The Mind Hunter

by Mir Quadri

  ‘What have I done!’ she thought when suddenly Ronald Casity entered the room. Realizing that her team did not come, probably because they were not allowed in the room, Sarah started weeping loudly. ‘They all stood out for me just before I was dragged into this room, and I have managed to disappoint them all. What would Dan think of me now! Holy shit! What did I do!’ she thought.

  Ron, who was muscular like a black forest tree, smiled at Sarah as he took out his jacket, gently folded it and put it at the corner of the table. Continuing to gaze at her, he slowly removed his cufflinks and folded his shirt sleeves. He then pulled the chair right opposite to Sarah and sat on it.

  “So, Ms Kendall, I am going to ask you very simple questions and you will give me very straight answers” said Ron.

  “I didn’t do anything. Please, I didn’t do anything” cried Sarah out loud.

  “Ms Kendall, please answer to my questions only. All this crying is not going to do you any good. Answers would” he said.

  After a brief pause, Ron continued “So, how many years have you been working for the Homicide department?”

  “Two years” said Sarah still choking as she spoke.

  “And all this time you have been reporting into Special Agent Monroe?” asked Ron.

  “Yes”

  “So, is it fair to say that you have been working very closely with William Ross in the two years you have been with this department?”

  “I don’t know. I just did whatever was asked of me every time” answered Sarah, still weeping as she spoke.

  “Did you see William Ross last night?”

  “Yes” she said softly.

  “When and where?”

  “He was hiding in the back of my car.”

  “Where was your car parked?”

  “My car was parked on the other side of the north entrance. I swear I did not know he was hiding there.”

  “Continue. Tell me what happened after you realized he was at the back of your car?”

  “He asked me to drive to the park”

  “Which park? The one at the end of this street?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you drove? Knowing very well that he is a Wanted Fellon, you just drove with him?”

  “Yes. I am so sorry. I did not know what to do.”

  “You could have called 911. Did he threaten you in anyway?”

  Sarah just kept quit.

  “I asked you a question, Ms Kendall. Were you under any pressure to drive him to the park?”

  “I don’t know. He was Will. I knew him, I just took him there” she said wiping her tears.

  “Unbelievable! Anyways, please continue” said Ron.

  “We went to the park and he told me that he was being framed. He said that he wanted to prove his innocence and he needed my help. I am so sorry, I should not have helped him.”

  “Framed? By who?”

  “He said he was being framed by Ms White.”

  “What? She is currently in Coma because of him and he thinks she framed him. How?”

  Sarah just looked at Ron briefly with complete silence.

  “Ms Kendall. You’re already in a lot of trouble. Don’t make things any worse than they already are. Tell me, why does he think Ms White is framing him?”

  “He said he saw something in the Hunting Session”

  “Saw what?”

  Sarah again went quiet, still continuing to cry. She was still feeling very bad to tattle about Will.

  “My patience is wearing thin. I am not going to repeat myself again. What did he see, Ms Kendall?”

  “He saw himself killing Mr Zhu.”

  Ron, flabbergasted after listening to her, just continued to gaze for a brief moment. Then slowly, he smiled.

  “I knew it” he said while he turned around to look at the glass window of the room. Harry, along with some other officers was standing in the adjacent room, observing the interview through this glass window.

  “Anyways, so he said that he wants to prove his innocence and needed your help. How?” continued Ron.

  “He needed to know where we were keeping Ms White” answered Sarah.

  “Why?”

  “He wants to Hunt Ms White’s memories again to find answers.”

  “Hunt? Hunt how? She is at the hospital. Are you saying he is going to…?”

  Sarah went quiet again, this time crying the loudest. Ron got up from his chair and kneeled closer to Sarah.

  “Are you saying he is going to break into the hospital now?”

  Sarah kept wiping her tears.

  “God damn it! Answer me Sarah” screamed Ron.

