Chapter 14
Neal woke disoriented, searching for his usual anchor in the bed and coming up empty. The events of the previous day came flooding back and he was suddenly aware of sounds coming from downstairs: Sara's soft voice as she spoke to their daughter, likely in the kitchen from the smell of toast Neal detected wafting through the air.
Earlier in the week, they'd discussed the possibility of Neal going in to the White Collar offices; the search warrant Peter had obtained had yielded documents showing that Smirle Pharmaceuticals had a shortage of the raw materials needed to manufacture the patented cancer drugs but Peter continued to have his suspicions. Neal was anxious to help out and in light of recent events, it seemed like a good time to pull away from the intensity on the home front for a few hours and check in with the gang at the Federal Building.
Neal showered, dressed in a suit and tie and made his way downstairs, smiling as he heard Hope giggling loudly from her high chair. Sara's eyes met his briefly and she turned away, obviously still smarting from the events of the previous day.
'You going in to the office?' she asked flatly, her eyes still on Hope who continued playing - and cooing softly now that she had her dad in her sights.
'Is that still okay with you?' Neal asked, making his way closer.
'Yeah, we'll be fine. Won't we Hope?' Sara said as she ruffled her daughter's hair.
'I can be back by lunch' he said, hoping he wasn't making a mistake by leaving them alone.
He hadn't left Sara on her own with Hope since her surgery but she'd been feeling stronger and now was probably the best time to make himself scarce – at least for a while.
'No rush. We'll be fine' Sara repeated emphatically.
'Well, I thought we could take a little stroll through the children's exhibit at the Metropolitan this afternoon' Neal said, directing his comments to Hope.
The child stared back at her dad, not quite getting the gist of what he was saying.
'You want to go to the museum, sweet pea?' he asked, this time eliciting a joyful squeal from his little girl.
'Zeem!' she repeated, a word she knew quite well from previous visits she'd made there with her parents.
'Alright then!' Neal said, placing a kiss on Hope's head as she tapped excitedly on her high chair. 'When Daddy comes home, we'll go visit the museum. Be a good girl for Mommy.'
He moved closer to Sara, hoping for a kiss – a small glimmer of hope that things would eventually get back to normal.
The best he got was her outstretched cheek, accepting the kiss he deposited there without turning to smack him – which in light of how she'd been behaving, was decidedly a good start. Neal reluctantly headed out; if he couldn't do any good at home, the best he could hope for was to help the team bring down the crooks over at Smirle Pharmaceuticals.
The pharmaceutical company had begun to charge exorbitant prices for two of the chemotherapy drugs for which they held the patent and some hospitals had begun to cancel treatments due to shortages - putting lives at risk. The documents they'd released to the FBI seemed nice and clean and in Peter's opinion were totally bogus and Neal was itching to get in there and prove that the shortage was a sham.
Neal arrived at the White Collar offices, looking a little worse for wear and headed up to Peter's office. Peter was scheduled to visit Jonathan Dwyer, the chairman of Smirle Pharmaceuticals; he was hoping to lean on him and see where that got him.
'Neal! How are you doing?' asked Peter as he spotted his best friend standing in the doorway to his office.
Ever since Sara's diagnosis, they hadn't seen much of each other at all and Peter worried that Neal was running himself ragged with worry.
'Good, you?' came the rather dreary response from the usually upbeat ex CI.
'How's Sara?' inquired Peter, sensing that all was not well in the Caffrey household.
'I'm that transparent, huh?' asked Neal as he took a seat directly across from the federal agent.
Truth be told, he was glad Peter could see right through him; keeping his emotions in check was taking its toll on him. 'We saw Dr. Franklin yesterday. He highly recommends the chemotherapy treatments but Sara can't have those while she's still pregnant.'
'Does that mean she would have to have an abortion?' asked Peter looking into Neal's eyes. He knew full well how much a second baby meant to both Neal and Sara.
'Regrettably, that's exactly what it means. But Sara won't hear of it. She's got it in her head that this is a miracle baby because he's hung on through the surgery...'
'So, what happens now?' asked Peter.
Neal's eyes met Peter's. 'I don't know' he answered, sounding pensive. 'Right now, Sara's barely speaking to me...'
Peter could sense Neal's anguish. 'What happens if she doesn't have the treatments?'
Neal shrugged, his head tilted to one side. 'Not the best case scenario...but you should see her, Peter... she's in total pregnancy mode, she's determined to have this baby, no matter what.'
'Look, Neal. If you want to go home and be with Sara, I can handle this by myself – ' Peter began.
'No, no' Neal answered adamantly. 'I... I need a distraction and I can't think of a better place to put my energies than bringing down these creeps.'
'Alright' Peter said, changing the mood.
'I thought we'd poke around their offices; I got us a meeting with their CEO. We didn't get anything from their official records; I'm thinking there may be some 'unofficial' records floating around. So, what do you say? You up for a little snooping?'
'Let's do it' Neal said, in full work mode.
Peter handed Neal the case file, pointing to the list of drugs which were being held back. 'There's a third drug that's now being rationed: Crobaplatin – another cancer drug. They actually cancelled some scheduled treatments at Sloan-Kettering last week.'
Neal's ears perked up at the mention of the hospital he was getting to know better than he'd ever meant to. The name of the drug seemed familiar too – he glanced at the list before his eyes.
'Wait a minute, that's one of the drugs Sara's supposed to be taking' he commented. 'They've actually cancelled treatments?'
