Under Suspicion
AN: I have decided to make this crossover into a series. I like Neal, Sam and Dean working together. I love Peter being out of the loop and wondering what his C.I. is up to. I am linking this series by name…every title will have the word 'under' in it. A story may refer to another story in the series. But if it does, the reference will not be so complicated or involved that you will have to go back and reread the mentioned story to understand it, hopefully.
"He's up to something." Peter replied to Diana as they both sat in his office.
Diana nodded. As far as she was concerned, if Neal was breathing, he was up to something. "This is Neal we're talking about here, Boss."
Peter nodded and sighed.
"Sam and Dean Winchester are back?" Diana asked, wanting to confirm that that fact is the source of his anxiety.
Peter nodded again. "I know Neal was involved in that artifact going missing a few months ago. I just can't prove it."
"Sam and Dean were still in town when the exhibit left?" Diana asked.
Peter nodded. "Our street contacts said so." Peter got up from his desk started to pace.
"What is it, Boss?"
"I asked Neal, flat out, if he knew the Winchesters…."
"…and…."
"He said that they were friends." Peter paused. "He said something else, too. I still don't know what to make of it."
"What did he say?" Diana inquired.
"Neal said that…I had said that they were killers. Neal said that no, that they were hunters. He said sometimes the people just got in the way."
"What does that mean?" Diana asked, thoroughly confused.
"I don't know." Peter said, his frustration growing. "I don't know…and with them back in town…."
Diana started to speak.
"…and he was rattled. I do remember that. He was holding on to his protection medal for dear life. He…I've just never seen him like that."
Diana shook her head. She didn't think the man to be particularly religious, so a protection medal…?
"He…I asked him about it." Peter said, interrupting Diana's thoughts and causing her to pay attention.
"Neal Caffrey doesn't get rattled." Diana said with confidence.
Peter nodded. "I used to believe that too, Diana. Trust me."
"So, if he's not scared of the Winchesters…who could it be?"
"It's more like a what." Peter stated.
Diana just looked at him for a moment. She was not sure she was hearing correctly. "A what…you mean…like ghosts?"
"The Catholic church recognizes angels and demons."
"Seriously, angels and demons?" Diana's skepticism was evident.
"It's a leap. But the fact is, people don't scare Neal. We both know that. He's cool in the situations we put him in." Peter replied. "Like I said…he was really, really rattled that day."
"What did he say?"
"Basically he said he couldn't explain what was going on, and that I wouldn't understand if he could."
"It sounds…unusual, but not…necessarily supernatural." Diana said. She was just not willing to go there.
"You didn't see him, Diana. You didn't see Neal." Peter replied.
Diana nodded. She stood and left Peter's office. She was very worried about her boss and his C.I.
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Sam and Dean needed Neal's help, again. They invited themselves into Neal's apartment after making a little small talk with June. They were waiting for Neal when he got home from work.
"Where is it?" Neal said in way of introduction when he saw the two of them on his patio. "There had better not be a cursed hand in my apartment!" Neal replied, remembering the events of a few short months ago.
"Not this time." Dean replied. He and Sam turned to look at Neal when they heard his voice. They each embraced their friend.
"It's good to see you guys, and no offense…but…." Neal started.
Sam nodded. "I know. You never get used it."
"Well, I'm sure you guys are short on time. I know you need my help with something." Neal replied.
Dean nodded. "We are in search of a painting."
"Okay," Neal replied, warily. "…and how can I help with that?"
"It's actually where the painting is…we…." Sam looked at his brother. Dean was having trouble asking. They both regretted Neal's involvement in their past case. They knew Neal had been very rattled by the whole experience.
"We need you to steal it." Sam blurted out.
"Guys…" Neal lifted his pants leg to show his anklet. "…I have a leash and Peter can track me anywhere I go. I am not allowed into any museum in New York without an escort."
"It's not in a museum." Dean said. "It's a lot closer to home, and you won't get in any trouble for being there."
Neal looked from one to the other of them, confused.
"Where, exactly, are you talking about?" Neal asked.
"…the FBI evidence lockup." Dean said, hesitatingly.
"What?!" Neal stared at Dean.
"Well, we think…the evidence lockup. The feds confiscated it a while ago. We think. We have had a little trouble following it. It could have been returned to its rightful owners by now. Actually to the family, the Czar would be dead after all this time. It's been missing for years."
"If it's been returned, then what's the problem?" Neal asked.
"THAT is the problem." Dean replied. "It was cursed, centuries back, and while it was out of family's hands, the family was safe."
"Since when do you handle cases abroad?" Neal asked.
"The family immigrated to the states years' back. Legend has it, to escape certain death at the hands of a rival family." Sam explained. "The last of the family lives here in Manhattan."
Neal looked at the both of them. "This is not your…usual case. You didn't just open the newspapers and find this one."
"No." Dean admitted. "This is kind of personal."
Neal waited for him to continue.
Dean hesitated. "It's rumored the Czar was a 'ladies man.' We could be descendants of some storage closet, maid-servant 'nookie.'"
