Where There's A Will

Chapter Fifty-One

With the lift at Harper Tower still out of action – he was not surprised by that – Stone made his way slowly up the stairs towards the fifth floor, the rest of his team trailing behind him. He had two uniformed officers in the car park, and five more with him, as well as DC Reid, who had taken the injured Grey's place – Grey was in hospital, where he was undergoing scans to be sure he had suffered no serious or permanent spinal damage.

When they reached the fifth floor, Stone divided the officers with him: Reid and two of the uniformed officers, he sent to cover the rear of the Logans' flat. He gasped as the last of the trio bumped into him on the way past, catching him in the bruised and cracked ribs that had been strapped up during his brief visit to the hospital – the doctor who had dealt with his various injuries had been none too keen to let him leave, it had been necessary for him to sign himself out against medical advice – and had to hurriedly bite back the string of expletives that rose to his lips. The pain made him wish there was someone who could take his place, so he could go home and rest, unfortunately, there was no-one, which meant he had to soldier on.

Stone knocked on the door of the Logans' flat when he got there; he hoped Ben was home, his arrest would not be the end of the festival robbery investigation, but it would be a significant step towards it – all that would be left was the forensics report proving that both Logan brothers had been in the car used by the robbery, and involved in the hit-and-run. They already had paperwork from the Tredegar scrapyard, showing that David Ashford was responsible for the car's presence there, so his connection to the robbery and hit-and-run was established.

"What the hell d'you want now?" Ben asked in a frustration-filled voice when he saw who was at the door.

Stone had to admire the younger man's cool - Ben knew he was suspected of involvement in the robbery, and that the police were actively trying to find the evidence to connect him to it, yet he showed no concern, only irritation, at the interruption of whatever he had been doing. Despite his admiration, which was muted by his knowledge of the crimes Ben Logan had committed, Stone took a measure of pleasure in ruining his day.

"Ben Logan, I am arresting you on suspicion of armed robbery, vehicular assault..."

"Ain't you given up on this yet?" Ben wanted to know when he had heard everything he was being arrested for. "I might be on license, but that don't give you the right to harass me like this; you've ain't got no proof I were involved in anything. If you don't leave me alone, I'm gonna sue the shit outta you." He grinned nastily. "Yeah, I think I'll have a word with my brief 'bout that, I could do with the compo; what d'ya think about that?" Without waiting for an answer, he swung the door closed.

Stone reached out quickly to stop the door closing, a move he immediately regretted as pain shot through him from his strapped-up ribs, making him gasp aloud and swear. He managed to keep the door open, but it was several long moments before he could speak.

"I wouldn't waste your time talking to your brief about a lawsuit, if I were you," Stone said once he recovered the ability to speak. "You'd be better off talking to him about making a deal. We've got your friend, Mr Ashford, in custody, and we have the car," he told Ben as he opened his mouth to speak.

Ben's jaw dropped open and shock showed in every line of his face; how could the police have the car, he wondered, his mind a frenzied whirlwind of confused thoughts, Ash was supposed to have destroyed it. That was Ash's part of the robbery, getting rid of the car, so the evidence was gone; the plan had been for him to take the car straight to the scrapyard where he worked and put it in the crusher, there should have been no car left for the police to find, just a relatively small cube of metal that had formerly been a car, but whose make and model were impossible to determine.

If something had gone wrong, and Ash had been unable to deal with the car, why hadn't he said anything?

He remembered the money then, the money and the shotguns; they were in the garage at Ash's place, hidden there deliberately so they wouldn't be discovered by the police. If it was true that Ash was in custody, though, then the police would no doubt search his house soon, if they hadn't already, where they would find the money and the guns – the final nails in the case against him.

In desperation, Ben snatched the door from Stone's grasp and slammed it shut. He quickly turned from the door and darted down the passage to the kitchen so he could try and escape – he was barefoot and dressed in just a pair of jeans, with no wallet, phone or keys, but he didn't stop to grab anything, he didn't want to waste the time. Besides, he figured that if he managed to get the money from Ash's garage, he would be able to buy whatever he needed.

Stone stepped aside the moment the door was slammed in his face, and gestured for the constable with the portable ram to step forward. The first swing was badly aimed and caught the doorframe, rather than the door, the second was better, it hit the door just below the lock, and with the third the door burst open. Immediately the two unburdened constables raced inside to find Ben Logan, which didn't prove all that difficult, he was in the kitchen in the grip of DC Reid and one of the constables with him.

"Well, Ben." Stone permitted himself a satisfied smile when he saw the ease with which the blagger had been caught. "Should I add resisting the arrest to the list, or are you going to come quietly now?"

Two words answered that question, words that Stone could have predicted.