INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series)

by ARKOPAUL DAS

  ‘Here’ she pointed at something. Ryan and Kevin followed her gaze and saw what she as pointing at. ‘The tyre’ she continued ‘It’s stuck in the wet mud’

  ‘The result of the rain’ said Ryan.

  ‘Right’

  Alicia bended to get a much more closer view of the front wheel that was just below the driver seat.

  ‘This portion is still sticky.’ She remarked ‘The tyre is surely stuck. If anyone tries moves the car now, he would face a problem as the mud is becoming dry and more solid’

  ‘So that’s why he came inside the car but he was not able to start it’

  ‘Or move it’

  ‘And’ Alicia continued, standing up again. ‘That’s where he faced the problem. The murderer took this chance and strangled him from the back’

  ‘Yes that seems to be, what happened’

  ‘But why would he want to drive the car in the night unless he wanted to go somewhere?’

  ‘Sure he wanted to go somewhere’ said Alicia ‘And wherever it was, it was damn important , otherwise he would have normally waited till the morning, wouldn’t he?’

  ‘Yeah , that’s what normal people would do for sure’

  ‘Right’

  Alicia wore a pair of white gloves and pulled open the back door of the car. ‘Let’s see if we can get something more from the interior side’

  She bended her body again putting her head inside the back seat without going fully inside as she might destroy some vital evidence.

  The seats were just like a formal leather seat should be, with proper seatbelts which also seemed to be in the position they were supposed to be. The seat covers were new or they looked new and everything was well placed .There was no clue or anything that might lead them to the killer .She also stooped and checked below the seat but as usual it was also empty save a bottle of petrol.

  She came out and said ‘Well nothing much here. So this car was parked here for how much time?’ she asked.

  ‘Well not sure about that’

  ‘Let me clear it..So here’s how it goes-' Kevin took a deep breath and continued ‘Our victim Jade Carter comes out of the house in the middle of the night in order to go somewhere. Naturally he gets in his car. The tyre was stuck so the car doesn’t move .Killer was in the back seat hiding in the dark , he or she whoever killed him took this chance to strangle him and escape.’ Kevin finished and looked at Alicia . She nodded.

  ‘What about his occupation, what does he do in New York Times?’

  ‘Maybe a photographer or something. I don’t know’

  Dr. Taylor suddenly came from the back with two other ward boys and said ‘Well excuse me will you , I need to move the body’

  ‘Sure ,Dr. Taylor.’ Alicia said and moved to give them some space.

  Two of the boys held the shoulder of the dead body and carefully took the whole body out and laid it on the stretcher that was on the ground. Dr. Taylor bended again and cut a slice of his skin from his thigh with a thin scalpel cum scissor and placed the portion of the skin on a glass ,delicately placing a cork on it .He stood up. He was done with his things as he bed them goodbye and walked towards the ambulance. He signalled the other two boys as they brought the stiff and placed it inside their van.

  Alicia turned to Ryan and Kevin again ‘Okay , so who discovered the body’

  ‘His wife , I think’ said Kevin.

  ‘So where’s she, where can we find her ?’

  ‘If I am not too wrong then she must be living in that house’

  ‘I see’ said Alicia and looked at the house that was just a 30 second walk away. ‘I think we should go and have a talk with her.’

  ‘Yeah ,we need to find out if she can feed us some more information about the Vic or the murderer. Yeah lets go’ said Ryan.

  THREE

  ‘Kevin go and get the CSU’ instructed Alicia . ‘See if they can get anything more out of the car’

  ‘On it’ said Kevin and went away taking out his mobile and dialling a number.

  ‘Ryan come with me’

  Both of them walked a few yards and reached the house. It was not a large one, a normal cottage, it was.

  The house was two storied and was mainly made of wood and cement settings in some portion. As they reached the house and walked up a few steps to reach the door, the steps made knocking noises just as stepping on a hollow wood does.

