by ARKOPAUL DAS
‘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’
‘But that’s what I was thinking’ said Alicia. ‘If they wanted money then why didn’t they ask for it in the first place? Why waste so many days?’
‘Yes. That’s my question too’ said Ryan.
‘Too lazy’
‘Right’
‘But why do they want the money’
‘How do I know?’
‘These guys are crazy.’
‘Totally crazy’
‘Okay Okay’ said Alan. ‘We don’t need to think if they’re crazy or not. First we should think about the boy and the money they are asking for’
‘Right’ Alicia agreed. ‘First we need to think do we really wanna give them the money?’
‘Nope’ said Ryan. ‘Should we?’
‘Why not?’ said Alicia.
‘There’s no guarantee that they would return the boy even after we pay them the money’ said Kevin. ‘So we will also lose the money and the boy too’
‘Exactly’ said Alicia. ‘That’s true. And I’m pretty sure they will not release the boy of course even after we pay the money’
‘But they will kill the boy, if we don’t’ said Ryan.
‘I know. But what can we do?’
‘You saw the video?’ said Ryan. ‘They’re asking for some money and ought to pay it’
‘No we ain’t going to pay it’ said Kevin. ‘We first want the boy, they give us the boy, we give them the money, hand to hand’
‘They’ll want the money first’
‘Yeah, that’s why I don’t wanna give them the money. They’ll take the money and then would change their minds about returning the boy’
‘What can we do now?’
‘Why don’t we let Mr. McRae decide about this’ said Alan after he saw that another debate was starting.
‘We should call him and ask him so’
‘Man he will go for the money’ said Kevin.
‘What do ya’ mean?’
‘I mean he would want to pay them the money. It’s obvious’
‘Okay let’s call him first and hear him out’ said Alan.
McRae was soon called in the room. He entered and looked red hot and scared. ‘What do you wanna know?’ he said.
‘Mr. McRae you saw the video’
‘Yes yes I did’
‘The main thing is that they want the money. So what do you say about this?’ asked Alan.
‘They will not leave Jake unless we give them the money right?’
‘Right’
‘Then we pay the ransom and they will let Jake go’
‘Uh, just like I said he would say’ Kevin chuckled. ‘Okay’ he came near McRae. ‘Think carefully Mr. McRae. They’re asking for the money right? But is there any guarantee that they will leave the boy even if we pay it. Is there?’
‘Why would they not?’
‘Because they are killers and kidnappers .You just can’t believe them'
‘Really?’
‘Of course’
‘Well then?’
‘Then we only have 3 hours’ said Alan. ‘It’s 1:30 now, and they want it at 5. So whatever you all wanna do, you will have to decide it now’
‘I don’t know what to do’ said McRae. ‘You tell us Mr. Smith, what is to be done now?’
‘We will have to find some other way, other than paying them’
‘That’s only possible if we can find out where they kept the child. So if we don’t find out the child inside the time zone, we lose the money’ said Ryan.
‘Then we will do that’
‘Do what?’
‘We find the child first’
‘How’s that possible’
‘We need to find a way to find the child first’
‘But we also have another problem’ said McRae. ‘If we need to pay them, then I don’t have so much money’
‘Then the options itself got narrowed. Only one option is left now. We will have to find the location of the child within these three hours’
‘Yes, that’s the only option’ said Alicia.
‘We didn’t find the child for so many hours, how do you think we would be able to find him within these few hours?’ said Ryan.
‘Anyway we will have to do that.’
‘I got an idea’ said Kevin who always gets some ideas and it doesn’t prove to be helpful later. ‘We take McRae to the Bronx and give him an empty suitcase. Then we will hide and wait. Then when the kidnappers come to take the money from Mr. McRae we catch them and make them say where the child is. It will be simple, right? After that we can go and save the child.’
‘Not that simple as you think’ said Alan.
‘Why not?’
‘It would have worked out fine but still there is a problem’
‘And what’s that?’
‘If you do that, I mean catch the abductors just like that, one of the abductors would give a call to the man who is in charge of the kid, and would advise him to kill the boy. Then we would not be able to catch them, they would threaten us first then they would kill the child if we arrest them or something, then they will escape and kill the child anyway’
Kevin frowned and turned away. He seemed like he understood the problem. It was all true.
‘It becomes more risky that way. We can’t just do that’
‘Of course not’ McRae supported.