  “Yes. He said he will break into the hospital and break her out of it to perform another Hunting Session. He said he is going to do it tonight.”

  The moment she said that, a chaos broke out in the adjacent room. Harry quickly took out his cell phone and called the hospital security.

  “Hey. This is Chief Detective Harry Haimesh. Secure the hospital right now. There’s going to be a break-in” said Harry as he ran out of the door and barged into the interrogation room and went straight to Sarah.

  “Did he tell you how he’s going to do it?” he asked loudly.

  “I don’t know” said Sarah, shivering.

  “Think!” shouted Harry and continued “What did he ask you to help with?”

  “He wanted to see the blue prints of the hospital” she replied.

  “And?”

  “So I showed it to him. What the hell did I do!” she said crying.

  “Geez! You showed him the blue prints. Are you crazy!” screamed Harry in anger.

  “I am sorry, I didn’t know what I was doing” pleaded Sarah.

  “Did he say anything looking at the blue prints?” asked Harry.

  “He just noticed that the he could sneak in through the hospital garage” replied Sarah.

  “Garage?” asked Harry.

  “Yes. He said that it was a huge garage and there are a lot of ambulance vehicles parked in there” she said.

  “So he is going to break-in through the garage using an ambulance?”asked Harry.

  “I don’t know. That’s all I know. I swear. I am sorry” said Sarah.

  Harry turned towards Ron and said “he is going to break-in somehow using an ambulance. Let’s get him” and they both barged out of the door.

  After this revelation, within minutes, the hospital became the nucleus of chaos. With hospital security running around as headless chicken in a farm and over a hundred of foot soldiers surrounding the hospital, a panic attack had stuck the entire place. Harry joined the chaos as his car zoomed into the parking lot with Dan. As soon as the car stopped, Harry jumped out of the car and ran into the hospital. Ron followed him.

  “So, what’s the plan, sir?” asked Ron

  “We trap him” replied Harry while still briskly walking in the corridor.

  “Trap him how?” asked Ron.

  “Sarah said that he noticed the big garage in the blue print. That is where we need to trap him” he said as they took the stairs down to the garage. The moment they entered the garage, they realized that this was a massive parking garage with over 150 parked ambulance vehicles and 5 entry and exit points.

  “Geez! This is really a big garage” noted Ron.

  After a brief pause, Harry came closer to Ron and said “okay, I want cameras installed at all entry and exit points. This is a pretty big building, so have snipers ready at across all the major elevated building surrounding this hospital. I want the traffic to be blocked from the South of this street, but keep the traffic on from the North and the North East exits of the street. We need to have some flow of traffic so that he does not notice any unusual changes”

  “You got it, sir” replied Ron.

  “I want this building completely sealed. I want cops dressed as doctors and civilians flowing in and out of the hospital to make it look normal. No regular patients go either in or out of the hospital. No emergency cases…nothing. Di
rect all these to other hospitals. I want all hospital phone lines taped. Again, no one gets in or leaves this hospital until all this is over”

  “Sure, sir”.

  “And listen, take all these ambulance vehicles out of this garage and park them temporarily somewhere else. He said he was going to use the ambulance as a decoy to break-in. When he enters this garage, he will have the shock of his life when he sees no other vehicle here but his, making it even more easier for us to identify his vehicle”

  “Got it!”

  “And last thing, all these vehicles will exit through only one exit and I want sniffer dogs examining each vehicle before it leaves the hospital. I don’t care how long it takes, but I want all this done within the hour. Can you do this officer?”

  “On it, sir” said Ron as he ran off to implement all the instructions. Over the next one hour, the chaos reached it’s peak where hundreds of officers barged the hospital to make the arrangements. Several sniffer dogs came in and examined each ambulance as it left the building. Snipers spread across buildings to secure the entire building, while cops, dressed as civilians, spread across the hospital guarding each floor carefully.

