Chapter 10 Neal Caffrey, Not an Accountant
Ensconced in the conference room with Agent Cameron and assorted other Treasury agents with Peter next to him. They went over Neal's cover as Nicholas Carter, bank examiner.
Neal looked over the documents with professional admiration. Neal looked up at Agent Cameron and asked, "Now if someone decides to do an unauthorized background check will this cover stand up and how deep is it? How about biometric data and facial scans? "
Agent Cameron said that that the government records had been modified similar to the witness protection program, the cover went back to childhood. He gave Neal a folder with the details so Neal could memorize his history as Nicholas Carter.
" Carter, Nichols Carter', Neal said in his best James Bond voice.
"Neal, be serious," Peter remonstrated
Neal was entranced with the completeness of his cover and had a new goal to be able to do this soon. Just think, of the possibilities if he could change all the data on one Neal Caffrey in government databases.
" So, if I end up in an alley somewhere, my finger prints and dental will show up as Carter? Neal asked with a twinkle.
Agent Cameron said, "If that happens, Neal, you no longer have any worries, but there is a tag that will notify the team if a trace is initiated."
" Comforting, Agent Cameron, Very comforting, " retorted Neal with a sardonic tone and smile
This made Neal think about the back doors in programs that Treasury has and how secure they really were? He really did not want to trigger an investigation in his own searches. Hmmm, Maybe he needed to set up a mole program that redirected the tag notification to a government agency on his own searches. That would do a nice job of misdirection.
"Neal, you are to start you new job tomorrow morning, so finish any cases today and memorize your cover." Agent Cameron informed Neal. The meeting broke up.
Peter was concerned, this was high-level espionage and Neal was the cat in the cream pot. He knew that Neal had the talent to infiltrate and perform the job. But he worried that Neal could not resist the challenge of using this information later. Thankfully, Neal was a forger and not a hacker; the government should be safe from Neal's predations in the future.
Peter knew his team would suffer without Neal's particular ability to pick out the one anomaly that unraveled a case. Peter resigned himself to the reduced effectiveness of his team without Neal.
Neal went back to reviewing his mortgage cases and set up a pattern search on Clive Brookheiser. He expanded the search to look for similar patterns so for any others at the New York Federal Reserve Bank and at AIG and while that search was being done he thought on how he would he would steal a load of paper and move it. He was anxious to solve this case and stop having Treasury agents watching his back.
At lunch he called Mozzie and warned him that he would be unavailable for a while and be careful tracking Ormond. All contact and information exchanges to be done by dead drop, so they set up the signals for that. Neal was glad to get his mobility back without the tracker but also knew he was going to be watched by FBI, Treasury, OPR and however was involved in the counterfeit dollars scheme. Neal told Mozzie to start using clean machines and to use 512 encryption on all the data. Neal also requested a secure location that could not be tracked and to clean the apartment of any evidence of the Fowler case. Neal loved New York and since it was an old city there were multiple locations that had been forgotten underground that had power and communication wiring perfect for a secure location. This was the last time that Neal would be talking by phone with Mozzie since he had to go ultra black on communication security.
Neal asked for the search on Ormond to be expanded to his ex- wife, family members and associates. Ormond probably had the contacts in the criminal underworld to set up the theft of the pink diamond
Neal needed a lever to take down Ormond and to effectively block Ormond from any future actions. Neal never thought of physical actions for revenge but rather the confusing world of high finance. Any con would also have take in account of Kate as a chess piece to be moved in the game. Neal doubted he would ever have the proof necessary for a FBI conviction on Ormond. So Peter's methods would not work and he had to be careful not to get Peter in trouble. Peter would never approve of Neal's methods. Neal quickly thought of several schemes and put them aside for further consideration once he had further intelligence. Neal also had to make sure that nothing would direct any attention to the Atlas hanging in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. That meant Peter could not know about Ormond.
