INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series) (6 page)

‘You might want to take this with you’ he showed them a printed list of all the names with their position of work , degrees they had and other things about the company . ‘Here’s all the names, I haven’t left anything out, I believe’

‘Thank you’ said Alicia taking the folded slip .

‘Well may I ask you a question Mr. Henricks?’ Kevin said suddenly.

‘Yeah ?’

‘Can you tell if someone here would want to kill Jade Carter?’

‘No’ he said flatly ‘I’m afraid I can’t’

‘And...—’

‘Come on ,let’s go’ said Alicia as she knew that even if this man knew about someone with any strange intention, he would not so easily let it out. So basically , it’s just wasting time talking to him. She knew there were still leads available to chase, and they should stop wasting their time.

‘Just a minute’ said Kevin to Alicia and continued ‘And do you know what was he working on ?’

‘I don’t’ Clyde replied in the same style as he used previously.

‘Okay’ said Kevin with a disgusted look.

‘But yes,’ he said ‘I think I can help you in some other way , for sure’

‘And what would that be?’

‘I can give you the name of someone who might know something about this man, Jade Carter’

‘What’s the name?’

‘Paul Brown, his name is also on the list’

Kevin was just in time to catch the elevator.

NINE

    ‘It’s becoming a lot easier , isn’t it?’ said Kevin as they stepped outside the building . ‘Now that we got a name, if we can get the man Paul Brown then he will be able to clear it all for us.’

‘We don’t know yet if he really knows anything’ said Alicia absent-mindedly’

‘He is his partner. Sure he will know everything, whatever they were working on’

‘Even he might be the guilty one’ said Ryan .

‘What makes you think so?’ asked Alicia.

‘I don’t know. But usually this partners become jealous over each other for something. So one day they will quarrel heavily and will end up killing each other’

‘Then there must be a reason to feel jealous over someone’

‘Sure and there will be. There must be some inner conflicts going on between them that resulted in this, murder’

‘Huh, slow down. You are talkin’ like you’re sure , that’s what happened’ said Kevin.

‘Wait, you said’ Alicia must have found a flaw ‘They will end up killing each other. So you mean they both are dead?’

‘I’m not saying that’ said Ryan as he drove the car and kept his eyes on the street.

‘But if they really got involved in a fight then at least one could have died and that can be our victim’

‘So you say that Paul Brown killer Carter?’

‘Yes’

‘That sounds like an amateurish theory’

‘One minute’ said Kevin ‘I remembered somethin’ , did they give the address?’

‘Yes . They did’

‘Let me see’ Alicia had written it on the phone so Kevin took her phone and opened that address page.

‘Hmm.... it’s not too far’

‘Of course not.’

‘But whatever the address is, my theory seems to be the right one’ Ryan bragged about it.

‘Not a chance’

‘Why don’t we stop this and just drop at the garage from where he took the car' Ryan changed the topic.

‘Okay , so where is the garage?’ asked Alicia.

‘Right around the corner’

‘Great, let’s check it out.’

* * * *

They parked their car on the left side as they crossed the road and came to the other side, and found the garage. The garage proved to be quite a dingy looking place that was full of smoke and dust. It was old and some of the cars looked like as if they were bought straight from the 1980s .The walls were of green colour that nearly faded and the place carried a heavy smell of  petrol mixed with zinc and rusty iron. There were loud noises coming from the innermost area , some hard banging sounds made by the mechanics working there. There was a man in the front who was checking an engine of a half open car with his back to them.

There was no door or any sign of a gate , it was all open to the road. As they came near , they understood that it was not so small as they thought it to be , there was a large hall kind of area with hundreds of car and some of them were also high quality sports cars apart from the vintage ones.

The man turned back and saw them standing .He had a black sort of face that was the result of the smoke and the chemicals so it was not so easy to distinguish his facial features, and he was short and looked like he was in his late fifties.

Alicia first showed him the NYPD badge and he made a confused face .

‘Ok?’ said the man not sure what was going to come.

‘Just some questions Mr..?’

‘Cleverly’ he replied promptly.

Ryan quickly took out a picture of the car and held it in front of him and said ‘Saw this car?’

‘This black SUV ?’

‘Yes’

‘Sure I know this car’ he laughed ‘A man rented it a few days ago’

‘He bought it?’

‘No he rented it’

‘And for how many days?’ asked Alicia .

‘A week, he said he would drive the car back here after that and would pay for it’

‘What was his name, you remember it ?’

‘No, I didn’t ask for his name.... but he said he works in NY Times. And people form NY Times usually come here to take cars , you’ll even see some official vans that were taken for here. Most of the times they rent it or else they even offer to buy it .So you see when this man came for a car , there was no confusion form my side. I was happy to assist’

‘And he himself chose the black car?’ asked Kevin.

‘Right he himself chose this one’

‘Can you identify the man?’ said Ryan.

‘Maybe’

Ryan took out another picture, this time it was of Jade Carter, and showed it to him. ‘Looks familiar?’

‘Yes this man was one of them’

‘One of them?’ Alicia was surprised and looked sideways. ‘You mean there was more than one man?’

