When murder isn't as it appears,
Neal was working undercover. It was something that he had done a thousand times since working with the FBI. The problem was the initiation that this group put forward, it was pass fail and someone had to die, the question was who.
The first meeting had gone well. Peter and the team kept surveillance in order to record the meeting and ensure the safety of Neal in this unknown group while Neal used his charm to worm his way into the criminal's trust. Things didn't take a turn for the worst until after Neal left the warehouse and before he made it to where the team was waiting.
As Neal was walking down the nearly deserted street, a large black van hurtled its way around the corner before screeching to a stop in front of him. Neal turned on his heels to avoid trouble, but before he could get away there was a little tranq dart sticking out of his neck. Sinking to the ground, Neal saw the men surround him. Their identities were obscured by ski masks and they removed his watch which they smashed on the ground. With his vision diminishing as consciousness left, Neal's last view was of the van as he was thrown into the back.
When Neal came to, he was tied to a chair in a room at an unknown location. He could easily free himself in general, but he was curious as to what was going on.
It didn't take long for a man to look in to check on him. Ducking back out of the room, the man went to inform the leader that their prisoner was awake.
The gang made a show when the leader came in. His entourage included his muscle, second in command, and a few of their general crew members. While the leader pulled a chair up acrossed from Neal, the others took their supportive positions around him.
"I suppose you are wondering what is going on Caffrey?"
Recognizing a few faces, he knew this was the same group that he had been meeting before. Apparently, they were paranoid and waited to kidnap him before introducing him to the real leader of the group.
"Some kind of meet and greet I presume." He threw in some humor backed by mega-watt charm in the hope of disarming his captor's defenses.
Laughing, the leader seemed to approve. "I like you. You have a sense of humor. If you pass our initiation you will do well with us."
Hmm, that could either be a good thing or a bad thing. It depended on what this 'initiation' included. "May I inquire as to what this initiation includes?"
Smiling with pleasure, the leader seemed delighted with Neal. "So polite, the more you speak, the more I like you. Yes, you may inquire."
Feeling a growing sense of foreboding, Neal posed his question directly. "What does this 'initiation' include?"
"In a few hours my men will abduct another person. They will be random and you will shoot them dead. If you don't, my men will shoot you both and dump your bodies in the river." There was a maniacal glee as the man described his test. When he finished, the look of evil in his dark eyes sent a chill down Neal's spine.
Suppressing his reactions, Neal kept his glare of hatred to himself while displaying his charm. "Sounds easy enough. Is there any particulars that I should be aware of?"
The man looked displeased. He really didn't like others taking action without his permission.
Correcting his error, Neal reworded his response. "I apologize. May I ask if there are any other particulars?"
Not fully reassured, but easing up on his anger. "You had better watch your tongue in future. This is your only warning!"
Taking it as being his turn, Neal asked. "Are there any particulars that I should be aware of?"
Flipping the coin of emotions, the man landed on carefree and unconcerned. "No, there is no particular location or number of times that you must shoot him. As long as he is dead, I have no farther concern."
The man was specific on gender this time, for it being "random," there was likely to be a reason behind the choice. Wondering what was to come, but not daring to ask at the moment, Neal decided to plan instead. How was he going to pull this off alone?
As the conversation ended, Neal was released to be cleaned up and refresh himself. He was still a hostage, but as he was intended to be either dead or, a brother in arms shortly, they decided to give him some reprieve from his captivity.
Peter and the team were concerned when the van careened onto the scene, and distraught when Neal was abducted. Without the watch they had no means of directly tracking him, the van had no identification, and the van was gone before anyone could get a license plate number.
It took them hours to track down the new location. Jones followed tracking cameras, Diana checked with the few witnesses, and Peter fretted in his office as the work was done in the most efficient means possible.
Eventually, they caught up and were arranging surveillance to get a feel for what was going on. Peter held the warrant as he waited for the chance to get his friend back.
When the time came for the initiation, Neal wasn't pleased. He had thought and schemed only he didn't know for sure how to pull this off. Then he saw who the random person was.
The man had annoyed the gang on accident. He was doing his own work as a freelance spy when he encroached on the gang's territory for making a new friend in the underworld. This was worthy of a death sentence according to their rulers dictations.
Having learned of a threat on his life, the man had taken precautions. When he was taken he was wearing a bulletproof vest and an ear bud to keep in touch with his team. No one checked for these as he was believed to be a random person who had displeased the leader.
As the groups all moved into place, things began to happen.
The man was moved to stand with his back to a window, Neal was placed in front of him with a gun in his hand, and the FBI was prepared to break down the door.
"Ghaj yoD wep?" Neal seemed to question the air.
The man jerked his head forward sharply like he was twitching in fear. There was a look in his eyes that Neal understood.
