INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series)

by ARKOPAUL DAS

  But Alan remained stubborn as he started walking again avoiding the exposure of the direct sunlight by walking under the shades from the trees.

  After a while when Alan walked a few metres more, Ryan came up to him and joined him. Alicia was talking to someone on the backside, but of course, no luck.

  Ryan panted, held his breath then let him cool himself a little. Then he said ‘Asked most of the people there near the main gate, no one recognised the boy’

  ‘Hmm’ Alan looked disappointed and glanced ahead thinking if they should go back and make a new plan.

  There were some other parks too just by the side of the central park like The Arthur Cross Pinetium, The great Lawn soft ball fields but Alan had more faith in the Central Park itself.

  Alan kept looking at all the people, studying them while Kevin also came back after checking the 85th traverse, and his face showed that he got no result. Alan didn’t need to ask him anything.

  Alan and all of them stood under a large tree with broad and wide branches, providing enough shade for everyone to stand.

  ‘There got to be someone who have seen the kid’ Alan murmured to himself.

  Alan thought hard applying his brains, about what can be the alternative way out of this. But suddenly someone said ‘You looking for someone?’ from the back and broke his concentration.

  They turned back to see, an old man with a grey beard with a cap on his head. He wore specs and was short. He looked more like a cowboy, his shirt was a little dirty and so were his trousers.

  Alan tried to be as cool as possible. ‘Yes we are, well why?’

  ‘Saw you guys wondering here for sometime’ he said clearing his throat. ‘Didn’t see much of ya’ll before here’

  ‘Actually we are from NYPD, and I’m detective Smith’ he shook hands with the man who made an awkward expression. Alan was not bothered to introduce others to him. He went on ‘We’re looking for a someone who can shade some light about a boy who’s missing for the past few days and we believe that he went missing right after he came here’ Alan deliberately avoided the word abduction. ‘We’re hoping someone must have seen him and could identify him’

  ‘Okay?’ the man knew there was more to come so he remained calm after hearing all this.

  ‘Can you help us with this?’ Ryan held the picture in front of him and said.

  The man first adjusted his spectacle to get a better look and then laughed and said ‘Oh, this kid, yeah yeah...’

  ‘You know the boy?’ asked Alan instantly hoping he would say yes.

  ‘Yes’ he said and Alan felt relieved.

  ‘But I have no relationship with him. I barely know him. I just know him by sight’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Alicia.

  ‘Okay, let me explain it to you’ said the man, gave another cough after that he continued ‘Well this kid is a part of some sort of sports team. They’re all coming here more or less everyday from the past week in the afternoon and they practises-’

  Alan interrupted. ‘Wait, what sports team?’

  ‘They play with a ball...what does it...uh yes soccer. Yes, I saw him play soccer, wearing this jersey that he’s wearing in the picture you showed’ said the man. ‘With others, seems like the other kids are his team mates of something .And sometimes their ball lands straight in the middle of our poker arena destroying the discipline of the –’

  Alan interjected again ‘Poker arena?’

  ‘Yes, just look there’ he pointed his finger towards the left side where a bunch of old man sat in a round manner under a large row of deodar trees and was playing with some cards and chips. ‘That’s where we play poker regularly among ourselves’

  ‘Okay I understand’ said Alicia. ‘Do you know the boy’s name?’

  ‘No I don’t’ he said. ‘Just like I mentioned before I have no relationship whatsoever with the boy that’s why I know nothing more than that he plays soccer maybe in his school team or something’

  ‘Okay’ said Alan as he was not sure what more was there to ask. The man was quit frank about everything and whatever he said must be all he knows about the kid.

  ‘Thank you’ said Alan and was going to turn back. But he asked again. ‘And when was the last time that you saw the boy here, play?’

  The man thought. ‘Saturday, I would say...yes it got to be Saturday. Yes that was the last time we saw them playing, after that in this week haven’t seen this kid come here’

  The man was still thinking if he had said everything right, but Alan had no time to waste. He said goodbye to him and walked out of the park.

  The car was parked on the opposite side of the street, as he went there and waited for others to join him.

  Ryan came along and said ‘The man had been helpful, now we’re sure that he played soccer, in a high school team.’

  ‘Yes’ said Alan looking at the sky. ‘I think we should try tracking all the school soccer teams and see if we can get something more about this boy’

  ‘So where should we start now?’

