Chapter Forty-One

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height


Stone was back at the Keating house, listening to Inspector Evans explain what he and his assistant were going to do to track the ransom, when his phone rang. He was relieved to hear the sudden burst of music from his pocket, it gave him an excuse to stop pretending he understood what was being said, most of which was going straight over his head; he could only hope that his partner was following it better, though he realised that it didn't matter whether he was, so long as the two specialists knew what they were going to be doing, and did it well enough to enable them to arrest Alice's kidnappers.

"Stone," he answered, keeping half an ear on Evans' explanation, in case something was said that he needed to hear.

"Sir, it's Detective Grey."

"Yes, Christian, what've you got for me?" Stone asked, almost, but not quite, desperate for something that would advance his investigations; he and Burke had been out of luck when they got to the scrapyard where Sheila Hawkins' car was supposed to have ended up – the gates were locked and, apart from a couple of security lights, it was all in darkness.

"Nothing definite," Grey admitted, "but we have come up with something interesting. Lewis Rice, the last of the former Griffin Games' employees we were checking, seems to be missing, he hasn't been seen since yesterday morning, when his neighbour saw him leave his house with a stranger, a motorcycle-riding stranger with a mean face."

"Anything else?" Stone asked, not quite as interested by Grey's news as the young detective seemed to be.

"According to his neighbours, Lewis Rice has changed since he lost his job; he's become more surly, bitter and unfriendly, and has expressed a dislike for the man responsible for him getting the sack. It's possible that sentiment extends to Mr Keating, which would give him a motive for being involved with Alice Keating's kidnapping," Grey said.

"Follow up on it," Stone instructed. He wasn't convinced, but it was a lead and couldn't be ignored. "Find Rice if you can, and see what you can find out about the guy on the motorbike; if Rice has an alibi then we need to look elsewhere."

"Yes, sir. Oh, I've heard back from the DVLA about the Vauxhall," Grey said, the message had been waiting for him when he and Reid got back to the station. "According to their records, a Mr Jeffrey Rodgers attempted to transfer title of the Vauxhall into his name; the paperwork wasn't filled out correctly, though, so they returned it to him."

"What's his address?" Stone asked as he pressed his mobile to his ear with his shoulder and fumbled in his pocket for pad and pen to write down the information Grey provided. "Okay, get Reid to make a start on tracking Rice down, and whatever else there is to do – I want to know everything he can find out about Tredegar scrapyard. I want you to meet me at Mr Rodgers'," he said changing his mind about what he wanted Grey to do. He hoped that Mr Rodgers would lead them to the Vauxhall, which he now believed would firm up the case against Jerry Logan, and enable them to charge Ben Logan.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net