Medium Exchange
Chapter 2
It was well after 3am before he and Mozzie had the workings of a plan. Fortunately it was Saturday the next day, so Neal was able to catch a solid five hours sleep before getting up to get the first stage of their plan underway. Neal and June called around everyone they knew who would be interested, letting them know there was a new psychic on the scene, one better than Madam Morgan and offering a free one to one session to prove it. They set up Neal's apartment for the readings. By mid-morning and with Mozzie's help, they had set up all the necessary props for the readings.
"Is that what you are wearing" Neal asked Mozzie raising an eyebrow. Mozzie was wearing one of his Hawaiian shirts and slacks.
"What if I was?" Mozzie challenged defensively, "there is no dress code for psychics"
"First appearances are important Mozz, we don't have time for you to win people over with your charm." Neal told him as patiently as he can.
"Don't get your panties in a wedge, I brought something especially for this" Mozzie told Neal, somewhat irritated. Mozzie pulled out a suit carrier from where he had left it amongst the equipment he had brought over. Neal was worried what he was going to pull out, Mozzie was somewhat of a wild card when it came to clothing. Neal was relieved therefore when the carrier was opened to reveal a simple dark suit and tie. It was something Neal might have worn himself.
"Nice" Neal admitted, causing Mozzie to relax and smile, as deny it as he may, he cared about Neal's opinion.
"Why am I being the psychic again? You know I prefer to stay behind the scenes and since when don't you want to do it?" Mozzie asked curiously.
Neal had given him some story about how Michelle wouldn't buy him as a psychic after seeing him at her reading and how he didn't have enough gravity to pull it off, i.e., he was too young looking, but Mozzie didn't buy it for a second. There was some other reason Neal didn't want to pull this con, it was out of character for Neal and Mozzie wanted to know why.
"I told you Michelle won't buy me as the psychic, especially after she 'read' me at her performance." Neal said defensively.
"What's the real reason?" Mozzie asked again.
Neal sighed and ran his hands through his hair, collapsing into a chair at the table opposite Mozzie.
"Before I met you, I might have been involved in one of these types of scams" Neal admitted.
"What? When? You've never mentioned it before and you've always refused to run these sort of cons when I've suggested them" Mozzie pointed out. He quietened down at Neal's stern look.
"There's a reason for that. I saw what these scams to do people. They take advantage of vulnerable people looking for help, for hope that things will get better, instead they lose their money and their hope." Neal told Mozzie bleakly.
Mozzie hesitated, not sure what question to ask next. Neal was obviously upset about whatever happened and Mozzie wasn't exactly comfortable playing therapist.
"I made a promise to myself Mozz, that I wouldn't play that part again. You understand don't you?" Neal asked pleadingly.
Mozzie nodded his agreement slowly. There was obviously more to this story but right before they had a big con to pull was not the time to be pulling skeletons out of closets. They needed to be on their 'A' game.
"Of course I can do it." Mozzie told Neal confidently. Neal smiled gratefully but Mozzie detected unease still in his eyes.
June's friend Lisa was their first 'client', Mozzie hardly had to use his cold reading skills on her, since they knew all about her from June. She seemed a nice lady, well dressed in her 40s with dark curly hair. She was not stupid, just someone who had lost her son and then as a result her husband, someone just looking for answers. Mozzie took her through the warm up questions they had practiced. Just showing her the basics. Once she was relaxed with him, they took her into the more difficult areas.
"Your son, he's here, what do you want to ask him?" Mozzie asked gently.
"I just want to tell Charles that I saw Mary-Lynn yesterday. She's doing okay now. She's thinking of moving, she says she wants a new start. I think she wants to get away from reminders of you, away from me as well." The words poured out of Lisa.
Mozzie tipped his head and pretended to be listening to Charles, when really it was Neal he was listening to.
"Tell her Charles says it's okay. Mary-Lynn has to move on with her life, meet someone new. That if his time in the army taught him anything it's that you have to keep moving forward" Neal told Mozzie, who relayed the message faithfully although with his own flair. Between them they did their best to reassure Lisa that Charles was at peace, that he was only hanging around to make sure his mother was okay, that he would wait with her as long as she needed him but that he wanted her to move on with her life too and be happy.
