by ARKOPAUL DAS
Henderson lifted his face and listened carefully looking at no one in particular, this was serious, and he knew it. So definitely, he was in no mood to mock them or argue with them about anything. He would rather think carefully and find an easy way out of this mess. There was always a way. It is just a matter of time before you find it.
He shrugged and kept quite even after Alan finished explaining the things.
‘First I would like to see the video again’ he said. ‘If we are looking for clues that might help us then it will only be in that video’
‘Okay’ said Ryan .He went to the other room again as everyone followed him there. The screen was on, already so it didn’t take much time to open the file and start the video. Ryan turned to everyone about the confirmation, he saw Henderson give a nod, so he tapped the screen and the video started.
The video started with the same dialog of the kid speaking carefully, with the light on his face.
‘There at the first’ said Henderson pointing at the screen, although the video had ended. ‘At first it was dark, then a light directly fell on the boy’s face. It seems like a LED torch light’
‘That means we know wherever the kid it, he is in a dark place’ said Ryan.
‘Yes...but he may not be in a dark place. Maybe they just transferred him to a dark place, so that we can only see the boy and not what is in the background, in case we find out a clue out of it’
‘True’ said Alicia.
‘The room looks claustrophobic to me’ said McRae, ‘How is he gonna survive there?’
‘He is there for now a week’ said Alan. ‘Even if the place is dark, then also he is not afraid of the dark’
‘No one can survive in that dark place for so long’ said Henderson. ‘They will certainly go mental. So the only explanation left is that the kid is in a lighted place but they switched off the light maybe’
‘Yes they intentionally turned off the lights just before making the video’ said Alan. ‘Nice touch it was’
McRae nodded this time; he also thought that it was possible.
Henderson looked at Ryan. ‘Play again’
Ryan poked the screen and the boy came in the screen.
‘There I heard something, I think’ said Alan.
‘What?’
‘Scroll it back to the 20th second position’ said Alan.
Ryan did so and played it. The boy said ‘I’m okay here but I’m not --’ Then in the background they heard a noise, as if something just went by making that sound, although there was no disturbance in the video.
‘That one’ said Alan. ‘You heard that sound?’
‘What sound?’ said Ryan.
‘Yes yes’ said Henderson. ‘There was a sound. I heard that too. What was it?’
Ryan played video for the third time because not everyone had heard it. But this time everyone was alert so, all them heard it when that portion came.
‘Something went by’ said Alicia.
‘What?’
‘Some sort transport I think. It sounded like that’
‘Yes’ said Henderson. ‘It’s a noise made by some vehicle or transport for sure’
‘That noise, you hear it in a subway. A bullet train whirling past...which makes that kind of whistling sound’ said Alan.
‘Correct’ agreed Henderson. ‘But it didn’t sound like a bullet train to me, but a normal train’
‘Okay so sound of a normal train in the background, what does it suggest?’
‘It suggests that he’s in a station?’ suggested Kevin after a long time.
‘Right, station. We narrowed the place by quite a margin, huh?’
‘But what if he’s in a subway and not in a station?’
‘Then we will have to check out both the places.’
‘Okay guys, but I think we are still missing out on something’ said Alicia.
‘What?’ asked Kevin.
‘Ryan, why don’t you play the last part again?’
‘Sure’
He took the bar across the page and stopped it at the last few seconds. Then he played it.
The boy was talking in a manner that any random people who didn’t know about the circumstances behind it would think that the boy himself wanted the money, and also would kill himself if he doesn’t receive it. But they knew that, that’s not the case here, someone else was after him and they had instructed the boy to say all these things.
The last few seconds ended with the boy saying. ‘And the place is not grand. It doesn’t even have a stationary shop in the centre’
Alan and Henderson both were excited now. Alan got new energy suddenly in his body. He said ‘What was that? Everyone heard it?’
‘Yes I saw it too’ said Alicia.
‘You don’t see it, you hear it’ said Alan.
‘Anyway what does that mean?’ asked Kevin.
‘I didn’t find any sense in that’ said Ryan. ‘The place is grand, what nonsense is that?’
‘There got to be a meaning behind that’ said Alan. ‘If there is no meaning then why will he say it? He’s a clever boy; he will not say anything just like that without any reason’
‘What’s the reason then?’
‘No reason. We will have to find the meaning behind that’
‘But I think the kid is out of his mind’ said Kevin.
‘Shut up Kevin. He’s much more clever than you all combined’ said Henderson. ‘We need to find out the meaning, just like Alan said.’
He crossed his hands and walked up to the window staring outside.
‘There is no meaning’ said Kevin. ‘That’s total bullshit’
‘And I don’t think that the kidnappers have instructed him to say that too’ said Ryan watching the back of Henderson closely.
‘Why don’t you keep your mouth shut, Ryan and you, Kevin? If you don’t wanna think about it, at least let others think’ said Alicia.
‘Everything he said was instructed to him. So about these words, why would this be an exception?’ said McRae.
Henderson turned to him.
