'A wallet, a pocket diary , handkerchief...' Ryan started sorting things out of the bag carefully with gloved hands, after they returned to the precinct.

'And a pen , mobile , that's it..' Ryan finished finding them and laid them on Alicia's table so that everyone could get a better view of the things.

The wallet looked old but it had not been used roughly ,the pocket diary was small, the handkerchief was brand new. The phone was a old blackberry model.

Ryan first took the wallet, turned it in his hand standing near the window, and checked all the four outer sides. Then he opened the fold and checked the inner sides.

'It has been used , I see'

'Found anything in it ?' asked Alicia.

'Nah. Just a few cents here with 5 dollars on the other chamber. Other than that it's empty.'

'How can it be empty ?'

'I don't know.'

'So there are no credit cards , Photo Id , cash ,or whatever people keep in a wallet?' said Kevin.

'Nope, I know that's really weird. It's nearly empty'

'Then where are the things?'

'Maybe someone removed it. Or perhaps the wallet was just like this all along. These are the only two available options'

Alicia took the wallet which was made of leather but it was now torn at the ends and the upper layer was peeling off 'Yeah nothing is here' she said the same thing.

'But it looks like it has been used'

'Yeah it certainly is used.' Said Alicia ' But not much. It still have that shine on it.'

'Then why is nothing here?'

'I tell you someone removed the things and kept the empty wallet back in his pocket.' Said Kevin.

'If it is so then we have to presume that there was something important here which was dangerous for the person who took everything out of it'

'Got to be so.' Said Kevin ' Okay let's check the other items'

'Well here's his mobile' Ryan took it and said 'It's also old.....and cheap and' he pushed and held the red button for a few minutes , but it didn't respond. He tried some other ways too .He pushed all the other buttons and shook the mobile, then he declared 'And it doesn't work'

'Uh, great'

Ryan soon wanted to check everything. He pulled out the back panel of the mobile and said 'And it doesn't contain a battery'

'Okay , empty wallet and now a empty phone'

'Then how did he use the mobile?' inquired Alicia.

'No idea.' Ryan said as he was good with the gadgets. 'One cannot use a mobile without a battery .The only explanation I can give is that someone took the battery out of the phone .Okay, another thing, let's see if this shit got a memory card'

He examined both the sides ,the switches ,the holes that were used for the headphones but he said 'No, no place to insert a memory card .The internal memory is all we got'

'So this is an invalid phone'

'No you can't just say it's invalid, if you can get a battery compatible with this model in it, then this baby will work. If there is no other defect'

'Then we have to do that'

'Right'

'Hey look here' Kevin had the diary in his hands.

'What ?' Alicia turned to him.

'It's empty'

'What is empty?'

'The diary, there's nothing written here'

Kevin handed them the diary and said 'I thought he might have written something in his diary, maybe any numbers or so. But there's nothing written here'

Ryan and Alicia looked at it with bewildered faces. Alicia just said 'What is going on here?'

'Unusual , there ought to be something written in it'

'Man, it's totally clean'

'How can it be even possible that a person carries a pocket diary without even writing anything in it?'

'You sure you checked all the pages?' asked Ryan to Kevin 'sometimes people write in the middle or the back pages'

'You got it in your hand, check it for yourself'

Ryan opened it and then flipped through all the pages with the help of his thumb and the index finger.

'Nothing' he also said.

'There'

'The diary seems to be new, maybe he bought a new one recently'

'Check the dates Ryan, we will know if it's new or old' Kevin said.

'Right' Ryan looked at the cover for some time and said 'It's of 2012'

'2012? Alicia repeated 'Then it's not too new'

'Yeah , it's old and still unused .Not a single mark of ink in any of the pages. It's all blank'

'2012, that's three years back. And he is carrying a diary for three years without writing anything in it.'

'What if this diary is replaced?'

'Why would anyone care to replace someone else's diary?'

'If they can replace his wallet then sure enough they can replace the diary'

'We know that he was working on something -'

'We still have to be sure about it, Ryan' said Alicia.

'Whatever. But everything we found in his clothes are either damaged or completely new'

'And...?'

'The mobile doesn't carry a battery , the wallet is between new and worn out yet only consists just a few cents, the pen is a normal Reynolds , the diary is new from inside and the handkerchief,' Ryan held the handkerchief in his hand 'Is brand new, even the folds have never been opened'

They were still quiet when Ryan said 'Do you think this can be a coincidence that all the items are defective if you study them carefully?'

'Ryan is right' Kevin said. Alicia studied the items for another time.

'I think that the killer knew that our victim was working on something and he needed to stop it'

'And he also didn't want anyone else to know about it. Whatever our victim was working on , it is dangerous for the killer. Maybe he was working on something that could expose the real nature of our killer, it might be so , isn't it? That's the reason he had to kill him and had to replace everything our victim had with him, in case this diary or the wallet contained some information that later comes in our hand and we find it easy to track him down. He wanted to keep the information secret .And I'm sure he will kill anyone who wants to dig down Mr. Carter's work.'

