INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series)

by ARKOPAUL DAS

  ‘Well that’s not really the case here’ said Mr. Jameson and studied Alan carefully.

  Ryan felt that he should introduce them. He said ‘Mr. Jameson, meet Alan Smith. Now leading our department’

  A teensy bit of smile arrived on Mr. Jameson’s face as he held out his hand and Alan stood up and shook it rather reluctantly.

  ‘So you would like to say something more, I believe?’ asked Alicia.

  ‘Nothing much really’ he said in a normal tone ‘I just wanted to know if you've got the killer.’

  ‘I’m afraid; we are yet to catch the killer’

  ‘Then what about Paul?’ said Mr. Jameson expecting a positive answer. ‘Did you find him?’

  ‘No, he’s still missing’

  ‘If we had found him then we would have solved the case’ said Kevin.

  ‘How can you say that?’

  ‘He knows everything’ said Alicia. ‘Or so we believe’

  ‘Look, it’s getting tough managing in my office’ said Mr. Jameson in all business tone. ‘These two, Jade and Paul were two vital reporters in my office so now one is dead and the other one is missing for nearly a week. If you can’t find him, then I will have to search for some other reporters now. A hundreds of them are waiting to apply for a job, so that won’t be problems for me, anyway, tell me?’

  ‘Well yeah, we’re trying our best to find him as soon as we can’ Ryan smiled assuredly.

  ‘Mr .Jameson’ Alan now stood up again . ‘He worked in NY Times for how many years?’

  ‘2-3 years, I guess. You mean Paul right?’

  ‘Yes, so 2-3 years it is?’

  ‘Yeah, it’ll be so’

  ‘And was there any conflict going on between him and anyone else there?’

  ‘Not that I’m aware off’ said Mr. Jameson now clearly looking worried. This sudden questioning made him think that yes, something was definitely going on here other than just some mere disappearance. ‘And look Mr. Smith’ he continued. ‘Everyone who works there are quite professional and not any child that they’ll feel jealous over each other. So I don’t think that there is any problem going on’

  ‘And he didn’t have any problem working with his partner Jade Carter?’

  ‘Of course not’ he said nearly giggling ‘They’re quite some friend and they feel easy to work with each other, let alone having any problem between them’

  ‘But a witness saw them arguing animatedly in the middle of the street over something, so how are you gonna explain that?’

  ‘Are you asking me the topic of the argument?’

  ‘Sure if you know it’

  ‘I don’t and I have no idea what they might be talking about. And I can’t even imagine them arguing over something’

  ‘But sadly it did happen’ said Alan. ‘And that is too suspicious isn’t it?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean they were found arguing Sunday evening and that very night, Mr. Carter turns up dead, strangled in his own car. So would you say that that’s a coincidence?’

  ‘What do you intend to say Mr. Smith?’ Mr. Jameson’s face became grim and cold.

  ‘Look Mr. Jameson you may not know this’ said Alan in a professional voice and waited for a moment for the questions to get absorbed before continuing ‘But it’s true that there was a conflict going on for sure which led to a heated conversation and eventually a murder’

  ‘So you’re saying that Paul killed Jade?’

  ‘We have enough reason to believe that at least’

  ‘This is preposterous Mr. Smith; you need to find some other way around to prove it. Because this is improbable’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘They’re working there for a pretty long time. And I myself recruited them years ago and there was never a problem between them. And you want to say that suddenly a problem arises and it leads to murder, huh! I’m sure that’s not possible. You see I know them both better than anyone’

  ‘So why is he hiding if he hasn’t done anything?’

  ‘How do I know that?’ said Bill tired of the cross-questioning. 'That’s for you to find out. And there is surely a reason for that’

  ‘Yes, there’s a reason for sure and anyone can guess what the reason might be’

  ‘No no, not that Mr. Smith. Murder is not the reason’

  ‘I know murder is not the reason. I know maybe he didn’t kill anyone. I was talking about something else’ said Alan and everyone looked at him, as this caught them off guard.

  ‘Okay?’ Mr. Jameson waited.