‘Yes, there was another man with him, it seemed like they were friends or something’

‘And where does that man work?’

‘How do I know?’ this time Mr. Cleverly was a little annoyed ‘And why the hell should I ask him?’

‘Did he say anything in particular, maybe something you ignored?’

‘Nope, I don’t think so’

‘Where were you between 3 to 4 am Sunday morning?’

‘Home’ he said and looked a little more curious ‘But what for are you asking this?’

‘Just asking, Mr. Cleverly’

‘But why are you asking so many questions about this man? Why is he so bloody important?’ he shrugged.

‘Well’ Ryan went on ‘the thing is that he was strangled Sunday morning at that time. And we are just investigating...’

‘He was murdered?’

‘Yeah, and that too in that black SUV he rented’

‘Man’ The man was disappointed .‘If I knew he will be murdered then I would never have given him the car’ he said this more to himself. Then he added ‘Just to be clear, I say, that I haven’t killed him and I don’t want to be involved in this case’

‘You sure will not’ said Alicia politely ‘But you’re already involved with the case as a suspect. That’s why I say if you remember anything more ,then please tell us, even a slightest detail, maybe’

‘Sorry folks, I have said everything I know’

‘Okay tell me, did you get a good view of the other man who was with him?’

‘Yes I did’

‘Then tell us how did he look?’

‘6 feet , white, had a healthy body. Wore T-shirt and jeans that day and looked quite fit’

‘If needed, can you describe him to our sketch artist?’

‘That I can. Although I’d rather not’

Someone from the back banged a car with something heavy, by mistake this time, the car crashed down to the ground from the stand it was in and made a hard thumping sound, the tyres became flat. He looked like a inexperienced worker.

‘Dude that’s not a toy’ someone joked.

‘What are you doing’

‘Hey come one man. We got a problem here.’ The other one called cleverly.

Cleverly said that he was going then turned to Alicia ‘Now if you would please excuse me folks, I must join them’ and he went away.

‘Come on’ said Alicia as they came out in the fresh air from that large dingy place.

‘That means’ said Kevin trying to form a theory again as they were inside the car and Ryan hit the accelerator hard ‘This man, his friend or partner, was always with him. So he got to know what he was working on. And I think they were both working on the same thing’

‘Right’ said Ryan ‘And the problem is someone wants to stop them from doing it.’

‘But we should still not forget that he might be our killer’ said Alicia.

‘That’s what I said before’ Barked Ryan. ‘You’re copying my theories’

‘I don’t give a damn about your theories, let alone copying them. They’re all bullshit’

‘Come on, then why are you saying the same thing as me?’

‘Because they are right’

‘You know they are right?’

‘Yes!’

‘That means I am right’

‘The main thing is that we find him, we get to know everything, it’s as simple as that’

They all continued arguing in their whole way.

TEN

The street ahead of them was totally clear as their car raced along in a blazing fast speed . They knew they were close to cracking this case and they could not wait for it to happen.

The day was high on humidity ,so people were all drinking a lot of fluids in order to regain their energy. They themselves were quite sweaty now , but they were ignoring the temperature as they were running high on adrenaline .

     ‘You got the address Alicia?’ Ryan asked keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead which contained just a few cars.

‘Yeah, it’ll be somewhere in the 1
st
Avenue’

Ryan continued driving for a few more minutes after which he turned around a corner and said ‘Here we are’

They came down , Ryan quickly identified the house on the right hand side, just another normal apartment in a large building .He lived in the ground floor, or so they presumed.

Ryan first went up straight to the door , started searching for a calling bell , but there was none, so he just knocked and yelled  ‘NYPD, open up!’

He waited half a minute. Kevin said ‘I don’t think he’s gonna open it’

‘Then we have to break through it’ said Ryan.

‘Great, let’s do that .Just hope that the wood is not too solid’

‘Hold on , guys’ said Alicia, trying to move them away, ‘It’s already open’

‘Oh!’ Ryan growled.

Alicia moved the door open and it was all dark  inside save the sunlight that was coming from outside and lighting it partially.

Alicia took out her gun which was a Sig Sauer P226. She held it in front of her in the darkness and then started moving inside. Ryan and Kevin also had their gun out, facing Alicia’s back.

There was a table in the middle, maybe a dining table and the place looked like a mini hall room cum kitchen type. Apart from that there was nothing . The floor was just made of wood and the wall consisted of a bunch of cabinets.

It’s a peculiar house’ Ryan said looking around.

There was a window on the wall and it was half open ,that’s from where the sunlight was coming in.

‘Why do you say that?’ asked Kevin.

‘Don’t you see it , the kitchen is in the front .Generally people make the living room in the front.’

‘Hey , you two check the rooms. I will go and see if there is another floor’ said Alicia and started climbing the stairs to see if the other floor also needs to be checked.

‘Seems like our man isn’t at home’ said Ryan. He took the straight route to the dark room pointing his gun , but it was not so dark as he thought it would be, ample of sunlight was coming through another window that was on the north west side  of the room . He yelled ‘Clear’