Everything Old is new Again
By Ldynwaitin
Chapter Sixteen
Benedict Bartolino
Peter angrily banged his hand on the steering wheel as he tried to find a place to park. He had a better chance of getting hit by a meteorite than finding an empty space. Seeing one he raced to the opening. He saw another car was racing to the same spot. He knew he couldn't make it, until a bald-headed man suddenly jumped in front of the other car.
"Hey!" the man shouted, as he slammed his hand on the hood. "Hold on, that's my brother. He needs to take our mom to the heart doctor. She may have to change her pacemaker. She's ninety years old, man. I want to see her make Ninety-one! Have a heart, fella."
Waving at the small man, the man drove his car away. Peter pulled his car into the coveted spot. Getting out he said, "Thanks Mozzie."
"No problem, Suit. At the rate you were going, Neal would have been ninety years old by the time you found a parking spot. Come on, let's go. It's important that you see Benny now."
Peter followed Mozzie into the store. Immediately his nose was assaulted with the strong scent of paints, and freshly cut wood. Mozzie led him to the back of the store. Going through hanging glass beads, he was taken to a small office in the back. He saw an elderly man with greying beard stubble sitting behind an old wooden desk. The room was sparsely lit, he was surrounded by metal cabinets.
"Mozzie," the elderly man said. "Please close the door."
"This is the Suit, Benny," Mozzie said, as he closed the door.
Benny looked Peter up and down. "You're the guy that Neal says cut him the deal to get him out of prison?"
Peter was surprised to hear that Neal spoke about him to other people. "Yes, I'm Neal's handler, Agent Peter Burke."
Benny stuck out his hand and vigorously shook Peter's hand. "Hiya Peter, good to meet you. Please, sit down." He pointed to two chairs in front of his desk. Peter and Mozzie sat down.
"The names Benedict Bartolino, but you can call me Benny. Benedict makes me sound like a pope." Laughing, he said, "My mother thought the name would keep me honest and out of prison." He rapped his knuckles on his desk. "One outta two ain't bad. So, Neal has told me a lot about you. Say's you're a real stand-up guy."
Peter noticed how bright red Benny's face was growing. "Are you all right?" Peter asked him.
Benny looked in a mirror on his desk. "Shit, excuse me," he quickly said. Benny opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a banana. "Sorry, high blood pressure. Really worried on what may have happened to Neal. He's a good guy, you know. He does some jobs for me, and I give him pigments so he can paint. Don't worry handler, it was all legit."
He took a large bite out of the banana. He pointed what was left of the banana at his wall. "The museum of modern art has one, and so do I, thanks to Neal."
Peter saw Van Gogh's Starry Night hanging on the wall. "Mozz," Peter said, "Please tell me that isn't…"
Mozz scoffed, "That's not the real one, Suit."
"Because it's at the museum, right?" Peter said.
"Never said that, just that this one isn't the real one. You see…"
Peter stared ahead. "Mozzie, I don't want to know. I'm just here for some information about pigments."
Finished eating his banana, Benny threw the peel in a small trashcan. "Mozzie told me everything, he asked if I could help you find Neal."
Peter angrily glared at Mozz, "Everything, Mozzie?"
"Suit, if you want him to tell us everything, we need to do the same."
"No worries, Agent Peter Burke," Benny said. "I'm not going to tell you what I know because I'm such a fine upstanding citizen. See how far you get with that in this business." Benny pointed behind him. In the darkness of the room Peter saw another painting hanging on the wall, it was the Mona Lisa.
"In this room I have paintings from two of the best artists ever born. That one is a Neal Caffrey, the other is a Le Peintre."
Now Peter was getting excited. "He did business with you?"
Benny happily smiled. "I've been selling pigments for over forty years. I always pride myself on guaranteeing some of my clientele's whereabouts a secret. For a price. But let me tell you a story. About a year and a half ago I get a visit from an old friend, Le Peintre. He was not lookin' good, and I tell him that. He was always very honest with me, being an old friend of his. He told me he was dying. He said he wasn't afraid for himself, but he was afraid for Neal.
His children have always been greedy blood suckers. He said Neal was more like a son to him than his own blood. He asked me to do him one last favor. He knew once he was gone, his children would be lookin' for another way to make money. He said that he was afraid that they would use Neal to take his place. If that happened, he asked me to help Neal any way I could.
Once Mozzie told me that he was missing, I knew those sons of bitches, pardon my French, took him. And just like Peintre said, they're gonna force him to start up the paintings again. You know, he knew all about you, Agent Peter Burke. He always kept a close eye on Neal. He could see how much you cared about him as a friend, how you stuck up for him.
Peintre told me that if Neal went missing, and his kids purchased pigments to start the paintings again, that I was to tell you where they were being sent. Imagine my surprise that you came here before I had a chance to get in touch with you. Saved me a phone call. So here it is."
Benny handed Peter a printed-out paper. "The reason why I told Mozzie to get your Agent butt here fast was because I got an order for Lapis Lazuli Saturday. It's from someone using Le Peintre's old account. I'm betting it's one of his bastards. Pardon my French.