By the end of the session Mozzie saw why Neal was uncomfortable with it. These people were putting their lives in his hands. He liked the power of it and it was easy money but the responsibility was pretty overpowering. Lisa was a woman at the end of her rope, speaking to her dead son was her main reason for going on, the wrong word might push her over the edge.
They did five more readings that day, Mozzie and Neal's combined cold reading skills, together with June's background information and some judicious web research beforehand meant all the clients were suitably impressed and booked future readings. Thankfully none of them were as wrenching with Lisa, most just wanted to know how they could improve their lives or were bored with their lives and looking for a little supernatural excitement.
By the evening they had people calling them for appointments and were fully booked all day Sunday. By Sunday afternoon they had just finished when they received a call from Michelle Morgan's assistant asking for a meeting, one professional to another, the following day. June grinned in satisfaction as she hung up from the call. They had Madam Morgan's attention, now for phase two.
Neal and Mozzie sat drinking a celebratory glass of wine on Sunday evening. It was late and June had wished them both a good night and gone to bed.
"So when you pulled this con before, was that back in St Louis?" Mozzie asked fishing for information.
"Nice try Mozz, I still don't want to talk about it" Neal told him smiling and taking a sip of wine.
"You know I've missed this" Mozzie told Neal, sipping his wine.
"What do you mean, you never stop drinking" Neal said in mock outrage, deliberately misunderstanding, as he is not sure he is ready for this conversation either.
"Not the wine! The Con." Mozzie says loudly falling for it even though he knows better.
"We carry out cons all the time." Neal tells him dismissively.
"It's not the same" Mozzie told him morosely. "If you are doing with the Suits blessing it takes all the fun out of it."
There was a question behind what Mozzie was saying. Neal heard it even though it was unspoken.
"It won't be that long until you are off anklet." Mozzie prodded.
"I can't think about it yet Mozz" Neal told him honestly. "I have to focus on now."
Mozzie grudgingly accepted this, he knew Neal was surprisingly stubborn and wouldn't be pushed. The only person he had ever known to be able to talk Neal into changing his mind was Peter, which was why Mozzie both respect and feared his influence on Neal.
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It was another late night for Neal running through the set up for the next day's meeting with Mozzie and working out how they would handle the clients over the next few days as they had to keep the pressure on, make sure none of them went back to Michelle and that they gained positive word of mouth for Mr Haversham. That meant only a few hours of restless sleep again before he was due at work on Monday morning. Neal didn't mind the short sleep, he was used to erratic sleep patterns from heists and from working for the FBI. Plus he found the prospect of a con to be better than caffeine. The bad dreams that had him waking tangled in the sheets and sweating he could have done without. He showered and dressed quickly in his favourite grey suit and just had time to update June that the second part of their operation was underway before he had to leave for the office, trying to work out how to close the gaps in their plan. First they needed more information on this Michelle Morgan, find out exactly how she operated, what she did with the money if they were going to shut her down. As Mozzie was fond of quoting 'Know thy enemy'.
If it was an FBI case it would be easy, Neal would have a search run on Ms Morgan and have the results back by lunchtime, but any requests would be mentioned to Peter who would want to know why Neal was using FBI resources for personal reasons.
Maybe it was a good thing, Neal thought, perhaps he was getting lazy, depending on Peter and his team too much. He didn't want people to think he was losing his touch. Still it would be foolish not to use the resources available to him, if he could do it without raising attention. Trying to keep Peter unaware of what he was up to would be tricky, particularly as every time Neal came up with a way of tricking him, Peter implemented new procedures to ensure it wouldn't happen again. That meant no using the probies to run the search as Peter now got weekly reports of all searches, it also meant no just using another white collar agent's password. That is, unless he could somehow delete the information afterwards or doctor the search report and computers weren't really his thing. He couldn't simply use Peter's computer since Peter had that pesky key logger installed and there were cameras in the office. Neal would have to think of something new. This could be a real challenge Neal thought as he entered the office and greeted Diana and Jones good morning with a smile. It was also going to be fun he thought with relish.
