Just got back from a relaxing vacation. I was writing in my notebook a lot so I have a bunch of work to do. Lets start here.
"So this is where you got started." Peter said as he and Neal walked in Central Park, both bundled against the December cold.
"Nope." Neal said simply. Peter glanced over at the kid. Neal's face was blank, and his arms holding his jacket against the bitter wind. There weren't many people walking around, just a few dog walkers and a couple building a snowman.
"So where did you start?" Peter asked. Neal looked at him, and Peter sighed. "Okay, where did you allegedly start?"
Neal sighed. "You've done your researched. I ran from the foster home when I was ten, never really looked back. A friend picked me up and I made my way in the world."
Peter continued to try to ask Neal where he started, but Neal didn't say another reaching the chess tables, Neal walked over to the one in the center, the one table where if a kid could school a bunch of old people, it would draw a crowd.
"Under here!" Neal called to Peter. Neal pulled a sheet of paper from under the table. On it was a picture of the girl who had been taken. Below the picture was a hand written note.
This was a simple one kid, and I feel like making it a little harder, but I don't have time for that. The girl is in your old apartment. That's right, I kept tabs on you after the little stunt you pulled in Italy. The painting on the other hand, you need to work for. I left you a present with the girl. Oh, and to add some incentive, I found Mozzie. I told him that next time you disappear, he shouldn't bother looking, because you're just not worth it. But, he insisted that you would find him, so I thought I would give you the chance to save him. But I get bored rather easily, and I'm always willing to try new ways to hide a body. Keep that in mind while you search. Be sure to get plenty of rest though, wouldn't want you to miss anything.
"Whose Mozzie?" Peter asked. Neal sat down, gloved hand covering his mouth, and fear in his eyes.
"He's my best friend, like an older brother to me. He's the guy that found me when I was ten and took care of me since." Neal said quietly. Peter nodded and pulled out his phone.
"Jones, go to Caffery's old apartment. The girl is there, we will meet you there, but now this case has gotten personal." Peter spoke sharply into the phone. Jones confirmed, and Peter hung up. He looked at the kid, who still looked shocked. "Come on, we have to save that friend of yours."
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Peter and Neal arrived at the same times Jones and his team did. They walked up to the front door, and Diana was just about to bang it down before Neal stopped them.
"Guys wait!" He said loudly. They all turned to look at him in disbelief. He pulled something out of his jacket pocket. "I still have the key."
It took a moment for Neal to get past the agents, but he unlocked the door and let himself in, the agents following him. In the living room was a single couch and a girl playing with some dolls.
"Did my parents send you to pick me up?" The girl asked sweetly. "I don't like this day care, they don't have good cookies and there's no other children."
Neal let out a small chuckle as Diana walked over to the kid and said that yes, they were here to pick her up, and they would let her parents know that she didn't like this day care.
"So what's this clue that Keller left you?" Peter asked as agent's descended on the place to gather any clues. Neal looked around for a moment.
"I don't know. He wouldn't have left it around for the girl to accidently do something to it, but he would have made it easy to find." Neal said thinking. He thought back to the note. "Wait, I got it!"
Neal dashed to a room down the hall and used a different key to unlock it, Peter followed close behind.
"Be sure to get plenty of rest though, wouldn't want you to miss anything." Neal quoted from the note. "That was his clue to where the next clue was. He hid it in my old room."
Neal opened the door and walked inside, followed by Peter. There wasn't much in the room. A window, an art easel, a night stand with a lamp, a desk and a twin sized bed that was shoved in the corner, as though sleep was one of the least important things in the teenagers life.
"We searched here when we first caught you. That friend you had been staying with cleared everything out." Peter said.
"Nope, This is how my room looked while I was living here. The only difference is that I had a painting on the wall." Neal said, looking at one wall in particular.
"What was it?" Peter asked. As far as he could remember from the report about Caffery's place, no art had been recovered.
