Note: There is some truth to the story that Neal tells about the Rembrandt. In 1997 Boston reporter, Tom Mashberg, followed a lead from a black market antique dealer to a Brooklyn warehouse where he swears he was shown Storm on the Sea of Galilee briefly but was unable to inspect it closely, however he still wrote a front page article about it thinking that the man who had shown him the art was going to enter into negotiations with the FBI on the return of the art work for the reward money. Sadly no such negations took place. One odd fact that sticks in the reporters mind: he didn't notice a signature on the painting where he thought it should be, but he still believes that he saw the true lost art. The FBI continues to discount his story, even though this same reporter was sent some paint chips that same year by someone claiming to control the art that experts have connected to the same 'red lake' color that Vermeer used (also stolen was Vermeer 'The Concert' that had 'red lake') that also held crackling patterns similar to other Vermeer.

Chapter Twenty-three

"I have missed you."

"How long did this take you?" Frost asked.

"Six months, and three tries." Neal smiled at the memory as he stared at his forgery of the stolen Rembrandt. "The use of light and shadow in this work is breathtaking. Rembrandt was a true Master."

"So are you."

"It's not the same." Neal shook his head. "Just because you can play an instrument doesn't mean you can compose a symphony."

"You're far too modest, Neal."

"Could you tell Peter that?" Neal chuckled.

Frost laughed as well before turning his attention back to the painting, studying it as though it was hanging in a museum instead of stretched out on a table in the CIA evidence examination room. Neal watched him with an amused expression to see if Frost would notice the obvious glaring fault in the forgery. Frost looked up from the panting at Neal with a warm smile.

"It really is impressive, Neal."

"Thank you."

"But I gotta ask…why did you suck so hard at the signature?"

"So you do know art." Neal chuckled.

"Not at all but when I brought this to our art forensic boys back when I thought Bryant and I had found the real thing they instantly shot us down because of the signature. They said the forgery was basically perfect, which is what lead us to looking at you as the artist, but they couldn't understand what went wrong with the signature, it's painfully fake. So what gives, Neal? You're better than this."

"I didn't actually do the signature." Neal explained.

"I can't tell you how relieved I am to hear that."

"You have another bet with Bryant about it?"

"Maybe." Frost smiled. "We came up with a few wild stories as to why you'd go to so much trouble and then leave out such an important detail. My best guess was that it was an intentional move to test someone before pulling a bigger con on them."

"You're close."

"So what happened? I have to know."

"I did this painting for a very particular con, I was actually trying to draw out someone who I thought had the real thing."

"You were working the Gardner case?" Frost asked surprised.

"In my own way. I painted this and let it leak to a Boston reporter that one of the Gardner works had been found so that he'd run a story on it. I had a third party bring him into a dark cluttered warehouse to take a quick look at it to whet his appetite."

"A third party?" Frost questioned. "That wouldn't happen to have been Mozzie?"

"I never reveal my sources." Neal smiled sadly remembering his friend who still wasn't returning his calls, he hadn't actually met Mozzie yet at the time he'd pulled this stunt but he'd told him all about it in later years. He had his doubts that Mozzie was ever going to forgive him for becoming a Fed, but he still held out hope.

"Neal?"

"Right." Neal shook his head to clear his thoughts. "To add credibility to the idea that the painting had surfaced after the story ran I pretended to panic and started offering it around for cheap. The hope was that the guy that I was trying to smoke out would either run to where he'd hid the original to make sure I hadn't stolen it or contact me directly to check out what I had."

"I take it he didn't do either?"

"Nope." Neal shrugged. "My guess is that he didn't have the original so all the buzz I put out there around my copy didn't stir his interest. Once it didn't work I sold this for a decent sum as a reproduction, someone must have added the signature later to try to pass it off as the real thing."

"Why not sign it yourself and get a small fortune rather than a 'decent sum'?"

"I…uh…I didn't want anyone mistaking this for the real thing." Neal admitted.

"What now?" Frost asked in a teasing tone.

"The lost Sea of Galilee is more than a work of art, it is a true piece of history that deserves respect. I've wanted to find it ever since it was stolen."

"You were thirteen when the heist occurred." Frost pointed out.

"I started my career early. I was only twenty when I painted this."

"Damn, when I was twenty I was still a year away from being forced into the military by my parents in hopes that the Army would quote 'beat some decency into me', my father said he wanted them to make a man out of me, but mostly I think he just wanted me off their couch."

"They must be proud of you now, assuming that they know what you do."