He also thought about Adrian Tulane and how he had been contacted and if Tulane really knew who had hired him for the job. Would Tulane really do a job without knowing who had hired him? Neal wouldn't but that was because Neal only trusted his own planning. He knew Tulane had the nerve and skills but he did not do as much research, so he probably did not know who had hired him. Neal had checked the initials on the diamond and they were not a perfect match to the ones he had used on the bonds. Neal felt no recrimination about Tulane since Tulane had none about framing Neal in the theft.
Peter had been slow about finding out who had the information on the pink diamond in the FBI before the theft and who had blanked his tracking data. Neal wanted that to be completed today so he decided to visit Mark in IT after lunch.
After saying a quick breezy hello to Peter, Neal went to down to talk to Mark. He liked Mark and Mark was fascinated with Neal and was sympathetic about Neal being framed.
Chatting with the geeks in forensic and IT was appreciated since they felt ignored by the field agents. Neal was the glamorous conman to them that broke the big cases. They liked that Neal would talk to them and compliment them on their personal achievements like recoding the Euro dollar codes on the strip in the Ghovat case. So Neal made sure that he cultivated the techies. After all his safety often depended on their skill on the transmitters he used. They had felt horrible about the failure of the fake watch.
He asked Mark about the search on who had blanked the data and explained he was going off on another case soon and needed that to be done today. Mark had been offended that the data that he had used to keep track of Neal had been compromised and had been researching how it was done so he was making progress. Mark did confirm that the data had been manipulated off site and remotely. It was not done from this office but the IP was a New York address.
Neal asked with a persuasive smile," Mark, pull up the records of the data from the night and lets look at them." Mark quickly accessed the database.
"OK now lets check the signals that came into the US Marshall server and which one had accessed my tracker code and at what time." Neal suggested.
Mark tracked that and came up with the NY IP code same as he had done before. Neal's tracker had been accessed at 5 am the morning that they were called on the heist." Now lets ping the IP and find out if that is a mobile code and what type of machine it is using."
Neal did not expect that it would come up with a DOJ IP address but he knew the type of laptops that Ormond and FBI used and they were HP's and what chipset type FBI used would help refine the search.
Bingo! It had been an HP and the chipset was definitely the one that the FBI used. Mark's eyes widened since he recognized that also. " Great work, Mark. Sent this to Agent Burke."
Neal did not think the hack had been done on Fowler's laptop and unless he found the laptop that sent the signal and did a forensic search, he was at a dead end. If Ormond had been in New York at that time that would be a confirmation that Ormond had probably did the blanking of Neal's tracker. Next stop, talk to Peter and asked about who knew about the diamond at the FBI. It would be better if Peter did that search than himself.
A quick stop in the mailroom and he found the letter from Transversal and picked it up open and found the check payable to the FBI for 360,000 as a finders fee.
He decided that he would let that be a surprise. So he went up to Peter's office and asked about the names of who in NYPD and FBI had known about the diamond delivery ahead of time. Peter went down and gave that to Lauren to check out and Neal slipped the check into Peter's desk.
Neal went back to his desk and reviewed the results of the pattern search and found a few more names. He did a quick assets check of those names and opened their account information. Only two other names had money move in and out of the account to an unknown account. FBI like to track using account numbers. Neal liked to track using amounts matched to timing, which often was more productive. One of them was from an AIG account and the other was a New York Bank of America account.
He decides to check the Caymans since that had shown before and these types often would use the same banks since they were unimaginative. Yep, there was the amount in a Cayman Island account that had a deposit at the same time frame that matched the Bank of America deposit.
Ok. The AIG was a mortgage fraud payoff but the other was not. He did a quick identity search and it was a person in the motor pool.
Peter called Neal into his office. " Close the door, Neal. "
Neal wondered what Peter wanted to talk about. Neal sat down and gave that alert junior agent look with his baby blue eyes.
"Neal, What the hell is this?' Peter growled with the check in hand.
Neal chirped happily. " It is a finder fee for the diamond Peter, I thought that the White Collar unit deserve to be paid for its work."
" Neal do you know what the term "moral hazard" is?" Peter gravely replied.
