Medium Exchange
Chapter 7
Mozzie had the feeling someone was following him, but then he almost always had that feeling. He decided to be careful and made sure to double back twice before taking the long way to the safe house located in Little Italy. It was an old shop that had been closed down and boarded up many years before.
It was a fairly new acquisition but he was quite fond of it already. He almost regretted that Neal would be coming over, as with his anklet being FBI monitored, the safe house would be burned after today.
Neal turned up after 10pm bearing a bottle of wine.
"You're late." Mozzie commented. Neal held out the bottle of wine, Mozzie was gratified to see it was a decent Merlot and then he realised it was a very specific wine from the Satin Émilion region of Bordeaux.
"I was feeling nostalgic" Neal told Mozzie defensively following him inside.
Downstairs was Mozzie's workshop, so they went upstairs where Mozzie had rooms arranged fairly comfortably, there was a small living room and kitchen and even a separate bedroom. Mozzie looked out the window and spotted the FBI's van outside.
"Neal…" he started outraged.
"I know, I know but Peter wanted to put us both into protective custody, this was the best compromised I could come up with. You were planning to burn this place after we're done anyway right?" Neal told him, slowly levering himself into a chair.
It was Neal's slow movements more than anything else that stopped Mozzie mid-outrage at Neal setting the FBI on his safehouse.
"How bad is it?" He asked.
"It's nothing." Neal told him.
"Cause if you aren't up to this, maybe we should leave it to the Suit. I don't want to end up in hospital too" Mozzie said hesitantly. He wasn't keen on this sort of conversation but he would try for Neal's sake.
"Nothing serious, mostly some bruises and a cracked collar bone but I'm pretty stiff." Neal admitted, touched by Mozzie's concern, however badly expressed.
They opened the wine while Neal explained what had been happening with Peter. After Neal's meeting and Mozzie's revelation as to Michelle Morgan's real identity Peter and Neal had gone back to the FBI's offices. It would be a real coup for the White Collar division to nail her and both Peter and Neal would take satisfaction in rubbing it in the face of Agent Ruiz from the Organized Crime department. They had called up all the information on the call centre and on all Michelle Morgan's aliases. The papers Neal had given them tied them together but without witnesses on the psychic reading side they would have difficulty proving fraud and the psychic phone line was set up with a warning that it was for "entertainment" so it would be difficult to get a conviction for fraud. The whole team was combing through the company's papers looking for any irregularities but without more evidence it was unlikely they would get a conviction. Since Michelle was already aware she was being investigated it was likely she would close down and move on her operation so they didn't have long, a few days at most.
"Well if she moves on that still takes care of the problem with Lisa" Mozzie commented. Michelle was clearly more dangerous than they had realised when they agreed to help and he saw no reason to help the FBI.
""What she did to Lisa and the others was wrong" Neal told Mozzie and I think she tried to kill me Mozz" Neal pointed out mildly.
"All the more reason to stay away from her." Mozzie exclaimed.
"Besides, it's obvious that's not what this is about. You've had a chip on your shoulder about this since the beginning." Mozzie confronted Neal.
"What do you mean?" Neal asked defensively
"There is something personal in this for you and when it comes to personal you don't stay focused." Mozzie told him.
"You want to just let her get away with it?" Neal asked angrily
"Why not? I'm not a Fed and neither are you Neal. We're con men." Mozzie countered firmly.
Neal stood up and for a second Mozzie thought he might throw something or even punch Mozzie. Instead he took a deep breath and stepped away from the table to the door.
"You're right, you should stay out of this. I don't have that luxury." Neal told Mozzie. He picked up his hat and jacket and walked out. Mozzie looked after him dismayed. He had never known Neal to walk out during a disagreement before. Neal was a brother to him, if he was really determined to do this Mozzie would have helped and Neal knew that. For Neal to walk out like threw Mozzie, was Neal trying to protect him or was something else going on. He didn't know what it meant, what he should do now.
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Peter was just reviewing the latest research on Michelle Morgan before heading up to join Elizabeth in bed when his work phone rang from a number he didn't recognise, he picked up.
"Suit we have a problem" Mozzie told him
For Mozzie to be calling him, well it wouldn't be good, Peter braced himself to be annoyed at best and possibly terrified at worst.
"What is it Mozzie?" he asked fearing the answer. The fact that Mozzie gets straight to the point, not even making one quote or complaint scares Peter more than anything.
"Neal walked out." Mozzie tells him simply.
As always when talking to Mozzie, Peter felt both confused and annoyed. He usually suspected the little man did it deliberately since he had no love of the authorities but this time he just sounded worried.
"What do you mean he walked out?" Peter asked.
"We had a disagreement about the whole Michelle Morgan situation and he left." Mozzie explained.
Peter sensed there was more to it than a simple disagreement. Neal and Mozzie were close, too close in Peter's opinion and their loyalty to each other was without question.
"Where is he going?" Peter asked
"That's the thing Suit, you can't predict the unpredictable." Mozzie told Peter, ratcheting up his irritation and worry.