  Alicia was gonna knock the door but Ryan saw the calling bell first and pushed it.

  Within a few minutes, the door opened up and they were greeted with a smell of sweaty shocks. Soon a young man came in front of them. They didn’t want to ask form where the smell was coming as that might get him offended . The man wore a blue blazer and a matching blue tie, maybe it was because it was the office hours that they came in, and this man was just about to go out for work. He was in his late thirties and had a tired face.

  ‘Yes?’ he said in a common voice that everyone uses.

  ‘Hello , I am Detective Quinn and this is my partner Detective Raglan from NYPD . We’re investigating Mr. Carter’s murder’

  ‘Oh , sure. Detectives please come in’ he said in a polite tone.

  They were inside the house following the man, and they looked everywhere, it was nice and perfectly furnished, the ground leading to another room, consisted of carpet and they found a dining room on the left side with dining table that looked like it has never been used.

  The man led them to the main living room .As they entered they saw a blonde woman of middle thirties curled up on one of the sofas with a cup of tea.

  The man signalled them to make themselves comfortable on the other piece of sofa as he also entered with them, took away a cup from the small table in the middle which contained some kind of chocolate milk liquid and said to the woman ‘Sally some detectives are here to see you’

  The woman kept the cup which contained some sort of coffee back on the table and looked up at them. Her face showed depression as she sat up straight to talk with them.

  The man went out.

  ‘So you’re Mrs. Carter, I presume?’ Alicia started.

  ‘Yes, yes I am, and you are the detectives right?’

  ‘Yes, I am Alicia Quinn and this is Ryan Raglan’

  The woman’s eyes became a little more puffy as she said ‘Okay did you find who killed Jade ?’

  ‘That’s what we are investigating about’ Ryan said ‘And we’re just in the early stages of our investigation. We have a long way ahead’

  ‘And we just have a few questions to ask’ said Alicia.

  ‘Okay, go on’

  ‘So when was the last time you saw him?’

  ‘Last night...’

  ‘Last night? When exactly?’

  ‘He came last night at maybe 9 or so...at the dinner. Yes at the dinner. That was the last time I saw him’

  ‘You never saw him after that?’

  ‘Not until I discovered his....’ her voice trailed off.

  ‘And after that what did he do? Went to sleep, I presume?’

  ‘No he didn’t go to sleep .He said he had some important work to finish so he remained in the room where he works, the study room. He said he will come to sleep when he’s done’

  ‘And he never came to bed ?’

  ‘No, and there had been a power cut in the middle of the night, and I was asleep....’

  ‘Did he say what was he working on?’

  ‘No he didn’t and neither did I ask. I don’t have much interest in these things’

  ‘And at what time did you find out that he is not present in the house?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘Not before morning.’ She went on ‘I woke up and found that he is not in his bed. So I thought he was still working, so I went to the study room to check on him and found out that he was not there too. Then I thought that he must have left early so I went down the street to see if his car was there or not and there I found him, like that’

  ‘Does he usually leaves without even informi
ng you?’ said Alicia.

  ‘I will not say that he doesn’t do this. Yes sometimes he does leave without informing me when he have more pressure at work but generally he leaves a message saying when he will be back or a voicemail, something like that’

  ‘And you were sure in this case he didn’t?’

  ‘Yes , I later checked after informing you all , if he had left any message saying where he was going , but there was none. And that’s very unusual of him’

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘He’s always caring and careful. So when he goes out like this he never forgets to leave behind a notification’

  ‘I understand that’ said Alicia . ‘Did he seem all normal, this few days?’

  ‘Yeah he was normal.....no not quite normal' said Mrs. Carter changing her mind ‘He was a little absent-minded and was always immersed in work.’

  ‘Was he working on anything special that needed more attention than the usual?’

  ‘As I said I never asked him what he is working on ,be it special or not . I always trust him and I don’t wanna push him about anything and irritate him. Because I know that he will surely discuss it with me if he thinks he needs to’

  ‘Hmm’ Alicia shrugged. ‘And did he have any friends?’