"So…you could be…affected by this." Neal couldn't help but smile. "It's certainly now unheard of that the rich 'take advantage' of the young, innocent, pretty and vulnerable hired help." He mused.
"You really don't have to be enjoying this so much." Sam replied.
Neal's smile got bigger. "…maid-servant nookie, huh?"
"Stop smiling." Dean said, irritated.
"It's not every day you hear that your friends could be royals." Neal paused. "And what type of royalty would that be…a clandestine birthright?"
"So…the bloodline got polluted, a little, by common folk…there's still a chance." Dean replied. "And I don't want some ancient dude with a sword, wearing a suit of armor and a bad attitude, chasing my ass."
"I see your point, Dean." Neal replied. "But, no matter where it is, it's not going to be easy to steal. The guys in evidence know what I look like. I'm not allowed in the place. And besides, guys, this is not a place that is easily searched. It's the size of a football field with about a 30 foot ceiling. It's stacked with evidence. You can't just walk in and easily find anything. And unless I suddenly become a royal, I can't imagine being let into the family home."
Sam replied. "Not a problem, it's a mansion, not unlike this place, actually. And, from what the doorman says, there is a rotating door as far as help goes. He said they pay them well, but they treat the staff like dirt, no one stays long."
"Get back to the guy in the armor. I realize that this is New York, but even a guy in a suit of armor would draw attention. I can't see him getting in to see anybody." Neal replied. "And, I mean, if you know what he looks like…."
"He doesn't have to get in. He's already in." Sam said.
Neal looked at him, confused.
"He's in the painting. He's the guy in the painting." Dean explained.
"You're…he…what?" Neal asked.
"He's the guy in the painting." Dean repeated.
"A guy who is a feet tall, comes out of a painting and kills people?" Neal mused, trying to wrap his mind about the whole thing. "Then buy a huge fly swatter or step on him."
"Look he's full sized when he comes out of the painting. We…" Dean saw the look on Neal's face. "…don't ask me how I know that, but he is."
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Neal straightened his tie before he approached. He was really going to have to work to pull off this con. He approached Sheila, the watchdog of the evidence room, and plastered on his biggest smile.
"Sheila." Neal said sweetly.
"What do you want, Caffrey?" Sheila said, not even looking at him.
Neal had his work cut out for him. He tried again. This time producing the cup of coffee he had brought for her.
"Not a good time, Neal." Sheila said as she looked up at him from her log book. "I have internal auditors all over the place. If they find an ex-con down here, roaming around, I could lose my job. If Agent Burke needs anything from lockup, he will have to come and get it himself."
Neal nodded and left her the coffee he had brought, so much for Plan A.
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"It's not happening, guys." Neal said as he, Sam and Dean sat in his living room. "The auditors would kick me out as soon as they saw me. And I can't get my hands on the log books. Maybe…maybe it's at the family home."
"If that's the case, we have to act fast." Sam replied.
"They don't you guys just go in and act as the hired help? I mean you impersonate FBI agents, policemen…."
"We tried. We didn't know which painting it was." Dean admitted. "They really have a surprising number of paintings of guys in armor."
"I tried looking it up on the Internet. I could not find a picture of the work." Sam stated. He gave Neal the name of the artist and title of the work.
Neal recognized the artist's name, but the painting was not one he knew either. He grabbed a book of obscure paintings and authors and looked through it. He looked up the name in the index. He then turned to the page and found a picture. It was as Dean had described him, pretty much. Even down to the look on his face.
"Yeah, Dean. I see what you mean. I wouldn't want him coming after me either." Neal replied. "Do you remember seeing this painting?"
They both nodded. Sam told him it was in the living room, up above the fireplace.
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"No movement yet, Peter." Jones said from his position in the van, on a side street down from June's mansion. "The contact said he saw them go in a couple of hours ago." He stated, giving Peter an update. "Why can't we just…?"
"Two reasons…" Peter answered, understanding the question. "…first of all, we don't know that they are actually there. Second of all, I need Neal to trust me. I need to be able to trust him. If you go in there…guns blazing…."
Jones nodded. "He will never trust either one of us again."
"You got it." Peter responded. "Just sit tight. I'll bring you something to eat later."
"No deviled ham, I hope." Jones muttered under his breath.
"What?" Peter asked.
"Oh boy, deviled ham!" Jones said, pretending to be excited.
"That's what I thought I heard." Peter replied.
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"I think I have a better way to do this." Neal replied. "Most rich people have a company they use to authenticate artwork and restore it, if necessary. Someone they have used many times or maybe even a company that the family has used for many years."
Dean nodded. "Someone would have been brought in to authenticate the painting."
"How do we find out which company it was?" Sam asked. "And what is your role in this?"
"We figure out the company….I make up some business cards…I'm in. I just wait until the family is out, and I'll tell the hired help that the family wanted me to work on certain paintings. I'll have a list, and they won't know the difference. I'll take down two or three paintings, very similar to the one we want. Then I'll leave, saying I will have a courier service come and pick up the paintings. The courier, a friend of mine, will go in and take the one you're after. He will take it down off the wall and replace it with one of the others I have picked out. He will hide the rest and leave with only the one you want."
