The next morning, Peter and Neal awoke to the sound of a blaring alarm clock.
"It can't be morning already." Peter mumbled.
Neal mumbled something that Peter didn't understand.
"You know." A voice said from the living room. "I could have taken a picture and had blackmail material for a long time."
Peter and Neal looked at each other, then got out of bed and walked into the living room. Mozzie and Katie were sitting in the floor in front of the coffee table, both were coloring.
"How long have you been here?" Peter asked.
"Long enough."
"Moz gave me coloring books." Katie smiled.
"I knew Neal wasn't exactly set up to entertain children here." Mozzie explained, motioning toward a pile of children's toys and books.
"Thanks Mozzie." Neal said.
"Katie is a sweet kid." Mozzie said. Then he stood up and motioned for the two men to follow him to the dining room, taking a piece of paper with him. He handed Peter the paper, once they were out of earshot of Katie. It was a child's drawing of a man.
"Who's this?" Peter asked.
"The man who kidnapped Katie's Mom." Mozzie said. "She saw it, that's probably why he hired Foster to kill her."
"Too bad we can't use this to out a BOLO." Peter said.
"Did you even try to question her?" Mozzie asked.
"She's three." Peter reminded him.
"Three-year-olds are smart." Mozzie said. "And Katie is very smart. She knows how to count to five, and she knows her colors."
"How can that help us find her Mom?" Neal wanted to know.
"The man who took her is big, and has yellow hair and blue eyes. He shoved her into a green van with writing on it. She has no idea what the writing said, but she does know that the van had a big number two on it. And if you look at the picture, you will see a red line on his arm. That is a tattoo of a large red snake with black eyes."
"You got all of that from a three-year-old?" Peter asked in surprise.
"Yes."
"Are all con artists good with children?"
"I've known Neal for many years." Mozzie said. "I'm used to dealing with children."
"Hey!" Neal objected.
"Face it, Neal." Mozzie said. "You can be childish at times."
"A whole lot of times." Peter agreed.
"I'm going to change." Neal said, walking away with a small pout.
"Look suit." Mozzie said. "I want to say thank you."
"For what?"
"For helping Katie. For looking for her Mom, no child should have to go through life without a parent."
"You know Mozzie." Peter said, Neal had told him about Mozzie growing up in group homes and never being adopted. "Some couple missed out on having a pretty terrific son."
"Thank you again, suit."
"You're welcome."
/
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A little while later, Peter and Neal were in Peter's office. Jones and Diana were at Neal's watching Katie. Peter's phone rung and he answered it.
"Got a hit on that van." Peter told Neal, after he hung up. "A van was reported stolen the morning that Maureen went missing. It was a work van for a landscaping company called Murray And His Two Sons."
"Catchy name."
"The two was wrote as a number, not spelled out."
"Just like Katie said."
"Police have it in impound, it was found a couple hours ago abandoned in a vacant lot."
"Let's go." The two men grabbed their jackets and left.
When they got to the impound yard, they saw a man in his fifties arguing with the guard. Two younger men were with him.
"Look." The man in his fifties said, his voice hard. "That van is our source of income and I demand that you turn it over right now. I get a call saying my van is here, so we rush right over. Now you're telling me I can't have it."
"Mr. Martian." Peter said, walking over to the angry man. "I am Agent Peter Burke, FBI. I apologize for this, but your van is pertinent to a case th…"
"I don't give a rat's ass." Murray Martian ground out. "I want my van now."
"Mr. Martian." Neal said. "Right now there is a three-year-old little girl in our custody, her Mom was kidnapped. We believe the same person who stole your van took her, and your van may hold the clues we need to find her and reunite her with her daughter."
"Three?" Martian asked, his face and voice had softened a lot.
"Yes."
"Here's our card." The man handed Neal a business card. "Call when the van's ready."
"We will release it as soon as we are done." Peter assured him.
"Just find that little girl's Mom." Martian said.
"We will." Neal said.
"The police report said that you walked outside and the van was gone and that you didn't see anything." Peter said.
"That's right."
"Do you remember seeing a man with blond hair, blue eyes, and a red snake tattoo on his arm hanging around?"
"No."
"I do." One of the younger men said. "When Dad and Mike were inside, I was unloading some stuff from the van. He walked over and asked for directions, he was looking for Maple street. He kept glancing in the back of the van, but I didn't think anything about it."
"Have you seen him before?" Peter asked.
"No."
"Do you think you could come down to the bureau to sit with a sketch artist?"
"I can do better then that, I have his photo. But he doesn't know. We were hired to do work on this lawn and I was taking pictures of it from across the street, the man walked by as I was taking a shot. I was going to throw the picture away, he blocked the part of the lawn I needed the photo of, but I never got around to it."
"I need that photo."
"I can bring it to the bureau or fax it, either way."
Peter took out his business card and wrote his fax number on the back and handed it to him. "Fax it as soon as you can."
"We're heading back to our shop now." Mr. Martian said. "I will make sure Shawn sends it as soon as we get there."
"Thank you."
"Come on boys." Martian and his sons walked away.
The guard led Peter and Neal to the van and they started searching it, a few minutes later the forensics team showed up. Peter and Neal didn't find anything useful and left, with instructions to the forensics team to get them the results as soon as they could.
/
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Peter and Neal walked into the bureau and Jones and Diana walked over to them, Jones was carrying a file folder. After leaving the van, Peter had called them and given them the information they had. He told them to send two other agents to guard Katie and for them to come back to the bureau.
"We were just about to call you." Diana said.
"Shawn Martian faxed over the photo." Jones said. "And we found out who he is." He handed Peter the file. "Andrew Kingman."
"A very nasty fellow who is wanted in many different states for crimes ranging from petty theft to murder." Diana said.
"He is believed to be a hired hit man, but there is no actual proof of it." Jones said.
Neal's phone rung and he stepped away to answer it.
"Any leads as to where Kingman is staying?" Peter asked.
"No." Jones said. "But he likes to hang around strip clubs and street corners. I put in a call to Vice, to see if he's on their radar."
"That was Mozzie." Neal said, rejoining the group. "We got a nibble."
"Someone wants to buy the diamonds." Peter said.
"Actually, a lot of someone's want to buy them. But Mozzie's pretty good at shorting the list. A man claiming to be Frank Graft is interested, Mozzie met with him. He is a very large man with blond hair, blue eyes, and a red snake tattoo on his arm. Moz says he's too dumb to have pulled this off alone, figures there is someone pulling his strings."
"When's the meet?"
"In the morning, at nine. Central park by the large fountain."
/
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That night, Peter and Neal once again went to Neal's place. Peter knocked on the door and announced himself, then he heard the door being unlocked and it opened. Peter and Neal walked in, and could not help but grin.
Harry Banks had been with the bureau longer then Peter, and was one of the best. He could handle any situation without being fazed. But the man now looked very frazzled and on edge.
His partner, a younger man who was had just joined the bureau, looked calm and very much in control. He was sitting on the couch, with Katie in his lap, reading her a story.
"Neal!" Katie squealed, when she saw him. She jumped down and ran over to him, raising her arms to be picked up.
"Hey, Katie." Neal smiled, picking her up with his good arm and hugging her.
"Problems Harry?" Peter asked.
"She never stops." The man said. "Never."
"I know." Peter said.
"She's like the energizer bunny on crack."
"I know."
"She's calm compared to my oldest son." Nate Hills said, with a smile. "Randy's four and is constantly on the move."
"The next time you show up for work tired, claiming you didn't much sleep." Harry told his partner. "I will gladly do all of the work and let you catch a cat nap."
/
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