INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series) (45 page)

‘So where is this asylum?’ asked Alicia.

‘This is not an asylum’ Ryan corrected again. ‘This is a hospital. It’s the Manhattan Psychiatric centre. It’s located on’ Ryan flipped the file to the next page. ‘It’s located on the 125
th
street on the Wards Island’

‘And what is this schizophrenia? asked Henderson.

‘I’m not any doctor. I can’t say that. But I can understand that it’s some form of serious mental illness.’ Ryan started checking the files again in case there was any more information left in it to be said.

‘So that’s why he shot 5 cops?’ asked Henderson again . ‘Because of this schizophrenia?’

‘Got to be so’

‘Is he okay now?’ asked Henderson again. ‘Look if he really is a mental patient then we can’t just let him roam around like this, he might harm anyone’

‘See, this reports are of five years back, and the report is incomplete. So I guess maybe there are few more things, which are not given here’

‘Okay, then how can we get all the rest of the information?’ asked Alicia.

‘Maybe by paying a visit to the hospital’

‘Oh, man so this starts again then!’ Kevin was disappointed that the investigation was starting again and again.

‘But what does all this have to do with the case?’ Henderson was still not sure about what was going on.

‘Might be everything or nothing’ said Alan. ‘We should go to the hospital and talk to the doctor who treated him and see if we can get a better picture of this man McRae’

‘But why should we be running behind a lunatic?’ said Henderson. ‘Do you think he is the killer?’

‘I can’t say I’m sure about this, but I would have checked it out anyway’ Ryan said.

‘I also agree’ Alan said and moved towards the stair as they were already in the 1
st
floor. ‘Anyone care to join me?’

‘I’ll get my car’ said Ryan.

THIRTY SEVEN

  The streets were clear as Ryan accelerated the car heavily, he wasn’t sure if the hospital would be on the long islands side or, how he would reach the Wards island. Alan opened the map in his mobile and got the clear route of it.

After passing the Randall’s park, Ryan drove slowly looking at the sides if he could notice the hospital through the River Edge Road and pulled over near a broad building.  They all soon came out and walked through the green areas and entered the compound of the psychiatric building. It had three definite buildings attached in a way as if it looked like one, but it served three different purposes.

It looked like a flat large skyscraper of brick colour and Small Square shaped black windows like pores peeking out of its body. Except all these, the building was not very tall but it was wider.

They didn’t know where to go so they asked a man about that, and he showed them the gate of the main building at the front.

So they soon entered the hallway of the main building and instantly got a cringing smell on their noses like when you mix chemicals or potassium with something. That was why they hated hospitals, this smell it was terrible.

Anyway, they moved towards the table of the reception and Kevin was nearly being bumped with a man who was rolling a stretcher down the lawn, and hopefully there was no patient in it.

Alan showed the badge to the man on the table and he eyed them with a suspicious face and said ‘Is there a problem?’

‘There is. But only for us’ said Alan. ‘So we believe that there was a patient who lived here, say five years ago and –’

‘What was his name, sir?’ asked the man interrupting Alan.

‘We don’t know his name; we only know his last name that is McRae’

‘Five years back you said?’

‘That’s right’

‘What kind of problem did he have?’

‘We heard he had schizophr –,

‘Okay I got it. So you want to know something about him?’ the man made a serious face.

‘Umm, yes?’

‘I’m afraid that’s not possible sir, we don’t disclose any private information about our patients to a –’

Kevin suddenly came forward and banged his fist on the table making every faces turn at him. .

‘Look’ Kevin said ‘We’re investigating a homicide case and we are in a critical position  right now. We have no time to waste. And this man who was a patient here five years back can be a murderer. So now that you’ve heard everything, you better get your ass moving before I take any further actions!’

The man was taken aback; he knew it would be better not to argue with this man at least. He stood up and said ‘Wait here, please. I will be back in a minute’ he walked inside the long straight lawn to the left.

As he left, they all turned and looked around the area. Someone was shouting meaningless words from somewhere they could not see. Another mal-nutritioned man sat on the iron chair at the main gate side with a pale face and a nurse was trying to poke him with a syringe. Another one was acting like a maniac, while another nurse tried to calm him down giving him a sedative. More doctors came and went by, no one looked busy, and neither did they look like they had all the time in the world with them. Two men took a stretcher with them to the other side and turned away and the bed contained a man or better say a corpse, or it looked like one at least.

‘This is too sick man’ said Ryan. ‘I feel like puking’

‘Don’t’ advised Alan. ‘They will think that you’re also a patient’

‘You’re right’

The man came back after five minutes, which seemed like an hour and five minutes to them.

‘Okay so I checked in with the patient’ he said with a miserable face ‘But I’m afraid there is no information on this name in our database’

‘That means you’re telling that you can’t help us?’ asked Alicia.

‘Yes and no’ said the man scanning all their faces as if they were also some sort of lunatic. ‘But I found out the ward he was in and the doctor he was getting treated by. So if you want any information, you should talk to his doctor’

‘Where can we meet him?’ said Alicia.

‘Okay let me check’ the man called someone from his mobile, and after a minute he started asking someone about the doctor.

Then he kept the mobile down on the table and said ‘Dr. Hopkins is always busy, you know. But today is your lucky day; he’s free for an hour’

‘Okay where can we meet him?’ Alicia repeated again.

‘Third floor straight to the right’ said the man.