'If he wants to kill anyone who knows something about Mr. Carter's work and can help us , then by now we should have got the news about some more murders'

'Perhaps he doesn't want to kill his victims at random, he will choose them and then kill them slowly and painfully'

'What I see is,' now Kevin said ' that our case is completely circumstantial .I don't understand why we are just sitting here and guessing our killer's next step , have you ever wondered what should be our next step ? I mean we should see where the clues lead us and try to track him down. Sitting and forming theories are not gonna help'

'But I will stick with my theory' said Ryan looking confident than everyone else.'

'But his wallet ain't fake man'

'I am not so sure about that'

SEVEN

The day didn't prove to be of much help. It gradually became dark outside as they felt lazy and called the day off. The sun was long gone so was the heat. It was much cooler in the evening, more comfortable.

The whole day was humid and the temperatures were at its peak, but it was different now in the evening, the sky was clear with just a touch of a faint violet light that was still over the horizon.

Alicia left early and Kevin and Ryan also came out after some minutes as Ryan drove his car reaching their apartment in no time .

As they unlocked the door and entered , they felt quite hungry and the first thing they did was get something out of the fridge and eat it .Ryan found some scrambled eggs and fruit juice to eat.

'It's cold' complained Kevin.

'Naturally. It's just out of the fridge , it ought to be cold' said Ryan as he ate a mouthful of eggs without even looking at him.

After they finished eating , Ryan sat with his laptop and Kevin jumped over the other bed and took out a John Sandford book from the shelf.

The room was dingy with two narrow bed and a fridge , a table that could be used as dinner table, study table, laptop table , more of a multipurpose table, a night lamp and small closet all cramped up in a middle sized room.

'Hey I forgot to ask you' said Kevin .

'What?'

'About your wedding'

'My wedding?'

'No your sister's'

'Yes...'

'Anyway did you get the gift for her?'

'I don't know'

'Then give her some money'

'Why?'

'So that she can buy whatever she wants herself'

'Like how much?'

'5o grand?'

'I am poor Kevin, I'm just a low class cop'

'No you're awesome'

'Okay, now shut up and let me work'

'What work?'

'I was wondering if I could get any more information about the New York Times' said Ryan, and he switched on the laptop.

'They must have got a personal website' said Kevin keeping the book aside.

'That's what I am shooting at.'

Ryan connected to internet with wifi and opened the homepage of Google. Then he typed some words in the search area. Some results came instantly in the first page. People usually get what they're looking for in the first page , and if they doesn't get it, they just assume that they will not get it on the other pages as well.

'Here' said Kevin and pointed at something.

'Let's see'

Ryan quickly clicked on the blue coloured given link and the other tab quickly opened .He then browsed through several pages and said 'Nothing much is here in the website'

'When did I say there will be?' said Kevin .

He taped the touch pad again and scrolled down the page. 'Here is just...the options are... world , US ,science , health, technology ,arts...how will this things help us?'

'It will not, see if anything else is there or not'

'It's just a personal website. It should contain all kinds of news , but why will it contain other information just because we are looking for it?'

'They should have at least provided a summary of all the reporters, journalists, photographers, editors, or everyone else who works there'

'Don't you see it's a public website'

'But you said it's a personal website'

'I am saying public because anyone can get access to this site. So they will not provide any confidential information. That is quite natural'

'Then we have to get some codes and numbers in order to track them?'

'Yeah, but you can also check out their opinions'

'What opinions?'

'Here in the blog' Kevin started using the track pad pushing away Ryan's finger. He tapped the pad two more times to get the desired page which consisted of some reviews and names.

'They are all OP-ED Columnist . It's highly probable that his name will not feature in this list' said Ryan and went to bed. 'I got to get some rest now.'

*****

Alicia stood in front of the white board calculating the number of suspects they got till now.

It was early morning , and the precinct was not yet crowded .Most of the uniforms and detectives usually comes much later. But Alicia was always quite punctual about her work, or at least when she got a case in her hands. She turned back and looked around, one or two cops were jerking among themselves, she also looked at Henderson's room. It was empty. She at last resumed her gaze at the board.

She watched the smiling face of Jade Carter in the picture and she thought 'Mr. Carter ,what were you up to?' She read and reread the bio data , a short paragraph that she wrote last day.

She added a final sentence below the photo about who was the stranger who strangled him ? And where was he going in the middle of the night . Then she put a question mark at the end.

'What's up?'

Henderson came and interrupted her thoughts.

'Uh, nothing. Just trying to see through the case, in case we have missed something'

'Oh, yeah. How far are we?'

'Well we scheduled a visit at the NY Times building today and will try to gather a little more information'

'I see ,and do we have the CSU results ?' said Henderson keeping his bag on the table.

'I don't know, I asked Kevin to get the results'

'Yo ! I got it'

Alicia turned back as Ryan and Kevin entered.

'Uh. Good Morning Mr. Henderson' Ryan said. Ryan saw that Henderson was in a youthful mood today.

'Morning' said Henderson a little surprised.

'So what is it?' asked Alicia.

'Well yeah' Kevin checked the files one more time and continued 'CSU checked everything and the only interesting thing that they found is a pair of fingerprints on the front seat belt of the car'

'And they are not of Mr. Carter's, it's of someone else's' Added Ryan 'We can hope to get a match'

'And they also got it traced and matched the number plates of the SUV and found that it belongs to a garage which is in the West 37th street.'

