2.
Neal slipped into the interrogation room, taking note of how the girl's spine instantly stiffened, her green eyes fixed on him with a look in them that made him think irrevocably of a hungry, pissed-off teenage lioness. He stepped forwards and flashed her a small smile full of just the perfect amount of openness and charm.
"Hey."
The girl studied him coolly, sitting as perfectly still and silent as a statue.
Neal cleared his throat and glanced at the open file in his hands. "Isabelle Bravo, right? Can I call you Izzy?"
The girl's voice sent chills down Neal's spine as effectively as a bucket of ice water. "No."
Ah. Neal subtly turned the charm up a notch and seated himself at the table across from her, laying the file out in front of him. "Just Isabelle, then." He laced his fingers together. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem a little young to be 26."
The girl arched an eyebrow at him, and the effect was immediate. Neal's smile faltered ever so slightly as the girl's age seemed to increase five years before his very eyes. "Do I?"
Neal broadened his grin. "Maybe just a little." He opened the file and pretended to study the facts that he had already memorized months earlier. "Let's take a look at your most recent accomplishments."
The girl leaned in a fraction of an inch, her eyes glittering like raw emeralds. "Yes. Let's."
Neal cleared his throat for the second time in the past five minutes. "Let's see...ah, yes, bonds forgery, very well done, I see...a heist of the Museum of Natural History, nicely executed, and you stole not one, but three pieces of Cleopatra's jewelry...ah yes, and then there's the forgery and theft of the Faera Bleu Ladie and the Painted Eyes pieces from the Met." He carefully closed the file and met Isabelle Bravo's cold, expressionless green eyes. "All extremely skillfully executed crimes-except you made one mistake."
Something flashed deep in the girl's eyes, something that Neal, with all of his people expertise and conman skill, couldn't quite identify. "Oh, really?" she purred. "What's that?"
Neal summoned a smirk to his lips. "You got caught."
A/N: Sooo, what do you guys think so far? Review please :)