by ARKOPAUL DAS
But McRae called them back. ‘Wait’
Mr. McRae quickly wore a watch, looked at himself in the mirror, found his mobile, and took it in his pocket. He did all this things in exactly about 30 seconds.
‘Uh...you wanted to say something Mr. McRae?’ asked Ryan thinking what for he called them.
‘Yeah, right. I’ll come along’ he said.
‘No no you don’t need to come with us’ insisted Ryan.
‘Yes Mr. McRae you don’t need to come with us’ said Alicia. ‘I assure you, we will try to find Jake as soon as possible. You don’t need to strain yourself. We’ll keep you posted’
‘You keep quiet’ he said roughly. ‘I am not waiting here for a single second when my son is barely trying to survive. I will wait in the precinct until you can get Jake and can bring him to me. Or else I’m never leaving the precinct. You all get it?’ he glanced at their surprised faces.
‘But--’Alicia tried to stop him.
‘Now will it be okay if I ask you to take me in your car or should I call a cab?’ said Mr. McRae.
Ryan turned to Alan waiting for him to decide and Alan knew it would be waste of time trying to stop Mr. McRae. So he said ‘Sure Mr. McRae, come along with us’
* * * * *
‘Who is he?’ said Henderson as they entered his room. After they reached the precinct, he also followed them to the 2nd floor. Alan asked him to sit and wait in the guest sitting chairs outside in the lawn and make himself comfortable.
‘Kid’s father’ replied Alicia with tiredness in her voice.
‘Oh, but what he is doing here?’
‘Ask him. He will be here until we can bring Jake to him’
‘That’s another problem’
‘Or distraction’ said Ryan.
‘Right’
‘So did he know about all this?’ Henderson asked.
‘No he didn’t know about anything’ said Alicia. ‘He was trying to accuse us for wasting so many days’
‘Oh’ Henderson remained quiet even after hearing that they've wasted time, because it was for him that this happened. Otherwise, he would also have supported McRae and would have accused them too.
He cleared his throat and said ‘Is he all cool other than that?’
‘A little angry’
‘Naturally’
‘But the main problem is that he will not leave unless we get Jake or unless we summon a bunch of security guards to kick him out’ said Ryan.
‘No we can’t kick him out just like that’ said Henderson. ‘That would mean entertaining some more problems’
‘But how do we find Jake?’
‘We will find him anyway’ said Henderson. ‘Or else many people including media would start a riot outside’
‘More problems’
‘Okay any more progress in this case?’
‘Nothing yet’ said Ryan leaning in the chair. The floor was deserted today because it was 12 noon and Henderson was also free. They could well have a nice relaxing chat among them. But they got things to worry now.
‘Where’s Kevin?’
‘Not sure’ said Ryan. ‘He was supposed to be checking on the man who abducted Jake’
‘Oh,’ exclaimed Henderson then he couldn’t hold this from coming out his mouth. ‘Man, I should have checked on this case before’ Regretting that he didn’t move it.
‘No worries boss’ said Ryan trying to soothe him. ‘We got this’
‘And where’s Alan?’
‘With Mr. McRae, I guess’
‘But there’s another problem that I can see here’ said Henderson trying to sound serious’
‘What?’ asked Alicia.
‘People usually abduct kids when they want something in return’ said Henderson. ‘But this time the kidnappers aren’t saying anything. Or wanting anything. Look, they abducted him on Saturday and for nearly five days; they’re keeping quiet without demanding anything from us. Isn’t that a little odd?’
‘It is’ said Alicia realising the value of Henderson’s thought. ‘Is the boy in the city, or country?’
‘Why would they take him out of the country?’
‘Just a random thought’ said Alicia and thought about some more thoughts.
