Conman, Forger, Artifact Maker?
Knock, knock.
Neal gives the painting he was finishing another quick look-over and nods satisfied. He walks over and opens door.
"Is it done?"
"Good evening, how are you. I'm doing wonderful." His efforts get an eye roll. "Yes it's done Artie, just now. Hasn't been aged or anything. You know I have a day-job now. I could be fired for this, by which I mean sent to prison. And don't you have that Guttenberg memory paper for paintings of an artifact nature?"
Artie waves his hand in the air, dismissing the question and inspecting the painting. "Thank you for getting this done so quickly, Neal. It needs to be an authentic forgery and fresh for what I need. You did use new paintbrushes?"
Neal assures him, "Yes Artie, my lock picks are fairly new as well." Artie looks alarmed.
"Lock picks?"
"I use them with the FBI."
Artie looks skeptical.
A knock heard on the door, Artie packs away his new forgery quickly in the carrier he brought with him.
"Come in," Neal calls.
Diana walks into the loft, looking extremely suspicious at Artie in his broad-rimmed hat and Neal in his painting gear.
"What are you doing here Diana? Usually it's Peter that shows up at all hours."
"He's at the scene. Why, something going on he or I shouldn't see?"
"Nothing, just having a friend by for a quick visit."
"And your friend's name – wait, I know you," Diana says slowly.
Artie looks shifty, "I doubt that my dear. It is though time for me to take my leave."
"Oh my, I remember, you're that agent from when I was a kid, the one who took that ugly sculpture from my hotel room in Poland. It had been given to my father as a diplomatic gift."
Artie looks to deny it and then gives up. "Yes, I remember your father being very frank in front of you. Your grandfather worked for my… agency and your father knew enough to contact us about the artifact he discovered."
"You know about the Warehouse, Diana?" Neal exclaims.
"Ah!" Artie injects too late.
"So I should call you a Warehouse agent, agent…?" Diana looks smug.
"Nielson, but I wouldn't go looking up anything about me," Artie says mysteriously.
"Hmm, but what I want to know is why am I finding you in Caffrey's loft? And why do you have a painting with you in said forger's loft?"
Artie looks at her intently. "Do you remember what happened with that sculpture? Would have cause quite a stir had the Polish government not received it."
Diana's eyes widened. "You replaced it with a fake! Neal!"
Neal looks at Artie, "Artie! Please elaborate to the nice FBI agent."
"Mr. Caffrey has in the past come under our purview and all I can say is that it falls under national security and as an agent of the NSA I cannot tell you more then that."
"So Caffrey stole an artifact and you got him out of trouble," Diana concludes.
"Hey! I stole nothing. In fact, I was the one stolen from," Neal protests. Diana clearly didn't believe it.
"And on that note, I believe I should leave."
Diana looks at them both and drops it. "Come on Caffrey, grab your silly hat and let's leave too. We have a break-in to investigate."
Arty stops. "Silly hat?"