  ‘Not that I know of, maybe a few friends from his office’

  ‘Do you know where he works?’ asked Alicia to check that if Kevin’s information was correct .

  ‘Yes ,of course’ she said ‘He works at the NY times .But don’t ask me in what position does he work’

  ‘No problem, and did he have any enemies ?’

  ‘I don’t think he will have such kind of enemies who will want to kill him. And why would anyone want to kill such a kind man? He didn’t do any harm to anyone .I can’t think of anyone who can kill him, and also I can’t clearly say if he had any enemies’

  ‘Ok Mrs. Carter one last question' Ryan asked this time ‘Who was that man who opened the door for us?’

  ‘Oh that’s my brother Jacob .After I discovered the body I was too nervous, I didn’t know what I should do. So the first thing I did was to call him .He came and later instructed me to call 911’

  ‘Okay Mrs. Carter' said Alicia ‘that would do it for now .We would either show up here or call you downtown if we need any more information from you. At the moment this will do. Thank you’

  ‘Anytime Detective Quinn, just make sure you get the murderer behind the bars’ she said and stood up.

  FOUR

  ‘Here’s out victim Jade Carter’ Alicia took out a copy of his picture form a folder and stuck it on the white bulletin board , and wrote the name over it. ‘And as for now we know that someone strangled him last night and he is male and so so...’ Alicia wrote the remaining bio data under the name, mostly in short.

  Henderson seemed to be free today sitting and looking at the board , and was hearing things that Alicia was saying to others , and also giving an occasional glance at Ryan who was intentionally looking the other way to avoid his eye.

  ‘How are we doing with this case , Alicia?’ Henderson asked her as he didn’t want to talk with Ryan yet. And he always have a tendency to refer this kind things as ‘we’ although he plays the smallest part possible in helping them.

  ‘Not much yet’ she said ‘We only know that his death occurred between 3 to 4 am last night and later in the morning his wife discovered the body .The body is at the morgue with Dr. Taylor for autopsy and the car is with the CSU as they are checking it looking for some more clues. We also questioned his wife , she said that Mr. Carter was a little ''too busy’’ these days , but other than that we don’t have any more valuable information as of now’

  ‘We are making progress, it’s good’ said Henderson appreciating that his junior detectives were doing quite excellent .

  ‘And I heard that he works in New York Times ?’

  ‘Yeah , right’

  ‘He must be quite affluent’

  ‘No’ said Ryan ‘ It seemed like he was quite a middle class and a normal person. Didn’t earn much money from the NY Times, I guess’

  ‘But NY Times is a popular building and also a famous newspaper company, they ought’ to give him a handsome sum of money’ inquired Henderson.

  ‘Maybe he works in a lower position’

  ‘That can be it’ Henderson understood that Alicia’s reason was solid.

  ‘Oh, the other thing’ Henderson went on ‘Do we know what exactly was he doing in his car at the edge of dawn?’. Then Henderson chuckled and added ‘I am just curious , because if I’m not wrong people generally sleep at that time’

  ‘No we don’t know that’ said Alicia ‘We only know that he was doing something essential other than the daily work and it was damn important for him to leave the house at that time and go somewhere because it could not wait till the morning .But his car didn’t move and the killer was in the backseat .Then we all know what happened’

  ‘Okay , ya’ll carry on and keep me updated’

  ‘Sure , sir’

  Kevin just entered the room as Alicia turned to him quickly and asked ‘Kevin, got any results?’

  ‘Not till now’ He said ‘They are yet to finish with the car , let alone giving any verdict on it. I checked with them and found some parts of the car are at the crime lab . They will hurry if we need them to’

  ‘No don’t do that’ replied Alicia ‘Let them take their time if they needs to. We don’t wanna hurry and get the wrong results’

  ‘I was wondering about something’ suddenly Ryan said.

