INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series)

by ARKOPAUL DAS

  * * * * *

  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 1st 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 2nd 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 c
ontinued. ‘Look here’ Kevin moved the cursor to that particular point. ‘Reports from the 86th 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’

  ‘He’s afraid that this might come out again if we start digging the closed cases’

  ‘Yes but now that we have something on him, more than something actually, now we can hold him for as long as we want and even book a cell for them’ said Kevin ‘But that would mean that we’d have to reopen this car theft cases again and start digging over it’

  ‘Hmm’ Ryan grunted. ‘What do you say Alan?’

  ‘What’s the use?’ said Alan. ‘I don’t think we should start with the theft cases all over again, and how can we anyway?. We’re not officially authorised to investigate car thefts. We’re in the homicide department, so we can’t investigate anything other than murders or any other normal burglary. We will either have to move the cases to the main NYPD building and let them take a look and decide or else we can inform the federal authorities about this. But wouldn’t that consume a lot of time?’

  ‘That would for sure’ said Ryan ‘That would take up a lot of time that we can’t afford to lose at this moment.’ He turned to Alicia.

  ‘And this case is formerly handled by the 86th precinct, so why should we make our hands dirty by digging into this?’ she said ‘So if we wanna take this up then we will have to ask for the permissions from the respective departments’

  ‘That won’t be necessary’ said Ryan ‘We’re not taking up this case. We have another case to solve at this time. And I don’t give a damn about whatever they’re stealing and selling, or doing with it’

  ‘Yeah, right. We will continue with our own case.’ Said Alan ‘and now we know why Henry was in the car, Jade Carter’s car. He wanted to steal it. But it was just a bad day for him. Next minute the stiff shows up and we’re thinking that he’s the killer. And that’s why he ran. He thought we want to talk to him about this stealing business, and maybe sent him to prison. So he tried to escape’

  ‘So are you we just gonna let him walk away?’ asked Kevin.

  ‘What’s the use of keeping him here now that we know everything’ said Alicia. ‘Of course we will have to release him and we will do it now.’

  ‘And are we all sure that he was there in our Vic’s car to steal it and not to kill the man?’ asked Kevin.

  ‘Yeah yeah, that’s what happened’

  ‘Very well then’ Kevin closed the page and stood up from the chair.

  ‘Let’s go down and release him’ he said.

  ‘Hey just a minute’ said Ryan. ‘I’m just curious. How do they do this?’

  ‘Do what?’

  ‘Steal cars. People usually keep the car locked don’t they?’

  ‘Oh, that’s easy. They will first bump against the car for a car alarm then they will break the window or jimmy lock to gain entry. After that, they will cut the steering wheel lock. There will certainly be an exposed wiring that can deactivate the alarm of the whole car. After eliminating the alarm they will just look for the car manufacturing information and everything then they will copy those information, take it to a manufacturer to get a vehicle key made. And if it’s a push button start, then they will just run of with the car then and there, make a car wash, change the plates, hide it , then after a long time they will take out the parts and sell it where they sells it’

  ‘Oh, lengthy process' said Ryan.

  ‘It’s just a piece of cake’ said Alan.

  ‘Okay let’s go down now’ said Alicia.

  They reached the first floor again and gathered outside the interrogation.

  ‘I will go first’ said Alan, as he quickly entered and Henry said ‘More questions?’

  ‘No. You’re free to go’

  He stood up smiling and gave an unnecessary node then just walked, forgetting about his bandaged leg.

  ‘So it seems like you got all the answers you wanted from me?’ he asked as he came out with Alan.

  ‘That’s what we do’ said Alan. ‘We would have found the answers anyway so you see lying was never the best option’

  ‘Oh’ Henry exclaimed ‘I lied because I didn’t want you to know about the auto theft business that I do .I thought you all came to capture me for that. But when I saw it was about something else, I thought it was the best to remain quiet. And I will tell you what happened that night, I was wondering on the streets and suddenly this black SUV caught my attention, so I damaged the lock with my tools then went inside, I worked with the fuse and tried to light up the engine without even a car key, as the Push Button was protected somehow, but the tires were stuck in the mud. I left it, and also must have left my fingerprints behind. End of story’

  ‘You should have just told us that before. It would have been a lot easier process’ said Ryan.

  ‘I don’t care’

  ‘We could have kept you here opening this car case business again, and also could have arrested you’ said Alan. ‘But we don’t want to’

  ‘Whatever’ he said.

  ‘And just remember. This is not a no nonsense GTA game. It’s the real world. So be careful when you steal some car next time. If you fall in the hands of a nasty cop, he will certainly slaughter your fatass’

  ‘Yeah yeah, I know how to deal with the cops’

  ‘Oh, yeah?’ Kevin came closer to him ‘Deal with me, can you?’

  He gripped his shirt and pulled him near his face.

  ‘Get your hands of my collar, man!’ Henry said not at all afraid now.


  Kevin was trying to make the next move, maybe squeeze his head or twist his neck but Alan quickly stepped in between them and pushed both of them away to the other sides.

  ‘Next time, you remember...—’ Kevin started.

  But Henry quickly snapped out ‘Go to hell’

  ‘Kevin calm yourself’ said Alan and turned to Henry ‘Now you, just get out of here now’

  TWENTY TWO

  PART 4

  He tossed the heavy crate over to the corner. It didn’t bounce, it was made of hard wood. He hurried to that side then thought about checking the straight lawn outside. He stepped out and looked at the both sides. It was empty. He knew the security officer he encountered would still be on the stairs and would not be bothered to look up. He might even be dozing off by now.

  He felt relieved as he came inside and opened the crate.

  The long Barrett M99 was in place. Like the M95, this rifle also had bullpup configuration and a hardy pistol grip. Meaning instead of a single shot, one round is loaded directly to the ejection port and is pushed into the chamber by a bolt.

  It was a strong rifle. He took it out and loaded it with a special kind of bullet as soon as he could. He always thought that the guard might come back and catch him red handed. For security purpose, he also kept the Remington revolver at bay in case he needed to shoot anyone from a little distance.

  Then he went to the large opening, as if it was a panorama view of the bright street outside.

  The hotel on the other side was in a perfect place. He balanced the mouth of the rifle on the edge of the window kind of space, only it was too wide. He put on the field glasses and checked if his target was in position.

  The target was not there.

  He still aimed at it straight and waited directing the point of the rifle to the specific window on the opposite side of the street. He waited seven more minutes after which he could see his prey coming straight at the window then sat down somewhere, maybe there’s a chair or a bed .He could not see it clearly. But who cares, the aim was great, the angle was top notch.