Ending her call Diana stepped back into the small living room and stopped. Neal sat quietly, his head down, her file on Katherine Harris in his lap. He glanced up when she entered the room, grinning sheepishly.
"What do you think you are doing?" she snapped, snatching the folder.
"I was bored… and curious. You have been hiding that file every time I come in the room for three days."
"So now you know."
"You really think she's the one who took Kevin… well Nick back then..."
"No, I don't." Diana conceded "But I know she was the one who sold him to the Grants… Well adopted as far as they knew. She gave them a sob story about her boyfriend and her other son being killed in a house fire. They gave her 80,000 dollars to help her get back on her feet."
"Pretty good scam. I assume she was splitting it with the actual kidnapper but forty grand in the eighties was a pretty good take…" He glanced at Diana with a sad smile "If you don't mind destroying families."
"They didn't see it that way… they were redistributing babies from families that didn't need them to couples who did… and could pay for them."
"Right."
"Look Caffrey I wasn't really hiding it from you… I've been working on this for a while and I had every intention of telling you..." She sighed "I just hoped to catch the kidnapper before I did."
"Kidnapping isn't really your area."
"Human trafficking has a white collar side…"
"Human trafficking involves more than one kid."
"They took twelve babies from the DC area that year. They called them the stork kidnappings because the man left origami storks in each baby's crib." Neal's face blanched.
"Twelve?" Neal choked, his expression pure horror.
"Well thirteen actually… but no one ever reported the last one missing." She flinched as she said that. "They sold nine of them."
"I don't want to know about the other four do I…?"
"No." She thought about the crime scene photos from the storage locker where the tiny bodies had been kept, the black garbage bags and packing tape… she cut her mind off right there because if she went any farther she would be sick. "Trust me you don't… let just say they were handled to roughly." She watched Neal's imagination fill in the details and he swallowed quickly several times before he met her eyes.
"And no one has caught these monsters."
"Until now."
"Do you think she…?" He gestured to the picture in the file.
"I don't think she was the one who killed them… but she knew about it and didn't stop her partner."
"Is she willing to talk?"
"Yeah she is… but it's been a long time. I don't know if she has anything useful to give us."
"Here's hoping."
"I'm going to get this guy, Neal, I promise."
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He sat alone in his room… the setting sun cast little light through the high windows but Neal had yet to turn on the lights. His deft fingers folded the paper without thought…
His mother always kept a small paper stork on the book case in her room… she never let him touch it. Through every move over the years it always found its place. Even the two times they rushed out of the house with only two suit cases and Danny's backpack… the stork always made the cut to come. It was ragged and dirty and the boy he once was couldn't see the value of the stupid thing but his mom loved it… took it down and held it in her hands reverently sometimes.
When he first discovered origami at ten years old he decided to make her a new one… since the old one looked ready to fall apart. The boy handed his mother his gift and waited, hoping for a rare smile. Instead her face bleached through white into grey. Her lips compressed into a hard cold line and she slapped him, hard enough to knock him down. He stared up at her in shock, his mother ignored him most of the time… forgot he was there in her haze of painkillers and sedatives, but she rarely struck him, watched sadly as she crumbled his little gift and threw it violently at the wall before stalking out of the house without saying a word.
"Neal?" Jones voice called him back to the present. "What are you doing?"
"What?"
"What are you doing?" the agent gestured to the dozen paper birds that surrounded the young man on the bed.
"Oh." Neal briefly closed his eyes "just trying to master a new one." He smiled at his friend. "I've never folded storks."
"Well come on" Jones said doubtfully "dinner is here."
"Thanks … I'll be right there." He stared a moment longer at the birds… quietly finishing the thirteenth… one for every family that was never whole again… even if they found them now, even if they brought them all home like Nick… the families would still be broken. Arresting the man who tore their lives apart wouldn't change that…but maybe it would help. One by one Neal lifted the birds gently and sat them on the night stand before he slid into his chair.
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"You don't have to do this, you know." Neal looked up as Kevin entered the room.
"I'm pretty much committed, I think." His grin so perfectly reflected Neal's own it should have been disturbing.
"You could still walk away." Neal met his eyes and resolutely kept the pleading note out of his voice. "I could meet Ridgemont."
"Michael Scott is my alias."
"I used him for three days."
"And that worked out so well for you." He nodded toward the wheelchair.
"I'll recover."
"Not if you meet with Ridgemont." Kevin pulled a dining chair away from the table and sank into it. "Your boss wouldn't allow it anyway. I get the feeling he would shoot me personally if I backed out… I know Diana would. That woman is scary."
"She definitely can be." He returned the grin this time
"Why don't you want me to do this?"
"Because I'm tired of hurting people I care about!" The words were out before he could stop them. Neal risked a glimpse at his brother and flinched at his shocked expression. It was too much… it didn't matter that the connection between them had been instantaneous… that he knew the affection he felt was returned. Kevin wouldn't understand that he didn't mean to keep hurting people… wouldn't care.
"You too…?" the strangled voice startled Neal from his thoughts. The words were not the reaction he expected.
"What do you mean, me too?"
"People around you get hurt no matter how hard you try to prevent it?"
"Yeah." Neal swallowed his own shock and confusion "You?"
