32.77582 –N- 96.79674-W… coordinates… the little guy refused to help, sitting nervously at his friend's bedside muttering about experiments and inspecting each dose of medication the younger man received closely …and Caffrey had been utterly exhausted from the tests Dr. Cole insisted on running as soon as she heard about his memory loss…a battery of MRIs, CT scans, cognitive and psychological exams… he slept 16 hours without stirring when she was finished… so it took them 24 hours to decrypt the brief message. It was a simple number for letter swap… with 0 coinciding with N. The first line of the code was longitude latitude coordinates… that led to somewhere in Dallas, Texas… so here he was sitting in a rental car beside Peter Burke… driving through Dallas to find an exact coordinates…The second line didn't make any sense at all to Thomas... even decoded, DB 147086 meant nothing to him…
"So… he plays games like this with you often?" Thomas asked.
"Like what?" the reply was noticeably distracted
"Promising evidence then sending you halfway across the country… following a code?"
"No… this would be the first time this particular circumstance has come up…" Peter looked up with a grin "though he did send champagne to a surveillance van once when we were tracking him…after he pulled off a heist right under our noses…" Peter chuckled, "I never could prove it was him… but we all knew." The other man shook his head in disbelief.
"I still don't get him…"Thomas shook his head. "Obviously he wants justice immensely for his friends… I get that now. Clearly he cares deeply about people… but then he doesn't tell you what the note says… or give you an actual address… just provides the bread crumbs…Like he's toying with you…"
"He's definitely kept me on my toes…"
"Still does it seems?"
"I hope so." Peter stared at the GPS in his hand. Reynolds sighed… the worry radiating from the man was a tangible thing…being this far away from his injured friend was manifestly wearing on his nerves… Thomas considered the relationship between the agent and criminal a moment…
"When I first met you …you thought he was dead…"
"I had my doubts about that by then, actually… but…" Peter tried to shrug it off but a hint of grief seeped into his voice. Reynolds faltered … then pressed on.
"He's attached to you, obviously… and you apparently care a great deal about him…and he knows that, yet he faked his death and disappeared last year… Without telling you anything…Why would he do that to a friend?"
"It's complicated"
"Ok…?" Peter's gaze was sharp and steady
"I think by now, even you will agree, we have established Neal will do anything… anything to protect the people he cares about… no matter what it costs him."
"I see…" and though Thomas didn't have the details he thought he did see
"Stop right here" he shot Peter a questioning look… but he found a parking spot as quickly as he could… then he surveyed the area… a corporate- industrial neighborhood… offices and warehouses intermixed on both sides of the street as far as he could see… suddenly Peter grinned…
"There it is" he pointed to a building that boasted Document Storage… private locked boxes... "That's what we are here for." He looked at the paper in his hand again and smiled, understanding dawning on his face. They hurried into the building and Peter stepped confidently to the counter.
"I need box 147086 … belonging to Daniel Brookes" the kid behind the counter looked up dully
"ID please." He hesitated then showed the kid his badge… "That doesn't say Brookes."
"No it doesn't" Peter leaned in "but it does say federal agent… this box is necessary for my investigation… and I have verbal consent from Mr. Brookes. I'd hate to see you get in trouble for impeding my investigation" the young man looked nervous at that. He glanced around fugitively.
"Fine…" he disappeared into the back returning with a box about 12 inches long by 10 inches wide by 3 inches deep. The kid made himself scarce after that.
Peter's hand trembled slightly as he inserted the key and turned the latch.
"So… Daniel Brookes…?"
"It's not an alias."
"But it is Caffrey?" he got a shrug in response. The box opened… revealing a sparkling diamond and sapphire necklace… and matching bracelets… Thomas raised a suspicious eye brow but Peter just shoved them aside, along with a small rolled canvas without a second glance… lifting out 2 pages of paper from the bottom. The pages had been crumpled and bore a stain at the lower left corner that looked suspiciously like dried blood… Both men cringed slightly, thinking of the night Neal stole the papers. The first page bore Morgan Flannery's signature… the second Tomas Martinez… both pages were signed by Clarence Walker.
