The Mind Hunter

by Mir Quadri

  “Geez!” exclaimed Harry and screamed “then how the hell did he get into the hospital?”

  ‘We were always wrong. He never broke into the hospital. He walked in” said Evelyn.

  “Walked in? How?”

  “How can you walk into the hospital?” asked Evelyn.

  “I don’t understand…you mean he came in…” it just hit him!

  “Yes. Like a patient” said Evelyn handing him over the papers of his check-in. It had Fernando Lynchi in the list of general ward admissions.”

  “Even if he was admitted, how did he make it to the room downstairs. I had officers guarding the room 24/7?” asked Harry.

  “He somehow managed to get to this room. Maybe he walked in a disguise, maybe he used the vents above” said Evelyn.

  “We checked the video footage of the hospital but could not locate him. He was admitted in the room downstairs but never came out. Atleast in the video” said one of the admin folks of the hospital who was standing in the same group.

  “Well, that’s my point. Ms White was never admitted in this room. She is one floor under, in room 209” said Harry.

  “And where is that room located?” asked Evelyn.

  “Right under this room!” said Harry.

  “So, here’s what most probably happened. Will somehow managed to get into this room. The reason for that could be the hotel room right across the street” she said pointing out to the hotel room 403.

  “But why?” asked Harry.

  “I am not sure. He probably needed to get something heavy that he could not bring into the hospital as a patient. But he had to pull that into this room. We found a rope hanging from the window of that room. Not sure how he did it, but he got what he needed through this window” said Evelyn while pointing the window.

  “Did we…?” interrupted Harry.

  “Yes. We checked the security footage over the outside of the building. But Harry, this is Will. He realized that all the cameras outside are pointing down and none of them are covering this floor elevation. That’s why he selected this room” said Evelyn.

  “There was a patient in this room already and we found traces of animal tranquilizer in his blood, which Will injected into him to make him unconscious. Using this same window, he went down to the second floor, into the room using some kind of harness which he probably got from the stuff he tried to get from his hotel room.”

  “Well, that still does not answer my question. How did he get pass the two officers who were guarding the room. There was a nurse who was checking in every hour, remember?” asked Harry.

  “That nurse was found unconscious in Ms White’s bed, who we thought was Ms White” said Evelyn.

  “Yeah, but a nurse walking into the room but not coming out would have triggered the officers to check into the room, right?” asked Harry.

  “Well, that’s a good point. Let’s go talk to the officers, shall we?” said Evelyn as they all walked to the second floor. While they were walking, Sarah realized that this was a master plan. Though she was unhappy about what was going on, she was thrilled at the fact that Will was able to fool everyone, including Harry, in breaking-in. She was not the only one who got fooled!

  The group entered room 209. There was the nurse, still lying in the same bed, alive and conscious.

  “What happened here?” asked Evelyn.

  “I am not sure, officer. When I entered the room, a hand covered my mouth and I felt a syringe go into my neck, and I was out” she said.

  “How about you officers?” asked Evelyn looking at the two guards on duty.

  “We did not see anything suspicious ma'am” replied the two officers.

  “Well, how the hell did you guys not notice the nurse not coming out?” shouted Harry.

  “As I said sir, we did not see anything suspicious. We saw the nurse come out. Every time” replied one of the officers.

  “How’s this possible?” asked Harry to Evelyn.

  “Maybe you did see the nurse come out but only that he was not the nurse that went in?” said Evelyn to the officers and continued “did you see all the nurse’s faces while they were coming out?”

  The officers looked at each other, trying to think hard if they did.

  “You sure? Be frank, it’s okay if you didn’t” asked Evelyn.

  “We’re not sure ma'am. Probably we didn’t, sometimes. It’s hard to say” said one of the officers.

  “Unbelievable!” gasped Harry.

  “If they didn’t, then Will was clearly wearing a nurse’s coat. He has been giving animal tranquilizers to the patients and that is a prescription drug” said Evelyn and turned around and looked at a doctor standing near her “could you please look at the inventory room and tell me if everything is accounted for. I have a feeling he probably stole that stuff from there”

  “Sure” said a lady doctor and walked out of the room.

  “Well, for now we are running under the assumption that he did get out of the room. He must have gone back to the third floor and come down again. Looking at this, I think he also took the body upstairs, using the same harness and then left the building” said Evelyn.

  “Don’t you think this is all circumstantial? Do you have any evidence to proof this theory?” asked Harry.

  “Yes” said Evelyn and handed over a bag with a shoe in it.

  “This is his shoe. We found it in a bush just outside this window. I am guessing he dropped it by mistake but did not get time to pick it up” said Evelyn.

  “And all this happened, the same night when he told Sarah. He actually spoke to Sarah on purpose. We thought he made his first mistake, but I should have known, he never makes mistakes” continued Evelyn.

  “He spoke to me because he wanted to see the blue prints of this hospital ma'am” interrupted Sarah.

  “I don’t think so, Sarah. He could have gotten those anyways. I think he pretended to show you that he cared for those blueprints because he wanted to send us a message that he will break-in the next night. Instead, he broke in the same night and by the time we came into the hospital, trying to stop him from breaking into this hospital, he already had Ms White.”

