INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series) (43 page)

THIRTY FIVE

Ryan and Kevin were talking among themselves when Alan reached the precinct next day. Alicia was present there too so was everyone else. Alan woke up late with a headache today that was what made him late.

Ryan was sitting on his table checking out something from the computer screen, while Kevin was just standing behind him and it looked like he was giving Ryan some sort of advice.

Alicia was flipping her bags trying to find out something, while Trevor and Henderson were nowhere to be seen .As he went near his own table , Ryan turned to him and said ‘Hey Alan , so where are we gonna start today?’

‘You don’t look ok’ said Alicia as she left her bag half opened and joined them.

‘What? I’m fine’ said Alan and turned his face away.

‘What’s wrong with your eye?’ asked Alicia again making him face her.

‘What?’

‘There is a black patch just above the eye portion. Must be blood clotting’ she pressed her finger on that area as Alan said ‘Ouch!’. Alicia continued. ‘It’s also a little bruised, here’

‘What’s wrong Alan, did someone hit you or what?’ Ryan asked as he also saw his face.

‘Yeah , you guessed it right’ said Alan. ‘Someone did hit me; I also had a slight limp last night’

‘Who’s that?’ Kevin became excited. ‘Who the hell hit you?’

‘I don’t know them; I also didn’t see their faces’ said Alan sitting down. ‘Must be some killers. Tried to kill me’ he said casually.

‘Someone tried to kill you?’ repeated Alicia.

‘Yeah, they tried with a gun, knife ...everything’

‘Why would they wanna kill you?’ asked Ryan.

‘How would I know?’

‘So it’s dangerous for you to be on the streets now’ Alicia said still checking out his eye portion. ‘They failed to kill you in the first attempt right? They will try to kill you again’

‘I injured both of them quite seriously’ Alan gave them most of the facts, and the descriptions of what happened last night. Then he said ‘I don’t think they will be coming back to get me again after this’

‘Oh...hey Ryan get the first aid box from the -- ’

Alan interrupted Alicia. ‘No no, it’s okay. I don’t need anything’

‘You need medication for this’

‘No, I don’t. That’s a silly thing. This happened naturally, it’ll go away naturally.’

‘Shut up.’ She said and urged Ryan to get the first aid box. ‘This might get badly infected’

‘Whatever’ Alan grinned.

As Ryan bought the box, Alicia quickly cleaned the wound with some liquid as Alan said ‘Now that hurts’.

She ignored him and continued her work. Then she took some band aid kind of thing and stuck it there.

‘Whoa! I look like someone who just had a brain operation or something. This doesn’t look cool’ said Alan. Alicia also understood it as she took it out and put a thin banded which covered only the bruised area.

‘How about this?’

‘It’s okay, but nothing would have been the best’

‘Yeah I knew you would say that’ she said.

Alan understood that they had some other works today. They could not just waste time like this.

He stood up and said ‘Now that this is over, we should get back to business’

‘You said you would give a visit to Donovan today’ Ryan pointed out.

‘Yes I did. That’s exactly what I intend to do’

‘You both shut up’ Alicia cut in. ‘Do you think he can go there with this type of health. He should not even be on the streets, let alone Donovan’s house’

‘No I can manage it okay?’ he asked and Alicia knew he would not listen to her if she gave any kind of advice.

‘So what’s your plan?’ asked Ryan.

‘Listen’ Alan told them in brief taking just 1 minute and 30 seconds only. After he had told everything, although he never got time to make a complete plan, just told them what his instinct told him to do, and then he added. ‘I will deal with this man personally until I need any help. Let me see how dangerous he can turn into’

Alan looked confident and determined. That was what made others strong. They were really up for this.

‘Ok? So we’re clear?’  asked Alan.

When they gave a node Alan walked towards the elevator, then the next minute saw him walking downstairs then driving Ryan’s car, which was a lower model of Santafe, not any cop car.

Later he was flying through the burning streets of Central Manhattan.

Another half an hour went by, he kept himself focused on the streets keeping the thoughts away for the time being. He had a headache and now if he loses his focus he might suffer an accident. And he wasn’t a good driver as well.

After he reached the place and parked the car in a safe place, he found himself standing in front of the same old brick building, which was staring back at him with a ghostly face. The only difference was that this time he didn’t think about what he would find out once he enters the building. He already knew that.

He walked up to the door, and as usual, the door was ajar. As he went inside, he found himself looking at the same blue clear water of the pool, which was glowing.

There was a pin drop silence in the whole house. He could even hear his heartbeat.

Just like that, he was thinking about should he call out for Donovan or not, that was when someone said from the back.

‘Ah, so you’re back Mr. Smith’

Alan turned back and saw him, a perfect gentleman, wearing a black suit, a white shirt, his hands inside his pockets, his face was pale and white.

He flashed a smile at him, or better say the smile, that cruel one, which was always attached to his face.

‘Seems like you were expecting me’ Alan returned the smile.

‘Oh, as a matter of fact, yes’

‘But what made you think I would come?’

‘That’s what you’ll say now’ he said. And as always not a single answer he gives is straight forward and normal.

Alan nodded, understanding that Donovan wants to know why he came. But Donovan himself said ‘Whatever happened to your face Mr. Smith?’

‘I fell down the stairs and got hit by the door knob’ Alan said frankly.

‘Oh, pity’ he shrugged and twisted his lips.

‘We can start discussing the essential things now – yes?’

‘Anytime’ he said as he stood straight walking towards him relaxingly.

‘Yes, I’m afraid I need some more explanation rather than what you gave me yesterday’

‘That will be tough’

‘Really? And why?’

