The Triple Threat
SUMMARY: A sixteen-year-old girl and her twelve-year-old sister steal several necklaces. But during the deal to get them back, the gang learns that the girls are just pawns in a dangerous man's game. A game that holds their nine-year-old brother's life in the balance.
WARNING: Child abuse, not real graphic.
WARNING: Some bad words, not many.
SPOILERS: Has major spoilers for the season two finale, Point Blank.
NOTE: In this story, Mozzie was shot but lived. They proved who was behind everything, although he denied being the one who killed Kate. He is now behind bars. They also discovered the secret of the music box. This story starts about three months after Point Blank.
WARNING: This story contains the spanking of a minor child. It is the first in a series of stories that contain spanking of children and a teen.
NOTE: In this story, and the ones after it in the series, June has full custody of her granddaughter Samantha.
WARNING: I plan on making up backgrounds for the characters of White Collar. Some of the stories in this series will be about upsetting and disturbing subjects such as drug abuse and child molestation. But not in this story, only some of the future ones. I will post a clear warning at the beginning of these stories.
NOTE: Please let me what you think about this story and if you would like to read the future stories.
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Neal was walking down the sidewalk, heading back to the office. He saw two young girls walking side by side, and had to smile at what they were doing. The older one, he figured was around sixteen, was bumping into people and stealing their wallets. The younger one, Neal figured was around twelve, was quickly removing their watches while the older one was apologizing for bumping into them.
They looked a lot alike, but were dressed very different. The older girl wore her dark brown hair long, just past her butt and pulled into a tight thick braid. She was slender and tall. She was wearing sandals without heals, a pair of light pink shorts, and matching blouse. The teenager was also wearing bracelets, a gold heart shaped necklace, and earrings.
The younger girl was slender and a little short for her age. Her dark brown hair was cut short. She was wearing a pair of dirty sneakers, blue jeans, and a black tee-shirt advertising a rock band. She wore no jewelry.
"Not bad." Neal said to himself as he watched them work, he thought they were very good. He noticed one flaw in their scheme; they were looking directly at their next mark before they struck. "Time for a lesson in the fine art of pick pocketing." Neal said, removing his wallet and quickly writing a note. He removed everything from the wallet, then put the note and a paper flower into the wallet.
Then he watched as they picked another mark. With practiced ease, Neal walked past the man first and removed his wallet, replacing it with his own. Then he smiled when he saw the older girl steal the wallet.
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The two girls ducked into an alley to see how much they had, each carried a purse with their stolen loot inside.
The older girl quickly went through the wallets, pocketing the cash and tossing the rest of the stuff into a dumpster. She pulled out an expensive looking leather wallet and opened it, frowning at what she saw. She pulled out a note and a paper flower.
"A little advise for future reference." She said, reading the note. "Do not look at your marks, it is a sure give away. Other then that, you two are very talented. But I should warn you, picking pockets will land you in a lot of trouble. Trust me; I know this for a fact."
"It was that dude dressed like a cartoon." The younger girl said, laughing. "He bumped into that guy right before you did."
"Yeah." The older one said, also laughing. "He's got a pretty good sense of humor." Then she frowned and said, "And our wallet."
"We should find him and even the score."
"No." The teen said. "We can't risk it right now, Chris."
"Yeah." Chris sighed. "You're right, Tiff."
"And by the way, he was not dressed like a cartoon. That was classic rat pack."
"Bull, that was classic cartoon."
"You have no sense of style."
"He looked ridiculous, especially with that stupid looking hat."
"That was a Fedora."
"You are so weird."
"Like you aren't."
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A week later Peter called Neal, Jones, and Diana into a conference room. They all entered and sat down; Peter already had a small TV and a VCR sitting on the table.
"Should I go pop some popcorn?" Neal asked with a grin as he sat down. "Hope it's one I haven't seen."
"Oh, I doubt you've seen it before." Peter said, not looking in a good mood. "A jewelry store was robbed this morning before it opened. The thieves were smart enough to gain entry to a secured door that requires a fingerprint to enter, we're not sure how they managed that yet. They were also smart enough to disable every camera and motion censor inside the store, again we don't know how yet. But they weren't smart enough to know about the camera outside of the clothing store across the street. They were caught leaving the jewelry store, now we have to identify them."