"But why hide the others?" Dean asked. "And won't they notice the replacement?"
"…to support the restoration story." Neal replied. "And not initially, the help probably won't notice at all. It buys us time."
"…your business card?" Sam asked.
"…will be a brand-new alias who works in a vacant lot on the upper east side. Their branch office." Neal explained.
Dean and Sam smiled. They loved Neal's idea. No wonder he was such a good con man. And he hadn't lost his touch.
"Oh, and guys, you need to leave through the back way." Neal explained. "Poor Jones is stuck in the van again. It seems the FBI thinks that I'm up to something."
"Now…where would they get that idea?" Dean asked grinning.
Neal smiled and shrugged.
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"We missed them, didn't we? Damnit!" Peter said, pacing his office while getting a report from Jones.
"We were out there…for hours, Peter. Maybe they…." Jones was going to say maybe they were not actually even in town.
"Oh, they were here." Peter said, still pacing. "I feel it in my gut. And I know he was involved."
"Involved in what, Peter?" Jones asked. "We've been…we've been searching the papers. We haven't gotten any reports. We….:
"Boss." Diana said, using that moment to stick her head in Peter's door. "I think I've found something." Diana showed Peter the newspaper article. "It seems," Diana said, summarizing as Peter looked at the paper. "…it seems that someone took a painting from an ancestor of Russian nobility, who lives here in Manhattan. It seems they knew what they were looking for. They bypassed several more expensive paintings for the one that was taken. They took others off the walls, but left them behind. The family found them hidden behind sofas in the living room. The original that was taken was hanging over the fireplace. They discovered the theft when they found another hanging in its place."
Peter gave the paper back to Diana and took up his pacing again. "Suspects?"
Diana shook her head. "Not a good description, the staff admitted that the family had many people in and out, regularly. The staff usually didn't bother even finding out who the visitors were. The staff did say that they had been visited by an art authenticator and a courier. The newspaper investigated. The courier service has no employee matching the description given. And the name on business card is probably an alias since the branch office turned out to be a vacant lot."
"This has Caffrey written all over it." Peter fumed. "And why didn't the case come to us?"
"It was not supposed to be made public, but some of the house staff started talking." Diana explained. She had actually called the paper and talked to the reporter who had written the story. "The family was embarrassed that someone just waltzed into their home and stole a piece of priceless family art. The next thing they knew, they open the paper and there's the story."
"Priceless family art…what does that mean?" Jones asked.
"The reporter said the family didn't think the painting monetarily valuable, even though it is the only one known to exist. It is, supposedly, of an ancestor who cursed future generations because he was disinherited." Diana stated. "Family legend says it's cursed. The modern-day ancestors don't believe in that stuff and were just glad to have the painting back."
"This is not Neal's M.O., Boss." Jones stated. "I mean…why leave a valuable painting, probably several valuable paintings? Why take the one with no monetary value? Does that even…sound like Neal?" Jones shook his head. "Not to me. He likes the money. He would want to fence it. Why steal it otherwise?"
"The Winchesters…." Peter started.
"We have no proof the Winchesters were still here when this occurred. Nobody has seen them since that initial sighting?" Diana asked.
Peter shook his head.
"What we were talking about before…?" Diana broached the subject.
"…a working theory." Peter admitted.
Jones looked from Diana to Peter and back. He had no idea what they were talking about. "What am I missing here?"
"Folklore is littered with cursed objects." Peter said.
"Yes, Boss… folklore…not the New York City White Collar Division…in the year 2012." Diana replied, her worry for her boss returning.
Peter shook his head. "You didn't see him, Diana, you and Jones. You didn't see how rattled he was the last time the Winchesters were here."
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Mozzie got to meet Sam and Dean for the first time when he brought the painting to them. Neal, for many reasons, had not told Mozzie a lot about Sam and Dean. In his mind Mozzie's reality and the Winchester's just didn't mix.
Neal had no idea what Sam and Dean did with the painting. After his previous experience, he knew that that was for the best. He had said goodbye to his friends when they had left to meet Mozzie. He knew that Sam and Dean would be leaving New York as soon as they 'took care of business.'
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Peter kept casting sideways glances at Neal as they drove. Neal didn't acknowledge Peter's glances, he just kept looking out the window.
"Were they here?" Peter finally asked, speaking of the Winchesters.
Neal looked at him. "Do you want the long version or the short version?"
THE END
END NOTES: FYI: 'Nookie' is just what it sounds like it would be. Also, I am writing these stories a little, open-ended for a reason. At some point, I do plan on introducing Peter to Sam and Dean's world. And eventually, I plan on Peter meeting Sam and Dean. I just want Peter to be 'open' to the whole experience. Also, M.O. is Modus Operandi (if I am spelling it correctly) and it is the manner in which a person does something, their style.