Peter sighed as he stepped out of the elevator. He should have known it wouldn't be that easy. They had plenty of evidence against Harper for collecting Neal from Randell and they could charge the squirrelly kid from the observation room, who turned out to be Adrian's nephew Antoni... But Martinelli himself was claiming he had no idea his nephew was hiding a man in a hidden room in his house.
The cell had no fingerprints other than Neal's and while the observation room had several sets none of them matched Adrian... they needed something to prevent this monster from walking. Peter needed to prevent that at all costs. Neal deserved to know Martinelli couldn't hurt him again.
When Peter stepped in to see him the previous night the kid had been on the verge of sleep. At least he hadn't panicked again when he'd opened his eyes to the gentle squeeze on his shoulder to see Peter standing there. Neal gave him a sleepy smile and carefully patted his arm before closing his eyes again but the fear was still there lingering in the back of those blue eyes. Giving him some sort of peace was the priority. That meant they had to nail Martinelli... had to lock him up for a very long time.
Diana met him at the door.
"Jones is interviewing Antoni right now."
"Good let's go to the observation room."
"Boss" Diana bit her lip "I really think you should wait out here."
"That is not happening."
"Boss..." She resolutely met his eye "He's talking..."
"I fail to see the issue."
"It's ugly. The things he says they did..." she looked away "I think it will be easier for you if you read them later."
"I'm not looking for easier for me Diana."
"I know you're not but..." She tried for a grin, but it fell flat "I'd rather not arrest you today."
He was definitely worried. he'd stepped into the room some minutes ago and though it had been a tremendous relief to find his friend sitting up in the bed... Now Mozzie was worried. he'd greeted Neal cheerfully and had received no response. Several more attempts to start a conversation had been met with silence as the younger man continued to stare at the wall... as though he could not see or hear his friend almost to the point of pleading.
"Please Neal." desperate, Mozzie reached out and grabbed his arm wanting to shake him to awareness. To his utmost surprise Neal blinked... smiled.
"Oh, hey Mozz." his eyes sparkled with life "I wasn't really expecting to see you until I go out of here."
"Uh-" he was rarely at a loss for words but this... was...
"It's good to see you..." Neal grasped his arm tightly "I've missed you."
"I've... missed you too." he managed to choke. "You look good for a man held by Adrian Martinelli for nine months."
"Oh." Neal frowned "was that who it was?"
"You didn't know?" Mozzie sighed as his friend shook his head. "He never came in?"
"No one did..." Neal chewed his lip for a moment. "I thought..." he stopped then met his friend's eye. "Never mind it doesn't matter, obviously it was a lie. I must have been hidden well if it took you and Peter nine months to find me."
"That's one way to put it Mon Fere." he turned away unable to face his friend as he said, "We didn't look for a while." he turned back to face the sad resignation on Neal's face.
"You both thought I'd run."
"NO!" he quickly lowered his voice when Neal flinched back... " no, we didn't-" Mozzie closed his eyes to ward off the months of grief. "We thought... we were led to believe you were dead."
"Oh"
Diana was right. Peter hated to admit that but... it was better he was watching the video of Antoni's interview rather than the live event. The D*** kid very carefully didn't incriminate his uncle but the things he confessed...
"How did you keep Caffrey from trying to escape?" Jones had asked blandly.
"Oh, that was simple... there was no way to escape from that room... it's a vault." The young man had smirked. "Besides... we convinced him he was dead... that all of this was his eternal punishment..." The boy chuckled nervously " it was pretty clever actually."
"And how exactly did you convince him."
"That was the tricky part, but the room is piped for gas and the floor is wired for electrical shocks..." again the nervous chuckle. Despite his bravado the kid was clearly uncomfortable with what they had done, and Peter was already seeing red as he watched. "The first thing we did..." he continued "was make sure his wounds were...covered... he could feel them but not see them."
"Why?"
'It was all about the illusion... pain..." the boy flinched slightly as he spoke "Continuous pain but no wounds... you know no longer a mortal body... pain is in your mind...in your soul..." there was a bit of a queasy look to the criminal now. "We denied him everything a living person needs."
"What does that mean" Jones was clenching the files in his hands as he asked.
"Food... water... sleep... even..." his voice trailed off then.
"You had him for months" Jones sounded as horrified as Peter felt " there's no way you didn't give him water or food that long!"
"Not that he ever knew about." the kid laughed again. "See that's the beauty of it... we'd have him painting for 24...36 a couple of times even 48 hours then... we'd gas him and knock him out... we used the floor to distract him so he didn't notice the gas... to much pain... then I'd send the Doc in... run a tube up his nose... food and water in... then he's run tubes up... well you know... food and water out if you follow... then we'd rough him up a bit... get our makeup artist to cover it all up and then let him come around."
"And then the process started over?" Jones questioned weakly.
"And then the process started over." the smirk was as false as any Peter had ever seen but... "he tried really hard not to buy it but the lack of bodily functions... that really sold it you know."
Peter's hand trembled with rage as he turned off the video. Martinelli was not going to get away with this... Peter intended to nail him to the wall for this. No wonder Neal freaked out when he saw his friend in that place... Not scared of him... horrified for him. The thought sent his stomach rolling,