‘Thank you’

They rushed to the straight lawn to the left without saying anything else. They walked straight through the long corridor and noticed more patient seated on the black coloured benches on one side , more stretchers, more medical equipment and all the same things. The sick feeling in their body increased but they walked normally.

They found the stairs at the end and they took it without searching for the elevator. When they reached the third floor, they felt tired and exhausted.

This corridor was more deserted and was more dimly light. And there was no windows which would let the sunlight in, if you are here for a day you will never able to predict if it was morning or night outside. The lights were also dimly lit and anyone living here in the night would get scared to death with every noise he hears.

‘How the hell do the people live in this place?’ Ryan queried. ‘I will go mental if I fail to escape from this place within an hour’

‘The people here are already mentally disabled, so they can’t go anymore mad’ Alan answered softly fearing his voice might echo everywhere, but it didn’t.

‘What about the normal ones? Like the doctors?’

‘They are doctors, if they go mental they can treat themselves back to their normal state, I guess that’s how they survive’

‘I see’

‘Here’ said Alicia as she pointed at the half-opened door to the left side. ‘This one, I think’

They knocked the door lightly and instantly heard a sound form inside saying ‘It’s open, come in’

They all went inside to find a man in his late sixties, half bald head except some lines of greyish hair over his ears and his face looked perpendicular, he wore glasses that was coming down his nose and he had to push it to the original place. He wore a long white gown, a blue shirt, and black trousers underneath it.

He was standing in a bending manner, signing some files on the table with a lighted table lamp on it.

There were chairs on the opposite side of the front wall and door at the opposite side leading to where they didn’t know.

‘Mr. Hopkins’ said Alan to get his attention as he kept the pen down and stood up to look at them.

‘Yes?’ he said with a confused face.

‘We’re from 13
th
precinct NYPD, I’m Alan Smith’ he said and came forward ‘We need some information about one of your patients, who you treated five years ago’

‘Okay?’ he said ‘May I ask what’s the name of this patient you’re talking about?’

‘Yes, McRae. We don’t know his full name’ said Alan.

‘McRae,’ he murmured to himself shuffling the pen in his hands. ‘Who is this McRae, can you tell something more about him?’

‘Yes’ said Alan and started describing the incidents, his looks and everything.

After Alan was finished the doctor still looked confused. He said ‘I am sorry I still can’t understand who you’re talking about’

‘He used to live in the ward no. 25’ Ryan said hoping this time the doctor would remember something.

‘McRae, let me think... schizophren...’ he then became more confident and his eyes lit up. ‘Yes, I remember, yes he shot someone’

‘Five cops actually’ Ryan corrected him.

‘Yes, so I’ve heard. He shot five cops...yes!’

‘Okay Dr. Hopkins, what can you tell us about this schizophrenia?’ asked Alan. ‘I know about it only vaguely’

‘Yes, schizophrenia’ replied Dr. Hopkins. ‘This is a mental disorder which is rather difficult to distinguish. It’s often characterized as a abnormal social behaviour and failing to recognize what is real. And the symptoms that are associated with this disease occur along the continuum in the population and must reach a severity before –

Alan interjected ‘Okay what causes this, why does this happen?’

‘Tough to define. It can start from anything. Early environment, genetics, psychological and social process appear to be important with some contributory factors. Even some recreational prescriptions sometimes worsen the symptoms. The mainstay treatment is the antipsychotic medication, which primarily suppresses the dopamine receptor activity. Counselling, job training and social rehabilitation can also be some effective process of treatment’

Dr. Hopkins stopped and looked at everyone to make sure they were following him.

‘But we’re not interested in these details’ said Kevin. ‘Just tell us how severe was McRae’s schizophrenia?’

‘His was nearly in the third stage. Too dangerous if you leave it too long, and it can be also fatal if you try to experiment too many things on him. But it seemed like my antipsychotic medicine worked, isn’t it? And also rehabilitation daily. After two years or so he seemed to have become okay, so that’s why we released him.’

‘Can this disease come back again even after it is cured?’ asked Alicia.

‘You just can’t be so sure about this mental disorder. But yes, sometimes schizophrenia can also be cured if you have used proper medication .Or else it can be fatal. But still just like I said, you can’t be sure about this’

‘But you said that fatal, how fatal can it exactly be?’ asked Ryan.

‘Just a minute’ Dr. Hopkins suddenly remembered something. ‘You all just came here claimed to be cops and started questioning me, but why? Why now after five years you suddenly need to know all about this man? Perhaps there is a reason for that, right?’

‘Right there is’ Alicia said in an all business tone. ‘He’s one of our suspects. So naturally we need to know everything about him.’

‘Suspect?’ Dr. Hopkins thought how a mental patient could also be a suspect. He had never been through all this before.

‘Yes, like a murder suspect’

‘So he killed someone again?’

‘Our answer will be just like yours’ said Alan. ‘You just can’t be sure about this thing. That’s why we’re trying to check everything out’

‘Then he killed someone’ Dr. Hopkins persisted again.

‘Maybe not. We’re just trying to get a better view at the man and his life. But he’s involved with our case anyway’

‘Sounds awful, all these thing’ said Dr. Hopkins as Ryan bit his lower lip and thought ‘not awful as this place’ , ‘So do I need to tell you anything more about this schizophrenia?’

‘What will he do when he’s under this effect?’