"It was the Birth of Venus. The one here was just a forgery, and I wanted to take it with me to the safe house when you started closing in, but there wasn't room." Neal said.
"Why didn't you destroy it?" Peter asked curiously. Neal smirked.
"Thought I would leave you a clue for my other alleged works." Neal said. Then he frowned. "But we already did that job. Why would he take this one? It was smaller than the original, and I just kept it because it was pretty good."
"Neal, it wasn't here when we searched the place." Peter said. Neal looked at Peter confused.
"When did you search this place?" Neal asked, turning to the older man.
"About an hour after we tried to arrest you. We thought that everything had been cleared out." Peter told him.
"That means Keller planned this from the start. I don't know how, but he did." Neal said darkly. Then he got back to thinking.
"Boss." Jones voice came from the door. Peter left the kid alone for a moment so he could check in with his agents.
"What's up?" Peter asked.
"Diana talked to the girl. All she said was that a man about college age and an adult black male told her that her parents asked them to take her to a new day care. They brought her here and gave her dolls and snacks, but they seemed to be arguing about something." Jones said quietly.
"The young man was probably Keller. Check all the local cameras, pull video and we can have Neal take a look at it, see if he recognizes anyone." Peter ordered. Jones nodded, then looked at the kid who was staring intently at the wall.
"How's the kid holding up?" Jones asked. Peter had told Jones and Diana on the way up about Keller's note.
Peter turned around to look at the teen, then sighed and turned back to Jones. "So far he's holding strong, but I can tell that he's barely keeping it together. He told me that the Mozzie guy is like an older brother to him. I think tha-"
"I got it!" Neal shouted suddenly, interrupting Peter. Both agents looked at him questioningly before he explained. "Birth of Venus was painted by Sandro Botticelli. The connection isn't in the art, it's in the artist, I think."
"One. What does that mean? And two, you think?" Peter asked. Neal shrugged.
"Not 100%, but close. If Keller really has been keeping tabs on me, then he knows that I am rather limited to New York." Neal explained. "There are only a few paintings in New York by the same artist. The Annunciation, Last Communion of St. Jerome, and Three Miracles of St. Zenobias. They are all on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Of course, there is another one, but a private collector holds that, and Keller has no connection to that one."
"Okay, so which one does he have connections to?" Peter asked patiently, he had a feeling that he was about to find out about some of the kid's alleged scores.
That feeling was confirmed when Neal gave him a look that said "Sorry can't say until you've offered immunity for that."
"Just tell me a connection. You have immunity for this one." Peter sighed. He heard Jones chuckle behind him, and Neal smiled.
"Well, one day when I was 13, Keller contacted me about how he needed my special skills to have two forgeries done. One was the Birth of Venus, which might currently hang on the wall of the Uffizi gallery in Florence," Peter glared at him and Neal shrugged "And the other was the Annunciation. I don't know what happened to that one; I was only around for the Florence one. But there was a warehouse where we made the exchange, the painting for the cash. It has to be where the next clue is. I don't see him going into a museum to leave a clue."
"Okay, where's the warehouse?" Peter asked.
"I'll show you, but I need to go in alone." Neal said.
"And why is that?" Jones question this time.
"Because stealing the painting meant more than one thing. When Keller saw first saw that painting, he thought that I was holding out on him for the copies. It wasn't true, the painting I had was just a practice one, and I was taking more time with the real one. He didn't believe me, and had me bring the copy I had on my wall, plus the two copies that were going to be used, to a drop sight. I was 13, and couldn't carry all that without looking suspicious, so I found a guy willing to help me carry them to the sight. He was homeless and wouldn't talk in exchange for a hundred bucks. So I brought everything to the warehouse, and Keller took the two forgeries, but let me keep my practice copy. Before we could leave, he shot the homeless guy and my painting. Said that it was a reminder that if I ever brought someone to the warehouse again, he would shoot them, and me."