"They are contracts" he muttered before sealing the box and ringing the bell for the kid to return it… the contracts went into an evidence bag… "Let's get back to DC. We've got him"
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Mozzie tried to tuck the file under his arm and out of sight as soon as he realized Neal was awake. Neal smiled… clearly his friend didn't believe the FBI hadn't gotten him into this mess…
"What are you… reading?"Neal let him know he wasn't fast enough, Moz hesitated uncertain how much he should say…
"Well…"
"Who did… you steal the… file from?" Mozzie looked down, Neal could see him mentally kicking himself… he sighed
"I didn't steal anything" he tried to sound offended "your favorite Suit may have left the box of files on your… situation… here… when he dashed off… to follow whatever was in that envelope I brought him." his tone said he was offended that Neal hadn't told him about the contents. "the lock was insulting if he actually intended to keep me out…"
"Trust me… you don't want to dig… to deep… into this, Moz"
"Someone is trying to kill you… and you don't want me to get to the bottom of it?"
"I don't want… them trying to… kill you." He couldn't keep the worry from seeping into his voice. Mozzie waved him off with shrug and a scowl.
"I've been taking care of myself for a long time and unlike someone I could name, I actually have a sense of self preservation." Mozzie sighed "You know this is a big deal right? Three kids were murdered"
"I do know… I was there." That brought Mozzie's head up abruptly, understanding dawning…
"You never mentioned it. All these years and you never told anyone…never told me… "
"I couldn't… there are … dangerous people involved…"
"Obviously… your current condition speaks to that...Did you tell the Suit?" the younger man shook his head
"Not until… recently…"
"Are you allowed to sit up…? Do you want to look at what the Feds have?" Neal hesitated… he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know… he knew there were crime scene photos… those he definitely didn't want to see. He pushed the bed up as far as the hip brace would allow him to bend.
"Sure… might be good …to be caught up… Peter has… been keeping… me out of the… loop" He reached for the file … smiling a little as the fingers of his right hand closed weakly around the paper. Then frowning as the folder almost slid from his grasp. Mozzie continued standing up… pacing again… conspicuously oblivious of Neal's struggle. That brought the younger man's smile back… his friend was trying to spare his feelings. He got a stable grip on the file and looked up at the smaller man triumphantly.
"Well you have been… somewhat…" he gestured helplessly "maybe this isn't the best idea…I've been informed that stress would be detrimental to your health."
"I'm fine Moz…" the look Mozzie gave him was absolute disbelief as he surveyed the wreckage of his friend's body
"Far from it my friend…far from it" the little man turned away, hiding his fear… "I saw you in the morgue last year… then you send me clues that you are ok, but when I went to Paris none of my contacts had seen or heard from you… I thought maybe…" he pushed his glasses up to swipe at his suspiciously damp eyes.
"I'm sorry…"
"Then I find you here… like this…I believe you will agree I am somewhat justified in my concern." Silence filled the void between them… both men pretending to study the files.
"Why didn't you tell anyone…at least where to find them…you knew them, right? They should have had at least a proper burial…"
"The truth… I don't know… where they were…"
"You said you were there, how can you not know…" he trailed off as something in the file he was skimming caught his eye
"It was a rough… night…"
"I see that…" he turned the file for Neal to see… a picture of himself 15 years ago… eyes closed, face bruised, skin pale… he didn't remember anyone taking that picture… of course he was missing the better part of two days from that week… "Guess that explains the nightmares when we first met…" Mozzie looked sick "why didn't you tell me?"
"They left me… alone as long as …I kept quiet…" he paused letting the respirator help him catch his breath "As I said …these are… dangerous people"
"And you know who they are don't you?" he looked away… he was definitely not telling Moz about an NSA director's involvement… he'd find himself in his friend's version of witness protection so fast he wouldn't have time to blink…Neal wasn't a big fan of eight by eight windowless rooms… besides there was no reason to panic the little guy…
"I might have… some idea." He was saved from elaborating by Madison's appearance… he smiled at her brightly… and she returned the expression…
"How is my favorite patient today?"
"Better, now that you're here" his smile widened… Madison giggled as she listened to his lungs for a minute…
"Still clear…" he winked at her playfully… he liked Madison. She looked him in the eye…treated him like an adult. A lot of the nurses didn't do that…they seemed to hear brain damage and assume he didn't understand what was happening… "Can I bring you something? I have a couple of audio books at the station… if you are feeling up to it… they're mysteries but…"
"That would be… great…" Mystery books weren't really his thing but…anything was better than staring at the ceiling or worse explaining Clarence Walker to Mozzie.