  The entire room was silent as Evelyn uncovered this truth. Harry broke this spree after two minutes.

  “If he wanted to just break-in, why did he go through the pain to tell Sarah all this? He could have done it anyways without us knowing at all?” asked Harry.

  “He needed a ride back” grinned Evelyn.

  “What?” asked Harry.

  “What did you do when you sealed this building”

  “I made sure we had snipers, dogs etc. I moved the ambulances….” Harry stopped realizing that he made it easy for Will to leave this building.

  “Yes, Will specifically mentioned ambulance vehicles to Sarah and you all fell for it. He needed a ride back and I think he was hiding in one of those vans.”

  “Geez!” said Harry in disappointment.

  “That’s all fine ma'am, but what about the ambulance he came back with. Why would he do that?” asked one of the officers.

  “Well, that’s the part I don’t understand yet. Let’s take a look at the ambulance” said Evelyn as they all walked out of the room.

  Meanwhile, Will got out of the cab in a busy street. He went into a big building, and got into a big elevator, which took him to the terrace. At the terrace, he looked through his binoculars and he saw a a huge parking lot, right opposite to this building he was standing in. Tuning his binoculars further by his fingers, he zoomed his vision into an opened window of that building and saw a man, with white shirt, sitting at his desk with his back turned towards the window. He looked around and did not find anyone else on this floor.

  At the hospital, Evelyn and gang arrived at the ambulance site and joined Ron.

  “So, this is the ambulance, huh? Ron, can you take me through the events of the night again when this ambulance arrived here?” asked Evelyn. Ron looked at Harry for approval who nodded, signaling him t
o proceed.

  “At around four in the morning, we saw this ambulance come in through the gates slowly and park at the same spot. We heard some loud rock music coming from it. When we approached the vehicle, all our guns swung and got stuck to the ambulance and the power went out. By the time we realized what was going on, he was gone” said Ron.

  “Hmm, power went out and guns got stuck. Probably magnet?” asked Evelyn.

  “Yes, that’s right. The ambulance is filled with these” said Ron and opened the ambulance door. There were a bunch of batteries connected in series with a big horseshoe magnet, forming an electromagnetic circuit. It also had a big speaker set with a disc inside the player.

  “Hmm, this is strange, there’s something more going on here. I am afraid this is not over yet” said Evelyn.

  After thinking deeply for a while, she spoke “so he goes to Sarah and asks her to show the blueprint because it’s a decoy for his commute back from the hospital. He tells her that he is going to break into the hospital the next day knowing that you will order the ambulances to be taken off this building.”

  “So?” asked Harry.

  “And then, he comes back like this and leaves the ambulance here?”

  “What are you getting at?” asked Harry.

  “Why would he leave the ambulance here unless…” Evelyn stopped. Her eyes widened out as she figured out what happened.

  “What?” asked Harry.

  “Unless he knows that this ambulance has something we are interested in” said Evelyn.

  “What does it have?” asked Harry with bated breath.

  “Ms White. Jesus!, Ms White is in this ambulance” said Evelyn.

  Meanwhile, Will, wearing the same hoodie and covering his head, crossed the busy street and walked towards the south end entrance of this building that he was looking at before. As he approached the security gate, he swiped a badge and the doors opened. The digital monitor on the side of the door showed “ Welcome, Ronald Casity”

  ‘Nothing changed here in the last few days!’ thought Will as he walked into the main police Station building where he, along with Evelyn and her team worked.

  “YOU SEE THE DILEMMA”

  Panic stuck once again as the entire group stormed into the ambulance, searching for Ms White.

  “Evelyn, are you sure about this?” asked Harry, standing inside the van with ten other agents, searching through the stack of batteries.

  “I’m not sure sir, but that’s the only thing that explains him bringing this ambulance back to us” replied Evelyn, while inspecting the van from outside.

  Meanwhile, Will went to the second floor of this Police Station building, which he just broke into, slowly looking around as he walked. The Station was deserted as the majority of the personnel were waiting for Will at the Rivermark train Station and the others were at the hospital. Will walked slowly into the floor, looking at every desk. He then swiftly moved into the restroom and gazed at the fire alarm chart on the wall. He took out his mobile phone and took a picture.

  Meanwhile, at the hospital, after searching through the van for several minutes, Ron noted “I don’t think there is anything in here, sir.”

  “It’s got to be here” replied Evelyn.

  “Where? We have searched the van completely. There’s nothing in here” retorted Ron.

  Everybody looked at Evelyn, who still was not convinced.

  “Okay, did the finger print guys get all the prints on this vehicle?” asked Harry.

  “Yes” replied Ron.

  “Well, then let’s tear this ambulance apart. It’s of no use anyways. Let’s get all this stuff out of this damn van” declared Harry pointing at all the batteries. On getting the order, the agents started moving all the stuff out of the van, one after another. As one of the agents picked up the last battery, she noticed a sleek tube, almost like a wire, getting into a very small hole, under the grey colored seat, inside the van.

  “I have something here” she shouted.