"Do you think he's going to do something stupid?" Peter asked directly
"I honestly don't know" Mozzie told him and the worry in his voice stopped Peter from responding angrily, demanding answers Mozzie didn't have.
"Okay, leave it with me, I'll pull up his tracking data and alert the teams to go pick him up." Peter told him reassuringly as there was a knock at the front door. Peter walked over and saw Neal's outline standing outside.
"Mozzie, he's here. I'll call you later." Peter told him hanging up and opening the door simultaneously.
Neal smiled at Peter, it was almost his usual cheeky smile, if Peter didn't know him so well he might not have seen the stress underneath.
"I've got an idea about how to get the witnesses against Michelle." Neal told him.
Peter stepped back to invite him in.
"I thought we agreed you'd stay at Mozzie's safe house tonight?" Peter asked cautiously as they sat down in the living area.
Neal shrugged slightly,
"We have to move quickly before Michelle shuts her operation down. I knew you would still be up." Neal told Peter.
Peter was sure there was truth in that since Neal rarely lied directly to him but equally he was rarely completely honest. Peter could have pointed out that he was about to go to bed, that Neal could have just phoned him and told him about Mozzie's call but he didn't want to push Neal away and have him walk out of here too. Instead he put coffee on and they tried to work through Neal's idea.
"It's worth a try but it's not going to work without Mozzie." Peter told Neal.
Neal nodded grimacing as he leaned forward to pick up his coffee cup. Peter couldn't tell if it was his injuries or the thought of facing Mozzie.
"I'll talk to him." Neal told Peter.
"He called earlier, before you showed up here. He was worried" Peter told Neal honestly.
Neal nodded but didn't say anything, he put his mug back down and sat back putting his left arm carefully on his lap, his broken collar bone obviously bothering him.
"Have you taken any painkillers?" Peter asked.
Neal shook his head. "They make me too foggy and with people trying to run me over and a mafia boss after me, I figured that wasn't a good idea." He gave Peter a wry smile.
Peter shrugged. "Pain can fog you up, make you act irrationally too" he pointed out neutrally.
Neal's smile grew wider but it was more definitely forced this time.
"You're right Peter, I left them at Mozzie's. I should be going anyway, I don't want to get into trouble with Elizabeth for keeping you up too late." He told Peter and leaning forward to lever himself off the settee. He visibly wobbled for a minute but managed to get up.
"You can stay here tonight." Peter told him firmly. Neal didn't look like he was up to causing any trouble tonight but he wanted to be sure he knew where Neal was and didn't want to run the risk of another run in with Mozzie, causing one or both of them wandering the streets or doing something reckless.
Neal shook his head stubbornly.
"You're staying here tonight and that's final. I'll drive you over there first thing in the morning." Peter told Neal.
For a second Peter was sure Neal was going to argue, but he gave in surprisingly meekly. Either he felt worse than Peter realised or he was up to something.
"Promise me you will stay here tonight?" Peter demanded, knowing Neal wouldn't break a direct promise to him. Neal nodded wearily, confirming Peter first suspicion that his CI was feeling pretty terrible. Peter showed him to the spare room and loaned him some pyjamas which Neal didn't even comment on, let alone make fun of, which added to Peter's concern.
Peter found some over the counter painkillers, they weren't prescription standard but they would at least take the edge off and getting Neal to take them was easier since they also wouldn't cloud his mind like the strong stuff.
Once he was sure Neal was set up he headed to bed himself. Elizabeth was fast asleep and deliciously warm when he climbed in next to her. Having extracted the promise from Neal he felt reasonably confident that Neal wouldn't go running off into trouble tonight but that didn't stop him listening out for noises from the spare room until he finally fell asleep.
The bed was empty when Peter woke up, Elizabeth had early meetings this morning he remembered. He got up and headed for the bathroom, checking on the spare room on the way, it was empty, the bed nearly made up again. He was probably already downstairs charming Elizabeth into making breakfast for him. He got washed and dressed and headed downstairs. Elizabeth was drinking her coffee and setting up the table for breakfast.
"Morning Hon" he told her giving her a kiss "Where's Neal?" he asked looking around.
"Neal?" Elizabeth asked confused.
"He stayed here last night" Peter explained, checking the patio. There was no sign of him. Satchmo was lying in the garden and wagged his tail at the sight of Peter so he wasn't out walking the dog.
Peter checked his phone and found he had an email from Neal.
"Peter, I stayed the night as promised. Didn't want to interrupt your and El's breakfast, know how important it is to you. Gone back to Mozzie's to set up the plan. Speak to you later. Neal. xoxoxo"
Peter ground his teeth and dialled Neal's mobile while El looked on with concern. His phone went straight through to voicemail.
"Neal, it's Peter call me as soon as you get this." He said curtly into the phone. As soon as he hung up his phone rang. It was Diana
"Peter, I have bad news." She told him. "The agents we put on the safe house, they were shot last night, one of them had died the other is in ICU. There's no sign of either Neal or Mozzie, we think they have been taken." Peter's stomach dropped. He was vaguely aware of El asking him what was wrong.
