Where There's A Will

Chapter Thirty-Four

"Before we begin this interview, inspector," Harrison Neale, Jerry Logan's solicitor, said the moment Grey finished setting up the recording system. "I wish to protest the way in which my client has been treated; Mr Logan has been in custody for almost twenty hours now, and this is the first time anyone has shown any interest in questioning him. His brother, as I'm sure you're aware, was released several hours ago, without charge, when he reached the end of his twenty-four hours in custody and you failed to find any evidence to connect him to the crimes you believe him guilty of."

Stone let the solicitor finish his protest and then he spoke, "I'm sorry that Mr Logan has had to wait so long to be questioned, Mr Neale; when he was first brought in, he was judged to be under the influence of alcohol, and the decision was made to let him sober up overnight before being questioned. Unfortunately, the officer who was to question him this morning is indisposed; since that's the case, I've been assigned to take over the case." He gave the solicitor a chance to respond, and when he didn't, Stone got on with the interview. "Mr Logan, you understand you have been arrested on suspicion of armed robbery, and of dangerous driving, of leaving the scene of an accident, and of failing to report said accident – an accident that left an elderly gentleman in a coma."

Jerry regarded the inspector silently for a short while before nodding curtly.

"For the record," Grey said, "Mr Logan has just nodded."

"The robbery I mentioned," Stone went on, "took place on Sunday night, at approximately one-forty-five, and the hit-and-run occurred approximately half an hour later; can you tell me where you were at those times, Mr Logan?"

"Sure, I was with my brother and our friend, Ash, the guy was arrested with me yesterday by that idiot DS."

"Can you be more specific?"

Logan looked round at his solicitor, who gave a barely perceptible nod, and then answered. "We were all at Ash's place, we were there from about one, perhaps a little after, until the next morning."

Stone accepted that with a nod. "Is there anyone, other than your brother and Mr Ashford, who can confirm where you were?" he asked.

Logan said with a nod, "Before we got to Ash's we stopped at a takeaway a street or so away."

A smile played about Stone's lips when he heard Logan's answer. "Both your brother and Mr Ashford said the same thing when they were questioned," he told the younger man and his solicitor. "We checked it out when Ben told us his alibi; do you know what we learned?"

Logan shook his head. Outwardly, he looked as relaxed and unconcerned as he had previously, there was worry and doubt in his eyes, however. He might not know what had been learned but he knew it couldn't be good.

"We found that none of the staff at Nando's, that's the takeaway, remember either you, your brother, or Mr Ashford, not even when shown photographs of the three of you. We also found that you don't show up on the footage recorded by the CCTV at the takeaway, or any of the cameras that cover the streets you and your companions might have taken to get from The Horse and Jockey pub to Mr Ashford's house." Stone let that sink in. "Your alibi is worthless, Mr Logan, worse than worthless, it's an out and out lie. Might I suggest that you do yourself a favour, confess, tell us the name of your partner, and where we can find the money, the guns, and the car you used; if you do, I'll do my best to ensure you get the fairest deal the CPS can offer.

"Before you say no, I suggest you speak to your solicitor. If you'd like, I can give you some privacy."

Logan's conversation with his solicitor lasted for a quarter of an hour, and then Stone and Grey returned to the interview room. Stone looked expectantly at Logan, but it was Neale who answered him, and the answer was not the one he had thought it would be.

"My client declines your offer to incriminate himself, inspector," Neale said. "Your opinion that his alibi is worthless, simply because you can't verify it, is merely that, an opinion; you have not, so far, presented either myself or my client with any evidence linking him to the crimes you are accusing him of. Unless you can provide such evidence, I suggest you let Mr Logan go; you can either do so now, or in a few hours when your twenty-four hours is up."

"How about an identification, Mr Neale," Stone said. "Would you consider that evidence linking him to these crimes? Because your client has been identified as being at the scene of the robbery."

Neale's smile broadened, and became more of an arrogant sneer. "My client told me about his being identified at the scene of the robbery, inspector, apparently you mentioned it the other day; I hardly think a witness statement from someone who saw a tattoo similar to the one my client recently had done on his neck, a tattoo I am assured was selected from a catalogue, which means it is far from unique to my client, is sufficient evidence to link Mr Logan to the robbery. It is not, in my opinion, sufficient to hold Mr Logan, let alone charge him, and it certainly isn't sufficient to get a conviction."

"I'm sure you're right, an identification of Mr Logan's tattoo is not enough." Stone paused for a moment, and then he went on. "How about two witnesses, though, from different crime scenes, who both identified Jerry Logan from photographs they were shown; we have one witness who was almost run down by Mr Logan as he and his partner left the field where the Rock Radio Music Festival was held, and we have a second witness, who identified both Mr Logan and the car he was driving just a street away from where Mr Bollard was run down. This second witness is able to testify that your client was driving very recklessly.

"If that isn't enough for you, Mr Neale, we also have fingerprints, matched to those we have on record for Mr Logan, Jerry I mean, from the scene of the robbery. That should give us a better than evens chance of getting a conviction, don't you think." Stone sat back and crossed his arms, a small look of satisfaction on his face as he gave Logan and his solicitor a full minute to think about his words. "Would you like to reconsider my previous offer now?" he asked. "If you confess, and tell me who your accomplice was, I'll make sure you get full credit for cooperating when it comes to sentencing."

Logan's answer amounted to two words, the second of which was 'You'.