INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series) (19 page)

‘Okay tell me Ronald, where were you between 3 to 4 am Monday morning?’ asked Alan.

‘We’re working that night, here’

‘You also work at night?’

‘Yeah, well not everyday .But we do work when the pressure is more’

‘I see’

Alan turned to Ryan and said ‘Let’s go Ryan.’

They, without saying anything more left him there standing awkwardly looking at their backs and still thinking what was all this really about.

They came out of the netted area and moved outside on the street near the parking lot. The street was full of shadows but still it was hot. Only standing there could drain all your energy. The sky was turning violet and the sunrays were slanted but still it had enough power in it.

They walked to their car and Alan stood there balancing himself, relaxing on the cool wind that suddenly started blowing.

He also looked tired; his long white face now had some droplets of sweat. Ryan stood beside him thinking about what they should do next.

‘Now what?’ asked Ryan as Alan kept looking at the cemented street.

Alan turned to him. ‘I don’t think there is much we can do now’

‘So what should we do next?’

‘Get anything we can on this to guy’ said Alan looking up at the sky, ‘And I don’t quite believe this Ronald guy too’

‘Yes, maybe he’s also lying’ Ryan suggested.

‘Not maybe. He certainly is’ Alan persisted on this ‘Henry was certainly not with him that Monday morning, he was somewhere else, and the main thing is that he entered our vic’s car, so they were certainly not working here that day. The fingerprints were fresh, so it was in that very night that he entered the car, and later you all found the body.

‘Right’

‘And the other thing, you saw when I showed him my badge, the way he reacted, like ‘Oh man not again’ now what is that supposed to mean, there’s certainly something going on here’

‘Right’ Ryan said again failing to find the right word here.

Ryan’s phone rang and he received it and said ‘Raglan...yeah...we got the man, yes the right one...we’ll talk at the precinct...okay’

‘Alicia didn’t get the original Ronald Roberts’ said Ryan.

‘Naturally’ said Alan. ‘Okay’ he pulled opened the door of the car. ‘Let’s go then’

Ryan sat on the driver’s seat and Alan took the opposite one, Ryan took the west 49
th
street and zoomed away.

* * * * *

Half an hour later, they were back at the police building. They parked their car on the street and they both went inside.

They found it was crowded now, the ground floor, there was also a constant buzzing sound going on in the background.

The receptionist was also back and she was talking to someone, as the landline phone was stuck in her ear.

The other cops were all busy talking to each other, sometimes it was about important things, sometimes not, and talking with the phones, checking documents and everything. They headed straight for the elevator.

They reached their floor and found Alicia staring at the white board as always, and Kevin looking at the ceiling and day dreaming, maybe.

‘Hey what’s up?’ Ryan said as he took the water bottle.

‘That’s what I should ask you’ said Alicia ‘what did you find?’

‘Nothing important actually’ said Ryan ‘Ronald denied the fact that Henry can be a murderer and said they were both working together that night’

‘I see, except the lies, now the only thing that remains is why Henry went inside the Vic’s car’ Alicia said to herself.

‘Where do they work?’ asked Kevin.

‘In a filthy garage’ Answered Ryan. ‘They own the garage and they fix cars’

‘Right’ said Alan.

‘So what should we do now?’

‘Get everything you can on this man Henry Roberts’

‘You got it’ Kevin said and became busy with the computers, while Ryan walked over to the window and started calling someone from his mobile.

‘They both doesn’t seem like a clean man to me’ said Alan. ‘There got to be a reason behind all this’

Alicia understood what Alan means, so he ushered Kevin and said ‘Check their criminal records, see if you can find anything’

‘On it’ Kevin nodded as he started securing the pages with a password.

‘So now what, Mr. Smith’ Alicia turned to the tall man. She then sat on the chair. She wore tight jeans, white shirt and a black jacket over it. Her face was still red but her hair was fresh, as if she just came out of a shower.

‘Now we wait for more information’ said Alan. ‘What else do you wanna do?’

‘Why don’t we go down and see what our guest in doing in the interrogation’ said Alicia. She was smart, Alan understood, and she was right. Other than wasting time just like this, they could always go to the interrogation and question their suspect, thus utilising their time.

‘Okay’ said Alan. They took the stairs without waiting for the elevator and went to the 1
st
floor.

Luke was also there. When he saw them coming he said ‘Your suspect is okay’

‘Why should he not be okay?’ asked Alan.

‘I don’t know. Kevin asked me to keep an eye on him, that’s why I said’

‘Ok, good. We’ll take over’ said Alicia.

Luke smiled. ‘So Mr. Smith is your new partner?’

‘Not really’ blushed Alicia ‘We’re rather working as a team’.

Luke gave another silly smile and left, as they both entered the interrogation.

Henry looked comfortable now, leaning on the chair and resting one leg above the other.

When he saw them enter he laughed out ‘Oh, helloo....long time , huh ?’

‘We were busy’

‘Yeah yeah yeah...I know that shit’

‘What?’

‘Actin’ like you’re busy’ he said in a carefree attitude.

‘You should behave yourself you know.’ Said Alan. ‘If you behave like a badass in front of a bad cop, you’ll certainly get busted’

‘Whatever .I can manage it man’ said Henry ‘So you were busy...where you did go?’

‘UK’

‘UK?’

‘Yeah, to talk with your brother there’ said Alan.

Henry’s smile vanished as he sat upright. ‘Wait what?’