Peter kicked in the door just in time to see Neal pull the trigger and the man fly backwards through the window. He ignored the comical look of the man as he appeared shocked that he had just been shot. Instead, Peter looked at Neal like Neal had stabbed him in the heart and twisted the blade. He couldn't believe that his nonviolent friend had just murdered someone. There was no looking out the window, seeing the body would just make the scene real and he couldn't handle that at the moment.
Shouts of "FBI, drop your weapons!" accompanied the rest of the agents as they moved in and began taking the men into custody.
Neal put the gun on the floor with one hand raised before he straightened up and held both hands up for arrest.
It was Jones who eventually looked out the window and worked with a team to solve the murder. They took pictures, collected evidence, worked to match ballistics, and saw the body carted off to the morgue via an ambulance. He hadn't seen Neal commit the crime, just knew that someone had shot someone else.
Diana ensured that the men were all taken into custody and carted away for processing. Then she was about to release Neal when Peter stopped her.
"He shot the man out the window. You're under arrest for murder Neal…" As Peter read him his rights, Diana looked confused which quickly changed to anger.
Seeing that Peter was still in shock with underlying anger, Diana was just angry, and Jones would know soon enough, Neal wondered how long it would take before they would be made aware of the truth?
Then the lights flashed in a pattern. Peter would be able to read it, but he was too in shock to recognize the Morse code. It was left to Neal to understand the message.
Seeing Neal relax didn't help Peter calm down. To prove his point that the man was dead, Peter pushed Neal over to the window, forced him to look down and see the ground covered in a pool of blood. "You killed a man Neal, how could you do that?"
The angry question was left unanswered. Neal was wondering how the man had arranged and pulled this plan off.
Determined to haul Neal in himself, Peter turned him and took him down to where he had parked. He was rougher than usual as he put Neal into the car, and it was the criminal's position of the back seat for this trip.
Neal was silent. He hadn't brought up a defense, tried to calm Peter down, or anything. There was nothing of the usual charm, just quite compliance.
Peter didn't understand this. He never dreamed that Neal would be able to kill someone, unless perhaps it was a dire life or death situation. Even then he thought Neal would react somehow. Wouldn't he feel regret, be upset that he had just taken a life, or was the whole nonviolent act a show to hide a killer? That thought chilled him. Had he let a homicidal maniac into his home, his life, his family?
Suddenly a vision assaulted his imagination. Neal was wearing orange and being sentences to life in prison for murder. As the door slammed and the metal lock clinked into place, Peter realized that this wasn't a nightmare that he could wake up from. This was the future that would be happening in the next few hours!
The part of Peter that had let the man past his defenses, let him into his heart, was horrified by that thought. Yet the part of the man that was the agent, fighting for justice, was resigned to that fate.
Neal simply sat in the back seat and watched the emotions play out on his friend's face. There was nothing that he could say to relieve his pain, he wouldn't believe the truth, no one would.
Arriving at the office, Peter made Neal do the perp walk in front of everyone. He wouldn't hide that Neal committed a crime of this magnitude, but he wouldn't advertise the crime either.
Despite none of the main team saying anything, the word spread from the crime scene to the office quickly. Peter was followed in by the whispers that Neal had committed murder. He heard some react in shock, feeling like he did that Neal couldn't possibly do something like that. Then there were those who acted like it was the expected end, like Neal was showing his true colors after all, something that Peter feared might be true.
The parade ended in the interrogation room where Peter began to question Neal about his actions for the day.
"How could you Neal? You have spent years telling me that you hate guns, you avoided violence during years of crimes, and you have always been smart about your actions. That is until today. Today you used a gun for cold blooded murder without giving us the chance to get you out of trouble, and that was stupid. I wish I could say that this was some trickery of your conning mastery, but I saw it with my own eyes. There is no way that you could have been prepared for that so it must have been real." He paused for a moment as his emotions were getting the better of him.
Trying to pull himself together he continued. "Jones is working on the ballistics for physical evidence, Blake is reviewing the security cameras, and Diana is working on eye witness accounts… which will have to include my own before this is over."
His emotions seeped in again despite his best efforts. "Please Neal, tell me that there is some convincing story that this could be a slight of hand trick… that you once again pulled off the impossible without committing murder?" There was a plea to his tone, an emotional request from a friend.
Unable to tell him a convincing story, but hoping to be proved innocent anyway, Neal simply sat quietly and allowed Peter to turn on the equipment for his official questioning.
Per usual, this story is a composition of other's ideas and the only credit I can take is for this particular mix ;)
Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing/commenting, following me and my stories, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D I enjoy seeing the growing readership and am glad that you are enjoying my stories!
Just to let you know, I do have belated Father's Day plans next weekend so my posting will be later in the day on Sunday (I do still plan to post though).