Where There's A Will

Chapter Fifty-Two

"Congratulations."

"Thank you, sir." Stone shifted uncomfortably in the chair he had taken in his superior's office.

"Is there anything you need, to close out the investigation?" Collins asked, pleased by his subordinate's success that morning, though he wasn't quite so pleased that the success had come at the cost of a detective in the hospital, and another who should be. Because of the morning's events, his detective's division was short on officers, which had required him to talk to his superior to arrange for cover to fill the vacancies.

"I don't think so," Stone said, gritting his teeth against the pain the movement caused as he reached for the mug of coffee on the desk in front of him. "We have the car, which is in the hands of the lab boys; it's probably going to take them a few days to finish working on it, especially with the weekend coming up. That doesn't matter, though, because we recovered the money and the shotguns from Ashford's garage, and I've been promised fingerprints by lunchtime tomorrow at the latest."

Collins nodded as he took in what his inspector was saying while he looked him over. He saw the pain in his face, and in his movements, and wanted to tell him to go home until the doctor cleared him to return to duty, he couldn't, though, not with the ransom drop due to take place that evening, and Stone the most senior of his officers, injured or healthy.

"Have you interviewed Logan and Ashford yet?"

Stone shook his head; another move he wished he could have avoided. "Not yet, I wanted to wait until the search of Ashford's place was finished, and now I'm not sure there's any point in questioning them; we might as well just remand them, and pass the case to the CPS so they can decide on charges."

Collins was silent for a short while as he considered what Stone had said, finally he nodded in agreement. There was no point in wasting time with interviews when they had enough evidence to charge the Logans and Ashford, especially when there were more important things for them to worry about, namely the Keating case. "Is everything set for tonight?" he asked, mentally crossing his fingers. If anything went wrong there would be an unholy outcry in the media, who had been following the kidnapping closely, despite there being little in the way of facts for them to print or report on.

"As far as I know, sir," Stone said, not entirely certain since he hadn't been back to the Keating house since that morning. "The ransom money is at the Keatings' house according to Steven, and Inspector Evans should be making the necessary arrangements for tonight. I'm heading there next so I can make sure everything's in hand. Have you been able to arrange for the officers Evans and I asked for?" He was sure, despite the injuries that had depleted the CID ranks, that enough officers, uniformed and plain-clothed, would be found for the operation that was to happen that night; no-one, least of all the DCI, wanted a lack of officers to be the reason if anything went wrong.

"I've spoken to Chief Inspector Vaughn and Superintendent Vaz, they've both agreed that you'll have all the officers you need," Collins told him. "I just hope everything goes as planned."