Peter squeezed his eyes tightly shut, afraid to open them to the rays of sun streaming in through the bedroom window. The events of the previous evening had been like a nightmare from which he couldn't wake. Instead, he lay quietly and willed himself to go back to sleep. Next to him, he felt Elizabeth stir in her sleep, rolling over towards him. She was soft and warm, breathing slowly and evenly against his side. He put his arm around her protectively and sighed.
"Please don't go to work today," she whispered almost inaudibly.
"I have to, El," he breathed back. "Neal and I are so close to figuring this out." Neal, he thought. He doesn't know that I know.
"Are you going to tell him?" his wife asked, naturally in synch with his thoughts.
"I can't," he answered. "He'll be upset if he knew I heard it."
"Good luck fooling a con man," she said, rolling over to continue snoozing.
Peter checked his smart phone. There was a text from Diana at 6 am that read All clear. The agent smiled, relieved that Neal's night was uneventful. Soon he was ready, grabbing a leftover muffin and a thermos of coffee on his way out the door. When he arrived at June's, Neal was already sitting on the steps outside, enjoying the morning sunshine.
"Beautiful day, Peter," he commented, his grin nearly outshining the rays of the sun.
"Get in," the agent ordered, rolling his eyes. "We're waiting for Walters to make a call to Macmillan. Jones put a trace on both their phones."
"So when they wire the cash to Lyle, we can connect them to the transfer," the consultant guessed. "Good plan!"
"If we tie them to the money, we can get search warrants and question them," Peter continued. "This is our shot to turn them on one another and get the real truth out."
"Oh, goody, an arrest!" the con man joked.
"Neal?"
"Yes, Peter?" Neal answered.
"Don't mock me before I've had my coffee."
"Noted." The consultant watched as Peter took a long swig from the mug before they drove to the office. "So, where's mine?"
"Wherever you left it," the agent replied, not in the mood for any nonsense.
"Someone's grumpy," Neal griped. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," the older man responded, diverting his attention to the rear-view mirrors.
"Nothing's wrong, or you don't want to tell me what's wrong?" the con artist pressed.
"We are not doing this right now, okay?" Peter nearly snapped. "I need to crack this case."
"You mean, we need to crack this case," Neal pointed out.
"Yes, we do. Let's go," he said as they parked and went up to the elevators.
Hughes was waiting for the pair when they stepped off the elevator. "Jones flagged the bank transfers out of Walters' and Macmillan's accounts – they cleared first thing this morning," he announced. "He and Berrigan are bringing them in now." He smiled excitedly. "As soon as the deposits arrive in Lyle's account, we'll pick him up too."
"So this is it?" Neal asked.
"Good work, Burke, Caffrey," he nodded to each in turn, and returned to his office. Neal thought he could see the attorney general's face in the video chat window on Hughes' computer through the glass walls. No wonder he was in such a hurry.
"Is that-" Neal asked, motioning to the computer screen.
"Yeah," Peter confirmed with a shrug, pretending to be unimpressed.
"Do they talk a lot?" the consultant asked, slightly worried that he might be the subject of the discussion.
"Now and then," his handler replied. "It's not that unusual. Why?"
"Just wondering," the younger man replied, heading back to his desk. By all appearances, he had immersed himself in paperwork; in actuality, he was trying to figure out why Peter was acting strangely. Neal spied discreetly through the glass walls of the office where the agent sat in his desk chair, elbows propping his bowed head up on the desk while his fingers knotted in his hair. What's got Peter so stressed? he wondered.
When Neal looked up again, the glass office doors opened and Jones and Diana walked in with Cynthia Walters and Geoffrey Macmillan. The two partners were exchanging knowing glances and trying not to bicker openly with each other. The con man smiled to himself, knowing that those two agents would be able to extract the truth pretty quickly. He sure wouldn't want to be interrogated by either of them. It was memorable enough being interrogated by Peter Burke, as he recalled from his own arrest. Fortunately, he hadn't had a nightmare since the first time he took the sleeping pills three days ago, so there was no need to worry about Peter's face haunting him in his sleep.
Just then, Diana beckoned him with the double-finger point. She had a twisted smile on her face that made Neal suspicious, but he followed anyway.
"Wanna help me interrogate Walters?" she inquired.
"What, she's not your type?" the con man countered, barely dodging the agent's carefully aimed elbow.
"Do you, or do you not?" she replied firmly.
"I'd love to help," he answered, smiling widely.
"That right there is why I asked you," she replied, poking his cheek with a finger. They stepped into the room where Cynthia Walters was waiting.
"Miss Walters-" Diana began.
"May we call you Cynthia?" Neal cut in, turning up his charm from stun to kill.
Cynthia blinked. "He can," she answered sweetly. Clearly the con man had achieved the desired effect on her. Diana shot him an unamused expression.
"Tell us why you and your partner, mister Macmillan, made fifty thousand dollar deposits into your other partner, mister Lyle's account every Monday," the agent questioned, wasting no time in uncovering the truth.
"Geoffrey and I owed William some money," she lied coolly. "We were repaying him according to a schedule we arranged."
"We know about the Thaynic Project, Cynthia," Neal informed her in a sympathetic tone. "We know Lyle was extorting the both of you."
The businesswoman's voice faltered. "He said he would tell our clients and the shareholders if we didn't pay him!" she exclaimed desperately.
"Tell them what?" Diana asked.
"The brokerage was headed for bankruptcy," she replied, her answers becoming emotional. "William said if we didn't support the company, he would tell everyone why it was going under."
"Because you were sleeping with your married partner and your financial judgments were clouded?" the agent continued, hoping to push the woman over the edge into confessing.
"He was going to tell Lydia!" she wailed. "That meddling, old-money bitch! She doesn't love Geoffrey the way I do!" She sniffled and fumbled in her purse for a tissue. "Geoff was going to leave her for me, I know it."
"You really think he was going to leave his wife for you?" Neal asked. "Men say that all the time, and then go back home to their families. Especially now that he needs her money with the brokerage going under…"
"I'm sure Geoffrey is confessing right now so he can get a deal," Diana said.
"Confessing to what?" Cynthia cried. "We didn't do anything wrong! William is the one who extorted us!"
"But it was you who embezzled the money that was pulling your brokerage under," Neal pointed out. "Show her the evidence, Agent Berrigan."
Diana laid the Thaynic Project folder on the table. "Lyle was having you followed so he could see what you were doing with his company's assets. It's all in here," she said, pounding the file with her fist for intimidation. "Now would be the time to tell us what you know, if you want leniency with the judge."
"Alright!" she exclaimed tearfully. "I took the money! But Geoff gambled it all away! It's the mafia's money now!"
"He's still a co-conspirator to the embezzlement. We'll have to charge you both," Diana informed the weeping businesswoman as she and Neal left the room to compare stories with Jones.
"What was really in that folder?" the consultant asked.
"My dry cleaning receipts," the agent replied, "and Christie's phone bill."
Neal chuckled softly. "You get points for style," he commented. "That's the most dramatic prisoner's dilemma I've ever seen."
They looked up as Jones exited the room where Geoffrey Macmillan was waiting. "He gave her up on embezzling charges," he informed them.
"Well, she sold him out on conspiracy and illegal gambling," Diana replied.
Peter walked up with the case file in his hands, overhearing the charges. "I think we can close this one, people. Arrest Lyle for extortion, and get the other two booked before the press shows up," he instructed them. "It's gonna be a media circus out there." Diana and Jones headed out to the garage to pick up Lyle, leaving Peter and Neal standing there together.