Diana met them as Peter burst through the doors to the White Collar office.
"Cybercrimes and the kidnapping squad are putting together a command center at Roland's estate," she said.
"James is there with them," Jones continued as they all hurried through the office, "and we've been talking to Josh in the interview room."
"The ransom is due in less than six hours."
"How are we communicating with the kidnapper?" Peter wanted to know as he stepped into the conference room.
"Website," Diana said and pointed at their screen. Savannah was in a room with toys and a clock ticking down under it.
"The domain is actually ' '?"
"That takes some premeditation," the kid pointed out.
"James got a call to check this URL," Jones said.
"It's streaming a live feed," Diana said, "but it doesn't look like she's aware of the camera."
"She's in good spirits," the kid noted.
"So, most likely, she knows her kidnapper. What are the demands?"
"It's on the website." Peter looked at the site again when Diana said that.
"A 'demand' tab. Look at that."
"Welcome to the 21st century," Neal sighed.
"Guy's definitely tech-savvy," Jones said. "The site is a labyrinth of cloud data that they can't trace beyond a firewall in Ukraine."
Peter clicked on the button, and a text was placed over the live feed.
"Six point four million dollars," Diana said, baffled. Yes, six-point-four was awfully precise.
"Let me see James' will." Peter glanced at the copy handed to him. "That's the exact amount Roland left to him in cash."
"Kidnapper's seen this will," the kid said.
"Yeah," Peter nodded and sighed. "This is personal." He gave it a moment's thought. "Get Josh in my office."
"Do you think he kidnapped her?" Neal asked.
Peter shook his head.
"No, but that is where we have to start."
Two minutes later, Peter was with Neal in his office with Josh on the other side of his desk.
"Almost half of all kidnappings are by a relative," he told the man, Savannah's uncle.
"Look, James and I may have our differences, but nobody in our family would ever do anything to hurt her. Honestly, Savannah's the only reason we still even speak," the young man said. He looked at the wills on Peter's desk. "But if we find the real will, we can pay the ransom. You said this is a map?"
"Mm-hmm," Peter nodded. Josh grabbed the two wills and rose.
"All right. James can stay back at the house. I'm gonna follow it."
"Uh, the truth is," Neal said, "I already took the initiative and went to the sundial."
"You what?" Josh asked as if the kid had done something offensive.
"It gave us the letters B.S.H," Peter said. "Do you know what that stands for?"
Josh's eyes went to Peter.
"Yeah, that was dad's favorite acronym. It means 'big sky hunting.'"
"What does that mean?"
"It meant he was taking us to the planetarium, or, as he would put it, the only place to see stars in Manhattan. That's where I'm going."
He turned towards the door once again.
"No. Josh. These first few hours are critical to figuring out who took Savannah. The best thing that you can do is to work with your brother to help us build a suspect profile."
Josh looked at both of them and down at the wills in his hand.
"All right, fine," he gave in, "but I want to know where this leads. Will you follow this map for me?" he asked Neal.
"Sure thing."
"Promise me."
"We'll keep you posted every step of the way," Peter assured him.
"Thank you."
Neal walked with Peter into the planetarium.
"Well, this is one way to get to go on a treasure hunt," he said, trying to find something positive out of this tragedy.
"I'm not wild about James paying the ransom," Peter said, "but we need him working with us to find his daughter."
"I was starting to think you didn't trust Mozzie and I to go after this unsupervised," Neal grinned.
"That too."
They walked up to the reception and Peter held his badge against the glass. The elderly man on the other side looked up and seemed delighted.
"Oh. Special Agent Burke. Uh, I'm Felix. Well, this is the first time a G-man has come to the planetarium on official business." The man was all smiles and totally starstruck. When nothing else happened, he realized they were waiting for him. "Uh, you had inquired about Nathaniel Roland."
"Yes. When was the last time he was here?
"Two P.M. on December 3rd," he said at once. Neal exchanged a glance with Peter. "Oh, it was a very, uh, big deal when Mr. Roland popped by. Usually meant someone was getting a new telescope." He pulled out the ledger and opened it. "Huh… I know he signed in."