"My best friend in school almost died trying to follow me when I did something stupid, my parents died… their brake line was cut. I could never prove it but I knew it was because I refused to hack the system and change the football player's grades… several partners on assignment have been hurt or killed, because I made a mistake. Now Amelia is dead, William is alone and you were tortured… you have the same problem?
"Kate was my Amelia, I watched her die and there was nothing I could do… Ellen practically raised me, she was murdered because I contacted her… Elizabeth, Peter's wife she was kidnapped because of me… Mozzie… the little guy was shot… Peter was framed for murder, by our dad." He let the silence fall between them, let it stretch as they simply understood.
"How do you do it?" Kevin's too steady voice asked "How do you keep letting people get close…knowing how much it hurts?"
"Because the alternative is being alone." Neal shrugged helplessly "and being alone makes you hard… cold." He blinked tears away quickly.
"In my business hard and cold are a plus on your resume…"
"They were in mine too…It might have been best for everyone if I could have been, but I never wanted to be."
"Me either."
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"No"
"But" Neal tried to explain.
"The answer is no." Peter glared at him "you agreed to Kevin playing you. You are not going to this meeting with Ridgemont."
"I know I agreed I'm not trying to change the plan, if you would just listen."
"You don't want to go to the meeting?"
"I want to go to the meeting-"
"Then the answer is still no."
"I want to be in the van."
"No…" he stopped as his friend's last words registered "you WANT to be in the van? You hate the van. You are always telling me how bad it smells and how boring it is."
"You're sending my brother undercover with an extremely dangerous mountain of muscle. Yes I want to be in the van so I can-"
"Watch over him?"
"Well… yeah."
"Neal, he is a highly trained federal agent, he is your match for brains and charm and our whole team will be watching over him… He will be ok. And you can't even stand yet."
"I know that but he's my brother and…" Neal shrugged
"You just met him." his words stung but Neal couldn't really explain it himself How could he expect Peter to understand.
"I know… Peter I…" he took a breath, released it and tried again. "I have never connected with someone … really connected like this in my life…" to his surprise the agent laughed quietly.
"It's a twin thing." he muttered
"What?"
"I had a couple friends when I was a kid, twins, they always knew… it was like they could read each other's mind. If one of them got hurt… they didn't even have to be together the other just knew. If you asked them about it they always said "it's a twin thing" I didn't even think about that with you and Kevin but…"
"All I know is I don't want anything to happen to him." Neal let the silence fall. The discussion was over and he knew when to give in, so he bit his tongue and started to turn away.
"Neal" Peter sighed at the honest concern in his friend's eyes. "I can't let you come on the operation…I would if I could, but in your condition… we would both be out of a job… and for you that means… Please, trust me to take care of Kevin."
"I do trust you." He tried to smile "It's just… he's my brother. I just got him back…"
"I know." He lay his hand on Neal's shoulder "I know. And you have every right to be worried, but you have to promise me you'll stay here, because I can't take care of Kevin if you give me a heart attack." That coaxed a smile out of the younger man.
"You'll keep me in the loop?"
"I will let you know about every development, I promise."
"Can I move closer…?"
"I'll see if Diana can set you up in a room on the block but you will have to stay inside, away from the windows." He gave the younger man a stern look "do I need to assign an agent to make sure you stay put, if I do this?"
"No… I'll stay until you say I can come out."
"You're going to follow orders?"
"I wouldn't get used to it if I were you." The blue eyes that looked up at him finally sparkled.
"Don't worry, it doesn't happen often enough for that."
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Sitting on his favorite bench at the park the small man closed his eyes. Four days and nights of trying to insure his rumors reached the right ears had left him exhausted but now, just three hours ago he received word that everything was in place and Dennison was suitably angry with his lieutenant. Mozzie grinned… these idiots were falling into place like perfectly placed dominos.
He felt some one join him on the bench. Annoyed he opened his eyes. It took a tremendous effort not to jump out of the seat and run. James Dennison sat quietly beside him.
"You've been talking about my employees… where did you get your information?"
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Certain rumors have reach my ears… I have traced them back to you. Where did you hear them?"
"What sort of rumors?"
"I hear you have information on the activities of Henry Ridgemont." The grave voice of the carefully groomed man said.
"I really don't know about his activities… I overheard him on the phone the other night setting up a meeting…with that Scott guy." Mozzie improvised, after all he was good at that. "I'd heard around that Scott was persona non grata with your organization."
"And you thought you should pass along Ridgemont's indiscretion with every Tom, Dick and Harry you know?"
"Of course not..." the small man raised his arms defensively "I may have mentioned it to a couple of close friends… but they are extremely discrete."
"Apparently not that discrete."
"Apparently not."
"You are certain of what you heard?"
"Yes." Mozzie gulped. "Absolutely."
"Then you will take me to this meeting personally."
"M-me?" he stammered as he nervously polished his lenses "Unfortunately I have a prior engagement-"
"It was not a request." Dennison said quietly but the sturdy looking hand gun aimed at Mozzie's stomach conveyed the deathly seriousness of his intentions.
"Oh… well if you put it that way… I'm sure I can cancel." he flinched as Dennison snatched the phone from his hand and tossed it.
"You will have to apologize later." The larger man pulled his swiftly to his feet.