There was a new face in the office today, he looked to be in his early 20s, was wearing a nervous and excited expression and wearing a suit in a way that suggested it was his first. Neal immediately identified him as a new probie straight out of Quantico. He sauntered over and introduced himself.
"Hi, I'm Neal Caffrey. You're new aren't you?" Neal asked holding out his hand to shake.
The young man stood up to shake hands, knocking papers off his desk. Neal helped him pick them up, they were new joiner instruction papers from HR and IT.
"Thanks." The young man told Neal once they had picked them all up and finally shaking hands "I'm John Griffiths" the young man introduced himself. "It's my first day" he told Neal who tried to look surprised.
"They've got you filling in paperwork all day?" Neal asked sympathetically. John nodded.
"Yeah, I was supposed to start last week actually, but they lost my security clearance, they had to run it all again." John told him, which gave Neal an idea. As a result he was only paying half attention when John asked him a question.
"Can you tell me where Room 20.3 is, I have to drop these forms off before my meeting with the boss."
Neal gave John a smile, trying not to grin at his luck and holding out his hands to take the papers.
"Let me drop them off for you. I was going to HR anyway, to sort out a problem with my tax code." Neal explained. John looked a little worried but Neal didn't give him a chance to reconsider. Before he could refuse Neal was already on his way to the lifts with the papers, leaving John standing there uncertainly.
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After a quick scout ahead, Neal entered room 20.3, there were three desks but only two were occupied, one by bored looking a woman who looked to be a career admin assistant and one by a harassed looking man with a receding hairline and an unhappy expression. It wasn't tough to choose his target of the two. Neal smiled at the woman and offered her the papers.
"Hi, Agent Burke asked me to drop off the papers for our new probie, John Griffiths?" he made it a question. The woman's bored expression disappears and changes to cautious interest when she sees Neal.
"I can take those." she admits. He passes her the papers their fingers brushing.
"I'm Neal, I don't think we've met." He smiles at her and is pleased to see her warm up to him and definite interest in her eyes which is going to make life a lot easier.
"Cathy" she tells him.
"It good to meet you Cathy, I don't often get to leave the White Collar office" Neal charms her.
"Seems like Agent Burke's team is really busy, always up to something interesting. We are always hearing about the White Collar department." She smiles up at him.
"For the wrong reasons." The man at the other desk mutters under his breath. Neal and Cathy frown at him and he concentrates back on his computer.
"Don't mind him." Cathy told him.
"Anyway, I was just dropping the papers off as a favour to our new recruit. The real reason I'm here is because I've got a friend who Agent Burke thinks could be useful as a CI for a case we're working on. Peter sent me down so you could run the security background checks" Neal told her casually
"We are really snowed under, how soon does he need it?" She asked
"We can't get any further on the case without her" Neal tells Cathy honestly.
"Why has he sent you instead of calling himself?" the man piped up from the other desk somewhat suspiciously. Neal wanted to scowl at him and had to bite his tongue not to tell him to get lost. Instead he ignored him and smiled self-depreciatingly at Cathy answering as if she had asked the question.
"He says that's what he has me for. It's the same thing he says when he makes me get the coffee or find files for him." Neal told her "I don't mind though. He's really busy doing more important work. Someone has to do the admin right?" Neal told her conspiratorially, as if trying to excuse Peter's rude behaviour. She smiled at him sympathetically shooting a hard look at her colleague.
"It must be tough having such a tough boss" She tells him. Neal shrugs to say it is, but what can you do.
"I owe him a lot" Neal tells her earnestly.
"I can run it for you now" she told him,
"Are you sure? I don't want to get you in trouble" Neal tell her concerned
"I don't mind it shouldn't take long. Do you want me to send the results straight to Agent Burke" she asks.
"If you don't mind me bothering you while you work, I could wait" Neal told her flirting. "I'm only getting in the way upstairs anyway" he told her. She simpers under the heat of Neal's look and got to work on the search. The man scowled at the two of them the whole time. Neal got the file and manages to get away with just the promise of drinks after work with her the following week.
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