'Well, the hospital says it is only cancelling non life-threatening cases but if the drug doesn't become available soon, there are going to be sick people... and lawsuits, no doubt' Peter commented.
'So how much is Smirle selling this stuff for?' Neal asked with a frown.
'About ten times the usual price; they're making a killing. Most hospitals are still buying a fair amount of the drugs. They can't afford to have angry, sick people taking them to court. But the hospitals can only do that for so long before it becomes a budget issue.'
'So, what's the angle?' said Neal 'How can we prove what they're up to?'
'Well, Smirle claims that they can't get a hold of some of the raw materials they need to manufacture those drugs' Peter said as he handed Neal a list of drug components. 'Unless we can prove that's false or we can find a stash of these raw materials or the actual drugs on their premises, we can't prove a thing.'
'Alright, well I think it's time we do a little investigating' said Neal mysteriously, with that wicked smile he got whenever a scheme was beginning to form in his mind.
They headed out to the pharmaceutical company's head office with the intention of chatting with the CEO; if anything was happening, it was a stretch to imagine he wouldn't be involved – or at least know who was.
The offices were located on a large campus with several buildings including a warehouse, offices and labs and as soon as they arrived, Neal got to work looking for an in to the company's computer system.
The main building, which housed the offices, had a large lobby with a staff cafeteria off to one side. Peter and Neal headed in there to scope the place out, grabbing a cup of coffee and settling in at a small table near a group of uniformed men who sat, laughing, as one of the men entertained the group with the tale of his online date from hell.
Neal raised an eyebrow as he glanced at his partner and he stood, walking over to address the group. Peter knew that look all too well and he couldn't help but smile, wondering what Neal was up to this time. He sat back and watched, enjoying the show as Neal prepared to work his usual Caffrey magic.
'Excuse me' Neal said as he leaned in between two of the men. 'I have a meeting with Rosemary Johns. Would you guys happen to know where her office is?'
Peter frowned as he eavesdropped; where had Neal even picked up that name?
'Yeah' said one of the guys. 'She's up on the fifth floor; just ask at the reception desk up there.'
'Thanks so much' Neal answered as he lay a hand on the man's shoulder in a friendly gesture. 'You guys have a great day.'
Peter frowned as Neal signaled him to follow him out of the cafeteria, not quite sure what Neal had accomplished but knowing, without the shadow of a doubt, that the seemingly innocuous exchange had yielded some sort of useful information.
'What was that?' he asked as he followed Neal out.
Neal surreptitiously lifted his hand, a Smirle Pharmaceuticals IT identification badge in his hand.
'Now, all I need is a uniform and bam, I'm...' he looked down at the badge 'Jeffrey Hines.'
WCWCWC
Peter was escorted into the boardroom to meet with Jonathan Dwyer. He wanted to get a read on the CEO; after all, Peter Burke could spot a crook a mile away and his radar rarely malfunctioned.
Meanwhile, Neal was plotting to get a look at the company's computer files. Upon flashing his badge at the in-house dry cleaning facility in the sub-basement of the building, Neal had been handed a beige monstrosity of a uniform by an overly friendly guy by the name of Hector whose job it was to keep all those Smirle employees looking crisp and fresh in their company uniforms.
By the time Peter had disappeared into his meeting with the CEO, Neal was making his way into the executive suites and over to the desk of the man's lovely assistant - it was time to channel his inner Cary Grant and get to work. He did a double take, noticing his wedding band on his left hand; it wouldn't do him much good in light of what he needed to do and he made quick work of removing it and slipping it into his pocket for safe keeping.
'Hi... Megan' he said, a luminous smile on his face – thank God for name tags.
The woman looked up, her eyes sparkling at the sight of the gorgeous specimen of a man who stood before her – Neal Caffrey could even make a dull, lifeless beige uniform look good.
'I'm Jeff from IT' Neal lied, smile still firmly in place. He threw in a wink for good measure. 'We're updating one of your programs and I need to have a look at your computer.'
Neal had never lost the ability to turn on the charm with the ladies although, as a married man, he didn't make use of his god-given gift quite as often. Truth be told, it was like riding a bike...
The pretty young blond woman stood, willingly giving up her chair to the newcomer.
'Hi Jeff' she said, smiling demurely. 'I don't think we've ever met.'
'No, we haven't' said Neal, flashing his perfect teeth and maintaining that all important eye contact. 'I would definitely remember you if we had.'
She giggled nervously at his comment – how come she'd never seen this cute guy around? 'Well, maybe we could go for coffee when you're done' she said, flirting right back, matching him smile for smile.
'Tell you what' Neal crooned, with a smirk. 'I just took a break but if you go get us a couple of coffees, no one would know I'm taking a few extra minutes...' he said, letting her imagination do the rest.
Megan smiled knowingly and nodded as she took off on her quest for coffee and before he knew it, Neal was seated at her desk with free reign to all the company files. He looked around – the offices were quiet – and he took a moment to familiarize himself with the layout of the company's program files before plugging in the names of the raw materials that had supposedly been in short supply in the making of those cancer drugs. He glanced around furtively before pressing the 'print' button on the keyboard and in the wink of an eye, he was holding a list in his hands, proof that would hopefully lead to putting the higher ups at Smirle Pharmaceuticals behind bars.
By the time Megan returned carrying two fresh cups of coffee, Neal was long gone.
He sat in the car waiting for Peter, reading over the long list in his hands. It held the names of the drug components, the quantities on hand and their location in the company's warehouse. He looked up as Peter took his place behind the steering wheel.
'Got it' Neal said with a satisfied smirk.
TBC