Sorry, but Peintre never gave me an address to his house, he took that with him to his grave. All I have is a post office box where the pigments were sent. P.O. box 1977 in Webster Groves, Missouri. It's a suburb of St. Louis."
"Mozzie," Peter said. "Thats gotta be it, when Neal was in WITSEC one of the cities he lived in was St. Louis."
"Déjà vu, Suit," Mozzie said.
"You have two choices on how to find Neal," Benny said.
"I have a choice?" Peter asked.
"That you do, Suit," Mozzie said.
"First," Benny said. "I figured since you're an agent of the FBI, you wait and find out who rents the box. But that might not work, they could have given a fake address. The second choice is to wait and see who picks up the pigments and follow them."
"But you have to choose fast, Suit," Mozzie said. "By the time Benny saw the order, his people had already sent it out. That's why I told you that you need to come here now." Mozzie showed Peter his cell phone.
"I can buy two plane tickets to St Louis. It will take us a little over two hours to fly there. The pigment is arriving tomorrow morning. It will give us enough time to be there before the pigment arrives. We can wait by that P.O. box to see who picks up the pigments. Then we can follow them to where they're keeping Neal. It's a good plan, Suit. Well, what are you going to do?"
Peter quickly realized that he had little time to decide. There was only one choice he could make. "Both, Mozzie. Order those tickets, we're going to St. Louis. I'll phone the office at the airport and tell them to get any information they can on the P.O. Box."
"Good luck," Benny said. "Tell Neal when you bring him back that I'll give him some of that Lapis Lazuli that he's been pining for, for so long. But only four grams!" Benny said with a wag of his finger. "That stuff ain't cheap." Once Peter and Mozzie left his office Benny spun around in his chair and looked up at the Mona Lisa. "He's in good hands, Peintre. They'll get your boy back home."
Mozzie was already calling the airline to purchase tickets to St. Louis as they quickly made their way back to Peter's car. That was when it hit Peter that he was going on another trip to save Neal. Once he arrived at the airport, he would call the office and fill Jones and Diana in on everything Benny said. He knew that Benny was probably right, that the address on the box would be a fake. But he still had to let them try. Then he would let his wonderfully patient, understanding wife know that he wasn't coming home tonight.
His biggest fear was after Sullivan ran, if he went to wherever they took Neal. If Sullivan was there, he didn't know if he would be coming home with Neal by his side, or in a body bag.
Neal nervously paced in his room as he listened to his alarm clock singing in the oak tree, it was the only happy constant since he was brought here. It was Tuesday morning, still another day without a sign of Peter. He stopped walking when Albert entered his room. His smile was so wide it threatened to leave his face. "Good news," Albert said.
"You won the lottery and you're letting me go?" Neal asked.
Albert rolled his eyes, "I wish. No, the blue pigment is arriving today. I'm going to pick it up later. You can start on the painting while I get the pigment. Are you up for it?"
Neal's blue breadcrumbs were now laid out, he just hoped that Peter followed them. "I feel fine, I can start sketching her today."
"Excellent," Albert said. "I, uh, just wanted to caution you. With money now coming in, Lilith was on one of her binges last night with Sullivan. He tried to out drink her."
"I can guess how that turned out." Neal had seen her drink a whole fifth without flinching.
"Yes, you'll be happy to hear that he'll be out for most of the day. When she wakes up, just try to stay out of her way."
Neal innocently smiled. "I can do that in my room in New York."
"Funny," Albert drawled. "I'm picking up the pigment at ten. This is so exciting," Albert said. "We are back in business."
As he closed the door, Neal softly said, "Peter, you'd better be there. Otherwise, I'm going to have to do something that I'm really going to regret. Try to be friends with Lilith."
Peter itched his chest as he waited with Mozzie outside the local post office. They left so quickly that he didn't have time to pack, he had to buy new clothes and a jacket. Standing around in a suit and tie would be very conspicuous.
Last night Diana called him at the motel, she was able to get an address for the Post Office box. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an empty lot in St. Louis. The post box Benny gave them was located in Webster Groves Missouri, population 22,000. Peter was sitting on a park bench next to a wooden bridge. It overlooked the post office.
Mozzie stared at the post office. He nudged Peter in the ribs, "What time is it?"
"You have a watch," Peter snapped back. He was grouchy. The local motel only had three rooms available, two with a single King and one with two beds. He soon regretted not getting two rooms. Mozzie kept him up most of the night talking about everything from Alien invasions, Elvis living in California to the grassy knoll in Dallas. He ended up covering his ears with his pillows. Even that didn't stop Mozzie from talking.
"I have a watch," Mozzie said. "But I don't want to take my eyes off of the post office."
Peter took a quick glance at the watch, "It's almost ten."
"Good, that's about the time Benny said the package was scheduled to be picked up." Mozzie stood up. Stretching his arms in the air, he took in a deep breath. "What a beautiful morning, I could get used to living here."
"If you did, you wouldn't last long," Peter said. "Not that many people here to con."
"A con can be long distance, Suit."
Peter stood up. "Let's go, whoever is picking the package up should be here soon."
Peter took in a deep breath, he prayed that this lead would pan out. If not, he had run out of ideas. Then Neal would truly become like Peintre, he'd be a ghost.