"May I?" Neal asked and got the book. "Thank you." He scanned the name and smiled. "He did sign in, just not under Roland." He pointed at the name.
"'Tycho Brahe,'" Felix read.
"Yeah," Peter agreed. "Look at that remark." The second column was for visitors' comments.
"'Happy Birthday to me'" Neal read and looked at Peter. What could this mean?
"December 14, 1546," Felix told them, as the guide he was. "Tycho Brahe. That's his birthday."
"Felix, would you mind firing up the projector?" Peter asked. Then he looked at Neal. "It's time to go big sky hunting."
"Right this way, gentlemen." Felix left the desk and walked ahead of them and into the planetarium. He started up the machinery. The light was turned off, and the white doom turned into the night sky.
"This is our sky today. Now let me bring you back to Tycho's birthday." And as they were in a time machine, the stars flew across the sky. "And here we are in 1592."
"We know the time and date to look at the stars," Peter said. "Now we just need to figure out where in the sky."
"In his will, Roland talks about big sky hunting with his favorite twins. Josh and James aren't twins."
"No," Peter agreed. "They're a year apart. Maybe he was talking about the twins in the sky. Felix, where are the Gemini twins?"
Felix turned on the text and markings on the sky above them. A yellow stick man was by the rim, marked Castor.
"I only see one brother," Neal called to Felix.
"Well, they're split on the horizon. One above, one below."
"Tycho had a twin who died shortly after he was born," Peter said.
"Interestingly," Felix said from his control panel, "Brahe wrote a letter to his deceased twin in his first published work."
"That's got to be it," Neal mumbled to Peter.
"Do you know what was in the letter?" Peter asked Felix.
"No. Uh, but I can show it to you. We have the first printed copy of Brahe's collected works. It's on display in the North Gallery."
"Let me guess," his handler said. "A generous donation from—"
"Nathaniel Roland?" Neal filled in.
"Precisely."
Five minutes later, Neal watched the ancient book in a sealed glass showcase.
"Tycho Brahe's original notes on 'De nova stella'," he mumbled, full of awe. History and what it left behind chimed in him in a way he could not fully understand.
"The letter he wrote to his brother is on page 273," Felix said and remained by their side admiring the book. Making no attempt to further assistance.
"Would you mind turning to that page?" Peter asked.
"Well, that would be impossible. Mr. Roland left the book with very specific instructions."
"Of course he did," the agent hissed. He read the brass sign on the casing: " 'The mechanical arm turns one page every hour until it reaches the end. Then the process reverses.'"
"This is half-inch glass," Felix said. "Pressure, temperature, and humidity are controlled to preserve the paper. It cannot be tampered with in any way."
"Listen to me, Felix." Peter's patience was reaching its end. "This book may have implications in a kidnapping."
"Oh. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, but... but you don't understand. I wish I could help you, but my hands are tied." The mechanical arm turned to the next page. "You could come back in a few days."
They both glared at him.
"I want to speak with your boss, then," Peter said.
"Oh. Oh, yes of course. That would be the right way to go. But I'm afraid she's on vacation. Greece, I think. I'm afraid I'm in charge in her absence."
As a representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Peter did not slam his fist into something or someone, but Neal was pretty sure he would want to.
They left the planetarium and Peter's phone rang.
"Right… Okay… Thanks, Diana."
"What's going on?"
"She's got a solid lead. I'm meeting her back at the Bureau."
"What about the book?" Neal objected. "We told Josh we'd see this through."
"I said I'm meeting her back at the FBI, not you."
A glimmer of hope was lit in Neal. Or would he just send him home?
"Are you saying you trust me enough to continue without you?" he asked.
"Neal, we got to get Savannah back. With that, I trust you completely."
Before Neal had time to answer that Peter jogged towards his car. Neal felt proud to have regained that much of his handler's confidence. He pulled out his phone and called Mozzie. They soon had just four hours left.