  ‘This papers’ Alan took it and held it in front of him.

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘Some one sent them to Paul Brown. We’re yet to know who that is, and we only know that these were send just a few days ago’

  ‘So what’s the problem with it?’

  ‘Look’ Alan showed him the sentence and he said ‘So someone’s threatening him, someone wants to kill him?’

  ‘That’s what it seems like’

  ‘But what are they asking for?’

  ‘Someone wants something from him but he’s not willing to give them , that particular thing .At first we thought that he’s the killer but now when we've found this out, we realised that he’s the target actually’

  ‘So what do you wanna do now?’ asked Mr. Jameson.

  ‘That’s what I’m asking you Mr. Jameson’ said Alan ‘Can you tell us anything that might be valuable for us?’

  ‘No I can’t say anything. He was a normal journalist plus reporter, what valuable thing could he have?’

  ‘That’s our question too’ Alan looked at the other side pretending to search for the next question when he already knew what he would ask and how he would cross-question him. Then he added ‘Do you know a place where Paul Brown might be hiding now?’

  ‘I know no other address other than his home address’ said Bill ‘And I can’t even imagine him hiding from anyone?’

  ‘His house was searched. We got nothing except those papers’

  ‘Oh’ Mr. Jameson sat down on the other chair ‘These guys whoever is behind him seems to be dangerous’

  ‘Why do say, guys?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We are yet to know if there is a single person behind this or a group of killers’

  ‘We’re quite puzzled about all these’ said Ryan for the first time after he introduced Alan to Mr. Jameson while Alicia and Kevin preferred to listen.

  ‘I will be happy to assist you all in any way possible’ said Mr. Jameson looking at Ryan trying to assure them that he was also on their side.

  ‘Right’ said Ryan.

  ‘But as it seems like at the moment you cannot help us’ said Alan rather flatly ‘the thing you can’t tell us is that where he might be now, and that is now our main priority. Search for him and get a location.’

  ‘Right detective’ Mr. Jameson stood up again. ‘Just try to find him. And I will hope you can’

  ‘Yes, that’s right. In the meantime, you keep your eyes open in NY Times’

  ‘Just as you say. Sure. But is there any definite reason for that?’

  ‘Just look out and see if everything is all okay or not’ said Alan. ‘If you notice that someone is more excited or depressed or full of rage maybe all the time. Any unusual behaviour you see, you report to us immediately’

  ‘Sure sure, I will do that. It has been nice meeting you’

  ‘My pleasure’

  ‘I hope the next time we meet; you have the killer behind the bars’

  ‘Anyone would hope for that’

  ‘Right’ Bill Jameson smiled and left the floor.

  Alan made a disgusted face and turned to them. ‘Still we don’t know anything new, even after talking with him’

  ‘What do ya’ think? He’s saying the truth?’ asked Ryan.

  ‘It seems so as of now’

  ‘And he’s also pretty sure that Paul is not the killer’

  ‘Yes he a
lways said that from the first time we met him’ said Alicia.

  ‘He’s too determined to prove that he’s not the killer. That’s why when I told him that someone else is trying to threaten him, he felt rather relieved to hear that. But why is that?’

  ‘He didn’t react much that time’

  ‘Right. I too noticed that’ said Alan. ‘He didn’t react like normal people would do. He was just happy to prove us wrong.’

  ‘So what does this no reaction means?’

  ‘I don’t know it should mean anything or nothing’

  They turned back suddenly and found Kevin glued to the papers at the corner.

  ‘Hey what’re you looking at?’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ asked Alicia. But no answer came from Kevin’s side .Then after some minutes he looked up and said, ‘I think I have got something here’

  ‘What?’

  As usual, they all gathered behind him peering at the paper, to make out the thing before he could say.

  ‘Look here’ pointed Kevin on the second paper and showed them a normal paragraph. ‘Some letters here are bracketed’.

  ‘What do you mean bracketed?’ asked Alan.