Kevin then sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling trying to form another logical solution, just like the last one. But he failed to come up with one, his face showed it.
‘But why would they keep the child alive for so many days?’ said Ryan. ‘I mean I don’t understand that. Maybe they’re some foolish jokers trying to make some fun , while in real they don’t have the guts to kill him’
‘Good idea’ Kevin stood up again. ‘If they don’t have the guts to kill him, then they will not kill him no matter if we pay them the money or not. So we will have more time finding the boy, how about that?’
‘If the kidnappers can kill Paul Brown then we can see that they’re not jokers, but real hired killers. So we can’t just rely on that and relax okay? We need to find some other ways’ said Alicia.
‘And if we do go with your plan’ said Alan. ‘And then the boy gets killed, then everyone will blame you for that. You ready to carry the burden Kevin?’
‘Man!’ he said understanding that they had more logic than him. ‘Shit is getting more serious’
‘But I think Mr. Connelly is right’ McRae backed Kevin. ‘His first solution was logical .We take an empty suitcase to the Bronx and when they come we just arrest them. I know it’s risky but what more can we do?’ McRae sounded like he was one of the cops.
‘Mr. McRae’ said Alan calmly. ‘Don’t rush the things. Think deeply. We still have two or three hours in our hands so we might also get a better plan’
‘My mind is not working’ said McRae tapping his head.
‘Come on’ said Kevin. ‘You see the boy’s father approves my theory. What’s more? Why should we wait?’
‘Because we have time’
‘I thought we didn’t have much time. I mean that’s about what we were worrying about all this time’
‘We have time but it’s short. Now drop the topic Kevin’ said Alicia firmly.
‘Huh,’ Kevin laughed at himself. ‘Donovan told you that he would inform you about the child himself, why don’t you call him and ask him what is going one now?’ he said to Alan.
‘Maybe he is involved’ said Ryan
‘Obviously he is. This thing, asking for money is also his plan, just marks my words’ Concluded Kevin. ‘He is the main culprit. He is controlling the gang, he asked Bob to abduct this kid for some reason and Bob just carried the work out. That’s it. And he just played with you Alan’
Alan didn’t argue or say anything about this. He knew that Kevin was right in some sense. He returned to his thoughts about the main case that was going on now. The atmosphere among them was light but still it was full o
f tension, their faces showed it. Even the other detectives and uniforms in this floor were now looking at them, hearing their theories and everything. When they understood the main problem, their faces became ghastly.
‘Think about something’ said Alan. ‘Take any decision, I won’t say a word.’
Alan sat down feeling immensely exhausted. These two days that he was back in the NYPD, was full of work, which comprised of both mental and physical stress. It might affect his body, he knew he needed rest, some long sleep or, something like that, but he knows that he couldn’t afford it, not at this moment. He still thought about what was going on now. What could be done at this moment, or was there anything they could do? Only thing he could think of was that two men were dead and a child was abducted. But they could save none of them. No matter what they did, it would be too risky at this moment. And not to forget they were dealing with a criminal mastermind, so the things were about to become more tough. The killers wanted money, and they had no money to pay them. And why would they pay money to someone who killed two people? They should be shot dead right away, literally, let alone thinking about paying them money. That was totally absurd.
Then he thought something. They shouldn’t take all the decisions, hard decisions themselves.
‘We should talk with Henderson’ said Alan at last looking up.
‘Yeah we can do that’ said Ryan. ‘But what’s the use really, he’s just another foolish –- ’
‘You said something?’ Henderson was just standing behind, watching them.
Ryan instantly felt cold in his throat, and he was ashamed. He looked away, but he couldn’t just ignore Henderson’s eyes on his back.
‘Umm...’ Ryan thought about saying something, as nobody was talking now, everyone was waiting for him to talk. He had been in this situation before too, but never in front of an outsider like McRae. He fumbled with his words. Then he at last managed to say ‘We got a problem here, Mr. Henderson’
‘I thought you would say something like that’ said Henderson. ‘So another problem. Nothing new. What is it this time?’
‘Yes...’
‘The problem, what is it?’
Alan knew Ryan would not talk. So he took the lead covering Ryan and he said about everything that was happening right now, or before. He said that the kidnappers now want money. He also described him the problems they might have to face if they don’t pay the ransom, and also the problems they might face even if they pay it.