INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series) (33 page)

‘He knows about the bullets too, so he used the appropriate bullet which can break through glass’ said Alicia. ‘He knows all about this’

‘Yes’ agreed Kevin. ‘That’s a great chance to be our killer’

‘It might be so’

Ryan stared outside.

‘But what I’m wondering is, if he abducted a child then what does he intend to do with him?’ Alan threw the question to others.

‘What if Donovan doesn’t know about this? What if Bob himself abducted him and now he can’t tell his boss because he knows that  he will   get his ass kicked out if anyone finds out?’

Alicia shook her head. ‘Why will he abduct the child in the first place if he can’t do anything with the kid?’

‘Other than killing him’

‘That’s a way for sure. But you just pick up a random kid just to kill him? That doesn’t really sounds satisfying, does it? He’s not even a vampire or anything’

‘Even if he kills the boy, there got to be a solid reason behind it’ said Ryan.

‘Old revenge?’ suggested Kevin.

‘Revenge? What’re you talking about?  The boy is barely 15 years old. What could he possibly have done in that age?’ said Alicia and she was right for sure.

‘That’s true’ said Ryan. ‘There at least got to be a personal relationship to this. To which he got none, if our information is correct’

‘There is something else going on here’ said Alicia.

‘Look, we can’t just sit and have a discussion like this’ said Ryan. ‘The main thing remains the same. There is a boy suffering and we have to find him’

‘And how are you going to start?’

Ryan paused and said ‘Somehow’

‘Huh, somehow’ Kevin laughed.

‘Donovan says he will inform us when he gets to know about the boy’ replied Alan.

‘Come on, the boy is with him himself’ Kevin laughed a little more. ‘If he really thought about informing us, then he would have done that all these days. And the kidnapper doesn’t kidnap a child just to inform the police and give the child back, does he?’

‘Well according to Donovan the kid is with Bob and he doesn’t know anything about this abduction’

‘Pure fabulist’

‘How do you know that?’ said Ryan. ‘It might be true. We still know nothing for sure’

‘Yeah yeah, you guys keep dreaming that Donovan will return the boy himself’

‘Look I don’t know anything, I just know that we will have to start searching for the boy’ Ryan repeated again.

‘Where do we find him?’

‘You asking me?’

‘Yeah sure, you look confident about this’

‘I don’t know’

‘We will have to think differently’ said Alan. ‘Think like this, if you were the kidnapper where would you have kept the boy?’ . He looked at everyone hoping someone will answer.

Ryan became thoughtful so was Kevin.

Ryan then answered after a few minutes. ‘Somewhere maybe in some dark place, with...harsh conditions’

‘Don’t think like a movie plot. Think for real where would you have kept him?’

‘A warehouse?’

‘Probably, I was thinking about that too’ said Alan and understood that he needs to be a bit more specific about this.

‘But there are a hundreds of warehouse in New York’ said Alicia. ‘Finding the right one won’t be that easy’

‘Yes, and we can’t track all of them’ added Kevin.

‘And that will be time consuming’

‘And worthless’

‘Hmm...desperate time, desperate measures’ said Kevin. ‘I know what options we have left’

‘Yeah, a killer’s out there and so is a kidnapper. And we’re just puzzling ourselves sitting here. Okay so what’s your desperate idea?’ asked Ryan.

‘Huh’ Kevin stood up.

‘What?’

‘I’m going’

‘Where?’

‘I don’t know’ said Kevin. ‘I will go and meet Donovan and put a gun in his head and make him say everything he knows’

‘Sit down Kevin. That’s one of the worst thing you could do at this moment.’

Kevin also knew that it wasn’t worth it so he sat down miserably.

McRae suddenly came inside and saw them that they were discussing something with grave faces. He came near the white board.

‘Mr. Smith you came’ he said.

‘Yes’ Alan stood up thinking how would McRae react if he said that there was nothing to do now, no way to  save Jake.

‘Did you find anything?’

‘Not really, but I found who abducted Jake’

‘Oh, great. Where is he now?’

‘That we don’t know’

‘You don’t know?’

‘No, the kidnappers will inform us’

‘What?’

Alan knew that it didn’t sound convincing, it sounded rather silly. Really silly.

‘You’re kidding right?’ McRae said smiling now.

‘Yeah I know it sounds crazy...yeah it’s complicated actually’

McRae didn’t know what to say. He just turned back and walked away. He was disappointed, his legs were unsteady.

‘Poor man’ said Kevin.

‘It’s a hard time for him’ said Ryan.

‘Come one it’s a hard time for everyone. Look at us. We’re just worrying all the same’ said Alicia.

‘Uh...whatever’

Alan and Ryan after a few minutes went out to the coffee machine but this time to drink some water. Alicia started taking some notes and thinking what more was there left to add to the board.

Ryan asked. ‘What do you think?’

‘What’s there to think?’ said Alan.

‘About Donovan’ said Ryan. ‘Think carefully, did he look like a man who can kill or abduct someone? Or someone we can trust?’

‘Not sure, he was expressionless most of the time’

‘So are you’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, you don’t express much either’

‘I didn’t know this, although I have heard this somewhere before’

‘New information’

‘Yes. But well to be frank, Donovan didn’t look like a criminal as if he can kill someone, on the other hand he also didn’t look like someone we can trust’

‘Oh...problem after problem’

‘Yeah...what’s Henderson doing?’

