Hello all. Here is the second chapter. I'm a sucker for wanting to leave cliff hangers whenever I can, so don't be surprised if I do that to you a lot. Hope you are enjoying this story so far and any mistakes are my own. If at any point I don't update every week for some reason because of me being busy just pm me. I will then most likely post the next chapter. I will try to be on top of things, but sometimes I need a push every once in a while and other duties get in the way. Sorry if you get sick of all the conversations going on in this chapter. It can't be helped.
Disclaimer: All rights go to the man behind White Collar and the USA network. I only write about Neal and the gang for kicks.
Chapter 2:
When Peter picked up Neal he could tell something was bothering the con man, but he was too busy concentrating on the road to worry about his CI acting strange. He could wait to find a better time to grill Neal on what was distracting him when they would be less busy, but for now he had to focus on this new case. He hadn't told Neal yet that their destination was more than just a crime scene; it was also the sight of a homicide. Peter knew Neal would try to weasel his way away from the sight, but the body was already at the coroner's office so Neal's squeamish stomach would be fine. The young con man decided to put his restless energy to use by turning the radio on, trying to find a radio station of his liking. By the third time Neal switched the station Peter had grown annoyed and slapped the man's hands away.
"What have I said about messing with the radio?" Peter sternly asked the young man.
"That I get to pick a station?" Neal answered with a sly smile.
"No, I remember clearly telling you numerous times that when we are in your car then you get to play with the radio. Until such time I do not want you fiddling around with it."
"Getting a little possessive over inanimate objects are we? Where does that trait come from Peter?"
"Well, my dad was the same way so maybe I got it from him. Where did you get the habit of touching things that don't belong to you? Hmm?"
"Where are we going exactly? You were rather cryptic on the phone."
Peter noticed that Neal redirected away from where the conversation was headed about his parents, but didn't call him out on it. "We are heading to the sight of a jewelry heist that happened earlier this morning. The local police decided to hand over the case to us a few hours ago and we just got notified."
"This doesn't happen to be about that big promotional event that was going to showcase the Hope Diamond is it?"
"Why am I not surprised that you just happen to know about an event that was going to host one of the most famous diamonds?" Peter looked over at Neal to see him start to grin at the his exasperated, but light banter.
"Well it is my duty to know about matters like this Peter." Neal answered with a cheeky wink. Peter just grunted noncommittal and refocused on the road while the con man continued to look out the window.
After about twenty minutes they had arrived at their destination. An older male NYPD officer left his spot by two other officers and walked forward to introduce himself to Peter.
"Lieutenant Rigby and you are?" The man questioned as he shook Peter's hand.
"Agent Peter Burke and this here is my consultant," Peter answered and followed the man through the front door, Neal close behind him. "So what seems to be the case here? All I know is that there was a theft and a homicide."
Just as Peter stated this they found the body outline on the floor and there was still blood on the floor. Neal paled slightly at the marks on the floor and started to look around the room, careful to avoid looking at the spot.
"It looks to be a one person job, whoever they were came here earlier in the morning before the store opened. Emergency services were called at 9:36 this morning." Rigby answered as he stopped near the main case that was farther back, but in the center of the spacious and wide room.
"Who called it in?"
"A woman was here along with the guy who ended up dead. I was going to find out what my men got from her, but you guys arrived and I had to brief you. One thing I do know is that whoever it was who stole the Hope Diamond wasn't worried about security cameras, because those are all still in working order."
"Well, there are plenty of ways to break in without having to worry about the security cameras or so I have been told." Neal added in making both men turn to look at him momentarily before they continued with their conversation
"Either way we need to have a copy of the security footage from inside the store here and footage from the cameras on the street sent to our headquarters as fast as you can send it." Peter countered.
"I already have one of my officers on it and he just left to bring it over to your headquarters just before you came here."
"So who was the man who got shot and killed here? Was he an employee?"
"Yes, he went by the name of John Dobbs. He was declared dead at the scene, but the coroner will still be getting a look at him. We already contacted his family."
Before Peter could continue finding out more information, an older man with gray hair and a sharp, black suit came striding in. There was no doubt in Neal's mind that the man was the owner of the place judging by his slightly red face from arguing with the officers outside and the general way he carried himself as he made his way over to the three men.
"I demand to know what is going on here. Who are you and why is there a crime scene in the middle of my storefront?" The man questioned in a slightly angry tone, clearly not over being barred from entering into his store for a few moments.
"This here is Agent Burke and his consultant from the White Collar Unit of the F.B.I and I am Lieutenant Rigby from the NYPD. Are you Mr. White the owner of this store?" Rigby informed the flustered man.