‘But look if we can get the child then I think we will also be able come near the finish line of our murder case’ said Ryan and looked at both of them. ‘Now we both know why these two men were killed and what was the killer asking from Paul Brown. We can now answer that. He took a picture in the middle of an ongoing abduction and that’s why the killer went nuts to get the camera. Paul Brown put the matters in a Pen Drive, destroyed the camera making it look like the killers will never get those things and the killers then finished him. And after that...well so far so simple’ said Ryan as he didn’t knew what to say ‘after that’.
‘And what about the other dead man Jade Carter?’ asked Henderson, ‘What reason did the killers had for killing him?’
‘That’s because...because he was there too’ said Ryan. ‘They both witnessed the crime and one of them even took a picture so both of them were a serious threat to the killer. And they had to kill these two men, one by one. Isn’t it? I think we nearly solved the case. Only the abduction thing is left’
‘Yes we need to find the kid first’ said Alicia who was the least bothered with Ryan’s theories, but was quite worried with the present position they were in.
‘And it would be real hard to catch them’ informed Henderson. ‘These guys are quite a pro. The know how to strangle and they know how to abduct. They have enough experience in all this and they know how to carry out this kind of job very well. So you see, it will be tough to get hold of them’
‘Yeah, I know’ said Ryan. ‘I just hope that they ask for something and make our work easier’
‘How do you think it will make our work easier?’
‘If they ask for money, we pay them. Then we’re done’
‘Bad idea’ Alicia replied. ‘If they ask for money and we pay them then we’ll lose both the money and the kid’
‘You mean they would kill the kid anyway?’
‘Maybe, you just can’t be sure about their intentions, can you? They can do anything’ said Alicia.
‘Yes she’s right’
‘Yeah but we will have to pay them if we don’t have any other option’ Ryan pointed out.
‘Yes we have to’ said Alicia. ‘That’s why we would have to make sure that there’s an alternate option always available’
‘Oh’ Ryan became confused.
Alicia soon became irritated and stood up, starting to pace the room. ‘Time is getting wasted. Why the hell is Kevin not showing up yet’
‘Must be somewhere else’ said Ryan. ‘Haven’t seen him in the building today’
Alicia made another disgusted look hearing that, looked at her watch and went outside to pace the lawn.
‘She hardly has any patience’ Ryan concluded to Henderson. ‘And it’s true that a lot of time is getting wasted. I’d better go and find him’
Alan was talking with McRae about how was Jake as a teenager, was he like normal or was he a little reserved...well this kind of things when he noticed Alicia come out and make her way up to the elevator. Then as the door opened she went in, the lift went straight down.
Mr. McRae was comfortable now, with a magazine and a newspaper to read and hot/cold all kinds of coffee and drinks at his disposal, he was now relaxing, as they asked him to do. So Alan excused himself and went inside Henderson’s room.
‘What’s the matter?’ Alan asked looking at them. They were tired, yes, but not much worried about anything new other than whatever problems they were already in.
‘About Alicia?’ said Ryan. ‘She went to find Kevin’
‘Oh, I see’ Alan took the empty chair and sat down thinking what discussion was going on here or did he miss anything important.
‘So Alan’ started Henderson. ‘I see you all are going quite well as a part
of detective team’
‘Yeah’
‘How do you like them?’
‘Sure they’re great to work with’ he said leaning back.
‘How is McRae doing?’
‘He’s doing fine. I asked him to take some rest and be comfortable’
‘But I don’t think he will remain relaxed any longer if we don’t find Jake soon’ concurred Ryan.
‘That’s correct. And who says that we will not find Jake. We’ll surely find him’ said Alan and looked confident about it.
‘We still have no idea where he might be now or who abducted him’ said Ryan scratching his head.
‘Come on. We know who abducted him. We have him in our files, his picture. It’s just a matter of time before we get to ID him’
‘He would be hiding somewhere. Wherever he kept the boy’ said Henderson.
‘But I don’t understand that why do I get the feeling that he might not be the actual abductor’ Ryan was always confused.
‘How do you mean?’