  After all the arrangements were fully made, Harry took a walk around the building, inspecting each floor carefully. He came to the second floor and to room 209, where Ms White was put in. He opened the door and peeked inside to check on her. There were two officers standing right in front of the door guarding the door. He then stepped into the room and checked the windows and confirmed that they were all bolted. Ms white, in her patient gown, covered head to toe and wearing an oxygen mask, was unconscious with the pulse monitor beeping appropriately. After checking all the locks, Harry walked out of the room as he shut the door behind him.

  “Did anyone go in or out of this room?” asked Harry.

  “No, sir. We have been here since morning. No unauthorized person went in or out. Once every hour, a nurse comes in to check on the patient and we have not even allowed her inside the room, in the last hour. She peeked through the door and left” said one of the officers.

  “Good. No matter what happens, don’t let anyone in or out of this room” instructed Harry. As he turned around, he saw a fat figure, of a man, walking towards him from the other side of the corridor. Following him were a bunch of personnel in suits. As Harry looked carefully, he realized that this fat figure approaching him was the Chief of Police, Raymond Cas.

  “How are we doing so far, Harry?” asked Cas as he got closer to Harry.

  “Everything is per schedule Chief. As I briefed you earlier, the trap is all set. Ron is currently hiding in the garage to arrest him the moment he gets into the building. We have snipers, sniffer dogs, security all over this and around five block radius of this hospital. There is no way he will be able to get her out of this building” replied Harry.

  “Good. How’s Evelyn doing?”

  “Well, she was not very pleased to find out that we spied on her and her team. But as we had discussed, she is kept out of this entire case. She knows nothing of what we are doing” muttered Harry.

  “Good. We got to keep it like that” said Cas and continued “well, what now?”

  “Now, we wait. Wait for him to show up. I heard the terrace gives the best view” said Harry smiling.

  “Let’s go” replied Cas, as they both walked to the terrace.

  1 hour later…

  Everyone waited anxiously as tension built up. Harry, along with Cas kept looking through their binoculars at the street while Ron and his team waited patiently behind the dumpster at the corner of the garage. While Harry continued to scan the neighborhood, he heard one of his men on the radio “sir, there is an ambulance approaching the hospital from the North East entrance of the street.” On hearing this, Harry immediately sprung into action. He held the radio closer to his mouth and said “Ron, I think this is Will. Stand by everyone. I want him to completely get into the garage. I want visual confirmation” as he spotted the ambulance from a distance through his binoculars.

  The ambulance slowed down as it approached the gate. It stopped for a brief moment and then proceeded into the gate slowly. It went right into the garage and stopped in the middle.

  “Does anyone have a visual confirmation?” asked Harry, through his radio.

  “Negative. The ambulance just arrived. No one’s got out yet” responded Ron as he and his team looked at the ambulance from behind the massive building pillars. Suddenly, a loud rock music started playing in the ambulance.

  “What was that?” asked Harry in the radio from the terrace.

  “I don’t know, sir. He is playing some loud music. Should I intercept?” asked Ron.

  “Nope. I want visual confirmation first. Do you have it” answered Harry.

  “No. Nothing yet” replied Ron.

  “Well. Let’s wait for him to get out” ordered Harry.

  Suddenly, the lights at the garage and the entire building started flickering. All the metal equipment in the building started moving towards the direction of the ambulance.

  “What the hell is happening?” asked Cas. It suddenly hit Harry… it’s magnet.

  “Oh dear, he is using a powerful magnet. He is trying to take the power down” said Harry as he screamed in the radio “Intercept. Holy shit, intercept. Get him before he gets the power.”

  On hearing this, Ron and his team ran towards the ambulance vehicle. Just as they got closer to the ambulance, their guns got pulled out of their hands and got stuck to the ambulance, which was now pulling everything that was metal towards itself.

  “Damn it” shouted Ron as the ambulance turned on, with the beam lights blinding him and his team.