‘I don’t even remember what explanation I gave you previous day’ he said.

‘Good, then we can start afresh today’ said Alan. ‘Here’s what I wanna know first’

‘Shoot’

‘Tell me about the child’ he said looking at him carefully, trying to get some expression from him. ‘You said... you said that you will inform me about the child, where he is, or where your men kept him’

‘When did I deny that?’

‘You didn’t. But you said that right?’

‘I did –yes’

‘Yes, but as it turns out you didn’t, and I had to do a lot of hard work in order to find him’

‘So you got the kid now – yes?’

‘Yes’

‘All well that ends well’ he laughed. ‘You got him anyway, and that’s the main thing’

‘That’s not my point’ said Alan. ‘I wanna know why did you dissimulate me?’

‘Sorry, Mr. Smith. I can’t answer this’

‘I’m sure you have some reason for saying that which you’re about to present me now – yes?’

‘Yes. That’s because it’ll make you disappointed.’

‘Oh really? I’m already disappointed. So I guess, it’ll not make much harm’

‘I lied to you about everything’

‘I was afraid you would say that’ Alan nodded. ‘So that means you were behind everything?’

‘Oh, come on. It was obvious anyway’ he chuckled again.  ‘You know what? You ask any cop that ‘Can Donovan do this thing, is he capable of doing it?’ and you will only get a one-word reply.  “Obviously’’ ’

‘Okay back to my case’ said Alan. ‘Can you elaborate what you meant by ‘everything’ ?’

‘Should I?’

‘Because I need to know the truth’ said Alan. ‘And I like being a gentleman like you, so...’ Alan held the word in his tongue and noted his expression. There was nothing more than a soft smile. Alan wanted to say - I don’t want to hurt you, and make you say the truth.

Donovan held the smile and said ‘You’re lucky Mr. Smith, I’m in a good mood now. So what do you wanna know?’  said Donovan casually.

‘I asked you already. Let’s start with the abduction first.  Tell me everything about it and everything related to it.  And please don’t care to keep it brief’

‘But that would be a problem Mr. Smith’ he said with a miserable face.

‘Okay?’

‘If I start with abduction you’ll not be able to follow me, so isn’t it better to start from the beginning?’

‘If you wish – yes’

‘Okay’ Donovan took a deep breath. ‘So here’s the guy Jade Carter, who worked in New York Times. The other day, in the streets he was taking pictures, actually he was trying out his new camera or so he said , and accidentally he took a picture of one of my men who was present there for some reason. My men caught him and bought him to me, and Jade swore that he was gonna delete the picture. But when I saw him, he seemed to be promising, so I made some other plans in my mind and gave him a offer, to join me. And work for me’

‘And did he take the offer – yes?’

‘First he said that he will think about it. Then later he said that he needs to know what kind of work he would have to do. I told him rather vaguely, but I’m sure he would have still denied the offer if I haven’t told him about the sum of cash I was ready to gift him monthly. That is a lot more than what he earns from NY Times per year’ Donovan paused and made sure Alan was following him then he went on ‘So when he said that he needs to first know what work he would have to do, I thought  it would be better if I showed him something as an example rather than just saying it. That’s when I asked him to meet my men in the Central Park’

‘Mind if I ask which day was that?’ Alan asked.

‘Saturday, I guess’

‘Saturday right? Thank you for this piece of information. Pray continue’

‘Yes, so I was worried about he would show up or not. I was in my car, and to my relief he did show up, and when he came I showed him the school boys who were playing there, and when they finished playing –’

‘And they were playing – what?’

‘Soccer. Anyway, I already told my men what to do. I parked the car at one side and my men were ready. I instructed them to capture one of the boys. Jade was standing at the far side of my car. My men Bob, chose the boy who for some reason came near us, and he quickly grabbed him and it was not really tough putting him inside the car.'

‘So’ said Alan. ‘You abducted the kid to show Mr. Carter what kind of work he would have to do?’

‘Yes, you got it right. I thought murder might be hard for a newbie. So was anything else there other than a simple abduction? But after we got the child, that’s when the problem arrived. We took the kid back with us, but later Jade himself gave us the news that one of his friends who also works in N Y Times was there at that time, and he took a picture of this thing, this abduction .Later it turned out that Jade Carter and he, that man, worked as partners is NY Times..um what was his name..?’

‘Paul Brown, was it?’ said Alan.

‘Right, right Paul Brown. But it didn’t end just like that, he also threatened us that he would leak the picture online and will also publish it on the aforementioned newspaper ,and he would expose me. I asked Jade to ask this shit that if does this; Paul will put himself in danger. But still Jade failed to convince him, so I knew that I will have to do something myself. So I threatened him myself –’

‘Writing messages in some newspapers and sending it to his house –’ Alan more or less completed the sentence.

‘Exactly’ said Donovan. ‘Well after checking out the paper and the message which I’m sure he did, he was still not afraid to do this. Instead he just escaped from his own house, but it was not really hard for me to get the new location he was in. One of my sources found him and then he informed me that Paul Brown was living in the Broadway Plaza hotel, so I sent two of my men up there but the security there was too tight. They didn’t let my men visit him in his room

‘Then I went for the alternate plan’ he went on. ‘I sent a sniper, he chose a spot on the opposite building, and when he got a perfect angle, he shot the man. The shot was clean...and the man was dead’

‘So because of the photo he took, you wanted his camera right?’ Alan knew whatever Donovan was saying this time was the truth. So he tried filling up the holes he was leaving behind.