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

‘Yeah’

‘Well ,where’s Alicia today?’

‘Who knows?’ said Kevin awkwardly. ‘Must be tracking some killer’

‘I see’ said Ryan as he sat down again grabbing the coffee glass and giving it a second sip which was now really a cold coffee.

But someone suddenly roared from the other room , which was in the left side and was half covered in blinds. But they could see him talking to his phone as he said ‘Oh, come on, you gotta be kiddin’ me’

‘Seems like’ said Kevin as they both looked at him awkwardly without him noticing them ‘Henderson got a solid joke huh? He is laughing’

‘That’s what he does anyway’ said Ryan ‘Laughing and gossiping and –’

But Ryan was cut short. ‘Who does what !?’

Suddenly they found Mr. Henderson, standing right behind them with his hands on his hip.

He looked completely charged up and fresh as ever. He never looked like a man of 48. As the morning sun came through the blinds of the windows his skin began to brighten.

‘Is there something written on my face , eh ?’ he blurted out as they forgot they were staring directly at him , blankly.

‘Nope’ said Kevin as Ryan kept the coffee glass on the table and stood up.

‘What’s up?’ said Ryan.

‘You got no work to do, I see’ Henderson asked a question back at them. They knew the day was not gonna go well if Henderson starts dictating them what work they should do. And this was just an early sign .And also Mr. Henderson was not in the best of his moods now.

‘Yes we were working on something just now, on the internet’

‘And what sort of work were you doing , may I ask?’

‘Paperwork’

‘Paperwork?’ Henderson seemed to have become more irritated hearing this. He said ‘Paperwork on internet? Paper is something which you can touch or feel , more like a hardware type of thing .It’s not something you can do on internet ,you get it ?’ his face was simple yet so angry.

But Ryan suddenly said ‘Wait a minute ....you said paperwork was a form of hardware ? So you mean you want a printout right ?

‘Will you shut up ?’he roared again and looked at them as they kept their eyes on the ground.

‘I am the Chief  of this homicide department so  try to call me Sir , okay?’ said Henderson.

‘Sure’

‘Sir’ Henderson had to complete the sentence again. He eyed them one last time and went away.

‘That was mean’ said Kevin when their boss was gone.

‘Yeah’

‘You shouldn’t have said that printout thing’

‘But I thought –’ Kevin’s phone suddenly rang before Ryan could finish his sentence.

Kevin received it and said ‘Connelly’

Then after waiting for thirty seconds or so he said ‘On our way’ and hung up.

‘Who was it?’ asked Ryan.

‘It was Alicia.’ He said ‘Let’s go. We got a body.’

TWO

It took them twenty minutes to arrive at the scene .The place near the West 72
nd
street. Ryan put the car out of the street and parked his car at a no parking zone which he always does thinking people would leave them just because they were cops.

They both came down and found the street has been closed with a yellow label at the both side of the street with uniforms patrolling the area.

They found more cops on the other side talking to their phone and  two official cop cars parked in the main parking area .A medical van was there and also a medium sized ambulance which was also ready for work.

The morning had been a fine and a glorious one. Clear blue cloudless skies with prevailing hot winds in the region. They knew it would become more hot as the day progresses.

Sunrays that fell on the skyscrapers and buildings, reflected in their eyes as they regretted not bringing the shades with them. In the middle stood Alicia ,talking to another lieutenant who was unknown to them.

As Alicia finished talking about whatever she was talking about , she saw them, started walking towards them. She wore tight jeans with white shirts and a black jacket over it. Her hair was free flowing with a hint of brick colour in it. She was of average height and her eyes were beautiful with a silvery touch in them .She was slim but quite capable and destructive when she needed to be.

She came to Ryan and Kevin who were still standing outside the yellow label where it’s written ‘ ‘Crime scene , do not enter’ ’ .

‘What are you both looking at, blankly?’ she said as she reached them.

‘Ah, yeah we were searching for you’ said Ryan.

‘Yes, that’s right’ Kevin added.

‘I thought you were both looking directly at me , and you say you were searching for me ?’ said Alicia with accusing face ‘Well whatever let’s get back to work now. I haven’t seen the body yet.’

‘You haven’t seen the body?’

‘Nope. I believe  Dr. Taylor is checking the body’

Alicia went in the middle of the street near a car and both Ryan and Kevin followed her there.

‘Where’s the crime scene?’ asked Ryan.

‘The crime scene is in the car.’ replied Alicia.

As they came near the car they found two more uniforms there ,and Dr. Taylor who was indeed checking the body.

Then they saw the body. They found the body on the front seat of the car, eyes open and hollow with his fist clutched. The man sat straight on the seat, save his head which was dangling sideways and his hands were white .There was also some traces of clotted blood on the clothes that trickled down from the throat region.

‘He was strangled’ remarked Ryan.

Alicia nodded and said ‘Sure he was.’ Then she turned to Kevin ‘Hey get the specifications of our victim, it’s with him. Check it if it’s all correct.’ Alicia pointed at someone and said to Kevin.

‘Got it’ said Kevin and went to the other side to meet the constable who had a bunch of paper in his hands.

‘Hey’ said Dr. Taylor. ‘How you doing?’

Dr. Taylor was wearing white robes with white shirt beneath it. His hair was grey and his face was red from the action of the heat. He stooped and picked up a medical instrument just to pass it to another stretcher boy. He was by the side of the ambulance with another physician , checking out some blood samples and shaking it for some reason.

‘Hi’ said Alicia ‘I am fine .Well what did you find out from the body?’ .

‘Well nothing much as of now’ he said and adjusted his spectacles  with the left hand as the right one was at work.

