Chapter 3

The painting stolen was known as 'Ship in the Sky'. Thankfully, Sarah had Amber Blackman's notes regarding the painting and a picture a picture of the painting as well. The background was painted in small brush-strokes that created a whirling image of white on dark blue, similar to a time-lapse photo of a night sky. A little to right the right of the centre of the whirl was a ship. It looked like an old pirate ship, just without a flag, and was done in such fine detail that it almost looked real. Like a ship in a bottle; the bottle being the night sky. It was captivating but also haunting, reminding Sarah back when she was a child and dreaming of adventures with her father.

Peter found the picture of the painting just as interesting but was more interested in getting the painting back. So, he was trawling through Amber's notes, trying to find something that might help.

"She thinks the painting is hiding something?" he finally commented, "what could it be hiding?"

"No idea," Sarah responded, "but there must have been a reason." She turned another page and froze.

Peter caught the lack of motion quickly and was quick to interpret it. This was something that affected her emotionally.

"What is it?"

"It's not relevant to the mission," she responded, glaring at the wall and not at him.

"Don't trust me?" he asked, his mouth twitching a little. He didn't know whether that was a good thing or not. Spies should never give trust easily. Today's friend could be tomorrow's enemy and vice versa.

But, you still needed people who you could trust with your life.

"Have you heard from Neal Caffrey yet?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Jones will tell us if they find anything," Peter responded.

"I can't believe you sent Chuck out with a conman," she said in a slightly disgruntled tone.

"Neal won't hurt him," Peter responded, "he's non-violent."

"There are other ways to hurt someone besides violence," she reminded him, "violence is just the easiest."

Peter bit back annoyance. She was right but, she didn't know Neal. Even though his actions had led to Peter's wife being kidnapped, Peter still believed his potential.

Neal had given up a multi-million, possibly billion, dollar treasure for Elizabeth. He had worked just as tirelessly as any of the FBI agents and had helped Peter work the con which had bought enough time for El to escape.

And he had gotten injured in the process. El was always quick to point out how Keller was the only one who she blamed for the kidnapping. She had also voiced her pride when Peter had told her that Neal had been willing to confess, right before he revealed that Keller had taken all the blame.

Not that Peter had mentioned any of this to Neal. The kid actually appeared to be considering the consequences of his actions for once, in hindsight but still, it couldn't hurt to let him squirm a little.

Sarah worked in silence with Ryker at the other end of the table. He had finally given up trying to get her to talk, or so it seemed. It didn't matter either way as she was highly suspicious of any words he said and hyper-aware of any action he made.

The files detailed some information about Bryce's life. She hadn't expected it to hurt, reading out her ex's life like this; detailed in black and white and not feeling like a person at all. And she had known he had been keeping things from her, would have been surprised if he hadn't, but she hadn't expected this.

The painting, 'Ship in the Sky', had actually been painted by him. Amber had the painted dated sometime around 2005 and then, under polarised light, the first letter of his first name and his last name appeared on the canvas like a signature.

Sarah hadn't known that Bryce could paint. He had been really good at it too, if this painting was any indication of his skill.

"Okay, so our thief, or thieves, must have known that the painting contained a secret," Ryker was talking again, "which means that Amber told someone about it or they have clearance to see her reports."

"Possibly," she responded, keeping her head down.

Ryker sighed.

"I know you don't like me but, would you be willing to work exclusively with me on this?" he asked.

"What?" She looked up. His face was set in a serious frown, his hands were folded before him and he was looking at her. "Why?"

"I don't want my team involved in this any more than they already are," he said, he flourished a hand over the notes as he continued, "I don't even have the name of the person who owned the painting before it was sent to Black Joy. This is high clearance stuff, which means the person who stole this painting could be dangerous. More dangerous than my people are used to."

"You don't want to risk them?" she guessed, feeling a little faith settle in her heart. A little doubt concerning her previous judgement of Kieran. She hadn't thought of him as someone who wanted to protect others until now.

"No. I don't. We keep them out of this and we solve it quickly."

She nodded. They sounded like agreeable terms. She hadn't wanted the White Collar team involved in the first place but, they had to play by the rules here.

"There's nothing wrong with me working with you in order to recover the painting and make an arrest. I'll edit out any confidential information in my reports. But, I do have a few conditions.

"First, I want to know why Black Joy was looking into this painting. There may be a clue there. Second, I would like to work on this after hours. Which means I'm to inviting you to my house."

"You're what?" Sarah's mouth dropped open. She instantly thought that this was some kind of trap.

"My wife has wanted to meet one of my 'other' co-workers for a while now. You're here and circumstances allow it and I'd much rather introduce you to her than someone like Roan Montgomery." Roan Montgomery was a seduction specialist and he was also around Ryker's age. He was an okay guy but not really someone you wanted to introduce to your wife.

"You want me to meet with your wife?" she questioned, uncertain whether she understood him correctly.

"My wife would like to meet you. You can bring your husband," he said.

"I'm not bringing my husband," she responded with certainty. If this was a trap, she wasn't going to let Chuck walk into it too.