  “What the hell is going on” shouted Harry, who now just heard static noise in his radio. “Damn it, radio is out” said Harry and ran downstairs as Cas followed him. He ran straight to check in on Ms White on the second floor. Just as he approached the door he saw both the guards standing inside the room. Harry and Cas entered the room and found Ms White still on her bed.

  “Geez! Thank god. Did anyone come here?” asked Harry, panting for air.

  “No, sir. The moment the lights started acting weird we came in to guard her. No one came here” responded one of the guards.

  “Thank god” sighed Cas. “Stand here and make sure no one enters the room” said Harry as he ran out of the door and to the garage. Cas followed him, panting like he might get a heart attack. The moment Harry and Cas entered the garage, they saw the ambulance with the front door opened, with Ron and team standing around the ambulance.

  “What the hell happened?” asked Harry.

  “He is gone, sir. I think he realized that this is a trap and just fled” replied Ron.

  “Did the snipers see anything?” asked Harry.

  “I doubt it, sir. I think the whole hospital went dark because of the flickering lights. I don’t think they saw anything” muttered Ron.

  “I want the entire building thoroughly checked by the sniffer dogs. He could still be here” said Harry.

  “What about Ms White?” asked Ron.

  “She is safe. He never made it that far” answered Harry.

  “Well, we couldn’t catch him but we did shoo him off” said Ron.

  “Did we? What the hell was all this?” asked Harry, doubtfully.

  “What do you mean. Do you think there is more to this than meets the eye?” asked Ron.

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on” said Harry.

  “You know who may know?” interrupted Cas and continued “Evelyn” he said as Harry nodded in agreement.

  Back at the station, Dan, who was clearly very concerned about Sarah, was getting very anxious. He walked up slowly to Kate’s desk, who was working on her laptop with her glasses on.

  “What do you think they’ll do with Sarah?” asked Dan.

  “I am not sure, Dan” replied Kate as she kneeled backwards on her chair and removed her glasses. After looking around to confirm no one was
watching them, she said “Harry apparently has quarantined Sarah from getting in touch with anyone else but Ron or himself. Even boss has been kept out of the loop.”

  “Why is there so much of chaos” pointed Dan which was evident by the way officers were moving around on their floor.

  “Something must have happened. Sarah probably gave out some information about Will. I heard there is some operation going on at the hospital, which clearly we were not invited into” responded Kate. She turned around and found Evelyn sitting alone in her office. “Let’s check in on boss” she said as they both walked into Evelyn’s office.

  “What’s up boss. How are you holding up?” asked Kate.

  “I am good, Kate. Did you hear anything about Sarah yet?” asked Evelyn.

  “Well, they are not letting us anywhere close to her right now” pointed Dan.

  “I understand guys. Don’t worry. I am sure she is fine” said Evelyn.

  “I still can’t believe she would be that stupid to talk to Will” pointed Kate in disappointment.

  “It’s not her. It’s him. Will” said Evelyn.

  “Why is he doing all this?” asked Dan.

  “I am not sure. But from his message, I think he is trying to prove that he is not guilty” replied Evelyn.

  “What do you think boss. Is he really innocent?” asked Kate when suddenly Harry and Cas barged into Evelyn’s office.

  “Special Detective Evelyn Monroe. We need to talk” said Cas as he looked at her and smiled.

  “Chief, what are you doing here?” enquired Evelyn in surprise.

  “We’ll go outside ma’am” said Dan, overwhelmed by the presence of powerful people in this room.

  “No. We need to talk to your entire team” said Harry as he directed Kate and Dan to sit.

  “What? Is there something you guys are confused about and can’t get to by bugging my team anymore?” said Evelyn sarcastically.

  “Something happened Evelyn, and I think you can help yourself by helping us right now” said Cas.

  “What do you mean?” asked Evelyn.

  “Well, Sarah told us that Will was going to break into the hospital tonight to break Ms White out. She said that Will wanted to perform a ‘Hunting Session’ to prove his innocence” said Cas and looked at Harry to continue.