Yay next chapter is up and Neal is just as adorable as ever! My laptop was getting fixed so I couldn't upload anything but then I realized that it wasn't even that long since I put of the first chapter, but I was still so excited to write more. Thank you for all of the reviews I received, I appreciate them so much and it made me really happy that all of you are enjoying this story! I know this five year old genius seems a bit far fetched, but at the same time I imagine intelligent little Neal could've pulled it off, and even if it is improbable, it's still adorable. Enjoy the chapter!
Peter sat in his office looking over his team working frantically to discover a lead on the most recent gem heist. The case file sat open on his desk but all he could think about was Aiden Monroe, and he had a suspicious feeling that the crying boy was not simply a coincidence. Despite the familiarity of the name, the agent couldn't quite pinpoint where he had heard it from. They had searched the supposed name but nothing had been found on the child and they could only assume it was a made-up name. On a whim, he phoned his wife. Maybe she would have some advice for him? "Hey Hon," he began when the melodic voice answered the phone. "You're not busy are you?"
"No, I'm on a lunch break at the moment. What's up?" Elizabeth could sense that he wasn't just calling to check up on her, so it must've had to do with work.
"El, I was wondering, do you remember hearing the name Aiden Monroe?" he asked slowly as if not sure if it was a pointless question or not. But a pleasant surprise met his ears in response.
"Yah of course, that was the little boy scout who sold us cracker jacks almost a week ago."
"That's it!" he exclaimed. No wonder he hadn't remembered exactly, he had been in a rush that morning and had barely even processed the name that the little boy gave him. "Thanks a ton. You don't happen to recall the troop number on his uniform do you?" he inquired with a small glimmer of hope.
On the other end of the phone El closed her eyes and tried to picture the adorable little boy at her front door step. A navy blue uniform, a yellow scarf, and the numbers 7442 printed on his chest. She relayed this information to her husband.
"Perfect El! Thank you so much Hon," After the lovey-dovey couple exchanged their "I love you" s Peter hung up and got back to work. "Jones, do me a favor and run the Boy Scout troop number 7442. I need to know if there was an Aiden Monroe registered," he commanded with confidence in his new lead. He couldn't believe that he was going through a five year child in attempt to find his criminal. "Diana, put NYPD on the lookout for the boy," Agent Burke said as he handed her a picture of the child they had gotten on the security camera before it was disabled. Diana gave a nod and headed off to her desk phone.
Quicker than Peter had expected, his junior agent had a list of all the registered members of troop 7442; Aiden Monroe was not one of them. "Alright so Aiden's not in this troop, but are you sure Elizabeth remembered the numbers correctly?" Jones questioned as a possibility.
"No she positive, and after she said that I can kind of remember seeing those numbers as well," Peter sighed as he shook his head.
"Wait boss," Jones anchored in the lead agent with the sudden excitement in his voice. "Look here, an eight year old in the troop named Conner Bradly reported his uniform missing and his parents ordered him another one!"
Peter put a hand on his agent's shoulder, "Great work Jones, get me an address for the Bradly family.
Peter made haste as he drove to the address Jones had given him. He couldn't shake his gut feeling that somehow this missing boy scouts uniform could lead him to missing precious stones. At the same time, there was a less comfortable feeling that this was a dead end and had no relation to his case. But none the less, he rang the doorbell.
Agent Burk flashed his credentials and quickly explained in a calming voice that he just wanted to ask their son some questions about his Boy Scout troop. He was lead to a homely living room much like his own and sat down in a comfortable arm chair. The eight year old sat across from the federal agent in between his parents.
"Conner, you said that your Boy Scout uniform went missing?" Peter began heading straight to the point.
At first the little boy simply nodded his head, but then after a twist of his mouth responded, "Mommy and Daddy think that I just left it somewhere since we checked the whole house and still couldn't find it. But I think someone stole it!"
The father put an arm around his boy before jumping in, "Now Conner, remember what we talked about? Why would anyone want to steal your Boy Scout uniform?"
It was a mentionable point, but Peter put up a hand to signify to the father that they were entertaining this idea. "Why would you think someone stole it?" The agent asked gently. Kids had always made the talented agent feel slightly uncomfortable and past his area of expertise, but now questioning this child was the only lead they had on a case. He needed to muster up all of the careful techniques he had learned from El about how to deal with children.
"Because when I woke up one morning, my window was slightly cracked open and there was wind blowin through it!" Conner said with wide chocolate brown eyes. "Momma said I probably opened it sometime and didn't close it properly, but I know for sure that I didn't open my window at all!
Peter gave a nod in order to encourage the little boy whose mother had an unsatisfied look on her face. "So by any chance," the agent began as he held up a picture of the boy from the jewelry store, "have you ever seen this little boy? Is he a part of your troop?"
Conner took the picture and looked closely at it scrunching up his nose. Then his face lit up like a light bulb. "Yah! He's not in my troop, but one day when Daddy and I was sellin Cracker Jacks for Boy Scouts, this kid came up and asked me what I was doing!"
Peter smiled, that was all he needed. The usually quick-witted agent wasn't sure how a five year old managed to steal a Boy Scout uniform, or how the kid related to the jewel heist, but he knew once they found the boy then they could piece together this strange puzzle.
After leaving the Bradly's house, Peter picked up a call from Diana, "Boss, an officer saw a boy who matched the description of Aiden and picked him up off the street. We have the kid in the office now and he looks identical to the picture we have."
Peter had one hand on the wheel and the other held his cellphone to his ear. "Great I'm on my way and I'll be there in fifteen minutes," he said excitedly. "Did you call his parents?"
"No, there's a slight dilemma. He says his name is Ben and the number he gave us for his parents isn't picking up. He won't even give us a last name." Peter sighed, of course this kid had to be difficult.