He pushed play on the VCR.
They watched as two masked people exited the jewelry store, and were surprised see that one of them was short. It had to be a kid. They walked down the sidewalk, pulling off their masks, but their backs were to the camera. They were dressed all in black and each carried a backpack on their backs. They walked out of range of the camera.
"Keep watching." Peter said. "Pay attention to the little boy with the ball.
They watched as the boy stood beside a young woman who was talking to another woman. The boy was tossing the ball in the air and catching it, then he missed the ball and it rolled into the street. They watched in horror as the little boy ran into the street after the ball, and watched as a car sped towards him.
The woman turned and screamed, and the boy stood and froze starring at the oncoming car. Then someone ran towards the boy, from the other side of the street, and knocked him out of the way just as the car whizzed past. The hero was a teenage girl with long brown hair and was dressed in black. A black backpack was still on her back.
A younger girl, also dressed in black, rushed to the older girl's side as the woman picked up the crying boy and hugged him. Both girls' faces were clearly visible on the screen. The older girl stood up, then both girls took off running out of the range of the camera. Peter pushed the stop button.
"Who are they Neal?" Peter asked. He was watching Neal as the scene played out, he saw recognition on the younger man's expression.
"Who said I knew them?" Neal asked, avoiding lying, but also avoiding answering the question.
"I could see it in you face." Peter said. "Now answer the question."
"I saw them about a week ago on the sidewalk." Neal said. "But I didn't talk to them."
"What are you not telling me?"
Neal sighed, sometimes he hated working with a man who was an expert at reading people.
"They were picking pockets and stealing watches." He said. "They are very good at it."
"You saw them committing a crime." Peter said. "And you did not stop them, or turn them in?"
"Come on Peter, they're just kids."
"And you work for the FBI." Peter said, sternly. "You should have done something."
"I did." Neal defended himself. "I left them a note telling them that picking pockets would land them in trouble."
"What else did the note say?"
Neal sighed again and said. "I gave them advice. They were looking at their marks before they struck."
Peter pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to remain calm.
"I did the right thing." Neal said, his grin returning. "If I would have turned them in, then the older one would not have been able to save that little boy's life."
Jones and Diana turned their heads so Peter could not see their smiles, Peter glared at Neal.
"How much was taken from the jewelry store?" Jones asked, after he was able to stop smiling.
"About a hundred thousand dollars worth of diamond necklaces." Peter said. "Jenny is running face recognition software, trying to identify them. She's also trying to figure out how they got in and how they disabled the security system."
"Why would they risk picking pockets if they were planning a heist worth that much money?" Diana asked.
"No idea." Peter admitted. Then his phone rung. He answered it, thanked the caller, then hung up. "Jenny has something."
The three agents and Neal went down to the forensics lab and found Jenny. Classical music was coming from the speakers on the computer. She turned the music off as they entered.
Jennifer Stratton was thirty-years-old with shoulder length red hair and green eyes. She was a little short and heavy-set. Her nose was slightly crooked, from being badly broken when she was a kid.
"What have you got Jenny?" Peter asked.
"It's not good." She said, sadly. "I've got an id on the kids."
"Isn't that good news?" Neal asked, smiling at her.
Jenny was not the type he normally went for, but he thought she had the most beautiful eyes of anyone he had ever met.
"Tiffany Melina Cutter and Christina Francis Cutter are sisters." Jenny said. "They have a nine-year-old brother named Matthew Patrick Cutter. Their Father was arrested and convicted of killing their Mother eight years ago; he is serving a life sentence in Huntsville prison in Texas.
They kids were sent to live with their Uncle, Travis Hinton. Hinton was a con-artist and thief, and was killed by an FBI agent five months ago. Hinton was caught with a stolen painting and pulled a gun, the agent was faster.
They kids were then sent to three separate group homes, where they stayed for one night. Then all three disappeared and had not been heard of since."
"Until now." Neal said, his smile long gone.
"Until now." Jenny replied.
"Do they have any other relative?" Peter asked.