  ‘If he plays for some school soccer team, then maybe they got some websites about it or something, can you trace those information?’

  ‘I can try, yes’

  ‘Good. Then do that’ he said and sat on the front seat of the car.

  TWENTY EIGHT

  ‘Okay okay, so we got something here’ declared Ryan as he entered the room where Alan, Alicia and Henderson was discussing something important. Kevin was still downstairs or somewhere else maybe trying to track the man who was in the picture pushing the boy inside the car.

  After they came, Ryan was busy analysing the data, checking everything he could possible get from sitting there, while Alicia Alan and Henderson were discussing the different aspects of the case.

  And Ryan may have got something.

  ‘Tell me you got an ID of the kid’ said Alicia as they both stood up.

  ‘Positive’ said Ryan. ‘I tracked the boy through an online website’

  ‘What website?’

  ‘Sports website actually’ he said ‘New York State Public School Athletic Association, which in short is called NYSPSAA’

  ‘So the kid studies in the New York State Public School?’ asked Henderson.

  ‘I found a picture of a boy identical to the one we have, on this website. I knew this was this boy but still I ran the print in our Facial recognition system just to be sure about it, and it was a perfect match.’

  ‘Do we have any more data about him?’ asked Alan, in a voice that rich people uses when discussing serious business with others.

  ‘Yes, I got the name. It’s Jake McRae, 15, Male’ said Ryan reading it from a small file that he was carrying ‘Plays for under 16 team in the Athletic Association and studies in NYSPS’

  ‘Great so we have most of the things on him now’ said Alicia. ‘It’ll not be much difficult to find him, I guess’

  ‘I do have some more information on him’ said Ryan and checked the file again. ‘He lives in Central Manhattan in the same area near the 1st Avenue where our second victim Paul Brown lived’

  ‘Do they have a connection?’ asked Alan.

  ‘No I don’t think so’ said Ryan. ‘Anyway, then I tracked the records to see if he was really missing or not and I got something new. He’s missing form Saturday, the exact time is 4:26 in the afternoon and the school authorities did inform the 86th department about this. They said after the practice session, everyone was supposed to go back to the school bus, but he didn’t which they noticed later. They also searched the park again but when they failed to find him, they filed a report to the precinct immediately. But as there was no missing report from the parent’s side, they didn’t move the case’

  ‘What?’ said Alicia. ‘They can’t just drop a case like that, they will have to move it’

  ‘Yes, and as they didn’t do that, they did something else.’ said Ryan. ‘They forwarded the case to our department on Sunday night.’

  All three of them
turned to Henderson and stared at him until he spoke. ‘Yeah Yeah I got the report, I asked Lieutenant Sandberg to check it out. But he wasn’t interested’

  ‘Why didn’t you inform us about it?’ Alicia wasn’t going to let him succeed in the argument just like that.

  ‘Look I had other problems to mind that day’ he said looking at everyone trying to be reasonable. ‘And they were all damn important. That’s why I waited for the missing boy’s parents to confirm the report but nothing came. This may well have been a Sunday night prank. So anyone in my place wouldn’t have moved it .I didn’t even know if this was authentic or not’

  ‘But at least you should have informed us, Boss’ said Ryan trying not to annoy him much this time. ‘I would have checked if it was authentic or not for you. You wouldn’t even had to worry about it’

  ‘Yes I would have’ said Henderson. ‘If I knew an abduction is eventually gonna clash with your homicide case, then yes I would have. Furthermore, you guys were all off duty. Only Kevin and Trevor had half-day duty. But the report came long after that. Even I tried others, I called Johnson but he was unavailable and Mike is in sick leave. It was all mixed up you know. And Alan was now where near here at that time’

  ‘Okay’ said Alan listening to their debate for a long time. ‘Leave what happened last Sunday. The main thing is now that we now know a good deal of information regarding this boy, where do we start?’

  ‘I think we should start checking on his family first’ said Alicia. ‘And try to find out why they didn’t lodge a complaint in our department’

  * * * * *

  Ryan pulled over at the 1st avenue, the parking zone was already full, so he parked on the opposite side hoping no one would bother him like he always does.

  ‘Which house?’ asked Alan as this was the first time that he came here.

  ‘There, that one’ said Ryan which looked more like a small sized hotel, but of course it was a personal house. They walked up to the door and decided not to yell at first, so he gently knocked, later Alan found a calling bell, which he clicked.