"Okay just wait until I get there," he ordered before hanging up and focusing on getting there as fast as he could without breaking any traffic laws.
Peter entered the white collar division only to be met by bright blue eyes looking up to him in terror. Agent Burke bent down to be almost eye level with the tiny kid and spoke kindly but with a sly intent, "Hey there Ben," The boy scrunched up his nose as he figured what was coming. "Funny that you told my friend Diana that your name was Ben, since the other day you told my wife and I that your name was Aiden Monroe. Remember? You sold us Cracker Jacks?" Peter grinned as the little boy's mouth twisted and he looked at Peter's chin rather than his eyes.
"Uh-oh… Busted," The child pouted.
Peter sat the small boy across from him in the conference room; he didn't want to intimidate Aiden by using the interrogation room. Unexpectedly however, the child did not seem to be scared, but rather he was bummed. "So Aiden, if that even is your name, why don't you tell me who your parents are so I can call them?" The agent asked kindly.
The little mop of brown waves simply shook his head, "They don't have phones."
Peter resisted rolling his eyes, "Well there must be some way to reach them. Can you give me their last names? Maybe you even want to tell me your real name?"
Again the boy just closed his big blue eyes and shook his head. When he opened his eyes he looked directly at Peter, making such eye contact that the older man felt that those cerulean orbs were searching the depths of his soul. "They're gone, you can't reach them. They left me."
The strings in Peter's heart gave a tug at what seemed to be such a pitiful answer, but the small tyke didn't even shed a tear. It was as if he was trying to put on a tough act.
Peter decided to move on with his questioning, "What were you doing in the jewelry shop the other day then?" the agent slipped a picture in front of the boy that proved as evidence.
Aiden looked at the picture for a second before returning his gaze to Peter's warm brown eyes. "I demand to know my charges."
Peter couldn't help his mouth dropping. Who in the world was this five year old boy? "What do you mean kiddo? We haven't charged you with anything; you're not even in trouble." Peter folded his arms on top of the table before adding, "Although you may be in trouble if you lie to us and refuse to tell us anything." He could see the little boy's gears turning inside his head as he formulated his response.
Poor little Neal, he knew that if the big federal agent knew everything then he would be cooped up in an orphanage. Despite his small stature, he much preferred it on the streets. Neal was free, he could do whatever he wanted, eat whatever he wanted, and live wherever he wanted. It wasn't hard for such a young boy to weasel his way into an empty apartment or sneak into an expensive hotel. The last several months on the streets he had been living large and finally enjoying his life. Even though he was only five, his intelligence soared above even some adults and his awareness of the way the world works was astounding. His early street smarts were incredible; and he definitely didn't want to be sent to some foster home where he was bothersome and everyone ignored him. But most of all, he didn't want to end up anywhere that someone could hurt him, and at least if he was on the streets he could run away. Adults couldn't simply be trusted at all.
Neal didn't want to get in trouble so he made a small effort to be obedient, "My real name is Neal, but that's all you're gonna get!" His voice was small and vulnerable when introducing his real name but towards the end his feisty spirit kicked in. The little boy stuck out his tongue to further show that that was the extent of his compliance.
The agent tried to plaster a warm smile on his face knowing that his was a breakthrough, but yet he was still aggravated by the attitude. "Okay Neal. I know it's almost dinner time and I'm sure you're hungry, so how a bout we do a little exchange?" Peter said taking a different approach. "If you tell me what you were doing at the jewelry shop, and no lying, then I will buy you whatever you want to eat for dinner."
The little boy's mouth watered seeing the potential he could squeeze from this deal. But at the same time, if he told the whole truth, he really could get in trouble. Also he didn't want to turn Mozzie in, the strange man had proved to be a good friend and paid Neal all the money he was owed as well as watched out for him. He taught Neal a lot of things over the past couple of days and had even given him some really interesting books to read. At first Mozzie had been surprised at the five year old's high level of reading, but was then eager to give him books that were actually interesting and weren't like dumb kiddy books. The crook had taken it upon himself to train the little diamond in the ruff. "Okay," Neal finally gave a little sigh at last. He figured giving the agent a bone would suffice. "A man paid me two hundred dollars to go in and distract the man at the front desk," Neal said with a convincingly innocent smile.
After Peter had decided that this probably wasn't a lie, he continued prodding, "Do you know the man's name? What did he look like?"
Neal gave an adorable yawn hoping it would improve his credibility before answering in a sweet voice, "He didn't tell me his real name, and he was bald." The little conman smiled brightly on the inside; there was no lie in his answer. Mozzie was not the man's real name nor had he told him his real name, so that worked perfectly. Plenty of men were bald and that description was certainly suitable coming from a five year old. A smug little look appeared on his face, "Oh and I want lobster for dinner." The little boy might as well milk his only opportunity. Christmas was only a couple days away and this could be counted as a good Christmas treat.
Agent Burke sighed realizing that he wasn't going to get anything else tonight. At the mention of lobster his mouth dropped for the second time during the questioning. "Lobster?! You're five! I thought you'd want a cheeseburger or something simple! Toddlers eat chicken fingers, not lobster!" Peter said flabbergasted.
Neal kicked his feet happily; it prided him to be difficult and he was also proud of his exquisite taste. "I'm not a toddler!" he said offended; he was definitely a big boy. "And you promised I could have anything!" the adorable little boy stuck out his bottom lip in a pout and delivered his best puppy dog eyes.
Peter groaned and stepped out of the office to call his wife. If he was going to be buying lobster tonight he might as well treat the love of his life; even if there was a kid tagging along.
Don't forget to leave a review! And Merry Christmas everyone! I hope to have a chapter up before Christmas and it will be about Christmas at the Burke's for sly little Neal!