‘No idea, he’s in his room’. But as Ryan said this, suddenly Henderson came outside and approached them.

He filled a cup of Pepsi and said ‘What’s up Alan?’

‘Nothing’

‘Just heard that the kidnappers are going to return the child’

‘Yeah that’s right’ Ryan answered happily.

‘Oh’ said Henderson quietly and then he explded out suddenly. ‘And ya’ll are believing that and sitting like this? What kind of asshole are you all?’

‘What can we do?’

‘Do whatever you can. But relying on the killers is the last thing you can do right now’

‘So what do you advice?’

‘I have nothing to advice, I can just see that the kidnappers are playing with you all and you’re just letting them play’

‘We are not sitting because the kidnappers said that they will inform us about the child’ said Alan. ‘We’re sitting because there is nothing more we can do now’

Ryan kept quiet.

‘Bloody schmucks’ Henderson said not letting them know if he said this to them or did he meant the kidnappers.  Then he went in again.

‘He’s fuming’ said Ryan after he was gone.

‘Yes, he always is’

‘The problem is that the boy is not in Donovan’s house’

‘And why do you think that he would keep a kidnapped child in his own house? That would be dangerous’

‘And he does have a lot of sources, he have over a thousand places he can keep’

‘Right’

Suddenly they found McRae trudging towards them with unsteady hands and droplet of sweats formed on his head.

His face was red and he had his mobile in his hands. Did he have a seizure or what? That would be another problem if he had. But he was walking, so things seemed to be okay other than some other problem which might have occurred.

‘Is there a problem Mr. McRae?’ asked Alan seeing him traumatized.

‘Yes, there is a problem. Or should we call it a problem?’ he said.

‘What is it?’ asked Ryan. ‘You look...afraid?’

‘Hell I’m’

‘So?’

‘The phone’

‘What about it?’ said Alan.

‘I just received a message’

‘What message?’

‘Multimedia message’

Alan looked at his phone. It was a large screen android phone with a grey plastic back cover. It could easily support multimedia messages.

‘Were you expecting one?’

‘Obviously not’

‘So what is it? A picture?’ Ryan asked.

‘No it’s a video’ he said rechecking his phone. ‘Yes that’s a video’

‘Who sent it?’

‘Unknown number’

‘Have you checked it?’

‘No’

‘Okay’ Alan took the phone from his hands and opened the file where the video was located.

A play sign in the middle appeared and he taped on it. The video started.

The first scene came into view.  The place was dark except a faint bluish light that was coming from the front, where the camera was kept, maybe.

The light came and fell in the face of the boy, who was in the middle, and the camera was stilled on his face.

McRae instantly said, ‘That’s Jake’

Alan and Ryan also noticed that it was the boy from the picture.

Now the boy started talking. Someone must have notified or instructed him to do so. He said ‘I’m okay here but I’m not gonna be okay much longer. Bring 50000$ near the Bronx Riverside Perky area and don’t be late. The time is 5 in the evening. If you miss the time I’ll dead’

Then he paused for maybe about a second after which he added. ‘And the place is not grand, it doesn’t even have a stationary shop in the centre of it’

Then a ‘click’ sound came and the video ended. The play sign again appeared on the screen.

McRae wiped the sweat out of his forehead and said ‘Now?’

‘They wants us to be sure that he’s alive’ said Alan. ‘That’s the only consolation I can give you now’

‘So he is alive?’

‘Yes, well and alive’

‘But not for long, Jake said that’

‘Yes I heard that too’ said Alan.

Ryan said. ‘Can we keep the phone with us for a few minutes? I need to connect it to the computer’

‘As long as you need. No problem’ he gave the phone without any hesitation.

Alan asked McRae to remain seated as he went inside.

Ryan called Alicia. ‘Check this out. New clue’

‘What clue?’ Alicia stood up.

‘McRae just received a video on his mobile’

Ryan soon took out the memory card and entered it in his computer. Kevin also came and stood behind him looking at the computer.

‘A video?’

‘Yeah’ Ryan said.

‘What is it about?’

‘From the kidnappers’

‘Oh, terrific’ said Kevin. ‘Are they leaving the child?’

‘No but they’re wanting something first’

Alicia also became more interested when she heard that it’s been sent from the kidnappers.  ‘Really’ she said.

‘Yes’

‘What are they asking for?’

‘For a ransom’

‘How much?’

‘50000$’

‘That’s quite an amount’

‘I know’ said Ryan and clicked the mouse to bring the file into view.

Ryan quickly, first copied the files in his pen drive and then connected it to the large room just on the side room. They entered the room as Ryan said ‘Should I play it?’ after everything was ready.

‘Yes play it’ said Alan as Ryan touched the screen and the video started again. The screen was large, so of course they were now able to see the picture in detail, compared to the cramped mobile screen.

They could now distinguish that the place was first dark of course but before the boy started talking someone switched on a light so that the viewers were able to see the face of the boy. However, it was a little blurry for sure.

After that, the boy started talking and said the same words again. The boy looked steady, his voice was not choking at all, and he looked stronger than McRae. You would not be able to understand if they really did any harm to him. But it seemed like they didn’t. They wanted to keep him in one piece.

It was a 38 second video, so the file was also small and so was the playing time. There was not much there to see, except the boy talking. That was it. After it ended Kevin asked ‘So what do ya’ all think?’

‘Now they’re asking for money’

‘Yes’