"No, just their Father."
"Did you find out how they did it?" Peter wanted to know.
"Sure did." She laid a scanning pad on the table. "This is the exact model that the jewelry store uses." She said. "It scans your fingerprint, and only unlocks the door if the prints match. I took a swab of the it and found a sticky residue, it was from a Listerine strip."
"Listerine strip?" Peter asked.
"To get the fingerprint." Neal said, smiling. "Told you they were good."
"How do you get a print with a Listerine strip?" Jones asked.
"And how do you know how?" Diana asked.
Deciding to ignore Diana's question, Neal turned to Jones. "You get one a little moist, then put your thumb on it and place it over the scanner. The strip picks up the thumb print already on the scanner and presses that print instead of yours."
"How many times have you used that trick?" Peter asked.
"No comment." Neal replied.
"The cameras were hacked into." Jenny said, trying to get Neal off the hook from answering the question. "Someone hacked into them and replayed the same loop over and over again, then the loop was removed and the cameras started recording again. The motion sensors were also hacked into and turned off."
"They had to have had help." Diana said. "They are too young to have pulled this off alone."
"Actually." Jenny said. "They might have pulled it off alone, both are certified geniuses. "Their Uncle home schooled them, taught them a lot of stuff. Last year, they took an IQ test and all three Cutter children scored well above their age average. Tiffany scored highest in computers, higher them a lot of the top classed computer experts. Christina scored highest in science. And Matthew scored highest in reading and language arts."
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Tiffany and Chris walked into a large three story house, past armed guards and attack dogs. They walked into the study and saw a man sitting at a large desk.
"I trust everything went well." The man said, as the girls empted their backpacks onto the desk. The man started sifting through the necklaces. "Very nice."
"We kept our end of the bargain." Chris said. "Now keep yours, where's Matt?"
"Safe, for now." The man said.
"We want to see him." Tiffany said.
"All in due time. First, I have another job for you."
"We agreed on one job." Chris said, glaring at the man. "Now where is our brother?"
The man nodded his head and a large man walked over and grabbed the young girl's neck, squeezing hard. The pain sent the twelve-year-old to her knees and she gasped in pain.
"Let her go." The sixteen-year-old demanded, grabbing the man's arm and pulling. But he was to strong.
"Release her." The man behind the desk said, and the goon let go.
"Are you okay?" Tiffany asked in concern as she helped her sister stand up.
"Yeah." Chris said, rubbing her sore neck.
"Now." The man behind the desk said. "I want you to steal a very nice painting."
"Okay." Tiffany said. She knew they had to do as he said, until they got their little brother back. "What painting?"
"A Graffton painting titled 'Midnight Dance'."
"That painting isn't worth over a few thousand dollars." Chris said. "Why do you want it?"
"Because I do."
"Where is it?" Tiffany asked.
"In the home of Agent Peter Burke."
"FBI?" Chris asked.
"Yes."
"You want us to break into an FBI agent's house?" Tiffany asked.
"Yes."
The two sisters looked at each other, and then both nodded. They had no choice; they had to do as they were told. They had to get Matt back safely.
"We'll have it here in tomorrow." Tiffany said. "Now may we please see Matt?"
"Take them, but watch them" he said.
The goon that had grabbed Chris's neck, led them up to the attic. The young boy was sitting on a mattress in the corner.
"Tiff! Chris!" He shouted once they entered. He rushed to them and they all three hugged.
"How are you holding up, Mattie?" Tiffany asked.
"Okay." He said, but his voice was shaky. "I'm scared."
"I know, but it'll be okay." Tiffany said. "We'll get you out of here in no time."
"Yeah." Chris said, really hoping they were right. "Pretty soon we'll be out of here and together. You've just got to be brave for a little while longer."
"Okay."
"Let's go." The goon barked.
"We'll be back for you." Tiffany promised.
"Real soon." Chris added.
The two girls reluctantly left the attic and then left the house, hating having to leave their little brother behind.
"Now what?" Chris asked, as they walked away from the house.
"Now we break into an FBI's house."
"Sounds like fun."
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So, what did you think? I would love to know. I will update as soon as I can.