‘Maybe he’s working for somebody else. He’s just carrying out his orders’
‘That might be correct’
‘Okay but the main thing remains the same’ said Alan. ‘If we get this man we get that somebody who hired him to do this, and if we get that somebody first then we can find this man through him’
Henderson rested his hand over his jaw and listened to the conversation of Ryan and Alan, their suggestions and deductions, everything. He then pulled out a paperweight from under the table and started playing with it, looking at both of them. After sometime he got bored, so he stood up, hands clutched and stood in front of the open window at the west side, just behind him. He slid up the blinds and faced the city outside.
It was still a busy hour going on and there were a lot of noises outside. The atmosphere was more or less clean and hot. He unbuttoned his blazer and let it hang when he realised that he was perspiring inside the shirt. He wanted some cool air to blow but it was noontime, and the sun was burning down, so it was only the warm heavy airs that he received.
Suddenly there was a knock behind and as he turned back, he saw Kevin enter the room.
‘Oh at last you came’ said Henderson taking back his chair. ‘We were all waiting for you’
Alicia also entered with him and stood at the back.
‘Sometimes you should have patience if you want the best thing’ said Kevin smiling at everyone.
‘Really?’ said Ryan.
‘Yes, maybe your wait is worth it’ said Kevin.
‘Okay, tell us the outcome of this wait, will ya’ said Henderson as he was still not sure if he was bluffing or not.
‘Result is positive’ he said and flipped open the file he bought. ‘Okay I checked on this man and our system found a match. It was tough because the picture of the man was only visible partially but still we got if after a lot of buffering in our server.’ He kept the photo of the man on the table. ‘This man as it seems works for a man named Donovan. Hall Donovan .I checked the records. He is a Hitman himself who served in France in his early years, then he became a fugitive, changed his identity, left the country, came here and settled in New York, although there was no permanent address of him mentioned here, nor is there any place of birth or anything like that. And for his personal appearance , he is 6’1 ,white , male. Name is Bob Schimdt . And does some of the dirty works in USA now.’
‘His records are quite brutal isn’t it?’ said Henderson after hearing all this.
‘Yup’ Kevin nodded.
‘And that means he is a professional killer’
‘He is quite a pro in everything else too’
‘I see’
Everyone took a moment to think about this clearly.
‘So this man, Bob is quite dangerous as it turns out, just like we feared it would be’ said Kevin as if giving a warning to someone. ‘So I tell you the kid is not safe, not safe at all, we need to find him as soon as possible’
‘You also don’t know if the kid is alive or not’ said Henderson. ‘Given the circumstances --’ Alicia interrupted him and said. ‘We will have to check on that boy anyway’
‘Right’ Henderson didn’t say what he was going to say.
‘But you said he works for someone named Hall Donovan’ said Alan. ‘Who is this Hall Donovan?’
‘Sorry I also don’t know him .But if you want, I can check if he has any records yet. I thought that Bob is our main priority now so I skipped that part. But about this Donovan, I bet he will be the same like the—’
‘Oh you don’t need to check on him’ said Alicia. ‘Most of the people know who he is. So do I’
‘Well then?’ Alan waited and asked. ‘Who’s he?’
‘He is a gangster. Everything is in his hands; he does whatever he wants to do. And he is a sort of a maniac. A deadly combination you see. That’s why he is often referred as The Deadly Donovan. And he have a phenomenal amount of sources behind him who helps him out in every move. Most of the time his men carries out the dirty works for him, just like Bob is one of them I’m sure, and he just sits back, counts money ,and when he gets bored he then takes up a hard job himself, just to spice up his life’
‘Okay, he is more like Bob then?’ asked Henderson.
‘Much more dangerous than Bob’ said Alicia not exaggerating of course.
‘What sort of work does he do?’ asked Alan.
‘You will find everything under his records. Starting with mass murder, aggravated assault, bank robbery, Burglary, drug trafficking, Larceny, white collar crimes, illegal gambling and arms dealing ,man slaughter, cyber bullying ,shoplifting, racketeering, then there’s...’