"What moral hazard, Peter. The insurance company wants the jewelry recovered so they do not have to pay the claim and a finder's fee is just an incentive. There is no hazard. We found the diamond and Transversal Insurance agreed to pay the fee to the FBI. Why should we not be paid for recovering stolen property as well as arresting the thief?" Neal replied with his eyes wide open in an innocent stare.
Peter just sighed. Neal's moral compass was just different and he saw nothing wrong with the FBI getting paid for doings its' duty. He realized that Neal did see this as a good thing.
"Neal, It is not the way the FBI does business. Ok? I will talk to Hughes and while I understand you were trying to do something nice, it is not proper."
Peter got up and walked to Hughes's office. He presented the check to Hughes and said. "Neal got Transversal to pay a finders fee for recovery of the diamond. I have tried to explain to Neal that the FBI does not get finders fees and I will send the check back."
Hughes looked at the check carefully and said, "Caffrey got the insurance company to pay the FBI $ 360,000 dollars? Burke, lets not be so quick. This certainly helps our budget and we did recover the diamond, so the insurance company did not have to pay. If the insurance company thought it was legal to pay the FBI, I will forward this to legal to see if it OK to accept the check. We are under a lot of pressure to keep our budget down and this may be a good way to pay for operations. It is certainly innovative."
Peter was amazed; Maybe Neal's moral compass was not that far off. Hughes did not any problem getting an insurance company pay a finder's fee to the FBI. Neal did not have his name on the check but had it payable to the FBI, so Neal had no personal gain.
Peter came back to his office where Neal was still waiting. "Neal, Hughes is going to ask legal if we can accept the check." Shaking his head in disbelief.' Thanks for the thought."
"So it is OK, Peter?" With a what a good boy I am Neal smile.
"We will see. Any progress on any cases Neal? "
" Some," said Neal "I found someone at the Federal Reserve with unusual account activity in the motor pool. That may a good place to have contacts if there is going to a delivery for treasury paper."
"Peter have you located the list of FBI and NYPD people that knew about the time of the diamond delivery?" Neal inquired. "The laptop used for the blanking of my tracker was probably FBI but unless we check every laptop, we will never figure who did it from that. That is a dead end."
Peter agreed that that was dead end. Lauren knocked on the door. " Come in, Cruz," Peter invited. "And close the door."
Lauren gave Peter the list of FBI and NYPD personnel that had been informed on the delivery. Neal and Peter bent both the heads over the list reviewing the names.
Hughes, Ruiz, Ormond, Fowler and a few others that Neal did not recognize. Then there was the police chief and his deputy and the Mayor's aide.
Neal asked, " Who are these other agents, Peter?" Peter gave their position and what they did primarily." Why is OPR and Fowler's name listed? OPR has nothing to do with security, right?"
" I mean Fowler obviously thought that you had blanked my tracker data and arranged me to steal the diamond. But when you checked my signature on the bonds, which got you out as my accomplice or controller for the theft. That micro engraving of my initials on the forgery were meant to be discovered whether you had mentioned my initials on the bonds or not. The initials were not exact anyway, just good enough." Neal explained.
" Fowler was set up to believe that I had stolen the diamond before we got back and discovered the diamond was a fake." Neal continued in his train of thought. Peter narrowed his eyes in thought that he had been set up also, but had narrowly escaped.
Lauren also narrowed her eyes with the realization that Neal was not the only target.
Peter said he was going to have Lauren and Jones check out discretely the NYPD and the aide to the mayor to rule them out. Neal quickly spoke up. " Don't have them check out Fowler and Ormond, that will let them know we suspect them. Plus Fowler's file is sealed."
"How did you know that?" Lauren asked.
Neal said, "While you guys were checking for my initials I was checking Fowlers background. He came on the scene way too fast to be right. Peter you know I have my own sources for information."
" I supposed you unsealed Fowler's files then, Neal." Peter retorted angrily.
Neal looked up defiantly, "Yes, I did Peter. He targeted both of us."
Lauren looked up with interest. She could not unseal a sealed file, yet Neal had just admitted that he had. How does he do it? " Neal is there any secrets you can't find out?"
Neal laughed and said, "Yes Lauren. There are limits to my sources."
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