"They were." Frost said sadly. "They were both killed in a car accident during my second deployment…it's how I got involved in para-military with the CIA after I was too wounded to remain on active duty with the Rangers. The CIA black ops like men without families."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I have a new family now." Frost smiled and pushed playfully at Neal's shoulder. "What would you have done if you'd recovered the original Rembrandt?"

"I would have hung it on my wall, opened a bottle of some ridiculously expensive wine and spent a few days admiring it before returning it to the Gardner." Neal said allowing the change in subject.

"For the 5 million dollar reward of course."

"I was aware of the reward money."

"I'm sure you were." Frost laughed. "You would have had to go through the FBI to get it."

"I wasn't on their radar yet, in any case I had a plan to deal with the FBI if the time came. They were very keen to get the art back and very willing to ask no questions if any of it turned up."

"They still are, this case has been an unsightly blot on their record for a long time. I bet secretly Peter is hoping you don't solve this one. He would never hear the end of it."

"He will not." Neal said confidently.

"I'm still surprised that your plan all along was to return the art. I'm sure you could have made a hell of a lot more than five million selling the work yourself. If you'd found it all you would have been sitting on half a billion in art. You would have really let that go for a measly five million?"

"Money has never really been that important to me. It's all about the challenge. I've never wanted 'one last score'."

"Clearly not or you'd be in the wind by now."

Neal just nodded solemnly before turning his attention back to the painting with a slightly unfocused gaze as he thought back to the past. He really had been excited at the prospect of recovering the Rembrandt all those years ago. Neal had often wondered what turn his life would have taken if he had succeeded. To solve the crime of the century at such a young age might have landed him a legitimate consultant job with the FBI, but when he really thought about it he doubted he would have taken it. At twenty and on his own with a great deal of anger at a father that he thought was long since dead Neal wasn't in any kind of mindset to join any side other than his own. Lost in thought Neal didn't realize how uncomfortable the silence had become until Frost broke it.

"You know you're going to have to redo that signature, right?"

"It's not that bad."

"It's embarrassing."

"It really is." Neal smiled. "It will take me a few days to correct it and let it dry, however, I'm wondering if I should."

"The Ivory List people don't mess around, they are going to spot it right away."

"I think I want them to."

"Why?"

"All I have to do is gift them a valuable black market item to prove to them that I'm the unsavory type, right?"

"Basically."

"This is still a highly illegal forgery, it would make more sense that I know I have a fake and that I'm looking for the real deal than the idea that I'm wanting to trade in a real Rembrandt painting for some Degas drawings. Plus what if they already have or know where the original is?"

"Hmmm…" Frost said thoughtfully. "You know neither plan is perfectly solid as far as I'm concerned. You're the con artist expert, so I'll leave the call up to you."

"Honest is the best policy, even when dealing with criminals." Neal said.

"Maybe you could just fix the signature a little? Still pass it as a forgery, but at least a better one."

"Deal." Neal nodded.

"The meet isn't for another five days so you've got some time." Frost said. "I still can't believe the Ivory List is based in New York."

"Yeah, Peter is still pissed about that."

"That's a pretty big deal to be operating in his back yard without the White Collar division picking up on it."

"I didn't even have any idea. I assumed it was run out of Europe."

"They probably have a branch there too." Frost noted. "We have time to run down all the details later, but the basic plan is that Peter and I are going to be set up in one of the CIA vans near by to act as back up and surveillance. Is there anything I should know about working with him?"

"Don't let him chose the food."

"Got it." Frost chuckled before he settled into a more serious expression. "So, Bryant…"

"They way you say that makes me nervous."

"Nothing to be nervous about, Bryant is one of the best. However, working with Bryant isn't going to be anything like working with Peter."

"I trust Bryant if that's what you're worried about."

"It's not that. It's the fact that you have a new role now." Frost explained. "You're lead, you're in charge. Bryant will take action if there is an obvious and immediate threat that you don't notice but other than that he's there to follow your orders."

"Posing as my bodyguard I just really need him to act as a deterrent to violence."

"Exactly, just think of him as a weapon." Frost agreed. "And like any weapon you have to be prepared to use it. Bryant and I have a whole set of codes we use together to communicate but if you spot serious trouble before he does you only need to know one: 'Foxtrot Uniform'."

"Foxtrot Unicorn?"

"Uniform." Frost corrected. "Although honestly by the time you're half way through saying 'Foxtrot' Bryant is already going to be in full swing."

"Full swing? Doing what?"

"Killing everyone in the room."