White Collar: Knock on Wood

Chapter Nineteen: Against the Weight of a Feather

"How was your shower?"

"Extremely cold."

"I bet." Josephine chuckled. "I noticed you locked the door."

"And I noticed that you tested it."

"Just curious." Josephine chuckled.

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"Ah yes, but satisfaction brought it back."

Neal stepped back as Josephine reached out to tousle his damp hair. She had very quickly gone from being near hysteria over her lost possessions back to being almost predatory. Neal had called Peter the instant she had agreed to show him the Egyptian chest before her wild mood swings changed her mind. She looked calm, but once again her fingers danced across an imaginary keyboard.

"Josephine, are you alright?" Neal asked concerned.

"I have a court date for fraud charges, I've lost millions of dollars worth of precious collections, I'm homeless, and a killer may want me dead...why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Everything is going to work out."

"Just catch the man who set fire to my world."

"We will." Neal promised as he heard a knock at the door. "That will be Peter."

Neal hurried over to the door to let Peter in. He was relieved that he had arrived so quickly. He was worried that if Josephine got bored that she'd start to become overly friendly again. Mozzie had warned him once: 'never sleep with a crazy woman, no matter how beautiful she is'. Neal had never really understood the advice until now.

Neal opened the door for Peter who looked like he'd never changed out of the suit he'd been wearing earlier. In fact Peter had gone back to the office after meeting with Harker, and poured over his records looking for an anomaly. Peter looked at Neal's wet hair and the fact that he clearly had changed clothes and raised a disapproving eye brow.

"It's not what you think." Neal said.

"I don't even care. Where is this box?"

"Josephine won't tell me where it is, she insists on coming with us."

"Fine." Peter said quickly. "Let's go."

"You okay, Peter?"

"Harker really pissed me off and I want to nail him. My gut tells me he's our guy, but his finical records are spotless, so this crate thing is our only shot. Plus my leg hurts like hell, which is not improving my mood."

"Fair enough. Let's go."

Neal turned and offered his hand to Josephine since she had been keeping back. She hesitated, but eventually stepped forward and took his hand. Peter's car was parked out front. He was still having difficulty starting the car with his injured hand but he refused to allow Neal to drive. Josephine took shotgun and guided Peter back down towards the warehouse district. They came to a large storage facility and Josephine leaned over Peter's lap to tap her code into the gate. Neal chuckled at the way Peter stayed completely frozen while she invaded his personal space.

They drove down the rows of locked storage units until Josephine pointed one out. Getting out of the car they stepped up to the rolling metal garage type door. Josephine turned to Neal and smiled apologetically.

"I don't have the key, can you..." Josephine left the rest of the question unasked.

"He can." Peter grumbled.

Neal didn't like admitting that he always had his lock pick set on him, but it was obvious that Peter already knew. Slipping the small leather case out of an inner pocket of his jacket Neal knelt down next to the simple pad lock. In about the same time as it would have taken to use a key Neal had the lock open.

Opening the storage unit revealed a large gilded box raised up off the floor by a pair of two by fours. The box was in the middle of a small clearing in the unit, the rest of which was packed from floor to ceiling with various items. It was like a smaller version of Josephine's warehouse. Neal looked over at Josephine and saw that her fingers were moving again. She was nervous about having her pathological hoarding disorder exposed.

"It's okay, Josephine." Neal said gently. "I know you can't help yourself."

Josephine crossed her arms over her stomach and stared down at the ground. Neal wanted to help her, but he wasn't sure how.

Peter walked up to the ornate crate and looked down on it with his left hand on his hip and his right held awkwardly to the side. Neal joined him, slipping his hands into his pockets. There was nothing about it that immediately caught Peter or Neal's attention. It was about five feet long and two feet wide and high. The artwork was spectacular, however it had the feel of having been mass produced. Peter ran his uninjured hand over the hieroglyphs carved into the top.

"What does it say?" Peter asked.

"Nothing." Neal shrugged. "It's just gibberish, random hieroglyphs."

"I told you it's reproduction." Josephine said. "It's nothing special."

"It must be or Harker wouldn't want it so badly."

"He may not even want it," Neal pointed out "he may just want it destroyed. He probably tried looking through Josephine's warehouse for it and when he couldn't find it he decided to kill two birds with one stone and set the fire trap."

"That still doesn't explain why it is worth so much trouble."

Neal circled the wooden crate a few times. It was made of multiple boards rather than a solid piece, however, it had no obvious way of opening it. It looked like it was designed to be under a piece of glass as a coffee table. Trying to lift it at one end he found it surprisingly heavy. Neal reached out and knocked on the wood to see if it was hollow, it sounded solid.

"Do that again." Peter said in a tone that suggested he'd noticed something.

Without asking why Neal reached out and knocked on the crate again. Peter knelt down and dabbed at some of the white powder that had rattled free from one of the cracks in the wood. He carefully brought it up to his face and sniffed at it. Unable to identify it he risked touching it to the tip of his tongue. Jerking his hand away he violently spit a few times.

"Drugs?" Neal asked.

"No." Peter sighed. "It's Quicklime."

"That's not good."

"Wha...what does that mean?" Josephine asked nervously.

"It means there is probably a body hidden inside."

Josephine gasped sharply as her eye widened in horror. While Peter called for a forensics team she paced back and forth a few steps in front of the once prized possession. Neal stepped up to her and put his hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her. Stopping her pacing Josephine smiled sadly and put her hand over his. She braved stepping closer and gently ran her fingertips along the edge of the wooden box. Josephine bowed her head and began a soft chant of some sort. When she was done she rested her hand lovingly on the box and sighed heavily.

"Josephine?"

"It always did feel like it had a soul..."