  ‘Here’ said Kevin and now pointed at a particular letter. The paragraph was printed in a extremely small font so it was certainly hard to make out, but you could make out one thing that some of the letters were lined or bracketed with a normal pen which made the paper look more untidy. ‘Here is the word ‘head’ so here form the head only ‘H’ is bracketed like this ‘[H]’.’

  ‘Yeah’ said Ryan. ‘Yeah, right it is.’

  ‘Then I think there might be more letters bracketed like that’ said Alicia. ‘Because a single H means nothing’

  ‘Sure thing’ Kevin turned to the third page, checked the paragraphs trying to find this particular symbol, and said ‘I got two more here’

  ‘But what does this all mean?’ asked Ryan trying to make sense of it.

  ‘Some sort of clue might be’ replied Alan.

  ‘What sort of clue is this?’

  ‘Let me see’

  He rotated the paper to his side and glared at it. Then he took a pen and wrote the letters he found on one side. ‘I think this entire letters when assembled will make a word’

  ‘A word?’ questioned Alicia.

  ‘Yes, maybe that word would be important to us. Let’s try to find out all the remaining letters that are bracketed like this’

  ‘Here’s what I got’ Kevin continued ‘ ‘H’ ‘O’ ‘T’ ‘E’ ‘L’ .’

  ‘Good job Kevin’ said Alan. ‘So H O T E L, hotel?’

  ‘What hotel?’ Ryan was still in the dark.

  ‘Have patience’

  ‘Yes, I found some other letters too’

  ‘And here’s one more’

  He started writing again separating them from the former word he found. All the letters they found when assembled made a dozen more letters but two distinctive words.

  ‘BROADWAY’ Alan read out. ‘It comes as Hotel Broadway’

  ‘Are you sure there’s no more letters left there?’

  ‘There’s some more but the letters are too blurred out’

  ‘We will have to make out anyway’

  ‘But wait a minute’ said Ryan. ‘Hotel Broadway? Are we talking about a hotel that’s in the Broadway?’

  ‘Right we must be talking about some hotel in Broadway .It got to be so’ replied Alan.

  ‘How about Broadway Plaza?’ Kevin looked at everyone to see if his suggestion worked, but they were still confused.

  ‘Is it right Alan?’ asked Ryan.

  Alan remained silent biting his lower lip.

  ‘Oh come on it got to be right’ said Kevin. ‘There’s no other hotel in Broadway other than Broadway plaza’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Definitely’

  ‘Then Broadway Plaza it is’

  ‘Right’

  ‘But it’s not written here if it’s Broadway Plaza or something else’

  ‘No no, there must be’ said Kevin ‘Look, here seems to be a ‘P’ and ‘L’ I think. But I can’t read it properly for sure’

  Alan reached for the paper ‘[P] [L] [A] [Z] [A]. It’s Broadway Plaza’

  ‘Okay, so what are we gonna do with this hotel then?’ asked Ryan.

  ‘Don’t be a fool Ryan’ Alicia and other’s knew it was a foolish question. ‘So it must be the hotel where’s hiding’

  ‘Oh’ Ryan nodded vehemently now.

  ‘Yeah she’s right’ Alan suddenly stood up keeping the papers aside. ‘He is certainly living there now. But the main thing is that he left us a clue to find him out and we just did it after such a long time’

  ‘Why would he not just come out himself? Why wait for us to find him out?’ asked Ryan.

  ‘Perhaps he’s afraid to come out himself that’s why he’s hiding’

  ‘And he knows that those who are behind him will find him eventually no matter where he hides, so it’s better to be found by us the cops before they do’

  ‘Yes that must be the reason’ said Alan. ‘What’re we waiting for?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll be in my car’

  ‘Let’s go’

  * * * * *

  The next few minutes saw them zooming past the lighted evening streets of central Manhattan.

  Twilight had descended and now the sky was dark with a handful of stars and the sun was nowhere to be seen. The temperature was not like it was in the morning but still it was hot enough and the discomfort index was still too high.

  Traffic downtown was slow. The streets and the sidewalks had people, but not overly crowded. People roaming around, teenagers laughing, shopping, having parties not aware of anything that the cops were behind a killer who might even be roaming among them.

