White Collar Medium Exchange Chapter 10
The plan was complicated, as Neal's plans always were, but if it worked it would mean they would shut Michelle Morgan down on all fronts.
First, thanks to Mozzie's footage they were able to get warrants to place phone taps and surveillance on all of Michelle's properties. With a shooting of one of their own the whole White Collar department was on board with catching the bad guys. Everyone was sifting through every paper available on Michelle Morgan and her men. Neal and Mozzie sifted through hours of surveillance tapes and thousands of pages of reports putting together the information they needed
Neal took satisfaction that Michelle was furious that Sarah and Mary had disappeared. Peter managed to talk his bosses into holding off arresting Michelle's men until they were ready, convincing them that if they waited they would get their boss.
It was late one evening, about four days in when Diana brought them the final piece of the puzzle. Everyone was getting tired, apart from Neal who seemed to have totally recovered from his 'car accident' and was keeping them all going with his infectious energy, being first in the office and last out and making his usual jokes and comments during the regular update meetings.
"Ruiz came through with the Chicago files" Diana told them putting the files she was holding on the table. She logged onto her laptop and brought some files up on the screen of Sarah Morgan looking several years younger, with a young man stood next to her with his arm around her shoulder. Neal could see Mary had inherited her father's brown eyes.
Diana explained that Tony Brooks and Sarah had been in a relationship for about 18 months prior to Mary's birth. Six month after she was born his body was found in an alley near to his apartment. The lead investigator suspected Morgan's man Sebastian, because a witness placed him at the apartment, but a few days later he withdrew his statement. The investigator noted that the witness seemed scared, believed that Michelle Morgan had got to her. There wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. Both Michelle, Sebastian and Sarah were interviewed and Diana had the tapes.
"Sebastian. He's he way." Neal told Peter confidently after watching the tapes.
Neal gathered everything he needed together to prepare and he and Peter took it back to the Mozzie's new safe house, careful to double back several times on the way. Only he, Mozzie and Peter knew the address and this was the first time Neal and Peter were going there. Neal had been spending the last few nights at the office to be safe. Peter would have preferred to have Mozzie there too but he flatly refused to set foot in the FBI offices.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mozzie asked Neal who nodded.
"Because the only reason I agreed to be the front man before was because you asked me to…" Mozzie started
"Since when did you want to work for the FBI?" Neal interrupted, looking Mozzie in the eye firmly and then giving a meaningful glancing at Peter, to tell Mozzie not to say any more in front of him. Fortunately Peter was focused on the papers in front of him, apparently only half paying attention to their conversation.
"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." Neal told Mozzie, making him smile.
"Confucious" Mozzie acknowledged.
"Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine." Mozzie counter quoted, making both of them laugh.
"So are you ready?" Peter asked. He already had misgivings about this operation. Whatever had led to Neal's argument with Mozzie, his injuries from the car accident made Peter uneasy. Michelle Morgan didn't have any scruples about arranging for people to be murdered. On the other hand that was all the more reason to make sure they got her off the streets and Neal was the best at what he did. Peter trusted him to get the job done and he and the rest of the team would be there to back him up.
Neal looked at Peter pretending to be insulted.
"Of course I'm ready." Neal told him.
Once Peter had left for the evening, Neal knew Mozzie wasn't going to leave it alone.
"Neal, Our close brush with death doesn't mean I have forgotten our aborted conversation yesterday." Mozzie sipping from his wine glass. All of Mozzie's safe houses came equipped with a decent wine selection as he considered it a necessity.
Neal sighed and poured himself a glass too.
"When I was young I got into magic tricks, slight of hand, that sort of thing." Neal started to explain."
"The con man primer" Mozzie nodded.
"I was short on money, someone showed me how I could use my magic skills to pretend to be a psychic." Neal explained
"There's a lot more money in psychics than in magic trick.s" Mozzie agreed.
"We cleaned up for a while. Things were good until I saw the effect it was having on one of our 'clients'. She was like June's friend Lisa. She had lost her husband. She couldn't bear to lose him. She wanted to speak to him again so badly she sought out every psychic she could find, she would have seen me every day if she could. She lost her job, then her house. She couldn't afford to eat but she would still pay to come see me." Neal told Mozzie then fell silent thinking of the past.
"What happened?" Mozzie asked with trepidation.
"I told her the truth. That I wasn't a psychic, that it was all a scam. I gave her back all the money I had." Neal said.
"Well, that's good right?" Mozzie.
"She was angry, she said just because I was a fake didn't mean all psychics were fakes. She just went and spent the money with other psychics. I heard she died not long afterwards." Neal told him bleakly.
"It wasn't your fault she died." Mozzie told Neal. "You made things right, you told her the truth."
Neal shrugged.
"I didn't help her, but at least I can shut Michelle Morgan down, make up for it." Neal told him.
Mozzie lifted his glass to Neal's
"right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past." He toasted
They clinked glasses and finished the wine before going over the plan one more time.