The Cop and The Con

Part 23: Remember the Time…

AN: This story is inspired by the pilot episode. I was re-watching White Collar from the beginning and came up with my little idea here. I hope you like it. Also, I have used much from the show, as you will see. I have made up the stuff that fills in the gaps. Enjoy! JL

Tony smiled over his rim of his wine glass. "You never really told me."

Neal looked at him and smiled back. "What?"

"How you…got out of prison…escaped."

"Trade secrets." The con man grinned, sipping his wine.

The federal agent mind kicked in. "Let's see…statutes of limitation on the things I can just imagine you've done have expired. The rest will be covered under…Big Brother Immunity."

"Big Brother Immunity?"

"I, acting as your surrogate big brother, will not tell your handler about crimes that could possibly still be prosecutable."

"I would appreciate that." Neal said, slightly sarcastically.

"You never gave me the details. I would love to know."

"Well…" Neal started. "I was on work detail in one of the administrative offices. Some mindless busy work, paper work they had a few of us white collar guys doing. I managed to sneak into the assistant superintendent's office and take his credit card. I then copied the number down and used it to buy a guard uniform online. I had it delivered to the laundry. A friend there took it and put it in a plastic bag and hid it in one of the toilet tanks in one of the men's bathrooms near that area. All it cost me was a carton of cigarettes."

Tony's detective mind was working, checking off limitations and marveling at his sneakiness. Could Neal and Gibbs be related, united by the sneakiness gene? The agent shook his head.

"It was easy for me to sneak off from my work detail. I was working in the laundry that day. I just went into the bathroom, found the correct tank and retrieved the uniform. I had to get rid of my beard first, though. That took some time."

Tony started to speak.

Neal shook his head. "I grew it purely as a diversion, and I hated every minute of it. It itched like crazy. But I knew, at a glance, no one would recognize me. They would be looking for the beard and mustache. So…" The conman grinned. "…I trimmed my beard, put on the uniform, and walked out the front door."

Tony stared for a second. "No way."

Neal laughed. "It really was that easy. Like I said, they weren't expecting me to look that way."

"Okay, you're out the doors…now what?" Tony took another sip of his wine.

"I hotwired a maintenance van and drove away."

The fed smiled. "…adding insult to injury."

"Exactly, I ditched the van as soon as I got to the airport. It was a huge parking lot for the feds to search and it provided another dodge. I wanted everybody to think I was leaving the country. I doubled back and bought a yellow jacket, just like the Valets wear at the airport. I went back and 'borrowed' a Bentley from a guy who gave me a hundred dollar tip, besides. I drove it…." Neal leaned forward in his chair. "…I drove it to Kate's…apartment."

"Where Peter found you, right?"

Neal nodded.

"But Peter you said…he never followed that trail."

The conman shook his head. "No, Peter didn't. And that wasn't for him. That was to throw everybody else off. I knew Peter would find me. He had figured me out. So when I went to Kate's and found her gone, I just…she had left me a wine bottle as a clue. I was just sitting on the floor, looking at the bottle when he came in."

"That's when the criminal consultant thing started, right?" Tony asked.

"No, actually that was a few weeks later. I had to prove to Peter that I could be of value to him." Neal stated. "And, as it turned out, he had been involved in an operation that had gone wrong when he got the news that I had escaped. He had blown a safe and had blown up his evidence in the process. At any rate, he still had a fiber stuck to his lapel. I picked it off and asked him how much it would be worth if I told him what it was, he didn't have a clue."

"What was it?"

"…a security fiber from an uncirculated Canadian $100 bill." Neal replied.

"You mean the money had not…."

"Exactly."

"Excellent intel." The fed replied.

"Absolutely…" The con replied. "…and when Peter verified what I had told him…."

"…you got your meet."

Neal nodded, again. "I got my meet."

"Okay, so you're a part of the FBI then. What about El? How did you meet her?" Tony had managed to drain his glass. He got up and poured himself more wine.

"It wasn't that easy, Tony. And El didn't come until later." Neal admitted. "Peter still didn't want to do it. I had to show him case precedent. I even showed him the most recent model of my anklet." He sighed. "When Peter left…I just, I didn't know what he was thinking. I wasn't sure he would go for it. But it happened, then two days later…."

"Okay, two days later then…. Now, what about El?"

Neal began to grin broadly.

"Oh no, what did you do?" Tony asked, worried.

"I stepped out of my radius and alerted the Marshalls."

"You didn't."

The conman took another sip from his glass. "This is where El comes in."

"You'd only been on your leash what, a couple days?" Tony sat his glass down. He was finished, for now.

"…yeah, just a couple." Neal replied. "I felt like I knew Peter pretty well. And I thought I had an idea of the type of woman he would marry."

"But you weren't expecting El." Tony finished his sentence. "I've got to admit. She's not who I expected for him either, not at all what I expected."

"She's just…I wanted to meet her. And, of course, I wanted to see if Peter talked to her about his work. I just…I felt like he would. And I wanted to see what she knew about Kate." The con paused. "Then I told her about my theory for our current case."

"Where was Peter while you were doing all this?"

Neal finished his wine and put his glass down on the table. "He was upstairs. He was getting dressed for work. Jones called him and told him I was out of my radius." He laughed. "Peter came rushing down the stairs. He had his phone in his hand as he tried to put his shirt on. He was telling El that he had to leave because I was missing. He stopped cold when he saw me sitting on his couch in the living room. He told me to get out and that he was going to send me back to prison, right then."

Tony chuckled. "Unbelievable, why did you do it? Why did you risk it?"

"I was anxious to meet El. I wanted to see Peter's house, and I figured that my going outside my radius would be forgiven when I told him I had solved his case for him."

Tony just looked at Neal for a second. "You saved his case for him, really?"

Neal nodded.

"I'm proud of ya, Kid."

THE END

More of the Adventures of Tony and Neal to Come!