'That's just a few blocks away from the NY Times building' replied Alicia. 'Let's start with the NY Times first then?'

'Sure' said Kevin.

'Okay boys, so we got some new leads' said Mr. Henderson as he smiled.

EIGHT

'I asked the security guy, it's the fourth floor' said Alicia as she turned back to them .They were already inside the NY Times building which was nice, well polished and the structure looked sleek and tall, made mainly of steel with some other metals. They found some high quality cars and official NYT vans which stood at the gate .It had a high security system with camera's everywhere, capturing every move from every angle. Inside the ground floor there was a reception area, some photographers could be seen adjusting their cameras , some announcement was also going on. The lobby was stylised with longs corridors which were often deserted. They were at first held by two fat security guys who asked them what purpose they had ,but later they became friendly and in turn helped Alicia with the floor.

They waited for the elevator to come down as Ryan pressed the switch .Soon the elevator door opened ,they entered and after some seconds it opened for the second time as they came out.

They entered a new floor with a vast room and found that a interview was going on at the end corner, facing the view of the Empire State Building in the background which was nearby. Maybe it was a interview for some purpose as some questioning was going on and a lot of cameras were there . It was a woman who was answering the questions , facing the mikes in front of her. Two dudes held some personal DSLR camera's for ''off the record'' recording.

Alicia ignored them and moved to the other room but a suited gentleman came in the middle and blocked their way.

'Yes, how may I help you?' he said with a slight Canadian accent.

'We are looking for the director of this building' Alicia replied in a professional tone.

'And for what purpose , may I ask ?'

'We are investigating a murder case and we need to talk to him'

'Murder?' he said with a confused expression.

'Yes'

'Very well, what name should I give him ?'

'I am Detective Quinn and these are my partners Detective Raglan and Connelly. And we are from NYPD'

'Would you care to wait for a few seconds here?'

'Sure'

The man vanished inside just to return after few minutes . 'That way Detectives' he showed them the straight way ahead and escorted them there. He led them inside a new room , the front side was made of glass overlooking the city and a man sat behind the table on an expensive revolving chair.

The man was in his fifties with shades of greyness in his hair, sat behind the table .He had blurry eyes with a few wrinkles on his forehead. He wore a dark green suit with black stripes that were hardly visible.

'Here are the' the man who bought them here said 'Detectives from NYPD who wishes to talk to you'

'Okay?' he said and stood up. The other man who seemed to be his assistant left them.

'Bill Jameson' he introduced himself 'Pleasure to meet you'

Alicia shook hands, introduced herself and others . 'Likewise' she said.

He took his seat again and Alicia , Ryan , Kevin did the same.

'So Detectives, what's the matter?' he asked at last.

'Do you know anyone named Jade Carter?' Alicia started .

'Jade Carter' Mr. Jameson thought for a moment. Then he said 'Oh, yes Jade .Yeah, I know him'

'Well we were investigating his murder' Ryan said.

'Murder?' he agonized a little. 'What do mean?'

'He was killed yesterday at dawn'

'Who killed him ?'

'That's what we're trying to find out' said Kevin as Mr. Jameson remained quiet.

'Okay, when was the last time you saw him?' Alicia started the main course of questioning.

'Yeah Sunday, I think'

'And you were not worried , that why didn't he came back on Monday?'

'No'

'Why?'

'Because he said he wouldn't'

'Did he say why wouldn't he?'

'He said he would be off for three days ,he had some personal work to do, that's for what he came to me, to ask for the approbation from me'

'Ok, and he was all natural?' said Alicia 'Or was he all excited or depressed about something?'

'All normal , I would say'

'And do you want to name anyone else from this building who he had a conflict with?'

'I can't say that' Mr. Jameson noted politely 'I really don't keep track of what everyone is doing here, or who have a bad relationship with whom .In that case you might want to try talking to some of the staffs here, although I am not sure if they will be able to provide anything helpful'

'Then we need all the names of people who work here'

'That would be a real long list'

'Then shorten it and give us those names who he worked with'

'That we can try' said Mr. Jameson as he picked up the landline phone and dialled a number. He said 'Send Clyde Henricks'

In a minute the man who bought them here appeared and said 'You wanted to see me, sir?'

'Uh...yeah, Give these detectives all the names of who works here. Include as many as possible'

'In a minute, sir' he acknowledged and left the room.

'And just for the records' said Kevin 'May I ask where were you between 3 to 4 am Sunday night?'

'I was... I was in home of course. But why do you ask?'

'We are just trying to get as much information as we can. I hope you won't mind' said Ryan.

'And can say anything more about him?' asked Alicia .

'About Jade?'

'Right'

'He was good, a faithful man. I can't say anything more about him than that'

'Thank you , Mr. Jameson .That'll do.' Said Alicia 'My apologies for wasting much of your valuable time'

'Never mind that, Detective'

They stood up and made their way out of the room but just before they could catch the elevator, they were again blocked by his assistant Henricks.

'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.