‘And he said he wants you there soon. He’s facing some problems in work’ added Alicia.

‘Where did you find him?’

‘The place where you both live, in a nasty garage’

‘Why were you lying about all this, Henry?’ asked Alicia.

Henry asked back ‘But what did he say?’

‘Nothing really’

‘Oh..thank god’

‘So you were lying all along’

‘When did I lie?’

‘You said he lived in UK’

‘Yeah, that I said because you guys were disturbing me. I didn’t mean to say that’

‘Really?’ Alan said ‘If you had said everything all along then we would not have cared to call your brother’

‘Whatever’ Henry became uninterested. ‘Now that you talked with him, what do you want?’

‘Now we wait and hold you unless we get some concrete information about what were you doing in our victim’s car that night’

‘And if you still wish to talk then we’ll think about leaving you early’ said Alicia.

‘So you guys still believe I was there in that car?’

‘Yes, we do. Because you were certainly in the car. And the next moment we find our man’s dead body. So don’t you think you’re playing it all too dangerously?’

‘No I don’t. Because I know I didn’t murder anyone, and that’s it’

Alicia’s voice grew cold and hard for ever. ‘Henry I swear I will find the underlying cause of the case and don’t think you are gonna get away this time. I will find everything out and will arrest you for the slightest mistake you ever made in your life’

Henry leaned back again. ‘You can try’. He was damn sure that he would be able to walk out of this, eventually.

Alan whispered to her. ‘This is not working’

‘We have to release him unless we get something’

‘I know, I hope Kevin finds something’

‘Now what’re you both talking about?’ Henry asked trying to break their conversation.

‘So your brother said that you don’t live in a hotel but you both live together’ said Alan.

‘So you ‘ave got everything about me’ said Henry.  ‘Now that you know everything why don’t you leave me now and save some time of yours’

‘Not so fast punk’ replied Alan. ‘We don’t know everything. We don’t know why you killed the man .You tell that to me, and I will leave you right now’

They passed the next minutes sometimes talking sometimes looking at each other, other times trying to read the minds until when Ryan entered the room and whispered to them ‘Alan ,Alicia, you got to see this’ and signalled them to come out.

TWENTY ONE

‘You got something Ryan?’ asked Alicia as they came out.

‘Sure, Kevin got something for us’ said Ryan. ‘Let’s go up’

They soon went to the 2
nd
floor and found that Kevin was still there sitting looking at the computer in an awkward posture and clicking the right button of the mouse.

‘What?’ said Alan as they all moved towards the table and Kevin pushed the revolving chair a little to make more space for all them to look.

‘Okay, you got to see this’ said Kevin. He pressed the backspace button again as the page came into view.

The page had both Henry and Ronald Roberts's picture at the top corner of both the sides divided by a line. There were two columns and some paragraphs and descriptions written below it, which Alicia thought would be worth reading or not.

‘What’s all this?’ she asked.

‘Data, their backgrounds and everything. Just like you wanted’ said Kevin. ‘It was easy for sure; I just checked their criminal records and found their names there. Later I found some brief reports about the closed cases about them.’

‘So what does it say? Are they involved in anything? Did they ever kill someone or did anything like that?’ asked Alicia again.

‘No, they didn’t kill anyone’

‘Then what?’

Kevin continued. ‘Look here’ Kevin moved the cursor to that particular point. ‘Reports from the 86
th
precinct dated October 2011. They were sent to prison for 1 year’

‘You said they didn’t commit any crimes, then for what?’ said Ryan.

‘I said they didn’t kill anyone. But there’s something big going on here’

‘What’s that?’

‘They repeatedly steal cars, then breaks it all, takes out the expensive parts of it, and sell them separately’

‘That’s illegal isn’t it?’ asked Ryan who had the best look at the screen.

‘Sure’ said Kevin and went on ‘From the year 2012 to 2013 more than hundred thousand cars were stolen but some were caught later. And not all the parts were sold later. Among them it’s reported that more than 700 cars were stolen by the Roberts brother itself, and sure they made a lot of money by selling the parts to some illegal automobile dealers in Detroit and Denver, names are not mentioned here, and some other markets. And that they did after they were both released from the prison in September 2012.’

‘So they continued their business even after they were sent to prison’ said Alan.

‘Precisely’ said Kevin.

‘Why were they released?’ asked Alicia. ‘The punishment should have been heavier than this’

‘The cases involving the car thefts were closed  as the owners, or the car companies failed to provide satisfactory information about their stolen cars .So the five continuous cases that were going on involving them were all closed one by one and the money they had also helped them to do that, if you know what I mean. Later that year they were released and instantly they started stealing and selling cars again. They continued their business but the police authorities and the Homeland security who were also investigating some of these cases took no responsibility about all this and no action. As now the thieves have became more polished and they hardly leave any evidence behind, to track them down. They keep the car with them and later when they are sure that no one will claim for the particular car again , they takes out the parts and just sell them . Then the whole body of the car.’

‘Oh’ said Alicia after Kevin finished his whole speech.

‘So that’s what they’re doing still now?’ asked Alan.

‘Yes I think so. There are no recent reports about them here. You see no one really cares about what’s going on these days’

Kevin scrolled the page for more information but that was all it had, there was nothing more to see so he scrolled to the top again.

‘So that’s what happens’ said Alicia. ‘He is a car thief and that’s why he isn’t willing to talk’