helped him shut it down.”

“No doubt.” Pat said shaking his head.

Bryan posed a question to the Chief. “How do we handle Margaret
Butelli’s phone, Chief?”

“Once the tech guys give us a run down, we’ll take some heat off by my calling her to confirm that her husband’s case was a suicide and that the NYPD is officially closing the case. Hopefully that’ll give us some breathing room.”

“Now that sounds like a great plan! I’ll let you know when we get some word from the tech guys.”

“Thanks, so what do we know about His Honor, Judge Fitzpatrick?”

Karla Adams stood up and said; “Judge Fitzpatrick was killed in a hunting accident near the Canadian Border about four months after Butelli died. A witness saw him crossing a fence and the gun slipped and it went off when the judge grabbed it, taking most of his head off. I have contacted the sheriff up there to get copies of the report.”

“Wow! That sounds convenient. I hope the sheriff did a better job of investigating the judge’s death than we did in the
Butelli case.”

“They didn’t remember the case. It’s been almost 10 years.”

“Okay, keep us posted.”

“How about the ADA Donovan?”

“We don’t know for sure, but he left the DA’s office in early 2002 and moved to California.”

“I have a good friend who retired off the job and is an investigator for the state bar association, Karla. He may be able to help you track him down.”

“Okay, Chief, thanks. I’ll get the contact information from you after the briefing.”

Bryan Flannery took the podium and asked for any more developments, but received no takers. He dismissed the group and asked them to meet at the same time the following day.

Pat O’Connor shook his head at the interesting developments and asked Bryan Flannery to follow him to his office. 

Chapter 27

Thursday, February 3 - Day 16

Chief of Detectives’ Office - One Police Plaza

Borough of Manhattan, New York

1700 Hours

B
ryan Flannery joined Pat in his office and closed the door. Pat poured each of them a cup of coffee and got right to the point.

“I want us to reach out to Inspector Phil Beck in Staten Island. I’d like for him to meet us here to discuss his role in the
Butelli case.”

“Yes sir, and you know he’s up for a promotion to Assistant Chief don’t you?”

“I’m aware and really don’t care. I don’t want you to repeat it, but if he handles anything else like he apparently handled the Butelli case, I’m not sure he is Assistant Chief material.”

“I can’t say that I disagree, but he is pretty well-liked by the troops.”

“Well-liked can be a good thing, but well-liked and tolerating sloppy police work is intolerable in our business, Bryan.”

“When do you want him to come in?”

“Let’s do 0900 tomorrow. We can talk with him together.”

“Okay, Chief. I’ll set it up, but he may resent having a measly captain in here.”

“I could care less.” Pat said.

“Thanks, Bryan, and let me know when the tech crew gets in the house across from Margaret
Butelli’s place.”

“I’ll let you know. I’m sure it’ll be handled discreetly with a sealed search warrant.”

“Good. Make certain of it. We wouldn’t want to attract any attention.  Once we get our arms around this, we’ll throw out some information to whoever is listening to cool their jets a little.”

Bryan left the office, and Pat poured himself a second cup of coffee and called Maggie.

“Maggie Parker.”

“Hello, Gorgeous. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Not at all. I’m just reading some travel expense reports.”

“I know
it’s late notice, but would you like to go to the Steamboat tonight?”

“That would be fine, Pat. Can I meet you there around 7 pm?”

Looking at his watch, Pat saw it was almost 1800.

“Okay. I’ll see you in an hour.”

He finished some paperwork and penciled in the meeting with Phil Beck for 0900 hours tomorrow. He packed his briefcase and headed for the parking garage. On the way out he saw Angie Wilson still working at her desk.

“Are you burning the midnight oil, Lieutenant?”

“I’ve been looking at all of these cases which have been dismissed. I’ve actually found a case involving a friend of mine who got caught driving drunk. I didn’t even know she had been arrested.”

“Was her case dismissed?”

“Yes. It was dismissed by Judge Fitzpatrick and Daniel Pellegrino was her attorney.”

“Do you think she’d talk to you about it?”

“Probably so, if I was very discreet.”

“Sounds like something we should try. It might help us understand how they were operating.”

“Okay. We have a girls’ lunch on Saturday. I’ll try to have a conversation.”

“Sounds promising. I appreciate your involvement in this case, Angie.”

“Thanks, Chief. It’s been a nice change being involved in a working investigation. It has helped keep my cop skills sharp. Also, Chief, Mike was really upset about the incident last night, and he hopes your relationship with him hasn’t been damaged.”