While Peter Burke was driving home, he tried to relax. Usually, he loved his job at the FBI, the days packed with investigations, searching for traces and undercover operations. Even more, he was good at it, more than good actually. His clearance rate was unmistakable evidence for this.
His days were long, starting early in the morning, and more often than not he was the one switching out the office lights in the evening. But when he drove home, finally crossing Brooklyn Bridge, he used to feel at ease, looking forward to a comfy evening with his wife.
Only recently, he was stressed out at the end of an office day. This was irritating since he had finally gotten the long overdue promotion. Indeed, he should rather be enjoying his success. The new job was exciting, lots of new tasks, plus he liked the bigger office. Therefore, he couldn't make any sense of this strain.
Peter fiddled around impatiently with the controls in his shiny new BMW. This car was a bit too refined for his like. He preferred his cars more robust and easier to handle. Anyhow, he would never be able to make use of its entire horsepower in New York. Neal on the other hand, would have loved to check out each and every button, knob and lever. Probably he would have messed up the setup of lighting as well as the radio within seconds while at the same time begging his handler to let him drive the car.
Peter sighed. Who would have thought that he would miss the unnerving company of this CI some day?
Pulling up the driveway, he slapped on a smile and entered the house to greet his wife cheerfully. El didn't let herself be fooled by the fake smile. Her husband has never been a good actor and hardly able to hide anything from her. But she knew he needed time to come to terms with himself. No one would make him confiding his concerns or feelings before he was ready, not even his wife.
During dinner they were chitchatting, talking about everything and anything. Clearing the table, El asked, "Why don't you ask Neal to come over one of these days? I haven't seen him for a while."
Peter coughed slightly. "Ahm, he's rather busy at the moment. You know, helping out June, late night stakeouts, not to forget entertaining Mozzie. Maybe the week after next or so." El gave him a sympathetic smile and dropped the subject.
Peter had asked the ex-con a couple of times to join him for a drink or a homemade meal. Neal had declined the invitations and expressed his regrets. Unfortunately, the consultant had made prior arrangements to accompany June to a social festivity or offered to fill in for a stakeout. Something or other had always prevented a meeting in the evening.
Caffrey's expression hadn't given away anything. No accusations had been made. He hadn't pouted or acted offish. Quite the contrary, he had seemed affable and actually sorry to put down the invite. Still, agent Burke has known him long enough to recognize sham sympathy.
The blue eyes were like a wall of steel, providing no insight to any real feelings.
"You're a criminal. You're a criminal. You're a criminal. You're a criminal. You're a criminal." Peter had uttered these words the evening he had told him about the new handler and the change of their arrangement.
Like a broken record, he has heard them nonstop in his mind for weeks, like ringing in the ears. He hasn't been able to repress the memory of his own harsh words. But he couldn't take them back. Ultimately, that statement hasn't been wrong, in the literal sense of the words. Therefore, there was no reason to blame himself for speaking the truth. That's it.
The next morning, Peter discussed an open case with some agents of the White Collar division. While sipping his coffee and listening to the case report, he has been watching Jones, Diana, Neal and the new handler in the conference room.
Frankly, he had expected some tension between Caffrey and the new guy. Taking Neal's lax discipline along with Seigel's obsession with rules into account, this was hardly a harmonic lineup. Peter had figured the consultant would be complaining and cajoling him to appoint Diana or Jones as his handler, trying to get rid of the new agent.
But he had been wrong. Quite obviously, both men were getting on well together. The consultant hadn't challenged this handler so far, even observed the rules most of the times. Furthermore, Agent Seigel seemed to appreciate Caffrey's ideas and insight as valuable input. Right now, they were deep in conversation, files, photos and paper strewn on the table.
At first, the only thing Peter felt was a sudden pang of jealousy. This was ridiculous, of course, for so many reasons. First of all, he was glad that Neal got along so well with his new handler. And seriously, why should he feel jealous. He hasn't been dumped, and they have been work-mates, not soul-mates.
Neal checked his mobile phone casually every other minute. If one didn't know him as good as Agent Burke did, one wouldn't have spotted the slight anxiety in his behavior. But Peter sensed that the young man was waiting for something, a call or a message which was not related to their current case. The ASAC knew his former consultant far too good, and therefore, had every reason to be alarmed.
Right after lunch, he met Neal at the water cooler and got straight to the point. "Neal, is everything alright? I noticed you were a bit nervous."
The CI feigned surprise. "Why, I'm fine, absolutely. Everything is in apple-pie order. June's birthday is next Tuesday, and I'm planning a surprise for her. That has deflected my attention a bit. I'm sorry if this has affected my performance negatively. It won't happen again. You don't have to worry."
An apologetic smile on his face, he started to retreat. But the senior agent blocked his way. "Neal, I need to know if you're in trouble or scheme a con. I know you and I know what I've seen. There's something going on."
Neal remained cool and firm. "Sorry to disagree, Peter, but you don't know me that good. Nothing's going on. Now, if you're done interrogating me, I'd have to go back to work. That's why you keep me around." Flashing an oversized smile, he returned to his desk.
Once there was initial suspicion, Peter has started to notice other indications. Neal slipped out of the office twice that afternoon. The tracker showed him standing in front of the FBI building. It can be assumed that he needed some privacy for a phone call.
A closer look at the tracking data of the past week revealed that Caffrey had walked around the city a lot. His paths had led him to a private auction house. He had explored the place thoroughly, walking up and down the streets in every direction, spending hours in an adjacent coffee shop.
After a restless night, Peter sat in the kitchen, eating breakfast, reading the daily paper. "I knew it, I just knew it." He chucked the paper on the table and jumped to his feet. El asked what was wrong, failing to see why her husband was so furious. He needed some moments compose himself.
"Look here. There's an auction of rare and extremely expensive jewels, property of a South African mine owner. They will be on display all week. The auction is scheduled next Monday. That's the very same auction house Caffrey was observing all week. The auctioneer is expecting to obtain record prices for the pieces. Those gems are second to none in size and flawlessness. Without a shadow of a doubt, Neal is going to rob those stones. You bet!"
Burke told his wife about the observations he had made as well as the conclusion he had drawn. "He's a criminal. I told you so! He was behind that gold coin heist, and I don't know how many other crimes. I'm going to arrest him."
El stared at him, shaking her head in disbelief. "Are you out of your mind? You know pretty well that the proximity of time between that heist and the sudden turn in your trial is probably not a coincidence. Whatever he has done, or is about to do, was quite likely done to protect you. I almost begged him to do something to free you, by whatever means."
However, Peter refused to give in. If he would accept the truth in his wife's words, that would be ... unbearable.
"No, no El, you're wrong. I know him better. He has fooled us for years; it's just a long-time con for him. Now, he's about to cash up his investments. But I'm going to bring him down first."
Elizabeth grabbed his arm and turned him around, forcing her husband to look into her eyes. "Stop this. That's not who you are. You've never let a friend down. You would regret this for the rest of your life."
As an afterthought, she added with a soft voice, "the rest of our life."
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Author's Note:
First of all, thanks for reading.
You might have guessed already that episode 5x01 has inspired this story. I didn't like El's part of accusing Neal being selfish and asking favors at the same time. And even though, I see the need to rebuild the mistrust between Peter and Neal to build up suspense for the show, I suffer.
So, I decided to fix this dilemma on my own! Of course, Neal will be hurt along the way and Peter has to proove his friendship.
Reviews are welcome :-)