  Evelyn got into the van and looked at the tube. This battery was placed inside the box. Evelyn tried to open the box but failed as the box was sealed with bolts.

  “A little help here officer” requested Evelyn looking at Ron.

  Ron, who was already inside the vehicle, took out a knife and peeled the side of box and opened it. There was a small oxygen cylinder placed inside the box, hidden like a battery.

  “I think we found her” said Evelyn as her fingers ran down the tube and under the seat cover.

  “She is in here” said Evelyn as a couple of officers tore the grey seat. As they flipped the seat over, they found Ms White, snuffed with the oxygen mask on, inside the seat box.

  “We need a medic immediately. Just bring a goddamn doctor from the hospital right now” yelled Ron on the phone as the agents brought her outside the van.

  “Geez! What the hell is going on in here? He has been playing us from the start!” gasped Harry as he gazed at Evelyn hoping for some answers.

  “If Ms White is here, then the question is why did he ask us to meet him at the Rivermark Station?” said Evelyn as it stuck her again…”Holy shit!” she said.

  “What? What now?” asked Harry.

  “Who’s at the Station right now?” asked Evelyn.

  “Which Station, you mean our Police Station?”

  “You don’t understand, this is his plan. I don’t think he is going to come to the Rivermark Station. This was again to fool us, all of us, to leave the Station. He is going to break into our Station”

  Meanwhile, at the Station, Will slowly walked out of the restroom and to the room with a name plate “Geek Lab”, which was Sarah’s office. He swiped the badge and the door opened.

  Back at the hospital, Harry enquired “What? How can he break into the Station? Unlike this hospital, the police Station is fully secured. You need to have an access key to get into the building, don’t you?”

  Suddenly, Sarah got a message on her mobile phone. She took out the phone and saw an automated message which read “Ronald Casity entered your office.”

  “Ma'am. He is right now in my office at the Station” said Sarah.

  “What? How would you know that?” asked Harry.

  “I had a special security feature installed in my office which sends me a message every time someone else gets into my office using their badges.”

  “But how did he get into your office. I thought all his accesses were blocked?”

  “Well, sir I don’t think he used his badge. He used Ron’s badge” said Sarah as everyone turned around and looked at Ron.

  “And as Ron is here with us, I am presuming that this is him with Ron’s badge” continued Sarah as Ron started searching for his badge.

  “Shit, I think he got my badge last night when the power went off. I felt something hit me. It was dark sir, sorry I couldn’t see. I did not remember this until now!” said Ron.

  “This is insane. How the hell did you not notice that until now!” screamed Harry and continued “now rush back to the Station and get him! For god sake, somebody please get him!.”

  Ron and all the other agents started running towards their cars as Harry called Cas. Evelyn immediately called Dan from her phone.

  “Dan, Where are you?” asked Evelyn

  “Hey ma'am. I’m at the Station, what’s up?” answered Dan who was still sitting at his desk working on his computer.

  “Dan, Will is at the Station right now. We have reason to believe that he is currently in Sarah’s office. I’m on my way to the hospital. Please secure the building and arrest him immediately. But be careful. It’s Will we are talking about here” said Evelyn.

  Dan could not believe what he had just heard. He was shocked. He stared at his computer for thirty seconds, trying to figure out his next move. After great difficulty, he somehow muttered “sure.”

  “Don’t be afraid, Dan. You have your gun right, just show it to him and contain the situation. I will be there in ten minutes” said Evel
yn and hung up. She ran towards her car and just as she was about to zoom out, she looked at Sarah — “Sarah, I would like you to be here, with Ms White. Tell me immediately when she wakes up. Do not talk to her until I come back”

  “Sure, ma'am” replied Sarah as Evelyn drove off.

  Back at the Station, Dan, dazzled by the recent developments, managed to get up from his seat. He slowly took out his gun and walked out of his room and approached Sarah’s room — there he was! Will, wearing thick glasses, with a headset on, staring at Sarah’s computer. Dan slowly opened the door from behind and walked in.

  “Don’t move” he said pointing the gun straight at Will from behind.

  “Hello to you too, Dan” said Will as he removed his headset and slowly turned around.

  “Will, please don’t move” said Dan, shaky, but somehow managed to firmly hold his gun.

  “Well, I didn’t see you in here” said Will as he got up from his seat.

  “I said, don’t move”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re learning, Dan. You are becoming an ace detective” said Will as he put his hands in his trouser pockets.

  “Please show me your hands and don’t move”

  “Okay, okay” said Will smilingly taking both his hands out.

  “How did you know I was here?” asked Will.

  “Kneel down on the floor and put your hands behind your head” said Dan.

  “Sure. You guys did vacuum the floor right?” said Will amusingly as he sat by his knees and put his hands behind his head. After a brief moment, he continued “now tell me, how did you know I was here? It was Evelyn, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes” said Dan.

  “Huh..Evelyn…That’s the problem of working with smart people. I hate them. Not this one though. This one is different. I’m impressed. She reads me pretty well… anyways, how have you been, Dan?”

  “I am okay I guess” said Dan and after a brief moment, continued “why are you doing all this, Will? What are you doing here?”