  ‘What ?’

  ‘If he was working on something , why would he want to go out suddenly?’

  ‘Perhaps this is premeditated’ Kevin gave his suggestion.

  ‘Maybe, but I think as he was doing some work and then he went out....perhaps he was going to meet someone...to show his work?’

  ‘Right , right’ Alicia’s face became thoughtful as she considered what Ryan said ‘This work he was working on was out of his daily routine , we know that , it might be that someone gave him some important work to do and asked him to finish it as soon as possible ,and return it to him. That’s why he worked for the whole night , and when he was done, he went out to visit the person and to show his finished work’

  ‘Sounds to me like he was writing a fiction novel and when he was done completing the first draft , he went to a editor to present it’ Kevin laughed.

  ‘Shut up Kevin, it was much more important than just writing a novel and presenting it to the editor. If he was really doing that he would have waited till the morning .It was something that made him go out on a rainy night. Something much more unusual than any common things.’

  ‘Hey one minute’ said Kevin as he remembered something ‘If he was going to show his work to someone then should he not carry a briefcase or some papers, files anything , for the documents ?’

  ‘Good point’ Alicia said as she picked up the marker pen again and wrote it down in short on the white board again.

  ‘NO BRIEFCASE’ Alicia spelled it.

  ‘That means’ Started Ryan ‘The murderer stole the briefcase or whatever was with him .What else can it be?’

  ‘Maybe he emailed him the documents.’

  ‘No he didn’t’ Ryan disagreed ‘If he emailed the documents then it’s done. Why would there be any need to visit the stranger in person that too in the middle of the night?’

  ‘Right’ Alicia also agreed with Ryan.

  ‘Maybe he wanted to make sure if the person have received his mail’

  ‘Couldn’t he just call him and ask , like “Hey dude, you got the freaking email?’’ ’

  Kevin laughed.

  ‘Whatever he says’ said Ryan ‘I am pretty sure he will not start the sentence like “Hey dude’’ , this person seems like his boss , so he will surely show some respect, isn’t it ?’

  ‘Yes that’s right’ said Alicia ‘This person have quite gravity in him , otherwise why would Carter
work for him , for the whole night ?’

  ‘What if he blackmailed him ?’ Kevin showed them another possible reason.

  ‘Why would he’ Ryan took the other way to prove Kevin wrong again ‘This person seems to be quite innocent. So why would anyone choose to blackmail him? I think that’s improbable’

  ‘Why wouldn’t he?’ Kevin countered again ‘As he is a simple and innocent man, it’s easy for others to blackmail him for something and get a job done’

  ‘If it is so’ said Alicia to keep the conversation in control ‘Then we should think this person was not a normal boss but some high quality criminal who Mr. Carter had a relation with and did the jobs for’

  ‘It’s getting complicated’ said Kevin .

  ‘Sure it is’ said Ryan ‘You see we got a murdered man , a murderer and a criminal , so it’s got to get complicated’

  ‘Yeah , but we are just speculating, so just calm down okay?’ Alicia really wanted them both to be calm and think rationally ‘We still don’t know anything for sure .If Mr. Carter really worked for someone or did the person really blackmail him or not....well what we just know is that he was killed and the killer is out there’

  Ryan made a thoughtful face and said ‘We need more proof to prove these things’

  ‘Yep’

  ‘But if our deductions are correct’ Kevin looked interested about this ‘Then it stands like this – Our victim Jade Carter was working on somethin’ that night .Later in the night when he finished his project he went out to show it to someone because it was essential and not a minute could be wasted. But as he went inside the car , the car didn’t move, the killer also was ready. The killer strangled him, took the briefcase and escaped’

  ‘That is likely’

  Ryan’s phone buzzed suddenly.

  ‘Raglan’ Ryan answered. Then after a minute later , he said ‘Sure’

  He hung up and said to others . ‘It was Dr. Taylor. And he wants us to meet him’