Neal was waiting outside when his cell phone rang. He frowned. It was Diana.
"Hey, Diana. Everything okay?"
"Mozzie pulled a Ferris Bueller."
"He's out?" Neal took a deep breath. "How?"
"With the things you brought him." She sounded angry and tired and it was a mix Neal was not sure what to read into what she was saying.
"Are you blaming me?"
"No. No, Neal, you put him in the hands of the FBI. I think he pulled this stunt on his own. But that's not the worst of it. He'll contact de Luca and asks us to get there. When are you ready to leave?"
Neal glanced over his shoulder into the building. He could not risk their plan and run in and yank Peter out of there.
"Within a few minutes if all goes well."
"I get things moving in the meantime."
She hung up.
So Mozzie got out. He had to ask him how someday.
Peter strolled passed Leo.
"Now might be a good time to slip out," he said. "Tell de Luca I'm ready."
"Nice work. He'll be expecting you." The guy left. They both knew that O'Leary's all-in bet would not be a winner this time. From Leo's point of view, it was no turning back. Peter had another view of the scene to come that he had no wish for de Luca to take part in.
O'Leary stared at the ongoing race where his horse did advance, but not nearly as much as needed.
"It's Amazon Eddie for the win!" the announcer called out over the speaker.
"No!" O'Leary yelled. "I was set up. This whole damn thing was a setup." His eyes turned to Peter. "You did this."
"What?"
O'Leary marched up to him, but Jones joined Peter and stopped him.
"Hey, is there a problem?"
"There's a problem," O'Leary said. "He had his guy lure me here to get my money with a delay."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You're damn straight you do. You know who I am, and you know what I'm capable of, okay? So you tell your associate—"
"My associate is a con artist," Peter told him, "which is why I fired him. So, listen, I don't want to cause another scene here. So how about I just give you the money that you came in with, you walk out of here, and we'll call it even?"
A fair deal and O'Leary did not have to know more of the story than that. Peter could see him process to find any way he could be fooled by this.
"I'm sorry for my former associate," Peter said. "I don't know what game he played with you, but I can assure you that you can walk out of that door with all the money you came in with, and no harm is done."
"Was it you or him who called the feds?"
"The feds? When?"
"My usual place was shut down by the feds. An anonymous tip."
"I'm running an illegal betting lounge. That's as close to the fire as I want to play." O'Leary did not seem entirely convinced, but Peter hoped that would change. "Jones, would you be so kind as to arrange for this gentleman's money?"
"Yes, sir." Jones made a gesture to O'Leary. "Follow me to the register, please."
O'Leary watched as a hawk as the money was counted and bundled. He put each in turn back in his briefcase. When it was full, Jones escorted him out the back door, so he would not run into Neal.
Peter got down to the kid waiting on the other side of the building.
"Hey. You get O'Leary calmed down?"
"He went for it," Peter smiled. "Jones is escorting him and his money out back."
"That's one problem down." The kid did not seem happy or relaxed at all.
"We have another problem?" Peter asked.
"Yeah. Mozzie is meeting with de Luca. He got out."
Peter looked around for his car and jogged towards it.
"You know where?" he asked.
"Yeah. The market slip under Brooklyn Bridge and FDR Drive."
"S.W.A.T.'s still five minutes away," Jones said as their car came to a stop under the bridge.
"I want a perimeter around the bridge," Peter said. "What the hell was Mozzie thinking?"
"No clue." Neal glanced around looking for Mozzie. He heard a voice sounding familiar and took a few cautious steps in its direction.
"I'm the man your father spent thirty years looking for. I'm the real Dentist of Detroit."
There was Mozzie, with a briefcase, in a bright red jumpsuit. And there was de Luca, back to Neal.
"All right, so the guy from the meeting a couple of days— "
"Works for me. I'm the man who scammed your father. No myth. The legend of Detroit. "Guys, guys," Neal called Peter's and Jones' attention. They jogged closer, guns drawn.
"It ends here, today, on this street," Mozzie said.
"Seriously, who the hell are you?"
"1981, Brush Park. You knocked my bubble-gum ice cream cone onto the ground."
"Really? That was you? You made a fool of my father?"
"And your father had a thing for blood feuds, and he ended up six feet under because of it. Yet here you are, doing the exact same thing. I thought you wanted to be your own man, Junior."
"Can't make out a weapon on de Luca," Jones said. "Should we move in?"
"We've got nothing on him unless de Luca picks up that briefcase," Peter hissed.
"That O'Leary's cash?" de Luca asked, pointing at the briefcase in Mozzie's hand.
"Yeah. But we both know this isn't about the money. This is about taking me down, only it didn't work."
"Well, I can take care of that right now."
"Yeah, you could," Mozzie returned, calmer than ever. Neal stared at the scene.
"Come on, Moz. Give it to him," he mumbled.
"And then my people could go after you," Mozzie went on, "and your people could come after mine. You see where this is going?"
"What the hell is Mozzie doing?" Jones asked.
"Fighting his own war," Neal said.
"We can end this," Mozzie said to de Luca. "You could just walk away, and the suits can't touch you."
"What do you mean, the suits? You talking about the feds?"
"Yeah. Only you know them as my lip man and his boss."
"You set me up?" de Luca hissed. He had seemed calm before, but now he worked himself up quickly. "You set me up, you freakin' weasel?!"
"Aw, someone got double-crossed in this? We should all be shocked. That's what happens.
I'm gonna turn and walk away. You can be smart and do the same thing, or you can make the same mistake your father did." Mozzie placed the briefcase on the ground. "Your decision."
And then he just walked away. Neal had never been more impressed by his odd friend.
