FicWad

Gerard frowned as he stared at the closed door. Iero had long since left and he had done little since but stare at the door. In his mind he was weighing up the options and the risks. He didn’t believe for a moment that Iero cared in the slightest whether he was implicated in the robbery. He fully believed that both he and Mikey would be killed as soon as they had their hands on the contents of the vault. That, he was certain, was the type of man he was. The type of man who would say anything just to get the reaction he wanted; a minimum fuss approach to ensure he got the required result. All he really wanted was those jewels and he would do anything, say anything to get them. He had already proved his willingness to kill; the news had just arrived to say that Philip Wallis, the manager, had sunk into a coma from which he was not expected to recover. That had been his doing, something over which he had shown no remorse. Gerard picked up the phone, his mind made up; he would make him pay and he would not let him kill his brother.

*

Ray picked up the coffee pot and stood poised ready to pour only to sigh with annoyance as the doorbell sounded. Returning the pot to the hotplate, he headed for the door. No sooner had he pulled it open a shade than it was almost pushed in his face knocking him back against the wall. Ray’s eyes widened as he assumed the worst; looking up, he expected to see a line of police come to arrest him. Instead, his eyes alighted on the blond and lightly bearded face of Bob. He appeared dishevelled and flustered; something had clearly upset him, but pushing himself away from the wall with an unhealthy measure of irritation, Ray was in no mood to notice.

“Bob!” he yelled, angry at the abrupt and dramatic entrance made by his friend. “What the hell…?”
“He’s been arrested!” Bob cut in, slamming the door behind him.
“Who? Frank?” Ray replied, suddenly stunned and unnerved by the turn of the conversation.
“No, Gary!” Bob replied in a way that suggested that Ray should know immediately who he was talking about.
Ray shrugged and shook his head; his expression quietly asking for more information.
“Who?” He prompted again.
“Gary! My contact in the army, the one I got the device for opening the vault from.”
“What for?” Ray asked quickly.
“What?” Bob replied puzzled by the question; his brow crinkling, registering his confusion.
“What was he arrested for?” Ray continued, explaining his question.
“I don’t know.”
Bob was stopped in his tracks; it wasn’t something he had thought about. He had heard the bad news from a ‘friend of a friend’ and assumed the worst.
“This isn’t good,” Ray frowned. “We have to find out more. Can you contact the person who told you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I guess, but not from here. Besides, I don’t know what he’ll tell me, if anything. There’ll be a major security clampdown, even if he knows, he may not be able to say anything.”
“Well, how did you find out in the first place? What, he just rang you and said that the guy stealing for you has been arrested?”

Bob frowned, deeply unimpressed. He knew the way he had told the story had given little away, and Ray knew nothing of army procedure but even Ray must have known that the question was ridiculous.

“It’s called sarcasm, Bob!” Ray added, realising merely from the expression on his friend’s face what he was thinking. “How did you find out?”
“I know what it’s called, Ray, but I just don’t think it’s the best time for it!” he snapped in return. Bob heaved a deep sigh before continuing. “No, he didn’t just ring me. Well, he did, but not about that. He’s been trying to locate Alison and Dan for me.”
“Any leads?” Ray asked hopefully.
“Yeah,” Bob nodded. “Yeah, I think I know where they are.”
“Wow! That’s great news!” Ray paused as he noticed that Bob wasn’t so enthusiastic.
“What’s wrong?”
“Everything!” Bob’s expression displayed a look of utter dismay as Ray appeared not to grasp the sheer gravity of the situation. “Ray, I’m close to finding her, to seeing Dan and then Gary goes and gets himself fucking arrested while I’m in possession of a piece of army gadgetry that’s so hot it’s burning my fingers! I can’t get arrested, Ray! If I go down one more time, I’ll lose Dan forever. I won’t even be allowed to see him through plate glass!”
Ray frowned helplessly as he watched Bob appear to unravel in front of him.
“What am I gonna do, Ray?” Bob asked, his breathing quickening in panic as he waited for Ray to conjure up the right answers; a magical response to all his troubles. When nothing was immediately forthcoming, Bob repeated his plea. “What am I gonna do?”

Ray thought fast, he had to think of something that would placate Bob and give them both a little breathing space to consider their next move.
“We have to find out why he was arrested,” Ray nodded as he spoke, hoping Bob would automatically agree to the hastily conceived plan. “I mean, you don’t know, he could just have been drunk on duty, got into a fight or something? You were in the army, you know, you can get arrested for tying your shoelaces the wrong way!”

Bob gave a short, unexpected laugh. Of course, Ray was exaggerating, but not by much. He was right; it may only be a simple, trifling matter. There was no need to assume that he was in any immediate danger; but if he were, they all were. The matter needed to be resolved and quickly. They needed Frank.

