Okay so this chapter is pretty short, but it's just a quick transition chapter into Neal's POV and also a brief background for the next case. Something that is important to mention is that in my version of the White Collar story (which I do not own) Peter first started on Neal's case when he was 15 and then caught him two and a half years later when Neal was 17. (Although Neal swears to this day that he let Peter catch him ;) Okay now go read the chapter! And remember to review when you are done, please and thankyou :)
"There have been three museum heists in the last two weeks and one overwhelming, common variable: the words Sly Cooper were carved into whatever place once held the piece. The first piece, The Ballet Class by Degas, was stolen from the Guggenheim Museum." Diana laid out a picture of the masterpiece on the conference table. After everyone had taken a look at the beautiful piece of art, she slid another picture of "Sly Cooper" carved into the wall behind where the piece had once hung. She continued on with her briefing, "Secondly, we have Washington Crossing the Delaware taken from the Whitney Museum of American Art." The straight shooting agent again laid out a picture of the painting followed by its empty space in the exhibit with "Sly Cooper" left behind. "And lastly, we have Cobblestone Bridge by Thomas Kinkade taken from Brooklyn Museum." She finished her report by laying the last two pictures on the table.
Jones studied the Kinkade painting and then looked up with a confused expression written in his face, "Why the Kinkade? It's not nearly worth as much as the previous two; I mean don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful painting. But compared to the first thefts, it's not historical or worth over a couple million dollars."
Peter sighed heavily, "Kinkade is one of Neal's favorite painters." What was going on here? First of all, when Peter had asked a hazy Neal if he had any crimes he hadn't confessed to, the boy had brought up Sly Cooper. And now, Sly Cooper had suddenly shown up and made away with multiple thefts one of which being from the art lover's favorite painter? Something was fishy. The instinctive agent tried to defend his accusation: Neal was busy with the Bishop case, there's no way he could've pulled the heists. But then again, that young man was the best Con man and thief Peter had ever seen. He wouldn't put it past Neal to multitask incredible assignments at the same time.
"Boss, I'm not done," Agent Barragan stated drawing Peter out of his poisonous thoughts. "This isn't the first time Sly Cooper has pulled a job." The attractive woman rolled on to pulling up news articles that seemed to be in some sort of Slavic language. "Around four years ago Sly Cooper was a big time art thief in eastern Europe and Russia. The calling name for the thief was left at roughly a dozen crime scenes as well as Cooper being a major suspect in several other cases. He makes appearances from Russia to Austria and even a couple suspected crimes in Poland. And then out of the blue, he stops. No more heists for Sly Cooper since his last one in Romania. He dropped off the grid until he resurfaced right in our own backyard. But get this Boss, in all of Sly Cooper's alleged crimes, never once was there an injury or a death, except for his last suspected job in Romania. During that heist, a security guard was beaten severely and then his neck was snapped ending his life. I think that has something to do with the end of Sly Cooper and may even lead us to the reason behind his sudden comeback."
It took a moment for the senior agent to process all of the information he had received, but he clung to one piece specifically: the murder. No matter what, Neal would never result to violence on an innocent security guard. Not even that, but the benevolent boy would never hurt anyone no matter what the circumstances were. In fact, the only person Peter could ever remember that Neal had physically hurt was Keller; and that was just self-defense. This meant that Neal couldn't have been Sly Cooper… or maybe there was a plot-twist to the last case? Peter brought his hands to massage his temples before bracing himself. Whatever Neal had gotten himself into this time, Peter would try to help him out the best he could; after all, the kid was family. "Jones, do me a favor and google Sly Cooper," Peter ordered in a voice that left no room for questioning.
Peter could tell that Diana didn't understand the point of this, as if her research wasn't enough. But faithful Jones did as he was told and pulled up the google page for Sly Cooper. The first thing to appear caught everyone off guard except for Peter. "A video game?" Jones voiced aloud what everyone was thinking. After bringing up the Wikipedia page, the agent's flabbergasted tone didn't change at all as he reported his findings, "So basically, what I'm reading is that Sly Cooper is a video game based in an animal world about a raccoon thief who steals valuable treasures. And someone took up this identity and lived it out? Sorry Peter but I'm really not quite sure what to make of this."
"Yah well what I'm thinking is that this notorious thief had a juvenile influence," Agent Burke responded with a twitch of his mouth. "If you all will excuse me for a moment, I happen to know a teenager who might shed some light on this video game thief," Peter said ironically as he stepped out of the conference room to make a phone call.
Okay so not much going on, just some necessary information. If any of you are curious, all of the museums are real just as the paintings are, although the museums may not actually have the paintings I said were stolen. Also, if you really were to google Sly Cooper, first things that come up are about the video game series as well as the Wikipedia page. Like I said earlier, the next chapter will be in Neal's POV and will contain some painful memories and poor Neal will need someone to comfort him and watch out for the potential dangers coming up! I appreciate all of the reviews I've gotten so far and they really encourage me. Once again I am open to any suggestions or constructive criticism.