‘Okay okay I got it’ said Alan.
‘Okay the main thing is that these both men are dangerous’
‘Terribly dangerous’ Alicia added.
‘So what can we do now?’ Henderson was a little worried.
‘We should think about how we can get the boy first’ said Alicia.
‘That will be more like suicide’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Try to understand it’ Henderson continued. His voice became serious automatically. ‘This is like a death trap. Homicide department dealing with a crime boss like this, is more like killing oneself’
‘We dealt with gangsters before’
‘But this is kinda’ different’ he said. ‘If we lose an officer now, or a detective chasing this criminal, then it will be a bad name for the department.’
‘No it will be a bad name for the main chief of the department, not the department itself’ Alicia was becoming furious hearing all this excuse. ‘You are just afraid that you’ll lose your job’
‘No no, I’m not worrying about my job. I’m worrying about our life. Look, this man is a kind of man; if you poke him with a pen he will poke you back with a razor. So you see what I wanna say? This is organized crime’
‘Did you see the child? He’s in danger and we’re going to help him. I am not going to think too far ahead’ Alicia came near the table.
‘I know what you’re telling is true’ Henderson remained in his cool. ‘But our hands are tied; we can’t go beyond common things or homicide. We should inform the deputy commissioner of the Organized Crime Control Bureau. They have the number of the chief of the OCCB and can call him and the Auxiliary Police section if needed. Because if the internal affairs finds this out that the detective bureau department have handled an organized crime then we are all busted. Not only me but also you all. You got it. And the present Chief commissioner of the Internal Affair and intelligence unit is a real badass’
‘There isn’t any organized crime here’ Said Alicia trying to make sense of whatever he said. ‘It is a simple homicide and abduction.’
‘It involves a crime boss’
‘What difference does it make,’ she continued. ‘I will talk to the Commanding officer of the OCCB, if needed. You got it?’
‘He’s right Alicia’ said Ryan
. ‘We are not authorized to talk to the Commanding officer of the internal affairs unit, not even the specialized victim squad officer’
Alicia stood straight keeping her temper in check. ‘I ain’t dropping the case’
‘Things are gonna get nasty’
‘I would give it a shot anyway’
‘You don’t realize how -- ’
‘I don’t care how nasty the things become. I think the things are already quite nasty unless we think about clearing up the mess. But I am not going to hide like this, just because it is a gangster this time’
‘But—’
‘Here’ Alicia kept the badge on the table. ‘You will have to take this in order to make me drop the case’
‘Just drop the investigation and take a day off, I will manage the McRae guy. Things will cool down in two or three days after which I will assign you with a new cold case. How about that?’
‘That’s not possible. I cannot do that. I will move the case unless you suspend me’ she said and she was sure Henderson couldn’t suspend her for moving a case forward. And the reasons he could show would not be satisfactory.
‘And I know how to confront a criminal’
‘That’s not the point’ said Henderson. ‘Situation changes, the current situation in the Precinct is pretty heated up already, and I don’t wanna put more petrol in the fire’
‘Look I will not look at the situation in the precinct’ said Alicia with a cold voice. ‘What I will see is the situation outside. I can only see now that two common citizens are dead and a boy is abducted, and what’re we doing? We’re discussing how to drop the case. I don’t think things can get any more nasty’
‘But—’
Alicia didn’t let Henderson finish the sentence. ‘See, we may have more problems if we don’t move the case .Look there’ she pointed at McRae outside through the glass door who knew nothing of what was going on inside. ‘He is quite determined to get his kid back, and he will go haywire if we don’t find him. You can’t manage him. He will give one poke at the NY Times and hundreds of aggressive reporters and the whole media will be lined outside the building for the whole day. Did you ever think how you’re going to manage that? The board will investigate it then when they find out that it’s for us this happened then they will fire us forever, I think. So, you see problems are not going to go away just by dropping the case. We will have to move it and see it until the end. If I were you I would have happily given the permission to chase the killers by now’