But it was Alan who continued. ‘If the kidnappers instructed him to say this, then they would have asked him to say something which made more sense than this. Not some kind of puzzle which people like Kevin will think as meaningless’
‘Then you’re saying he made this himself?’ said McRae.
‘Yes, he must have. You know him better. What do you think Mr. McRae?’
‘I don’t know what to think’ He said quietly. ‘He is quite updated and has an idea about everything, quite intellectual in one word, but I don’t really know if he could form this kind of puzzle himself, if it does make any sense after all’
‘Yes’ said Henderson to himself.
‘What?’ asked Ryan.
‘It is a puzzle for sure’ he went on. ‘And we will have to solve the puzzle to get the hidden clue inside it. It is like a code’
‘Code?’
‘Yes.’
‘And there is a hidden clue?’ said Kevin.
‘Of course there is’ said Alan. ‘I also think so. You’re right Mr. Henderson, there might be a hidden clue inside this’
‘Okay then good luck finding it’ said Kevin in an unusual tone.
Alan ignored that.
‘So if there is a clue in this, then what can be the easiest way of finding it?’ asked Ryan looking at everyone.
‘Any way possible’ said Alan as he walked out towards the white board took the blue-inked marker and wrote these lines. Then he added a question mark after it, and kept an empty space for writing the answer. After he was finished with this, he started reading it all over again.
When Kevin saw that Alan and Henderson were literally considering this, he broke the silence. That was the only thing he could have done.
‘I don’t understand why we are wasting time trying to find out meaning in a puzzle that a 15 year old kid provided to us?’ said Kevin trying to pretend like he was seriously surprised. ‘Don’
t we have some other things to worry about?’
‘Yes, that’s what I was thinking too’ said Ryan. ‘Solving this puzzle and everything, I find this really stupid’
Alan ignored them and continued experimenting with the words, combining them, using them as jumble words and everything while Alicia just sat and looked at them.
‘You think this is stupid?’ Henderson turned to them suddenly.
‘Yeah’ said Kevin confidently.
‘I told you that he might be a minor, but he is quite clever than you both. He knows what to do in this situation than you all will know’
‘But I don’t think this is gonna work, frankly speaking’ said Ryan. ‘We got to find some other way’
‘Lead us’
‘Where?’
‘To the way you’re talking about’
‘I haven’t thought about that yet’
‘Then shut up and think’
Kevin quickly without saying anything more logged in his computer and started looking at the map of the Manhattan area, as Ryan also joined him and started discussing about the places where they could find the child.
While Henderson dialled a number from the landline phone and called someone. ‘Yeah, Tyson? This’s Henderson talking, yes yes, I need you to do something. Okay the thing is, I want you to search all the stations, subways and terminals taking the minimum amount of time, ok? No no, this is important, if Michael is not there get someone else, some uniforms and backups. I want these places combed. You got me? Right. And ask them to dress in normal clothes I don’t, I don’t want our enemies to identify them as cops, and you’re to inform me regarding any suspicious activity you see anywhere, and can you do this before 5 today ?...No you will have to..okay tell me..sure...That’s it then. Great, keep me posted’
He banged the receiver down and drank a glass of water.
Time passed like a current of water and all of them became absorbed in their own thoughts, while Ryan and Kevin continued experimenting with the maps of New York.
Alan sat alone at one corner; he made it all clear that he doesn’t want to be disturbed. He had now written the words in a piece of paper and was staring at it, writing it again and again and trying to find out a meaning, which maybewas easy, but not so easy in this tensed situation and a deadline near them.
McRae went out for some reason; he sat reading some magazines trying to divert his mind to other things. Henderson was worried of course, so was Alicia, and they had nothing to keep themselves engaged, so that was another problem. They sometimes sat, sometimes looked outside, sometimes went out to get a cup of coffee. Henderson called Tyson every after 20 minutes, but you don’t need to ask, his face clearly showed that the result had been negative till now.
At last, Henderson looked up at the wall clock in his room and he saw it was a quarter past 3, he felt uncomfortable and he broke the silence.
‘This is not gonna work’ said Henderson coming to the main room where everyone was sitting and was keeping themselves busy with different kind of things.
‘What?’ Ryan peered out from the computer and said.
‘We will have to approach this directly’ said Henderson. ‘I will call some of the patrol cops and will ask them to visit Donovan’s house and to bring him here. I will deal with him face to face. Then I will beat the shit out of him, and then naturally he will tell us everything we wanna know’
‘No no, that won’t be possible’ said Alan who looked away from the paper after a long time. ‘Because his sources will inform him that someone is going in his house to arrest him or whatever, so he will be ready. Then he will fight back, and we don’t know how many agents sort of thugs are there with him. It will be a tough battle for those inexperienced patrol cops. Or else he would go somewhere to hide, and in the meantime, he will give a call to his men and will ask them to kill the boy. So far so obvious’
‘And I heard that you never get him in his house when you want to arrest him or kill him, anything. But if you go there without any evil intentions you’ll find him welcoming you’ added Alicia.
‘Just like he did’ said Alan.