  They also soon passed a concert where a local city singer was rapping rapidly without any break.

  ‘How do they speak like that?’ wondered Ryan as Alan looked outside at the buildings and hoped that the traffic will be fast.

  ‘Yeah rap stars everywhere today huh?’ Kevin laughed and punched Ryan.

  ‘That was hard.’

  ‘Hey Alicia why don’t you switch on the stereo of the car. We can hear some song from the radio and –’

  ‘Shut up Kevin. Don’t forget we are trying to catch a killer’

  ‘Oh whatever’ Kevin was in a merry mood. He turned to Ryan. ‘Was it Jay Z too?’

  ‘Nah, he’s not so fast’ said Ryan. ‘It’s supersonic speed’

  ‘Eminem?’

  ‘Got to be’

  Ryan looked at the rear view mirror. ‘Well I don’t keep track of all the songs these days’

  ‘Uh..I know what you mean’

  ‘But I meant nothing’

  ‘Would you shut up both of you’ Alicia was a lot serious now. ‘You are disturbing my focus’

  ‘Relax Alicia. A little amount of humour helps you release the stress from the body. It makes you feels fresh. And songs are always refreshing’ Alan winked at Kevin.

  ‘Yeah! You heard the man. ! Let’s rock’

  They all laughed and Kevin even tried to rap but of course failed miserably, only it was Alicia who became more annoyed.

  They soon entered the main Broadway Ave and the streets were full of shops and shopping malls. It was a busy street, and it remains busy even at midnight .All kind of things were available here. The air conditioned shops had more people than the normal ones, means that people just entered the shops to cool off, not to buy anything, maybe .They soon passed the pizza shop and then found the large and wide orange brick building , with polished layers of stone of the same colour .It also had some glossy windows and a large banner hung on the wall saying ‘BROADWAY PLAZA 11 55’

  Ryan parked the car on the opposite side of the street where he was not even sure if it was a parking spot or not. He stared around the shops and he felt like entering one and start shopping but he then turned to the Broadway Hotel and und
erstood there were some bigger things to worry about.

  The opposite sidewalk contained the wholesale SGT SEE.INC trading stores and it was definitely not a parking zone. But it was a cop car, and people would not try to be bothered about it.

  They crossed the street and entered the hotel. The entrance was just beside the Sunny Broadway INC. Sunglasses store.

  The interior looked great and was long with high ceilings and highly furnished. In the middle there was a straight path leading to the inner most areas of the hotel. The middle side lawn had paths leading to all sides, one of them leading to the ground floor rooms while the other one leads to the elevator and the other places. There was a receptionist who sat on the left side in a counter kind of area which was also designed with high quality stones in a ridiculous way, just behind the place of the security guards with some files, computer and some other miscellaneous things in the basement.

  Soon the receptionist saw them wondering in the middle so she called Ryan first and said ‘Can I assist you with anything?’

  Alan came forward and rested his elbow on the slippery edge and quickly took out his badge and offered it to her so that there remains no more contradictions. It made her a little more alert, as something must be going on here, which she wasn’t aware of.

  ‘We’re searching for a person named Paul Brown, can you check that for us?’ said Alan putting the badge back in his pocket.

  ‘Sure’ she clicked the mouse three times and fixed her gaze on the computer, after a few minutes of typing and random clicking of keys she looked up at them and said ‘Yes, sir. There’s a Paul Brown registered here’

  ‘Terrific’ said Alan ‘Room number?’

  ‘234’

  ‘Which floor?’ asked Alicia who now joined them while Kevin was standing near the elevator.

  ‘3rd.’ She replied.

  ‘Great, thanks’ said Ryan and started to leave for their destination but the receptionist protested and again called them back ‘But I’m terribly sorry to inform you that we don’t allow unknown people to visit our guests.’

  ‘This is important’ said Alicia. ‘We will have to check on him for some reasons’

  ‘What reasons?’

  ‘Reasons that might even involve a murder.’

  ‘Murder?’