INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series) (30 page)

He gave him two photos, one was of the man who was pushing Jake and other one was of Jake getting pushed into a car. He also had a normal copy of the photo with him.

‘Who’s the man?’ Mr. McRae asked instantly after getting the photo.

‘Thought you might know him’ said Ryan. ‘This the man who abducted Jake’

‘Oh. But no, I don’t know him’

‘And we believe that the men you saw arguing on the streets, Jade Carter and Paul Brown were also involved with this abduction’ said Alan.

‘Really?’

‘Yes’

‘What makes you think so?’

‘Because this particular incidents happen to be seen by Paul Brown who you saw on the street. And we think that the other man was also present in the park at that time’

Mr. McRae looked outside across the street through a window on the east sidewall and stared at Paul Brown’s house on the other side. He was speechless. Then his eyes suddenly burned with anger as he turned back at them and said ‘You all did this, it’s all your fault. It’s for ya’ll that Jake is now suffering in the hand of those bastards!’

‘Calm down, Mr. McRae’ said Alan. ‘Jake was already in danger before we even started our murder investigation .Jake was abducted even before we discovered the first body. How do you think we could save him at that time?’

‘But Jake was abducted on Saturday, you say’ said McRae calming down only slightly ‘It’s Thursday today, what the hell were you doing all these days?’

‘The case was not in our department. They waited to hear from the family side but you didn’t complain about anything to them, so they dropped it’. Alan could not say that the case was forwarded to them and their chief knew about this but still decided not to make a move. If he had said this, Mr. McRae would have gone more berserk hearing this.

‘How can I complain? I didn’t know any of this’

‘And what sort of school does Jake goes to who doesn’t know how to take care of their students. At least they should have informed you about this’ said Ryan.

‘Yes...right. They didn’t. They have neglected about everything .And they didn’t have my phone number too’ he said silently this time.

‘Well where is he now?’ he asked them. ‘Do you know where they kept Jake?’

‘No we don’t’ said Alan. ‘But we’re trying anything possible to find him’

‘But what for are they doing this?’ he said with a slight amount of panic in his voice. ‘What did I do? What did Jake do?’

‘You can answer that only’ said Alicia, ‘Was there any reason for anyone to abduct Jake?’

‘What’re you saying?’ he said wiping his forehead. ‘What reason, of course there isn’t a reason for this. This is just madness.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Wait, are you suspecting me for this?’ he asked back this time.

‘No we are not’ said Alan quickly. ‘We were wondering if you had any enemies or not’

‘No I don’t. I don’t have any enemies’

‘Okay then’ said Alan. ‘That’s all we wanted to tell you. We just wanted to know if you knew about this, anyway now we must wish you a good day’ Alan turned to the door.

But McRae called them back. ‘Wait’

Mr. McRae quickly wore a watch, looked at himself in the mirror, found his mobile, and took it in his pocket. He did all this things in exactly about 30 seconds.

‘Uh...you wanted to say something Mr. McRae?’ asked Ryan thinking what for he called them.

‘Yeah, right. I’ll come along’ he said.

‘No no you don’t need to come with us’ insisted Ryan.

‘Yes Mr. McRae you don’t need to come with us’ said Alicia. ‘I assure you, we will try to find Jake as soon as possible. You don’t need to strain yourself. We’ll keep you posted’

‘You keep quiet’ he said roughly. ‘I am not waiting here for a single second when my son is barely trying to survive. I will wait in the precinct until you can get Jake and can bring him to me. Or else I’m never leaving the precinct. You all get it?’ he glanced at their surprised faces.

‘But--’Alicia tried to stop him.

‘Now will it be okay if I ask you to take me in your car or should I call a cab?’ said Mr. McRae.

Ryan turned to Alan waiting for him to decide and Alan knew it would be waste of time trying to stop Mr. McRae. So he said ‘Sure Mr. McRae, come along with us’

* * * * *

‘Who is he?’ said Henderson as they entered his room. After they reached the precinct, he also followed them to the 2
nd
floor. Alan asked him to sit and wait in the guest sitting chairs outside in the lawn and make himself comfortable.

‘Kid’s father’ replied Alicia with tiredness in her voice.

‘Oh, but what he is doing here?’

‘Ask him. He will be here until we can bring Jake to him’

‘That’s another problem’

‘Or distraction’ said Ryan.

‘Right’

‘So did he know about all this?’ Henderson asked.

‘No he didn’t know about anything’ said Alicia. ‘He was trying to accuse us for wasting so many days’

‘Oh’ Henderson remained quiet even after hearing that they've wasted time, because it was for him that this happened. Otherwise, he would also have supported McRae and would have accused them too.

He cleared his throat and said ‘Is he all cool other than that?’

‘A little angry’

‘Naturally’

‘But the main problem is that he will not leave unless we get Jake or unless we summon a bunch of security guards to kick him out’ said Ryan.

‘No we can’t kick him out just like that’ said Henderson. ‘That would mean entertaining some more problems’

‘But how do we find Jake?’

‘We will find him anyway’ said Henderson. ‘Or else many people including media would start a riot outside’

‘More problems’

‘Okay any more progress in this case?’

‘Nothing yet’ said Ryan leaning in the chair. The floor was deserted today because it was 12 noon and Henderson was also free. They could well have a nice relaxing chat among them. But they got things to worry now.

‘Where’s Kevin?’

‘Not sure’ said Ryan. ‘He was supposed to be checking on the man who abducted Jake’

‘Oh,’ exclaimed Henderson then he couldn’t hold this from coming out his mouth. ‘Man, I should have checked on this case before’ Regretting that he didn’t move it.