  But as few more seconds passed without the door opening, Ryan yelled this time, ‘NYPD, open up please’

  He tried hard not to reach for the gun yet. But that’s wasn’t necessary anyway, the door was opened by a man who looked capable enough, and in his fifties with grey shades in his hair and a half wrinkled throat but with a overall tough body. He could well defend himself from someone, if he needs to. He was wearing a checked shirt and normal trousers.

  ‘Yes?’ he asked trying to get a sense of what all this was about.

  ‘Do you have a moment, we need to talk’ said Ryan.

  ‘Ok’ he said and showed them inside. He took them to the upper floor and entered a room, asking them to sit, but they all preferred to stand, as the sofa was a little dusty. There was a ceiling fan which looked like it will never work and it was just a showpiece and that they will just have to burn in the heat, but when he switched on the fan, it did work. There was also an old and rusty book cabinet on the left side, but it contained more magazines than books.

  ‘Mr. McRae’ said Ryan just to get his attention.

  ‘Yes, I am’ he replied. ‘Have we met before?’

  ‘I believe so’ said Alicia.

  Ryan continued. ‘Were you not the man who informed us about the two men you saw arguing on the streets?’

  ‘Oh, yes yes right.’ He remembered now. ‘I do have a terrible memory you know. I sometimes forget things’ he then looked at them carefully again. ‘There was another man, another black man with you that day, right?’ he asked Ryan.

  ‘Yes, you’re right. But he didn’t come today’

  ‘And who is this?’

  ‘Oh, this is Detective Smith,’

  ‘Oh...’ he didn’t say hello to Alan or anything else. He just smiled weakly, Alan returned the smile, happily.

  ‘But you didn’t say what this is for?’ he asked now, wondering ‘did you just come here to ask me all this?’

  ‘Yes. We just came to inform you that the two men you saw arguing is now dead’ said Alicia as a matter of fact.

  ‘Oh, that’s awful’ he didn’t show much emotion now. And his voice was that of a 40 year old.

  ‘But we came here to ask you about something else’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Okay coming straight to the point’ said Ryan. ‘Do you know this kid?’ Ryan offered him the photo.

  ‘ ‘course I do’ said Mr. McRae. ‘That’s Jake. He’s my son’

  He looked at them suspiciously this time.

  ‘Well you will have to hear another sad news now’

  ‘No no...you don’t mean..!’ he exclaimed before anyone could say anything.

  ‘Relax Mr. McRae, he is not dead’ said Alan. ‘But he went missing’

  ‘What, what the hell?’

  ‘That’s right Mr. McRae’ said Alicia. ‘He was abducted Saturday evening or so we believe. Did you know any of this previously?’

  ‘No no, I didn’t know any of this before’ he was shocked for sure this time. ‘Why, why didn’t anybody tell me about this? Oh, I can’t believe it’

  ‘But tell me something Mr. McRae’ asked Ryan. ‘Jake didn’t come home Saturday night, right?’

  ‘Right’

  ‘Why were you not worried about him, that he’s not coming home all these days...?’

  ‘No I wasn’t’

  ‘And why is that?’

  ‘Because he said so’

  ‘He said what?’

  ‘That he wouldn’t come home for a week’

  ‘And why will he not come home?’

  ‘He participated in a inter school soccer match or something like that, and so he had to live in a school hostel, I think with the team members and had to practice for the upcoming match that is on this Saturday. As he told me’

  ‘I see’ said Alan. ‘What he told you is right Mr. McRae. But as it turns out, he was abducted on Saturday when he went for practice’

  Mr. McRae still looked shocked. But he continued talking anyway with them. He was not faint hearted at least. And they were glad that he didn’t go mad on anyone after hearing this, but he was talking to them and maybe would also cooperate with them if needed.

  ‘Where did this happen?’

  ‘Central Park’

  ‘That’s a quite busy area I think’ said McRae. ‘How could anyone just abduct a kid without anyone noticing him doing it?’

  ‘Yeah, we know that it is a busy area, but the guy who did this seems to be a pro so he knows how to do this, be it a busy area or not’ said Ryan.

  ‘We also got the picture of that particular man who abducted Jake’ said Alicia and asked Ryan to show Mr. McRae the picture. Ryan took it out and gave it to him. The picture was not clear. It was formatted, zoomed, adding contrast and everything, before they printed it out and that was the best they could get.

  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 t
hat 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.