Neal, half covered by sheets, started moving to his back and stretched. He rolled over to look at Alex.
She wasn't there. Neal sat up with a shot and looked around his apartment. He got out of bed. Did he dream the whole thing?
Neal was hurt.
"Alex?" Neal called.
Neal rubbed his eyes and his face. Had he told her too much last night? They had talked for hours.
Neal sat at his table and put his elbows on it to support his head.
Neal ran through everything that happened after he got home to find Alex in his bed. He had spilled his guts, he apologized, he spoke of the future, he gushed over her, he cuddled her, waited on her and yet something happened.
Neal had thought it was going well, but he missed something. What was it?
Neal showered and got dressed for the day. His phone rang. Neal could see it was from Peter.
"Hi, Peter" Neal said.
"Hi. What's wrong?"
"I came home and found Alex here last night and this morning she's gone."
"What did you say to her?" Peter asked.
"I spoke from my heart. I said a lot." Neal had his shirt and tie on and went to straighten up the bed.
"I'll come by and pick you up and we'll find her."
"Thanks, Peter." Neal hung up.
Neal was pulling up the covers and saw a paper flower. How could he have missed it? Neal opened it as quickly as he could.
It said "I'll see you tonight. I have to get some things together. I have some information I want to share with you about your Dad."
It was signed "Love A"
Neal sat on the edge of the bed and read the note again. What information could Alex have on his Dad? And how would she have got it?"
His phone rang, "Neal, I'm here. Are you coming down?"
"Sorry, Peter. I found a note from Alex and now I'm ... I'm baffled. I'm on my way down."
Neal grabbed his coat and hat and took off down the stairs. After four steps Neal turned around and went back to his apartment. He moved a newspaper and grabbed a folder and left again.
"The other day, before Alex got shot I had decided it was time to really look into my Dad" Neal said.
Peter looked over at Neal and back at the road, "And?"
"I went to the library, did some searching. I found stories about him in the newspapers from thirty years ago. Both good and bad."
"So he was a cop?"
"I didn't lie to you, Peter. He was a dirty cop."
"I'm sorry, go ahead." Peter pulled into the underground parking.
"I printed every story. I started to fill out a Freedom of Information Act form to get all his police records when you came by."
Peter nodded his head and pulled into his parking space. He opened his door and looked at Neal. Neal wasn't ready to get out just yet.
Peter closed his door and continued to look at Neal.
"Peter, this isn't easy for me, but I need your help."
Neal looked into Peter's eyes. It was a plea for help that Peter had never seen from Neal.
Alex left me a note this morning, I didn't see it and panicked. But I eventually found it and she says she had info she wants to share about my Dad."
Peter's head shook with surprise, "She has information on your Dad that you don't?"
"I guess so."
Neal and Peter walked into the office.
"Jones, Diana, conference room in five minutes. Neal you can go up there now." Peter walked into his office and was immediately on the phone.
Jones came into the conference room. "How's Alex doing?"
"As of last night I thought she was doing pretty good."
"Last night?"
"She checked out of the hospital and spent the night with me, but this morning she was gone."
Diana walked in, 'Who's gone?"
Jones answered, "Alex"
"Gone, dead?"
"She's not dead, gone..." Neal responded, "...she just left."
Diana looked a little embarrassed, "Oh. Sorry."
Peter walked in. "Something a little different today. Today we help Neal find his out about his Dad."
Diana made a noise, a little disappointed. Peter shot her a look.
Neal was clearly uncomfortable with this statement and Diana's grunt, but he quickly put on an air of confidence and put his discomfort behind him.
"My dad was a New York city cop." Both Diana and Jones made faces, both surprised.
"So was mine." Jones said.
"My dad was a dirty cop." Neal pulled out the pages from his folder. The first few stories were positive reflections on the good work of a cop named John O'Connor. He had brought down a high profile crime family.
Diana looked at this. "Is your dad the unmentioned partner?"
Neal didn't answer. He pulled out a second story and handed it to Diana.
Jones glanced at the story and passed it to Peter.
"Your dad's name was O'Connor?" Peter asked.
"It's why you could never find anything on him." Neal pulled out the last stories about him being dirty. This one involved another crime family.
"He was undercover, going as O'Connor, all his records were hidden, he didn't want anything coming back to his family. He was reported as dead, but I think he's still alive. And Alex has some information on him, but I don't know what."
"Hey, Boss, here's the records I could pull from NYPD on O'Connor. It's not great."
"Thanks, Jones." Peter replied. Peter opened the folder to find a picture and name and almost everything else was redacted. Black marker hiding almost every detail.
"Hmm, at least we have a picture. Can you run it through facial recognition?"
Jones took the file and as he was leaving said, "I'm on it."
"Why do you think he is still alive, Neal?" Peter asked.
"When I was a kid, after this last news story, I often thought I saw him. Sometimes at the public pool, sometimes just hanging around the neighborhood. I tried to chase him once, when I was fourteen, but that was the last time I thought I saw him."
Neal stopped for effect. "He either never came back around or got better at hiding himself."
"If it was actually him." Peter added.
"Yeah, if it was really him."
"How'd you know what he looked like?" Peter asked.
"My mom had pictures."
Diana was looking at the newspaper stories. "Do you think he went into witness protection?"
"I don't know. My mom said that he said he would never do that. She also said they fought a lot. So.. your guess is as good as mine."
Mozzie's was reluctantly sitting on a park bench near where he got shot when his phone rang, he jumped.
"Hey, Neal."
"Hey, Moz. I told Peter about my search and what little extra I knew."
"Really. About your dad." Mozzie verified.
"Yeah, about my Dad. Alex left me a note, she has info on him."