‘No worries boss’ said Ryan trying to soothe him. ‘We got this’

‘And where’s Alan?’

‘With Mr. McRae, I guess’

‘But there’s another problem that I can see here’ said Henderson trying to sound serious’

‘What?’ asked Alicia.

‘People usually abduct kids when they want something in return’ said Henderson. ‘But this time the kidnappers aren’t saying anything. Or wanting anything. Look, they abducted him on Saturday and for nearly five days; they’re keeping quiet without demanding anything from us. Isn’t that a little odd?’

‘It is’ said Alicia realising the value of Henderson’s thought. ‘Is the boy in the city, or country?’

‘Why would they take him out of the country?’

‘Just a random thought’ said Alicia and thought about some more thoughts.

‘But look if we can get the child then I think we will also be able come near the finish line of our murder case’ said Ryan and looked at both of them.  ‘Now we both know why these two men were killed and what was the killer asking from Paul Brown. We can now answer that. He took a picture in the middle of an ongoing abduction and that’s why the killer went nuts to get the camera. Paul Brown put the matters in a Pen Drive, destroyed the camera making it look like the killers will never get those things and the killers then finished him. And after that...well so far so simple’ said Ryan as he didn’t knew what to say ‘after that’.

‘And what about the other dead man Jade Carter?’ asked Henderson, ‘What reason did the killers had for killing him?’

‘That’s because...because he was there too’ said Ryan. ‘They both witnessed the crime and one of them even took a picture so both of them were a serious threat to the killer. And they had to kill these two men, one by one. Isn’t it? I think we nearly solved the case. Only the abduction thing is left’

‘Yes we need to find the kid first’ said Alicia who was the least bothered with Ryan’s theories, but was quite worried with the present position they were in.

‘And it would be real hard to catch them’ informed Henderson. ‘These guys are quite a pro. The know how to strangle and they know how to abduct. They have enough experience in all this and they know how to carry out this kind of job very well. So you see, it will be tough to get hold of them’

‘Yeah, I know’ said Ryan. ‘I just hope that they ask for something and make our work easier’

‘How do you think it will make our work easier?’

‘If they ask for money, we pay them. Then we’re done’

‘Bad idea’ Alicia replied. ‘If they ask for money and we pay them then we’ll lose both the money and the kid’

‘You mean they would kill the kid anyway?’

‘Maybe, you just can’t be sure about their intentions, can you? They can do anything’ said Alicia.

‘Yes she’s right’

‘Yeah but we will have to pay them if we don’t have any other option’ Ryan pointed out.

‘Yes we have to’ said Alicia. ‘That’s why we would have to make sure that there’s an alternate option always available’

‘Oh’ Ryan became confused.

Alicia soon became irritated and stood up, starting to pace the room. ‘Time is getting wasted. Why the hell is Kevin not showing up yet’

‘Must be somewhere else’ said Ryan. ‘Haven’t seen him in the building today’

Alicia made another disgusted look hearing that, looked at her watch and went outside to pace the lawn.

‘She hardly has any patience’ Ryan concluded to Henderson. ‘And it’s true that a lot of time is getting wasted. I’d better go and find him’

Alan was talking with McRae about how was Jake as a teenager, was he like normal or was he a little reserved...well this kind of things when he noticed Alicia come out and make her way up to the elevator. Then as the door opened she went in, the lift went straight down.

Mr. McRae was comfortable now, with a magazine and a newspaper to read and hot/cold all kinds of coffee and drinks at his disposal, he was now relaxing, as they asked him to do. So Alan excused himself and went inside Henderson’s room.

‘What’s the matter?’ Alan asked looking at them. They were tired, yes, but not much worried about anything new other than whatever problems they were already in.

‘About Alicia?’ said Ryan. ‘She went to find Kevin’

‘Oh, I see’ Alan took the empty chair and sat down thinking what discussion was going on here or did he miss anything important.

‘So Alan’ started Henderson. ‘I see you all are going quite well as a part of detective team’

‘Yeah’

‘How do you like them?’

‘Sure they’re great to work with’ he said leaning back.

‘How is McRae doing?’

‘He’s doing fine. I asked him to take some rest and be comfortable’

‘But I don’t think he will remain relaxed any longer if we don’t find Jake soon’ concurred Ryan.

‘That’s correct. And who says that we will not find Jake. We’ll surely find him’ said Alan and looked confident about it.

‘We still have no idea where he might be now or who abducted him’ said Ryan scratching his head.

‘Come on. We know who abducted him. We have him in our files, his picture. It’s just a matter of time before we get to ID him’

‘He would be hiding somewhere. Wherever he kept the boy’ said Henderson.

‘But I don’t understand that why do I get the feeling that he might not be the actual abductor’ Ryan was always confused.

‘How do you mean?’

‘Maybe he’s working for somebody else. He’s just carrying out his orders’

‘That might be correct’

‘Okay but the main thing remains the same’ said Alan. ‘If we get this man we get that somebody who hired him to do this, and if we get that somebody first then we can find this man through him’

Henderson rested his hand over his jaw and listened to the conversation of Ryan and Alan, their suggestions and deductions, everything. He then pulled out a paperweight from under the table and started playing with it, looking at both of them. After sometime he got bored, so he stood up, hands clutched and stood in front of the open window at the west side, just behind him. He slid up the blinds and faced the city outside.

It was still a busy hour going on and there were a lot of noises outside. The atmosphere was more or less clean and hot. He unbuttoned his blazer and let it hang when he realised that he was perspiring inside the shirt. He wanted some cool air to blow but it was noontime, and the sun was burning down, so it was only the warm heavy airs that he received.

Suddenly there was a knock behind and as he turned back, he saw Kevin enter the room.