‘You can give us a estimated time of death right?’

‘That I can ,although I would not want to, without being sure about it.’ He said looking away ‘anyway , by the amount of body temperature ,blood pressure and blood clotting around the neck ,I would say he was killed between 3 to 4 am in the morning hours.’

‘3 to 4 am ?’ Alicia repeated.

‘Yes , and I can’t be more exact at this moment than that , I’m afraid’

‘Well it’s dead night at that time’ said Alicia more to herself.

‘Yeah sure it is , and I also heard somewhere that  the area was suffering from a power outrage because of the rain and thunder that was going on just after the evening’  informed Dr. Taylor.

‘Hmm’ said Ryan looking at the body ‘But what was he doing in his car at that point of time ?’

‘I can’t say everything’ said Dr. Taylor. ‘But I am sure I will be able to feed you some more information once I complete the final autopsy’

‘Sure’ said Ryan ‘No   hurry, Dr. Taylor.’

‘Okay so here it is’ said Kevin as he made his way towards them. ‘Just got a short summary on our Vic’

‘What is it ?’ asked Alicia.

‘Well .Our Vic’s name is Jade Carter. Male . 35. Middle class person .Worked in New York Times. And that’s it.’

‘Where does  he live?’

‘There’ Kevin pointed at the other side where a row of houses were present. ‘That house 133/B’

‘Great .So we have the address and victim’s profile’ said Alicia. ‘Only we have to check the car’ she turned and looked around circling the car looking at the exterior parts . She didn’t want to miss any detail about this.

‘Here’ she pointed at something. Ryan and Kevin followed her gaze and saw what she as pointing at. ‘The tyre’ she continued ‘It’s stuck in the wet mud’

‘The result of the rain’ said Ryan.

‘Right’

Alicia bended to get a much more closer view of the front  wheel that was just below the driver seat.

‘This portion is still sticky.’ She remarked ‘The tyre is surely stuck. If anyone tries moves the car now, he would face a problem as the mud is becoming dry and more solid’

‘So that’s why he came inside the car but he was not able to start it’

‘Or move it’

‘And’ Alicia continued, standing up again. ‘That’s where he faced the problem. The murderer took this chance and strangled him from the back’

‘Yes that seems to be, what happened’

‘But why would he want to drive the car in the night unless he wanted to go somewhere?’

‘Sure he wanted to go somewhere’ said Alicia ‘And wherever it was, it was damn important , otherwise he would have normally waited till the morning, wouldn’t he?’

‘Yeah , that’s what normal people would do for sure’

‘Right’

Alicia wore a pair of white gloves and pulled open the back door of the car. ‘Let’s see if we can get something more from the interior side’

She bended her body again putting her head inside the back seat without going fully inside as she might destroy some vital evidence.

The seats were just like a formal leather seat should be, with proper seatbelts which also seemed to be in the position they were supposed to be. The seat covers were new or they looked new and everything was well placed .There was no clue or anything that might lead them to the killer .She also stooped and checked below the seat but as usual it was also empty save a bottle of petrol.

She came out and said ‘Well nothing much here. So this car was parked here for how much time?’ she asked.

‘Well not sure about that’

‘Let me clear it..So here’s how it goes-' Kevin took a deep breath and continued  ‘Our victim Jade Carter comes out of the house in the middle of the night in order to go somewhere. Naturally he gets in his car. The tyre was stuck so the car doesn’t move .Killer was in the back seat hiding in the dark , he or she whoever killed him took this chance to strangle him and escape.’ Kevin finished and looked at Alicia . She nodded.

‘What about his occupation, what does he do in New York Times?’

‘Maybe a photographer or something. I don’t know’

Dr. Taylor suddenly came from the back with two other ward boys and said ‘Well excuse me will you , I need to move the body’

‘Sure ,Dr. Taylor.’ Alicia said and moved to give them some space.

Two of the boys held the shoulder of the dead body and carefully took the whole body out and laid it on the stretcher that was on the ground. Dr. Taylor bended again and cut  a slice of his skin from his thigh with a thin scalpel cum scissor and placed the portion of the skin on a glass ,delicately placing a cork on it .He stood up. He was done with his things as he bed them goodbye and walked towards the ambulance. He signalled the other two boys as they brought the stiff and placed it inside their van.

Alicia turned to Ryan and Kevin again ‘Okay , so who discovered the body’

‘His wife , I think’ said Kevin.

‘So where’s she, where can we find her ?’

‘If I am not too wrong then she must be living in that house’

‘I see’ said Alicia and looked at the house that was just a 30 second walk away. ‘I think we should go and have a talk with her.’

‘Yeah ,we need to find out if she can feed us some more information about the Vic or the murderer. Yeah lets go’ said Ryan.

THREE

‘Kevin go and get the CSU’ instructed Alicia . ‘See if they can get anything more out of the car’

‘On it’ said Kevin and went away taking out his mobile and dialling a number.

‘Ryan come with me’

Both of them walked a few yards and reached the house. It was not a large one, a normal cottage, it was.

The house was two storied and was mainly made of wood and cement settings in some portion. As they reached the house and walked up a few steps to reach the door, the steps made knocking noises just as stepping on a hollow wood does.

Alicia was gonna knock the door but Ryan saw the calling bell first and pushed it.

Within a few minutes, the door opened up and they were greeted with a smell of sweaty shocks. Soon a young man came in front of them. They didn’t want to ask form where the smell was coming as that might get him offended . The man wore a blue blazer and a matching blue tie, maybe it was because it was the office hours that they came in, and this man was just about to go out for work. He was in his late thirties and had a tired face.