CHAPTER 7

Peter got into work the next morning early, before anyone else had arrived. Making himself a quick cup of coffee in his favorite mug, he went up to his office to continue where he had left off the night before. He was searching Mozzie's lead on the man who'd been following him. On Mozzie's description alone he didn't find anything, but then Diana mentioned that Mozzie had told her that the man was following June, too. He knew then it couldn't be a coincidence- it had to be about Neal. He had a sketch artist go to June's home and both Mozzie and June described him the best that they could (Mozzie would never come in to talk to a sketch artist).

This was much more than he'd been able to do since the text message came in and they figured out who had Neal. He had tried to trace Neal's text, with no luck. And even if he could, he was sure it would lead to a phone that was left in a garbage can or on the street near the Swiss National Bank. He'd also kept tabs on Adrianne, or Abigail, but she hadn't shown up anywhere since her prison escape. After reading all of her files, and every scrap of information that the FBI and Interpol had on her, he was no closer to finding where she could be keeping Neal. He also did as Mozzie requested- he got Interpol agents stationed at every major museum in the world that had not been robbed before. He gave them all Adrianne's picture, but a dated one, from when she was Abigail. He was sure she'd be using a disguise if she showed herself near any of them. He also had to give them Neal's picture, which worried him slightly. If they caught Neal stealing a piece and hauled him away for questioning without notifying the United States FBI, he could go down for crimes that weren't really his fault. But Peter felt he didn't have a choice- Interpol was his best shot at finding Neal.

An email popped up on Peter's screen. It was information about the mystery-man, who Mozzie had taken to calling 'Cowboy Boots.' They ran facial recognition on the sketch, and a match turned up for a man named Jacob Bage. He had a rap sheet of money laundering, kidnapping, and theft. Peter knew he was involved, he just had to figure out exactly how.

Diana got to the office and went straight up to see Peter, before even stopping at her desk. She knew how obsessed he had become with Neal's case, and while she couldn't blame him for it, she had to make sure he was ok, too. "Boss?" she asked as she opened his door. "How is everything? Do we have any new information?"

Peter showed Diana the picture of Cowboy Boots. "This is the man who was taking pictures of Mozzie and June. His name is Jacob Bage."

Diana looked at his information. "Quite a rap sheet, he's got. Should we bring him in?"

"Not yet," Peter said. He looked like he wanted to, but the agent in him knew he couldn't take it too fast without evidence to back up his warrant. "We have to find a reason to keep him here, first. And something to get him to flip on Abigail."

"I'm on it," Diana said. She got a cup of coffee and then headed to the conference room, adding Cowboy Boots's face and profile to the wall of information they had on Neal. The timer they had read that it was well past six days when he was kidnapped. She stared at his face, posted on the middle of the wall. "Caffrey, where are you?" she muttered.

She sat down to work, but then realized she should be updating Mozzie. She'd told him that whenever new information came in, she'd call him immediately.

"Diana?" Mozzie said when he picked up the phone. It was a nice change from 'Lady Suit.'

"Mozzie, we have a name and picture for Cowboy Boots. His name is Jacob Bage, and he has a rap sheet as tall as Theo."

"Jacob Bage… I've never heard his name before. He's not connected with Neal's past. You think he's just one of Abigail's muscles?"

"Most likely," replied Diana. "I'm sending over a picture now. It has more details than the sketch from the other day. Call me if it sparks anything, ok?"

"Got it," Mozzie said. They hung up.

Diana had barely put the phone down when it rang again. It was Mozzie.

"Moz?"

"I've seen him before!" Mozzie exclaimed, almost screaming into the phone. "That has to be the guy who kidnapped Neal. He was sitting near the waterfront in New York the day Neal disappeared!"

"Whoa, Mozzie, slow down." Diana walked over into Peter's office. She put Mozzie on speaker. "Ok, say it again, but slowly. I'm with Peter now. Explain where you've seen him."

