Peter made his way to a 24-hour diner on the Upper East Side. He glanced both ways before walking in, quickly finding Jones and Diana in position for back up. A part of him wished Neal was here, the way he would usually be; but their relationship was in shambles, and he couldn't afford to have any show of dissonance in his team, so the con remained in the van while the special agent walked into the known business place of the Russian mob.
He quickly located Stefan Gavrikov, an older man with salt-and-pepper hair seated alone in a corner booth, staring at his vodka. He was rumored as a higher up in the organization; a lieutenant and courier that the Bureau could never seem to hold onto. Peter slid in and looked at the other man expectantly.
"Mr. Gavrikov, I'm Special Agent Peter Burke. You asked for me?"
The man looked up, glancing around before asking, "And your agents?"
"Special Agent Jones and Barrigan. They're part of my team." Peter paused, trying to be patient, but he was never good with mob guys, and this was not going to be the morning that changed. "You said you had information in regards to a sensitive case."
The man met Peter's gaze and the FBI agent was surprised to recognize the expression they held: desperation, fear; all of the things he was attempting to suppress in his own as he thought about his wife.
"Before I speak to you, Agent Burke, I must ask two important questions," he continued, lowering his voice. "Do you have a wife named Elizabeth, and do you know a man named Matthew Keller?"
Peter's eyes flashed in response, and the older man continued. "Six months ago, my daughter contacted me for the first time." He pulled out a wallet-sized picture of a blonde girl with bright green eyes in her mid-twenties, holding a diploma and smiling next to an older woman. "Her mother had died recently, and she wished to meet, get to know each other."
Gavrikov sighed and pulled out a folder. "Last week she disappeared, and I found this in my mailbox." He opened it to a photograph of the blonde, now bruised and bloody, tied to a chair with a copy of a newspaper propped onto her lap. "I received a call from Mr. Keller, instructing me to follow his instructions precisely if I wished to see my daughter again."
"And what were his instructions?" Peter asked, leaning forward.
"Firstly, that I not go looking for him or my daughter. He insisted if he sees any of my associates or myself, he will kill her." The criminal pushed the file across the table to the agent, looking at him meaningfully. "I will not put her safety at risk."
Peter took the folder, nodding in understanding. As he moved to stand, he turned back. "How did you know about my wife?"
"My daughter is quite clever," Gavrikov's mouth twitched in pride at the statement. "She managed to convey her desire that I find you personally."
Back in the conference room, the team poured over the new file in front of them.
"Brooke Werner, aka Bookworm; PhD in English Literature and daughter of Russian mobster Stefan Gavrikov," Peter stated, looking at the screen image of the recently kidnapped girl. "Mother moved out west when she became pregnant, recently died of breast cancer. Brooke decided to catch up with Daddy, moved to New York, and was kidnapped by Keller last week."
"Mob ties besides the father?" Diana asked.
"According to our sources, she hasn't been connected in any business, although she's reputed as a respectable fence herself," Rice answered, surveying a file provided by the California branch.
"So she's just leverage to keep the Russians from closing in?" Jones asked.
"Gavrikov recorded all of the calls after the first," Peter replied, clicking on a recording.
Keller's voice carried through the speakers, "First, you're going to get your people off my backs. This works out, I'll have more than enough to make good on my debts and hand back your precious girl."
"Fine," Gavrikov's voice replied gruffly.
"And second, I'm gonna need some moving arrangements."
Peter clicked off the recording. "Keller asks for trucks, freight trains, and cargo ships to be ready every day at random locations for the next two weeks."
"He wants multiple options to cover his tracks," Rice deduced.
"Yeah, but it's likely he's using them all as decoys," the room went quiet as Neal finally voiced an opinion. The conman flinched at the cold response, but continued anyways. "He's not going to risk having the Russians be able to find him with everything."
The room paused for a moment, before Diana spoke up. "So what does this have to do with Elizabeth? How did Gavrikov know about her?"
"The day after the phone call, he received a tape recording," Peter replied. "It was mostly gibberish, but I still don't think Keller would have cleared it."
"She's bribing one of Keller's guys? She must be good," Neal said in admiration, and Peter found himself smirking.
"And yesterday, this arrived in his mailbox." Peter clicked another button, and an unfamiliar voice spoke.
"This is a call for Henry Long. Though scared and lost like Edward's Queen as I await Gloucester's words, I will take comfort in constructing acts prior of pent. Please come—"
And then a shuffle and furniture falling and another woman's voice, "Hun!" yelping in the background, just before a man's voice cursed and the recording went dead.
The entire room stared at the computer. "Was that-?" Jones asked.
"It was El," Peter confirmed. "She's alive, and she's with Brooke, wherever that is."
"But how did Gavrikov—"
Peter pulled up a paper on the screen. It was a scanned transcript of the recording in the mobster's notes, with underlines under "Henry Long", "Queen", and "Gloucester".
Neal tilted his head. "You said her expertise was English Lit?"
Rice nodded. "Mostly Shakespeare."
The con man rose from his chair, pondering over the words. "One of Shakespeare's most popular plays was Richard III in which the main character, Richard, was also known as the Duke of Gloucester before becoming king. Henry Long was a sheriff, and King Edward IV's wife's name was—"
"Elizabeth," Peter finished, staring at the scribbles on the plasma.
"What about the rest of the recording?" Jones asked. "Taking comfort in constructing acts prior of pent? Is that just more gibberish?"
Neal shook his head. "I'm not sure." He glanced back at Peter. "Maybe if we—" he faltered on the word, correcting himself, "—you checked out her place…"
Peter took a deep breath, and Rice stepped up. "Diana, Jones: we're going to take the team and look up the addresses for any place Brooke might be connected to." The fed watched as his team shuffled out the door, then turned to the con shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.
Rice was the last to leave, and pulled Peter aside. "Technically you're not even supposed to be on this case, but it's your call what you want to do with him." He nodded, and she left with the others.
Peter waited for the door to close, then approached Neal. "You and me, we've got a major problem," he told his partner. "But whether I like it or not, I need your help to get El back. So I'm willing to put your part in this whole mess aside until after this is over—deal?"
Neal looked at the Fed hopefully. "Peter, I just want you to know—"
"Neal, this is all I can give right now, so just…let's just do this, okay?"
The con sighed and nodded resignedly, and the two left to follow the others.
A/N: So yeah, I'm a Shakespeare geek, and now so is our guest star :) In case you missed it, Buckingham and Tyrell are minions for Richard in the play, so I figured if she didn't know their real names, she'd probably give them fake ones.
And how about it for the return of Rice? She's not my favorite guest character (as you'll be able to tell from the dialogue), but she seemed so obvious a choice for this situation, and with their parting words in "Front Man", I can't help but think she should be here.