Peter Burke picked 5 of his best agents, people he trusted and who have worked for him for many years. Agents who thought highly of Neal Caffrey back in the day, rather seeing his achievements for the FBI as well as his agreeable personality than the criminal past. Even after all the time, many of them were talking about him affectionately.
The team gathered in the conference room, door closed. Peter started to inform them about the new case, an Australian gem expert who has been kidnapped with the intention to rob the upcoming exhibition of the Virgin Rainbow and other valuable gems. "The missing person is a Caucasian male, about 6 ft tall, dark hair, blue eyes. His current whereabouts is unknown at this time; but we have to be aware that his life is at risk."
Next, he handed out copies of the photos Sara brought, plus a transcript of the phone call.
Agent Jones looked at the picture, stared at Peter, looked at the picture again, mouth wide open and eyes full of confusion. Obviously, he had problems to wrap his mind around the surprising identity of the victim. "Peter? This is..."
His boss cut in. "This is Josh Gardener. GAA Senior Consultant from Brisbane. His experience with valuable objects is quite long and remarkable. But I guess I don't have to tell anyone in this room about how remarkable his skills are... Besides, however we may call our missing person behind closed doors, Josh Gardener is the only name I want to read in any reports, official request forms or written notes. Understood?"
It didn't take the team long to absorb the news. They put up an action plan and assigned tasks in order to find out anything about Neal's current location or the people behind the crime.
Peter wanted to search Neal's belongings to look for hints. It wasn't impossible that the consultant has known the criminals or made any observations the days before the abduction. Furthermore, they had to take fingerprints from the mailbox.
Sara took care no-one followed her on the way to the FBI. Still, they were cautious since her house might be monitored. The agents came disguised as professional cleaners. Both men were clad in uniforms, carrying buckets and mops when they entered the house. What looked like a guy cleaning the front of the house was actually Agent Jones dusting the fingerprints from the mailbox.
Peter shared with Jones what he knew about Neal's fake death as well as Sara's and Neal's relation on the ride to Sara's house. Agent Jones had to admire the extent of Caffrey's con man skills. Jones was quick on the uptake that the sole purpose of the elaborate con was to keep his friends in New York safe from the Panthers. Once they'd rescued the former FBI consultant, Jones was hoping for a night out with Caffrey, sharing a few glasses of good whiskey, catching up on the details of the disappearing act, and learning all the good stories of the past years.
Inside Sara Ellis' home, Peter asked where to look for Caffrey's belongings. He couldn't help smirking when she told him they were to find in the master bedroom. So much for the theory of an all-business relationship!
Unfortunately, searching Caffrey's clothes revealed nothing new, no hint at all. He had to admire Neal's artistic talent, though, when spotting the painting on the wall. There was no doubt about Neal being the painter. It showed a sleeping Sara au naturel wearing nothing else but a sparkling necklace made of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. Peter chuckled at the sight.
A few hours later, the FBI team has gathered an encouraging amount of information by putting together lots of facts and details. Analyzing the recording identified voices of three different men in the room, apart from Neal. The man on the phone spoke with an accent that proved his native tongue to be one of the Eastern Romance languages. Thanks to Sara's sniffing software, they could place the origin of the call to a decaying area in Jamaica, Queens. Unfortunately, they used a prepaid mobile phone that was switched off now. It was impossible to detect its current location.
The photo has obviously been taken in a room with concrete walls, low ceilings and a lot of piping on the walls. Most likely the basement of an industrial building.
There were no fingerprints on the envelope but they found several ones on the mailbox. It wasn't surprising to find many fingerprints on a mailbox, but one print matched a record in the FBI database. Stoyan Stefanov was a criminal with a record of brutal robberies and extortion. According to the archived file in the database, he usually worked with a gang of family members. If anything went wrong, he was the fall guy.
Checking the employees at the consulate revealed one of the janitors used a false identity. His address in Brooklyn proved to be non-existent. The guy was expected to show up for work at 4 pm according to the shift schedule. The FBI team geared up to put him under surveillance and follow him home at night.
Three of Sara's neighbors have security cameras installed to protect their properties. The FBI managed to identify the van that delivered the picture at Sara's home. The driver seemed to be a Caucasian, but apart from that, the quality of the footage was too grainy to get a clear face shot. However, they could identify the license plate and have already started to track the plate through different CCTVs all over the city. It was a cumbersome process, though, to pull all the data.
Meanwhile, Neal felt miserable and increasingly desperate. He was still tied to the chair, the bondage hurt, his muscles hurt, his injuries hurt. To reduce the pain spreading from his ribs Neal sat as upright as possible, although he felt tired, exhausted. He has been allowed to go to the toilet once. Stoyan gave him a small bottle of water a few hours ago, but no food whatsoever. Accordingly, he felt dizzy and sick. After all this time in the neon-lit room, Caffrey had no clue whether he has been here for a day or a week. It most certainly felt like weeks, but he was aware it has been probably only one or two days.
The thugs have left him alone most of the time after his phone call to Sara. Every now and then, he fell into a fitful sleep only to awake with a start half an hour later. Disturbing thoughts were spinning endlessly in his head. How long would it take Peter to find him? Would he come at all? Maybe, the agent was too pissed off by all the trouble Neal has put him through. Maybe, he thought the con man wasn't worth all the hassle. No way! Of course, he would come. Even when annoyed, Peter was trustworthy, reliable, without any doubt a true friend. Peter would never leave him high and dry. How long would it take...
To ease his mind, Caffrey started to enumerate the items on this bucket list: valuables he wanted to steal, forge, or obtain in any other illegal way. He started with A. A was, of course, the amber room. He had to find it first because it had disappeared after WW2 but that was an irrelevant detail he would take care of later.
