NOTE: Once again I can not thank you all enough for the wonderful support! I'm on a short vacation from work so I've got some time to keep you all happy!

Chapter Ten

"Well could you have him call me back as soon as possible? This is very important."

"I will inform him that you called, Agent Burke."

"Thank you."

Peter hadn't even tried to hide the irritation in his voice. He knew there was no chance of getting called back, this marked the sixth message he had left at the Washington office in two days. He knew he had no hope of speaking to the Deputy Director, or even the Associate Deputy Director. However he was becoming increasingly frustrated by not even being able to get the ear of the Executive Assistant Director of Criminal Investigations, who was actively avoiding his calls. Neal's new contract had been signed by the Director Comey himself which was more surprising than the release itself.

From the moment he had gotten the order to take Neal's anklet off Peter had been trying to track down exactly who had proposed the idea. The Director had signed it, but he doubted that he had anything to do with the actual drafting of the deal. The Director had a whole staff of people who screened things for his approval. It was more likely that someone of influence who had something to gain from Neal's release had 'bought' the signature. The brick wall that Peter kept coming up against was the fact that he couldn't think of anyone who would benefit from allowing Neal a bit of extra freedom.

Whatever was happening, he didn't like it. Peter's best guess at the moment was that the trap being set wasn't really for Neal but rather for him. He'd made more than a few enemies when he'd turned down the Washington position. There were several Senators who were trying to fill the New York office SAC position with Agents of their own. Agents who would be more willing to turn a blind eye to corporations who donated large sums to political campaigns. Neal's failed reform would be a good step in the right direction to discredit Peter and get him removed. Neal would simply be caught in the political cross fire. Staring at the silent phone on his desk Peter thought about how crazy his own theory about all this sounded.

"I'm becoming paranoid in my old age." Peter muttered to himself.

Peter looked up as Jones knocked at his open door. Peter waved him in and Jones closed the door behind himself. Jones was being careful not to mention Neal's name in connection with the Faberge egg case to anyone other than Peter.

"Did you find anything?" Peter asked not really wanting to hear the answer either way.

"That depends."

"Depends on what?"

"On how well you know the back of Caffrey's hand."

"I have a feeling the answer to that is 'not well enough'."

Jones handed over a folder with a set of glossy photos from the surveillance footage that the lab had cleaned up. The detail was a little better, but not by much. There was only so much that could be done with the poor quality data. Most of the photos were from the back showing a man of Neal's build and height with jet black hair that was the right length to belong to Neal, even it was uncharacteristically mussed.

In one photo they had zoomed in on where the camera had caught a glimpse at the back of the man's right hand. He had taken the leather glove he'd been wearing off long enough to send the text so they got a shot of the bare hand after he'd placed the phone back in his pocket. There were no tattoos, scars, or discernible marks of any kind. Looking closer Peter noticed that despite the lean graceful musculature of the hand the ring and middle finger were curled in towards the palm unnaturally. Peter had noticed Neal clenching and shaking out his hand frequently over the past few weeks since he'd gotten out of the arm sling. Several times he'd seen him forcing his hand open, even though he'd always tried to pass it off as though he was just stretching.

"Think it's Caffrey?" Jones asked when Peter had fallen silent staring at the photo.

"I can't say for sure, it's just a hand. I'm honestly not sure how well I could identify even my own hand if I was given a photo of this quality of it."

"It certainly isn't good enough for a warrant."

"No. Find anything else?"

"Yeah, one of the forensic techs found this." Jones reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small evidence bag. "It's a piece of a coke can. It was clearly cut into that shape on purpose, but we don't know why or if it even has any significance."

Peter took the evidence bag and flipped it over to the clear side to inspect the metal piece. Looking at the 'T' shaped piece of soda can Peter's stomach knotted up slightly. He vividly recalled a case about three years back when they'd had a warrant to search a storage locker that had a combination lock on it that they had cut with bolt cutters. Neal had off handedly mentioned that combination locks were pointless because they could be opened with a simple mental shim that could easily be made with a soda can. Peter hadn't believe him and so the next day Neal brought in a combination lock and a T shaped piece of can to prove it.

"Was there a combination lock on the fuse box?"

"Yes, it had been opened not cut. The museum guard said that they had just added the lock on Caffrey's recommendation."

"Neal specifically recommended a Master Lock with a key not a combination lock. For this exact reason, this was used to open the combination lock." Peter said handing the evidence back to Jones.

"Clever."

"If it was Neal he wouldn't have been expecting to come across a combination lock."

"So?"

"He wouldn't have brought this with him, he would have bought the soda from the break room machine. Even if it wasn't Neal, no matter who it was probably didn't bring the can piece with them. Also fishing change out with a leather glove on isn't easy."

"You think there might be a print on one of the quarters in the machine?"

"It's a long shot, but worth checking the coins."

"I'll go arrange to get them right now."

"Thanks, Jones."

"What are you going to do if this was Caffrey?"

"I don't really want to think about it." Peter admitted. "I won't be able to help him this time. Neal will go back to prison."

"That could be a death sentence for him at this point. Informants are already targets in prison and he's helped you put away a lot of dangerous men over the past few years."

"Neal knows that just as well as we do."

"True, but he's not one to care much about consequence."

"There is someone else who would know both of those facts as well." Peter mused to himself.

"Who?"

"The brass in Washington who let him off leash."

"Have you been talking to Mozzie?" Jones asked seriously. "You think Neal's release from his anklet is part of some kind of conspiracy to get him killed in prison? That sounds like a bit of a stretch."

"I know," Peter sighed "but I can't shake the feeling that Neal's been given just enough rope to hang himself at a point in his life when he's very likely to do so."