‘I don’t know how he does this, but that’s what happens’
Henderson gave a frown, while Alan gestured him to be calm about this.
‘You already informed some of the uniforms, didn’t you?’ said Alicia. ‘Just wait for the notification from them’
‘Yeah yeah, I informed them alright, but I don’t believe that Tyson shit. He’s never serious about these things. Maybe he will go to Lieutenant Sandberg to ask for permission, and that’s another shit, he will refuse to give, and he will sit without doing anything. And look it’s nearly 3:45 now. Just an hour and 15 minutes are left. What can they find within these few minutes?’
‘Then we still have 75 minutes, right?’
‘Make it 55, because if any of you find out anything, then it will at least take another 20 minutes to reach that spot, isn’t it?’
‘Right. We will manage it’
‘Or else there’s always my plan’ Kevin smiled proudly. ‘We can go with my plan if we fail to find anything’
‘Yeah yeah, your plan is so terrific, that it may not work anyway’ said Alicia clearing her throat.
‘It’s the last option we have’ Kevin was always adamant. ‘If you have a better plan then why don’t you go forward with it?’
‘Because I just don’t have one’
‘There there, that’s the problem. I at least have one’ said Kevin and smiled because he won this conversation.
‘Okay, fine’ said Henderson. ‘We will go with Kevin’s plan unless we find something better within the timeline, everyone heard me?’
‘Right’ Kevin was satisfied to hear this as he sat down on the chair beside Ryan.
Ryan zoomed upon the map a little more .They were watching it from just a kilometre above the sea level .They studied all the streets carefully, though they were quite familiar with them, still they didn’t wanted to lose anything, there might even be a shortcut to the stations.
‘Here’ said Ryan.
‘What?’
‘This side is a bit rural’
‘Not really rural’
‘It’s a town area. It’s not in the middle of the city’
‘Yeah’
‘Whatever, we can get a street view and find out the conditions of the streets at this moment’
‘You ever went to that side?’
‘Maybe yes, one or two time. But not in recent time’
‘Me neither’
‘Let’s see’ Ryan clicked the mouse moving the cursor to the right position. And the broadband speed was fast so the street soon came into view quickly.
‘We can reach that side through the Manhattan main bridge right?’ asked Ryan he knew he was right.
‘But I don’t think that it’s compulsory passing that bridge’
‘Williamsburg Bridge’
‘Okay, then that bridge it is’
‘Or maybe we can wait there, in this area’ he pointed at that region of the street.’
‘You just can’t park your car in the middle of a bridge man, people will bust you out. And you don’t want that’
‘But we’re police, man!’
‘That’s why we should maintain rules’
‘Oh, that’s so generous of you’
‘Sure it is’
‘In the left side, it’s full of rusty garages and warehouses’
‘That’s why they chose this spot maybe’
‘Garages and warehouse are some combination. They can hide the boy there itself’
‘No they will not’
‘Why not?’
‘Because that’s a safe place’
‘That is what – ’
‘No, money is more important to them. They will deal with money in a safe place. Not with a boy. They will keep him in a place where no one will think about checking. And this place would be too obvious to everyone’
‘Righ
t’
‘Yup’
Kevin and Ryan kept on discussing the matters, how they’ll start their journey and everything.
‘Then there is a lot of hiding place here’ said Kevin.
‘I can’t say that I’m sure about that’ answered Ryan.
Henderson now felt that whatever Ryan and Kevin were discussing about got to be important. So he went to their table and stood behind their computer, surveying the streets through the computer himself. Ryan and Kevin continued discussing about it. Henderson heard their words and tried visualizing those things, some he was able to, while he failed to visualize the other things.
‘There’ said Henderson poking his finger in the screen between them, Ryan and Kevin realized that he was standing behind them all this time. ‘There’s a gap behind the bridge, what if we wait there, I don’t think anyone will notice us’
‘That’s a great idea’ said Ryan. ‘We will park our cars behind that line and will wait...hmm so that’s settled then’
‘Let me see first’ suddenly McRae again came and joined them. They showed him the place, or the place where they might be.
He said ‘Nice one. Perfect place for dealing in money. Illegal money’
‘Of course, they hardly wanna get caught’
‘But we don’t have the money with us’ said Henderson.
‘I told you’ said Kevin. ‘Money was never a part of my plan. A empty suitcase which we will give to McRae , and which later he will present to the kidnappers when they come, while we will wait and watch after that we will jump in the right moment and will bring them down.’
‘I still don’t know how good your plan will be’ replied Henderson.
‘What if they shoot me right away when I go there to give them the suitcase?’ McRae shuddered at his own thought.
‘Nope’ said Kevin. ‘They will not do anything, they will first open the case, and will be really startled for the moment to find it empty and we will take that chance to cover you and bring them down’
‘Hey, guys’ suddenly Alan called out from the other corner. ‘I think I just found something’
‘What?’ said Ryan.
Alan stood up and bought the page where he was writing, to them . ‘I studied them quite a lot and just understood something’
‘Well?’ said Henderson and waited for him to say it.