"The day Neal disappeared, he and I went for a walk on the waterfront. We were talking, and then I left to… well, I had an appointment. As I walked away, I saw a man reading a newspaper, and he was wearing cowboy boots. I caught a flash of his face as I walked right by him."

Peter interjected. "Mozzie, are you sure it's the same guy?"

"Suit, I have perfect recall. Of course I'm sure," Mozzie said.

"So how come you didn't see Neal get kidnapped, if they were both right there at the same time?" Diana asked.

"Maybe Cowboy Boots followed Neal before taking him? I don't know. But I only walked for about two minutes before I got to the street, and from there it would be hard to hear anything. There's always tons and traffic, and honking, by that park."

"Diana, do you think there are security cameras anywhere in that park?" Peter asked.

"I'll check right now, boss," she said, and she took the phone with her out of Peter's office. Mozzie told her exactly where Neal was in the park last time they'd spoke, and where Cowboy Boots was.

"Thank you, Mozzie," Diana said. "This should get us much closer to finding him."

When Mozzie hung up, Diana started pulling video from all the cameras in the area around the park. After an hour of watching feeds of random pedestrians, she found what she was looking for.

Cowboy Boots was caught on camera walking into the park. Twenty minutes later, he got in the drivers seat of a van, and it pulled out of the park at high speeds. Diana used a patchwork of cameras in the area to follow the truck as it drove away. Three surveillance cameras later, she saw something interesting. She couldn't tell exactly from the angle, but it looked like something flew out of the van. Diana pulled up the feed from the traffic camera and zoomed in. Sure enough, just before crossing the intersection, she saw an arm stick out of the driver's window, and throw something small and black into a passing truck. She went back, froze the frame, and zoomed in. It indeed looked like Neal's anklet. She grabbed a file from the table and opened it. Rifling through it, she found the information on the truck that Neal's anklet was found in. The license plate number matched the one she saw on the traffic cam.

"Peter!"

Peter came into the conference room.

"Boss, look at this."

Peter leaned over and Diana played the three surveillance videos for him, ending with the matching license plate numbers.

"Good work, Diana. That's enough for a warrant, maybe even an arrest. We just have to find him now, and bring him in."

"Any idea where he might be?"

Peter smiled. "I think I have a plan."

Mozzie didn't like being followed. Not by other criminals, and definitely not by the FBI. But by keeping his thoughts on Neal, he was able to not complain, or at least not complain too much, as he put a government watch around his wrist, equipped with a recorder, transmitter, and GPS. Then he put an earpiece in. It was not Neal's anklet, but he still felt like he was on a leash.

"Alright, Mozzie," a voice said in his ear as he stepped outside of June's house. "We've got eyes on you."

Mozzie ignored him, and kept walking down the street.

He stopped at a small shop three blocks away from June's house a bought a small cup of tea.

Then he kept walking, checking his watch as if he had somewhere to be.

He kept thinking this was the most boring con he'd ever been a part of. But then he noticed Cowboy Boots, walking thirty paces behind him. Mozzie reached up and scratched his ear, saying into the watch "You see him?"

Peter responded in his ear. "Yes. Keep walking, there's an alley forty feet in front of you."

Mozzie kept walking, and he heard the small clicks of a camera as Cowboy Boots documented Mozzie's actions. Mozzie wondered why the man took pictures of him. It seemed pretty unrelated to Neal.

Mozzie turned into the alley, and then hid behind a garbage can. This wasn't the plan, and he knew that, but he couldn't help himself. He was so mad, so sick of not being able to help Neal. And he still didn't believe that the Suits would be able to get enough information out of Cowboy Boots.

So when he heard Cowboy Boots turn into the alley to follow him, he stayed hidden behind the dumpster. He waited until Cowboy Boots had passed the dumpster, shoes clicking loudly against the pavement, and then he mustered all his anger and jumped out, yelling at him. Mozzie jumped on top of Cowboy Boots, surprising him and bringing him to the ground. He heard the Suit's voice in his ear, telling him they were on their way, but he ignored them. Cowboy Boots tried to wrestle himself free, but Mozzie stayed firmly on top of him.