"Yes I am and I would like to know what is going on here. Why is it that one of my finest employees has turned up dead and why is the F.B.I here?" Mr. White questioned in a calmer matter.
"It seems like your employee just happened to be here at the wrong place and at the wrong time sir. Excuse me for a minute gentlemen, but I have to talk to my men for a few minutes. I'll be back." Rigby walked away and headed to the entryway to talk to one of his officers who just walked in.
"That's fine Lieutenant. As to what we are doing here sir, we were asking him what he all knows about what happened here not only so we can take over, but also in order for us to find out who stole the main piece of your promotional event, the Hope Diamond." Peter added in smoothly.
"What do you mean stolen? The diamond isn't being brought here until later this afternoon." Mr. White stated confused.
"So then what was in this case?" Peter asked, stunned at the Mr. White's statement.
"You had a decoy Hope Diamond in this case didn't you?" Neal inquired.
"Correct. No one else knew about it except me and the Smithsonian people I was working with in order to do this event. We put a decoy one in here so we could plan around it as we got the event ready for the opening in two days' time. It was just an extra safety precaution that we took."
"How long was the real diamond going to be here?" Peter questioned.
"It was to arrive tomorrow morning and be kept in our state if the art vault until the morning after the event. It is too much of a security risk to have it here for any longer than that."
"That means whoever stole the fake copy will be desperate enough to go after the real one later when the event happens." Neal added.
"Is that witness still here Rigby?" Peter asked, turning his attention to the lieutenant who was walking back towards them.
"That is what I came over here to tell you about. Before my officer could get any information from her this morning she must have slipped away. The paramedics claimed she was here helping them with the now dead employee on the scene, but after that my guy claimed she was no longer here."
"Looks like we need to find that witness," Neal declared. "She probably became spooked over the death of the employee and decided to leave in case the suspect saw her."
"That or she was a part of the crime. Either way we need to find this mystery woman and the killer soon," Peter stated grimly. "Mr. White we will be in contact with you until this is all over and thanks for your time. Please try to keep some parts of this case under wraps as much as you can over the next two days if you can. Lieutenant I'll have some people from my team come over and talk with you and your men. I have to go back to the office in order to track down and figure out who that lady is."
Rigby nodded to Peter and shook his hand once again after he finished before turning his attention back to Mr. White. Neal followed Peter as they left and headed back towards their car.
Page Break
Approximately an hour later everyone was gathered in the conference room and both men entered the White Collar division. Peter and Neal headed straight up the stairs and into the room where Diana and Jones were waiting for them. They had the security footage cued up and ready for Peter and Neal to watch. Dian pressed the play button after they both sat down on the edge of the table with both Jones and Diana standing on either side.
A man and woman were by the case with the diamond. They were talking when the woman looked like she excused herself and left the man by the case. A different feed from the security footage showed her go to the bathroom. The other feed showed the man looking over the case, unknown to him a man came up from the side, gun in gloved hand. It looked like they were arguing, but the man was masked and the intruder then forced the man to open the case. Once he had the diamond in hand he shot the man. One corner of the security feed showed the woman leaving the bathroom and rushing back to where she had left the employee. The thief disappeared and was seen on other footage disappearing into the street as if he was never there. Another feed showed the woman had returned and was trying to do CPR, but she stopped, checked the man's pulse and pulled out a cell as she held onto the dead man's hand, crying. Further footage showed how she helped the paramedics when they arrived on the scene.
They all sat there in a moment of silence before Peter spoke up again. "Did you pull up the mystery woman's face and put it into the recognition software? She skipped out after the paramedics arrived and no one knew who she was, just could describe what she looked like."
"Already did. I ran it through anyways to see if we had anything on her and she wasn't in the normal database we have. So I ran it in the other to see if she had any connections to any of the other agencies and we got a red flag." Dian answered and passed the file over to Peter. Peter quickly read it over and looked up in confusion.
"The U.S. Marshals came up? She is in the witness protection agency? Did someone call up her handler?" Peter asked as he passed the folder over to Neal to also look at.
"I just got off the phone with her handler a few moments before you guys came in. He said that she was given a new identity about a decade and a half ago and that she isn't in a strict regimen like the some can be. He said if we wanted more from him we would have to go through the normal channels. I was lucky I weaseled out as much as I did from him." Jones replied.
"Call them up again and tell them that they are hampering an investigation if they don't give us more. If they refuse to give out her name so we can contact her, then have them send a message to her to come in here. We need to get her statement about what happened," Peter ordered. Jones left and headed to his desk to call again leaving just Diana and the other two agents. "Okay I want the two of you to try looking for our killer using our security footage and the street cams. Find out where he went and start trying to track him down. Diana I need you to find out more about the security at the store, the plans for the event and start piling up the information from the scene plus the coroner's office. We only have two additional days before the promotional event so let's make them count."
