INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series) (23 page)

‘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 understood 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.

‘3
rd
.’ 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?’

‘Yes, we’re investigating a case and he is a possible suspect who’s in danger.’

‘So’ Alan finished her sentence ‘I hope you don’t mind if we go up’

The receptionist remained silent thinking about it in the meantime the detectives ran towards the lift just to catch it in time.

They entered and the lift went up, they soon reached the third floor as the door opened wide and they came out.

There was a straight way and there was another straight way to the left. There was a normal security office just at the front of it and there might be some more ways that were not visible to them right now.

‘Which side?’ asked Alicia looking at the front row.

Ryan quickly went over to a security guard and asked him where the room no. 234 was. He pointed at the left side and then asked ‘Is there a problem sir?’ looking at his troubled face.

‘There might be’ Ryan turned to them, said ‘This row’, and galloped inside it.

Now that they went inside everyone outside were all alert that some unknown people claiming to be detectives have entered the building, and it created a serious restlessness in the atmosphere. Someone also informed the 3
rd
floor security guards about this.

‘Here, this side’ said Alan as he pointed to the tall wooden door on the right hand side, with the number written 234.

They stopped their jogging and caught their breath, which took some seconds, then Alicia moved towards the door and said ‘Mr. Brown, NYPD, open up the door please’ and then they stood there quietly.

No sound.

‘Mr. Brown we need to talk. Please open the door’ now Ryan said and waited for a reply or the door opening , and his voice was loud enough for him to hear it, even the people from the other rooms could hear it.

They listened for a sound of movement inside and hoped that the door would be opened but no movement was made and it was all quiet as usual inside.

‘Is he sleeping?’ asked Ryan turning back to them.

‘I’m not buying that’ said Kevin.

Then Alan gave a look at Ryan and Kevin as Alicia soon had her gun in her hand aiming at the door while Ryan and Kevin geared up to kick the door down. The wood was soft, just like any other mobel furniture and soon Kevin, Ryan gave two solid kicks, and the door came down. They burst open, inside pointing their guns at the inner most sides of the room.

They found a pool of blood on the other side of the bed but didn’t see a body first as the body was on the other side of the bed on the floor and it was blocked out from the view. In the middle was a bed slightly smaller than a queen-sized bed with two nice pillows and a half a pool of blood on the edge of it.

Alan frowned and walked miserably to the opposite side near the window avoiding the blood, not willing to step on it.

They found him.

‘Is he dead?’ asked Kevin as they were all quiet trying to absorb the situation.

Alan bent down to get a good look. Alicia stood behind him covering him, but there were certainly no more threats at this moment.

Alan pressed his fingers on the throat area and felt it, then he stood up and declared eventually ‘He’s dead’.

TWENTY FOUR

Other members of the NYPD and the CSU, was informed as soon as the autopsy team led by Dr. Taylor came in. The CSU team was also ready, but they waited outside, letting them check the body first. More back up with a pack of busy cops were on the streets while some were inside guarding the specific floors. On this floor, they soon tied a label at the mouth of this row. ‘CRIME SCENE, DO NOT ENTER’.

The other people who were present in this row were all shocked to see this, and live with this, as they were all evacuated to another floor for the time being in order to gain control over the current situation.

Dr. Taylor after entering the room went straight to the body with a small medical kit with him.

‘Ah, so another stiff arrives huh?’ Dr. Taylor smiled at them. He was used to all this, so murder was not a big deal to him.

‘Yes’ said Alan.

‘Are you guys still on the same case?’

‘Yes, and it became more tough for us’

‘Yeah, so who’s the man?’

‘Paul Brown. NY Times journalist’

‘I see’ said Dr Taylor.

The body lay in an awkward manner, upside down on the floor with his head just beside the side table where the night lamp was kept. There was blood on the hair; it must have come from the blood that was on the floor. Dr. Taylor checked the backside just to be sure and found no wound on the skull.

Dr. Taylor began checking the body, bending and blocking it from the view, sometimes. Alan looked straight at the body and waited for others to be cleared out after which they would check the whole room.

Dr. Taylor pulled the hands of the victim still trying to avoid all these nasty blood and turned the body over as slowly as possible in the original position so that they could all get a good view of the face. The front portion of the victim’s shirt was all soaked up and bloody.

Dr. Taylor changed the glove and put his finger in the new latex glove to examine the main wound. There was a hollow straight in the middle of the forehead.

He turned to Alan and said ‘So it’s a single wound on the head. Which led to death’

‘Was he shot?’ asked Ryan.

‘Yes, he was shot straight in the head’ he wiped the bloody part of the forehead so that the blood was cleaned out and they could get a good look in it.

‘I also see some bruising here’ said Dr. Taylor and Alan again stooped a little.

‘Oh, that was made after he was shot’ said Alan. ‘When his body fell it got bumped and scratched in the side of his head on this table which made...the table lamp fall’

‘Good. Yes you’re right, there’s a little blood on the edges’ agreed Dr. Taylor.

Alicia was standing at the back observing the proceedings. ‘So where’s the bullet?’

‘It’s still inside the skull, I believe’ said Dr. Taylor. ‘I might need a scalpel or some forceps to pull it out, which I will certainly do when I take the stiff back to the morgue. I don’t want to waste much time here. I’m already pretty packed up’

Then he leaned over the body and punctured the wound a little. ‘Uh, the bullet seems to be right inside the brain right through the middle of the medulla portion. It’s good that the grey matters are still intact, as by now it should have got scattered all around just like the blood. I don’t know how that was possible, but ...anyway...’

‘So a clear headshot right?’ asked Ryan.

‘Yeah’

‘Then someone must have targeted the gun straight at his head. Then shot him. That  means...’ Alicia thought hard.

‘Are we looking for a sniper?’

‘Yes the wound is deep so is the bullet. I don’t think that this kind of wound can be made through any normal gun, this is certainly the work of an average sized sniper rifle’

‘Then from which angle was he shot?’ wondered Alicia.

‘We will check that out after all this’ Alan meant the blood. ‘Are cleared out’

‘So Dr. Taylor’ Kevin called out who was standing at the door so that no one comes in. ‘What’s the time of murder?’

‘Well...um’ he looked hard at the body and tested some other parts too ‘As usual I can’t be exact , I will have to take the body to the morgue first but surely as always, I can provide you guys with an estimated time . Well according to the body, temperature , wound condition and the amount of blood clot which is not much , I will place the time at more than 24 hours before.’

‘Oh...he was killed yesterday then?’ said Kevin.

‘Yes...about this time yesterday’

‘Oh man,’ Kevin exclaimed ‘We never stood a chance’

‘It might be even some hours more, maybe twenty six to be precise’

Dr. Taylor adjusted the specs and turned back to the body again.

‘Those who were threatening him must have killed him’ said Ryan.

‘Yeah surely’

‘And they made their job clean’ Said Alan. ‘A nice headshot means you saved a lot of energy and time that is needed to kill a man’

‘Right’

‘We need to find that out’

‘What?’

‘From which side was he shot’

‘Of course’ said Alan.

Alan then slowly moved to the other side of the wardrobe as Dr. Taylor used a scissor like instrument which was quite small compared to a normal scissor and cut a piece of skin from the dead man’s thumb and placed it in the plastic evidence bag. He also took some blood samples and put it on a transparent glass material, which he later put in a medical kit, not in the evidence bag.

Then he pinched the body with a syringe and took some blood then kept it inside two separate containers, maybe it would be used for some other tests. He shook the container heavily and then put it back inside a box.