"Where's Neal?" Mozzie yelled at him. This wasn't how he usually operated, but he needed the information. "Tell me where your friend is keeping him!"

Cowboy Boots grinned smugly, knowing Mozzie could never get him to talk. Mozzie realized why he always wore cowboy boots- he thought he was invincible.

That's when Mozzie realized that the Suits actually could get him to talk. The only way he would reveal information is if it could get him something he needed. Mozzie had nothing to offer him.

The Suits came running down the alley, guns out. Mozzie got up, muttering to Cowboy Boots, "Have fun in prison." Then, without anyone noticing, he slipped away, leaving the watch and the earpiece on the ground. He'd talk to Diana later to hear what they found, and he was in no mood to be lectured by the Suit.

Peter saw that Cowboy Boots was put in a car before turning to talk Mozzie. But when he looked around, he didn't see him anywhere. After the success of the sting, Peter couldn't help but smile a little. Why would Mozzie stick around to talk? It reminded him of when Neal would slip out, off-anklet, after a case. Peter missed Neal, and as he got back into the municipal van, he swore to break Cowboy Boots if that's what it took to find Neal.

Cowboy Boots was a smirker. And Diana hated the smirkers. She'd dealt with smirkers before in the interrogation room, but this one was personal. Neal was involved.

She'd made sure that Jones told Peter to let her in the room. She had seen Peter's eyes as he looked at Cowboy Boots, and she was seriously scared that Peter would hurt him. And as much as she wanted Cowboy Boots in pieces for taking Neal, it wouldn't do Neal any good to have Peter temporarily suspended.

"Where is he?" Peter was demanding, angrily. "Where is Neal? What did you do with him?"

Cowboy Boots didn't answer. "I want to talk to my lawyer."

"Answer the question first," Diana said. "We have you on camera, kidnapping Neal Caffrey and destroying government property. If you tell us where he is, where your partner Adrianne Parker is keeping him, we might be able to shorten your jail time." Diana sounded like Peter.

Cowboy Boots finally reacted. He didn't know they had anything against him. If we was actually facing jail time, he would do anything, even betray his boss, to get out of it. But he had to make sure they had something first. "I need to call my lawyer."

Peter started to say something, but Diana cut him off. She took her phone out of her pocket, and slid it across the table to him. "Go ahead."

Cowboy Boots glared at her. He seemed to realize that he wasn't going to get another chance. He picked up the phone. Diana and Peter watched as he dialed, and held the phone up to his ear.

"This is Jacob Bage. No, listen. I'm at the FBI. They're claiming I kidnapped a guy. They're claiming they have video footage of it. I need you. I need my lawyer." He paused. "Yes." Another pause. "No. No, I'm serious!" He hung up.

As Diana reached over to grab the phone back, but Cowboy Boots was too smart to just hand it back. He threw it on the ground and stepped on it. Peter flew around the room and restrained him, but it was too late. He destroyed the phone, and with it Diana's lead.

As some guards lead him away, Diana pulled out a chair from the table and say on it heavily. She put her head in her hands. "I let him do it," she said miserably. "I knew he wasn't going to call a lawyer, he's too smart for that. I thought I was going to get Abigail's number. So that we could track her, figure something out about her... But I underestimated him." She slammed her hands on the table in anger and stood up, practically shouting. "Never underestimate a criminal! That's the rule! And now Caffrey... Caffrey..." She sank back into the chair, looking defeated.

Peter looked at her. She's always been the rational one, and he'd never seen her fall apart, except for when she was pregnant. He would like to comfort her, but he knew nothing he could say would change what just happened. And after two weeks of not finding anything, he couldn't even comfort himself. Now that Abigail knew Cowboy Boots was going to jail, would she take her anger out on Neal? Would he get hurt because of their mistake?

Peter couldn't get those thoughts out of his head.

That is, until he got the phone call.

Just two chapters left. I promise in the next one you'll find out what happened to Neal when he ran. Thanks for reading!