"On it boss." Diana answered and followed the other two agents out. Neal was still staring at the screen thinking with the folder next to him when Peter finally turned around.
"Do you think he did this alone?"
"I highly doubt it. It was a two man job. One was the driver, parked a few blocks away and the thief. The way they went about getting the diamond though makes me believe that they are working for someone else."
"Walk me through how you would have done it if you were to allegedly steal the Hope Diamond."
"Well, if I was to allegedly steal it there could be many ways I could do it. There is one way I would have been able to do it which would have been closer to what they semi-attempted to do. First I would have to find out when the real diamond would be at the store and find out the patterns of the employees. Then it is just a matter of casing the area and avoiding the security cameras. I could do it all by myself when I went to actually steal it and walk away from the scene without bumping into anyone."
"It certainly raises the question of why they didn't do that in the first place. It might have been a hired job because they didn't put in much effort to make sure that was the real diamond and were very sloppy by being seen."
"It is the only theory that makes sense."
"Well, once we find the masked man and bring him in we will get the truth out of him and find out who he was working for. It would be nice to figure out who this mystery woman is though. The sooner we find her too the better. She can better help us identify the man when we bring him in but right now I need to check up on the others to see what we have."
"Do you want me to look into my contacts to sniff around and see if anyone has heard anything?"
"Do that up here while I go down there for a few minutes." Peter left the room and trotted down the steps to meet check up on the other agents and Neal pulled out his cell phone.
He had to leave a message to Mozzie, the man was probably still sleeping off all he drank last night when he was over at June's apartment. He had drunk more than normal while Neal had his one glass of wine. When Neal left for work in the morning the older man was still sleeping on the couch.
Page Break
Peter went to Jones' desk to see what he found out first. Jones swiveled in his chair to face his boss with a slight smile on his face.
"What did you find out Jones? I want to hear good news."
"Well then you are in luck. I did as you said and called them back. It took a little bit, but I was able to get them to contact her handler. They patched me through to him and he said he would send the message through to our mystery woman."
"That is the good news that I needed to hear. Was he able to get in contact with her?"
"He did and said that he is in the process of convincing her to come in. He will let us know when she will be coming."
"Great work Jones. When she arrives let me know and in the meantime help Diana out." Peter slapped him on the back and decided instead of pestering Diana, who was busy on the phone at the moment to head to the conference room after talking to Hughes about where they were at and what they had gotten so far.
Page Break
He found Neal looking at the folder when he made it back to the conference room. Neal's face looked like it had lost some of his color since he had left and when the con man looked up at his entrance he noticed that Neal's usual front was lacking in vigor. Once Neal shut the folder though, he was back to his normal state; a cool and confident Caffrey.
"I made my calls, but it will be a while until I hear anything. I'll most likely have something later this evening or tomorrow morning at the latest for you." Neal stated with a lace of forced calm that Peter barely noticed.
"That is fine. We still have time to get most of what we need to make a plan for the event later." Peter and Neal started to get to work on how they could go about finding the killer better for at least 15 minutes. Neal even though he was really into the conversation was getting more and more fidgety. Just when Peter was going to ask what was the matter Jones came up to the door, calling for the agent. After Jones updated Peter with the news he had been waiting to hear, he went back into the room to tell Neal the young man opened up with an out of the blue question.
"Do you mind if I go to the bathroom?"
The question startled Peter but he pointed to the door. "No, go right ahead. Just make sure you get back very quickly." Neal got up and made his way out of the room and hurried down the steps of the landing onto the main floor, making his way towards the doors.
Neal was shook up after looking over the small file they had on the lady who was at the store that morning. He had been afraid of losing his cool when Peter had come back into the room while he finished looking it over but held himself in check. They hadn't put a photo in the file, just her basic descriptions and what little Diana had found when they looked her up. The handler's name listed was no doubt an alias in order to keep up anonymity. Except the main problem was he recognized the alias. It hit too close to home and his suspicions of the woman he saw on the street were starting to point in a direction he didn't want it to. The man's name was of an Agent Coulson and the last time he heard that name was almost a decade and a half ago.
Just as he was reaching the door a lady was pulling open the glass door. She had long, brunette hair and was dressed in a knee length light blue spring dress. Her light brown eyes widened in shock as they locked eyes, both stopping short. It was like the room had been sucked of air and the carpet ripped away from him causing him to fall. Peter's quest of trying to find out more about Neal's life had just turned true in the form of the beautiful middle aged woman in front of him.
A/N: Hope you liked it and please read and respond. Tell me what you think. The good or the bad, I can take it.