"What, how would she get it?" Mozzie asked himself as much as Neal.
"Can you go by my place and see if she's back and let me know."
"Sure, I'll give you a call when I get there." Mozzie stood up, dropped his coffee into the trash and started walking.
Neal hung up, "Mozzie says she's not at my place."
Jones came into the conference room. "Here's his birth certificate, High School transcripts, started college, but enlisted in the Navy and from the Navy he disappears."
"I'd guess he went from the Navy to NYPD." Peter said. Peter looked at the documents Jones brought in. "Here it is, Navy master at arms." Peter looked at Neal.
Diana asked, '"Master at arms? That's the Navy Police, right?"
"That's right." Peter and Neal said simultaneously.
"Honorable discharge, about two months before your first story, Neal.
"Let me see." Neal rolled his chair next to Peter so he could read the file.
Peter flipped the page.
"Neal, he seems to stop existing after leaving the Navy, we don't have much. Nothing from facial recognition, next to nothing from any files we can find."
"Can you find out about the guys that worked with him in the Navy? Maybe someone there can tell us something." Neal asked.
"Hello"
"Mister Kent Albaugh?"
"Speaking. You're not gonna try to sell me some crap are you?"
"No sir, my name is Neal. I think you used to work with my dad, John Caffrey.
"Holy smokes, I didn't know John had a kid. He was a good officer."
"I was hoping you could tell me about who he was."
"Who he WAS or who he is? Kent responded. "Well I guess he hasn't really changed that much. Last time I saw him he was working locally here at SDPD…."
"Records department, this is Trudy."
"Hi, I'm hoping you could help me. I'm new and I'm trying to read through the training manual. Everyone is in a meeting and the Chief came in and told me to pull up all the records from Nineteen Eighty and Eighty-one."
"You poor guy, what do you need?"
"I need records on all new hires and transfers. Sorry, just a sec." Neal partially covered the phone so the lady at the record department could hear. "Yes sir, I'm working on it, sir, yes, I know it's important, sir."
Neal sighed, "Sorry, I'm back."
Go to EmpRecS and search.."
Neal cut her off. "Empres? I'm sorry.
"Sorry type in emprecs, E, M, P, R, E, C, S. Employee Record Search. It's supposed to be an abbreviation. You won't be able to do it from the training site, you'll need to connect to SANDC14C. Fill in the fields and run it, shouldn't take more than a couple minutes.
"Thanks Trudy, I owe you one." Neal hung up and redialed.
"Hello, records department, this is Julie."
"Hi, Julie, the chief was expecting a report that I have to sift through and massage it to make it ready but I don't have it."
"What is it you need?" Julie asked.
"I need an EmpRecS off of SANDC14C for Eighty and Eighty-one on all new hires and transfers, males only. I'm working from home, cause my kids are sick. Any chance you could email it to me?
"Sure, what's your email address?"
Neal walked to the printer. The printer was spitting out page after page of San Diego Police department new hires and transfers from Nineteen Eighty and Eighty-one.
"Killing trees?" Jones asked.
"Sorry." But Neal wasn't. He was about to find the truth.
"One hundred twenty people started during those two years." Neal said.
"What's that?" Jones asked.
"Sorry, talking to myself."
Neal walked back into the conference room. Peter was back.
"Did your dad's old partner send you that?"
"No, but he gave me a clue. I made a couple calls and had it send to me."
Peter looked at the top page in Neal's stack. "That's from the San Diego Police Department, they don't just send that out."
"I asked for a favor."
Peter raised an eyebrow. Neal shouldn't be able to get this info, but he did.
Neal divided the stack into four roughly equivalent stacks and put one in front of Peter. Neal set the other two stacks in front of the seats Diana and Jones had been sitting in.
"We could look through this and find someone that looks like my dad."
Peter stared at Neal as Neal started going through page after page.
Peter was about half way through his stack. "Neal, this looks like him to me."
Neal took the page and looked at it. "That's him. He's still John, but now it's Callahan. He must like Irish and Scottish names."
Neal reached over to the phone and called information. "What's the area code for San Diego?"
The operator responded with "Six One Nine for downtown and Eight Five Eight for the northern part of the city."
Neal hung up the phone.
Peter said, "You know police aren't listed, you won't be able to look him up."
Years ago Neal had friends that helped look up unlisted numbers. How did they do it?
Neal picked up the phone and called information in San Diego, "The non-emergency number for the police in San Diego please."
Neal wrote the number down and called it.
"San Diego Police."
"Hi, can you get a message to officer John Callahan?"
"Sure, I can get a message to the detective."
"Can you have him call Neal Caffrey?"
"Sure thing, does he have your number?"
Neal gave his number, thanked the officer and hung up.
Neal's phone rang. "Hey, Moz. I found him."
"He's still alive?""Yeah." Neal smiled at that thought.
"Well, Alex is back."
"Thanks, Moz."
"Alex is back."
Peter looked at Neal, "Go home. Wait for your call. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Neal opened his door and Alex was in bed again.
"You're going to ruin me." Neal said.
Alex smiled, "You found my note this morning?"
"I did." Neal slid in next to Alex. "How is it you have info on my dad?"
"Whew. Well, a few months ago Hale received a package, in it was a letter." Alex pulled a yellowing envelope from the night stand. Block letters stated "TO: ALEX HUNTER"
She opened the letter and showed Neal. It read "When the time is right for Neal and his Dad."
Below was a seven digit number.
Neal kissed Alex, "Thank you." He kissed her again.
Neal spun around and grabbed the phone and started dialing.
"What area code is it?" Alex asked.
"He's in San Diego, Six One Nine."
"Hello."
"Hello Dad."
"I was just going to call you."
~END~