Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar, just borrowing them for fun

Timeline: set after Free Fall, some teeny weeny spoilers for later episodes

Many, many thanks to my fantastic beta - mam711!

Title: The Hot Cold Case

Fic Summary: When someone recognizes Neal's photo in a paper it starts a turn of strange events, and that is just the tip of the iceberg...

The weather was surprisingly inviting for a walk in the park. The last few days had been cold and cloudy with lots of rain, which put New Yorkers in a bad mood. Today was completely different, very sunny and warm; many of the people they met were enjoying the sun, soaking in the warm rays.

The elderly couple was strolling slowly through Central Park. He squeezed her hand delicately, his own way to tell her he loved her without really voicing the words. They sat on the bench, eating lunch, sandwiches and coffee from their favorite deli. She smiled, that secret smile that promised she was up to no good; he had fallen in love with that smile a long time ago. She kissed him, the passion rising slowly then falling as their lips disconnected. This time he smiled.

She got back to her sandwich and looked around - the park was full of people. Families with children, teenagers playing hookey, older people. Playing around in groups, slowly strolling around or running screaming with dogs. Her eyes clouded for a moment with memories. She could see her own children running the path, boys kicking a soccer ball between them, and little Bianca trying to catch up to them. They were ghosts of the times that had passed.

It was twenty years since that awful day that changed everything. She shook her head, and took another look across the path. There on a bench sat a homeless man reading an old newspaper; it was torn and dirty, and on the front page was a photo of a young man, a police photo. She squinted her eyes to take a better look. She gasped in surprise.

"Ed ..." she whispered. "Ed, look." She shook her husband's arm, showing him the paper. "It's Tony!"

Neal sauntered into the office early in the morning, a smile on his face, hat in hand, whistling some happy tune. Being cleared of the diamond heist was a good thing, even if that was over a week ago and from that moment on he'd been on a health insurance fraud case (almost as boring as mortgage cases); he still was happy.

"Hi, Jones. Cruz."

"Neal, you look happy."

"Yes! Had a great weekend," he smiled broadly, sitting on the edge of Cruz's desk and snatching a file from her to browse the pages.

Cruz plucked it from his hand. "That one is not for you."

"Who's with Peter?"

Clinton and Cruz looked at each other and sighed; nothing got by the watchful eye of Neal Caffrey.

"Missing Persons Division."

"Since when do we do missing persons?"

They shrugged. "We don't; they came in a few minutes ago, going directly to Peter," Jones answered.

It almost worked like a charm, every time they talked about Peter he would raise his head from whatever paperwork was keeping his attention and looked to the bullpen to check what was going on. This time he looked over his shoulder for a second, snapping his head back as soon as he registered that Neal was there. He shot him a pointed look and two fingers crooked to call him in.

"Well, that's my cue." Neal shot another charming smile at the agents and went up to Peter's office.

"Neal, close the door." Peter greeted him with a strange look in his eyes. Not exactly like when he did something wrong, but for sure something had disturbed his equilibrium.

"Neal Caffrey, these are Agents Lucero and Kendrick from Missing Persons Division." The agents didn't utter a word, staring at him openly, like they would if they'd seen a ghost. It was something he did not like after his photo had been in the paper. In White Collar Division, everyone knew him already and the looks were limited, but everywhere else he felt like a bug under a microscope.

"Gentlemen," Neal nodded his greeting, "what can we help you with?"

Peter shot him an look telling him to cool it and behave, as if he would do anything else.

"The agents came to us with a missing person case that they believe we can help solve." He took a thick case file, battered and stained, obviously an old one, and opened it, still keeping it close.

Neal stepped closer to look over his shoulder, asking at the same time, "Who's missing?"

"Apparently, you are," Peter answered at the exact moment that his eyes landed on a worn photograph of a 12-year-old boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes set beside his mugshot.

Neal snapped the file from Peter's hand in a swift move, ignoring still-lingering stares.

Beside the first two snapshots there was another photograph - this time the guy in the photo did look more like him, aside from shorter hair and a scar on his chin.

"But that's not me." He pointed at the older guy.

"It's the victim's twin brother," was the answer from one of the agents still in the room.

Neal shook his head. "You've got to be kidding me, I think I would know if I were missing and had a twin brother."

"We wouldn't, Neal; your past is all cloaked in mystery," Peter reminded him casually.