*

They were used to how Frank worked by now; he sat in silence as Bob explained everything. He made notes, jotted down questions, but said nothing until Bob had given him all the details. Tapping his pen on the pad, he made a few extra notes before looking up at Bob and Ray’s expectant faces.

“And you’re certain he’s been arrested over the theft of this device?” he asked gravely.
“Yeah,” Bob nodded, the worry on his face evident in the lines on his brow. “I spoke to a friend in the same base, he knows him, but doesn’t know our business connection. He says the whole base knows.”
“You took a hit for this guy, didn’t you? When you went to prison, you took the rap and didn’t name him. Any chance he’ll do the same for you?”
Bob shook his head.
“No,” he replied unhappily. “You make it sound so noble, Frank, but really I was just covering my options for when I got out. I’ve got nothing to offer him except possibly a lighter sentence if he names me.”
“Damn it!” Frank exclaimed suddenly, slamming the pen down on the pad. “This is bad news, yes, but it is really bad timing!”
“I’m sorry Frank.”

Frank’s brow creased as he looked up puzzled by the statement.
“It’s hardly your fault is it?” he smiled as he realised how distraught Bob was. “No. No, we have to sort this out, and fast. Do you know if you’ve actually been named by him as an accomplice yet?”
Bob took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. He’s probably waiting for his lawyer so he can cut a deal.”
Frank smiled.
“Is he now? Where is this base?”
“About ten miles away,” Bob replied, uncertain what Frank had in mind.
“Okay, now I need you to tell me all about military procedures; this’ll be a court martial, yeah?”
Bob nodded. “Yeah, the judge and lawyers are military personnel. Gary’s lawyer is on an exercise and won’t be back for two days.”
“So where is he, this Gary?”
“He’s still on the base, under guard by the military police.”
“And they have to be military lawyers?” Frank asked pulling at his lip distractedly.
“No,” Bob shook his head. “That’s just what’s provided, but anyone can hire a civilian lawyer, if they want, they just have to pay for him.”
Frank’s smile returned and broadened.
“Then, I think we have a starting point.”
“What do you mean?” Ray asked, confused by Frank’s statement.
“We can at least get in there, we just need to decide what we do once we’re in.”
“How do we get in?” Ray asked. “They’ll know Bob and neither of us can pass as lawyers.”
“No, but our little friend downstairs can, because that’s exactly what he is.”
“I kidnapped a lawyer?” Bob rolled his eyes. “Great! My luck’s really in, isn’t it!”

Frank chewed his lip as his smile faded.
“Let’s look at our options,” he began with a grave glance at Ray and Bob. “To my mind we have four options in total. One is unacceptable, one is problematic, another is unrealistic and the last one undesirable.”
“What are they?” Bob asked quietly.
“You go into hiding, we get him out, we pay him off or we kill him.”

Silence hung around the table like a thick blanket of impenetrable fog, smothering everyone’s thoughts. Ray looked down and stared intently at the table he didn’t really want to think about the final option.

“I know we discussed this before we grabbed the Way guy, but…” Bob’s voice trailed off. “I know we decided before all of this that we’d deal with them, when the time came. But… I’m not a murderer, Frank. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll beat him up for you, hell, I even kidnapped him, but I don’t think I… No! I can’t. I can’t kill someone, Frank.”
Ray shook his head. “Neither can I.”
“This is a real mess, isn’t it?” Bob leaned forward on the table and dropped his head into his hands. “I can’t do what you asked and I’m a hair’s breadth away from getting us all arrested by being linked to Gary.”
Frank clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them.
“I can’t ask either of you to do something I can’t do either,” Frank admitted with a sigh. “This is my fault. I got carried away by the thought of those jewels and we drifted out of our zones again. We better pull this in fast or it’s really going to get out of control.”
“What do we do?” asked Ray.
“The only remotely realistic thing we can do. We have to get him out of there and we have to use Mikey to do it.”
“He’s never going to agree to that!” Ray remarked.

Frank placed the small box with the chrome switch on the table.
“He’ll do whatever we tell him to, we just need this.”
“What’s that?” asked Bob his brow wrinkled with curiosity.
Frank grinned. “I’ve been torturing his brother with this. I told him that there was a bomb in Mikey’s room. One flick of the switch and his brother was dead. I figure it’s time to tell Mikey that I’ve planted bombs in both the bank and Gerard’s apartment.”
Ray smiled, but still with an edge of mild confusion.
“What does it do?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Frank explained. “Unless you want to count getting people to fall in line.”
“You’re a genius!” Bob grinned broadly.
“If we can pull this off, I’ll take the compliment. Now, here,” Frank turned a page in the notebook and picked up the fake trigger device, “write down everything you know about Gary, absolutely everything. And I’ll go speak to his new lawyer.”