Note: I hope you are all still enjoying, I promise that I'm actually going to get to the Gardner heist at some point in time! Just kinda got to iron out things with my 'team' here...Frost and Peter don't really seem ready to work together on a case yet. ;)

Chapter Seventeen

"Arvid was certainly helpful." Neal announced brightly as he sat down in one of the chairs in Peter's office. "Looks like I'm going to be solving my first official case as an Agent in record time."

"Don't count your convicts before you catch them." Peter warned.

"Clever." Neal smiled. "You come up with that yourself?"

"My mentor taught it to me."

"I'm not sure how I feel about having you as my 'mentor'."

"That's fine, I'm not sure how I feel about having you as a 'protégé'.

"Touché."

Settling deeper into the leather chair Neal looked tired but also seemed unwilling to call it a day. He also didn't look like he was going to get any more actual work done either. Neal seemed perfectly content to just relax in Peter's office they way he used to when he was waiting for Peter to finish paperwork. Neal didn't seem to realize yet that he had paperwork of his own to file. Even with Arvid's help setting up a sting operation to catch Davis wasn't going to happen on its own. Peter was about to tell Neal that he should go look into requisitioning the surveillance equipment they would need when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

"Hey, Chief, I…" Aubrey stopped both speaking and physically in his tracks when he caught sight of Neal. "Sorry, I'll come back later."

"No, stay." Neal offered as he got to his feet. "I need to go figure out how to get surveillance equipment, does the Art Crime department even have any of its own?"

"No, you have to beg it off another department, I suggest you try Violent Crimes or White Collar, don't bother asking Organized Crime." Aubrey said in a tone that suggested there was a story to be heard involving him and Organized Crime. "We're kind of the Black Sheep department. Art Crime tends to be more of an after the fact type work so we don't do surveillance or sting operations very often, but it would be nice if we had a basic kit of our own."

"I might know someone who can arrange that."

"Neal, no." Peter said firmly.

"It can't hurt to ask."

"Go talk to the other departments." Peter ordered.

"You're no fun." Neal huffed. "Good luck with him, Agent Aubry. Just a tip for the future: if you're ever bringing him bad news it's best to do right after lunch when he's still a little logy from eating."

"Uh…" Aubrey said uncomfortably.

"Neal." Peter growled.

"I'm leaving." Neal assured.

Peter narrowed his eyes at Neal as he leaned in and whispered something to Aubrey on his way out. Not speaking quietly enough Peter clearly heard Neal assuring Aubrey that he'd get the department some tech that would make Organized Crime green with envy. Furrowing his brow Aubrey looked at a loss as to what to do next or even why he'd come into Peter's office in the first place. Much more of a traditionalist Aubrey wasn't used to anyone being so casual around a direct superior let alone a Section Chief.

"Ignore him." Peter advised.

"That's hard to do."

"It gets easier with time." Peter assured.

"Was that blood on his cuff?"

"He's fine." Peter said dismissively. "How was Baltimore?"

"Very interesting." Aubrey said jumping on the chance to talk about work rather than Neal. "This was definitely a targeted hit for that one painting, there were far more valuable items on the first floor that they didn't touch or even look at."

"How do you know they didn't even look at them?"

"I brought my dog River with me."

"I didn't realize your dog was part of our K-9 unit."

"She's not officially FBI, but she's trained in search in rescue, I do volunteer searches with her for lost hikers. When I read that the suspect ran off into the woods I thought she might be able to find something and she did. She gave me the suspect's route through the house, which was from the dog door directly up the stairs to the painting. Then outside she lead me through the woods to this…"

Aubrey handed over the folder that he'd had tucked under his arm. Peter tried to hide his reaction to the first photo but he automatically tensed at the sight of a bloodied tactical knife laying half covered in the leaf litter with a small yellow flag next to it proclaiming its evidence number. The handle surface was rough, but there was a chance that a print could be pulled from the area on the blade where the user would have gripped it to open it. The blade was slightly bent as if it had been embedded in something and then had forced applied to it.

Peter had little doubt in his mind that the blood was Neal's, this was exactly the kind of weapon that would cause the clean arcing cut in his forearm. The question now was who had welded it and why didn't Neal remember any of it. Going through the rest of the photos showed all the signs of a violent struggle. The leaf litter was kicked up and the ground scuffed where at least two men had fought. One picture showed a tree with a small chunk taken out of it at chest height. The attacker must have tried to sink the knife into Neal's heart after slashing at him and when Neal proved too quick the blade ended up in the tree. Someone must have knocked the knife free afterward where it had gotten lost in the litter on the dark night.

"Hard to know exactly what happened, but a fight of some sort obviously occurred." Aubrey said as Peter looked at the last photo. "Could have been an argument between partners that got messy, or perhaps someone ambushing our original thief to get the painting without doing the heavy lifting. In any case there is very little blood at the scene suggesting that both parties walked away. River lead us to the road, but there were no usable tire marks."