B was the Begum Blue, a heart shaped diamond, currently owned by a Europe-based diamond trading company. The security in that place was insane, but he'd never been one to decline a challenge.
C... The Crown Jewels, owned by the Queen of England. He had visited the Tower of London quite a few times to spy out security details. It would be a tough piece of work...
This bucket list was just make-believe. He didn't want to steal anything anymore, not really. Yet he had played this mind game for years as relaxation exercise whenever he has been stressed out.
Over the years, some items have changed in the list. Starry Night, for example, the painting by Vincent Van Gogh, has been his S on the list for a while. However, his forgery has been hanging in the MOMA since a few years. So, he needed a new S for the list. He could pick Sara's heart as his new S to steal. Or maybe, Sara has stolen his heart already. Right now, he missed her dreadfully. If you can't get someone out of your head, maybe they are supposed to be there?
Sara, on the other end of the city, wanted to do more in order to help finding Neal. Yet, there was nothing at all for her to do but waiting impatiently. Peter Burke has sent over one of his agents to keep her company at home. Even though the criminals asked only for the decoding device, Peter didn't take it for granted that they wouldn't change the plan. He won't take any risk of letting Sara being kidnapped as well.
The FBI team was still pursuing different leads. They had managed to isolate background noises in the recorded phone call. It sounded like muffled acoustic noise to a human ear. By using specialized software to analyze the tone and amplify the sub frequency band they could be identified as a subway car rattling over a bridge. So, if Neal was held in a basement room and you could still hear faint subway noises, the building must be close to a subway line.
They had asked the local police in Jamaica to look out for the van but no luck so far. Peter felt increasingly frustrated. They have narrowed down the place where Neal was kept to a few blocks in Queens. Still, they had absolutely no clue which building to search. Sweeping all the houses was no option unless they wanted to tip off the criminals.
Unfortunately, Stoyan Stefanov hasn't turned up to work either but called in sick. Therefore, the plan to follow him home was futile.
Meanwhile, Neal came up with an idea. When Stani brought him another bottle of water, he took the opportunity to ask a question. "I thought about the exhibition heist... Who is going to open the security gate for you?"
Stani stared at him. "You, of course, dimwit! That's why you're still alive! Of course, we will be with you, but you are the one to open the lock since your biometrical details are needed to do the trick."
The captive looked upset. "Uh-oh!"
His kidnapper seemed to be on the edge, at least his voice sounded threatening and he aimed a vicious knife at Neal's throat. "Any problems with that, Aussie?"
Josh Gardener was obviously intimidated when he stuttered, "My glasses, you know, they broke when you kidnapped me. I'm as blind as a bat without them. I won't be able to open my own front door without my glasses. "
In fact, the glasses were shattered completely. Some shards were still scattered on the floor. Stani ranted and raved. Finally, he called the boss to let him handle the situation.
Marek wasn't amused either. "So, we have to get you new glasses at Walgreens. What strength do you need for your glasses?"
Caffrey put a solemn face on. "It's not that easy. I need special lenses because I suffer from a rare form of astigmatism. It takes usually two weeks to get a new pair of glasses and I need to see an optician to work out the details of the prescription."
The thug towered over the cuffed man on the chair. "So, when your glasses break, you sit 2 weeks at home and do nothing but wait?"
Josh Gardener's bruised face lit up. "No, of course not. I need the glasses for my job. I always carry a spare pair".
Marek wasn't a patient kind of man. Actually, he was about to lose it. "And where are these glasses now? They would come in handy. You might say they would increase your life expectancy dramatically!"
It was just after 10 pm when Sara received another call. This time the FBI was monitoring the line with Agency equipment. The same man who had called a day ago was on the phone, asking to deliver her boyfriend's spare glasses together with the decryption device.
Sara was truly confused. "What spare glasses? I don't know what you are talking about. Let me speak to Josh!"
They put the call on loudspeaker and allowed their captive to talk. "Hi, Cupcake!"
Sara was just relieved to hear his voice, to have proof he was still alive. "Hi, Honey Bear! How are you?"
Caffrey enacted this phone call because he was expecting the FBI to monitor Sara's phone. If he kept them long enough on the line, they should be able to track the origin of the call. Therefore, he told her elaborately about the broken glasses and that she had to look for the spare ones. He thought they were on the night stand but when Sara searched there, she couldn't find them. Maybe he hadn't unpacked them. She looked in his suitcase.
Apart from the obvious need to draw out the call, Neal loved hearing her voice. It felt comforting; listening to her familiar voice filled him with courage.
The FBI team stared at the computer monitor with nervous anticipation. With the help of high-tech equipment, they would be able to trace the origin of the phone call very precisely. This phone call was exactly what they needed.
Peter Burke was amused to hear Sara calling him Honey Bear. Probably her revenge for calling her Cupcake. At the same time, he was worried to notice the strain in his friend's voice and a slight slur in his speech.
It felt like an eternity to Peter and Sara. Yet, it took only 90 seconds to locate the position of the mobile phone. The FBI agent in her house gave her the thumbs up to signal she could end the call.
"Here they are. You left them on the window sill, Honey Bear!" She knew the call would end soon. Therefore, she added hurriedly "I miss you!"
Marek repeated the instructions where to place the items for the handover and ended the call without further ado.
Peter wasn't surprised when Sara called moments later. "Where is he held? I'm coming along when you're going to get him."
The FBI Agent talked her out of it, explaining that this was a dangerous operation. He has already sent out the SWAT team and was on his way to join them. So, he promised to bring him home safely and in one piece.