Knowing Frost and Bryant Peter wasn't as confident as Aubrey that everyone involved walked out on their own accord. There were plenty of ways to kill a man without leaving large pools of blood behind. Or Frost could have simply decided to take whoever it had been prisoner, one who wouldn't have any hope of a trial. Peter could see Neal reacting poorly to either scenario, particularly if the attacker happened to be someone he knew from his past. When Peter thought about it he realized it was entirely possible that Neal had ended up injured trying to stop a fight to protect someone from Frost and Bryant rather having been the primary target of the attack in the first place. Neal had learned some basic fighting and self defense in the Academy but he would have been no match against Bryant or even Frost if he had decided to try and go up against them. Frost and Bryant were both ex-Special Forces and either one of them could have easily knocked Neal senseless or subdued him while the other drugged him to the point of amnesia. Maybe there had never been a third person, perhaps something had sparked an argument between Frost and Neal that had gotten out of hand, Bryant had already proven with Peter in the past how quick he was to draw a weapon when his partner was threatened for any reason. The knife hinted towards a larger number of scenarios out in the woods but none of them pointed towards Neal accidentally giving himself a concussion and now he had proof to confront Frost with.

With a cold flash of realization Peter ground his teeth in frustration when he realized that the bloody knife was actually a double edged sword. Testing the blood and finding out it belonged to Neal was proof that Frost had lied to them, but it was also evidence against Neal himself. Without Frost's help to tamper with the lab results Neal wasn't going to be an Agent or even a free man for much longer. Confronting Frost for the truth wasn't going to solve anything, he still held all the cards. Right now they were both going to have to work together on damage control to make sure that Aubrey didn't get any further than this in his investigation.

"Chief?" Aubrey asked when Peter's extended silence along with the fact that he was grinding his teeth made him uncomfortable.

"Sorry." Peter apologized. "Any fingerprints on the knife?"

"No such luck. I send the blood in, but Lab told me the turn around time is going to be about two weeks. There's a bit of a back up, and known homicides get top priority. I've been looking to see if anyone has sought medical care for a stab wound in the surrounding hospitals, but so far no luck."

"Right. Keep at it." Peter said as genuinely as he could. "This is good work, Agent Aubrey, thank you."

"Everything okay?"

"Everything is fine, just a more complicated case than I thought it would be."

"I know we like to get these high profile ones solved quickly to keep from getting the ax when budget cuts come around...I'll see if I can call in some favors and get a rush on that blood."

"Thank you."

"I will let you know as soon as I hear back. Hopefully whoever it belongs to is in the database already."

Peter just nodded and handed the case file back to Aubrey. As much as he would never admit it out loud he had been nearly as confident as Neal had been that Aubrey wouldn't find anything. Still not sure what to do with new evidence against Frost's lies Peter waited for Aubrey's footsteps retreat down the hall before pulling out his cell phone to call Frost. Even if he didn't try to pry the truth out of Frost he still needed him to know that the blood from the scene had been found. The phone rang six times without being answered or going to voice mail. Peter was just about to hang up when the line opened, instead of a customary greeting there was a sharp clatter and the distant sound of Frost swearing signifying that he had dropped the phone while trying to answer.

"Peter?" Frost asked in a perfect mixture of surprise and concerned. "What's going on?"

"We need to talk."

"Is it important? Never mind, of course it is, you'd never call me just to chat." Frost rambled. "However...uh, now isn't really the best time for a deep conversation. Tomor…"

"This can't wait."

"Alright," Frost sighed in defeat "what's on your mind, Agent?"

"No, we need to meet in person."

"In person?" Frost repeated warily. "Now?"

"Now." Peter confirmed.

"Uh…okay, um…" Frost hesitated sounding disoriented. "I suppose…"

"I know I don't have high enough clearance to even know where your office is, I can meet you outside the Lincoln Me…"

"I'm not in the office today," Frost interrupted "I'm home, Cross Square Apartments number 812. It's not far from the Federal Building, North end of Buzzard Point across from Fort McNair. Can you give me like…an hour?"

"I will be there in fifteen minutes."

"Okay. I…uh…I should be able to find pants by then." Frost commented, seemingly talking more to himself than to Peter.

"Frost?"

Peter didn't get a response as Frost disconnected the call. Peter couldn't decide if Frost hadn't known the call was still active during his last statement or if it had been a strategic move to keep Peter from rushing over. Frost had to know that this confrontation was going to be about Neal and Peter wouldn't put it past him to try and buy more time to help him come up with a new story by pretending to be in a compromised position of some description. At the same time Frost had sounded a bit off from the moment he answered the phone and there was no telling what he did with his down time. Unsure of what to make of the brief conversation Peter looked at his watch.

"Alright, twenty minutes…just in case."