Peter drove towards Manhattan Prep with Neal by his side.

"You can drop me off at Riverside."

Peter glanced at him.

"You're embarrassed to be seen with me," he noted, stopping the car by the sidewalk. If Neal did not trust him to handle an undercover situation, he sure wouldn't help him. "There you go."

"Peter, we're ten blocks from the school."

"I know, but your cover's safe. Better walk fast."

"Yes. Yes, I will." Neal glared at him as he unbuckled his seatbelt. "Because I am a bright-eyed young substitute teacher getting a jump on his day."

Neal pushed his ear-piece in place. Peter did the same.

"When I get there, I'll ask to see Slater with questions about tuition

to get him out of his office."

"Which is when I go in and look for details about the endowment. I'll be in my class by the time the first bell rings." He opened the door to leave.

"Textbook behavior, Neal. I mean it."

He got a glare in return.

"You couldn't help yourself."

"Nope." Teasing Neal was still fun.

Neal walked through the side gates for Manhattan Prep staff and stopped inside when he saw the headmaster leaving and locking his office.

"Peter, Slater's leaving his office," he mumbled.

"I'm on my way in. I'll intercept him and keep him away while you search."

Slater looked around, and since they had not met, Slater did not bother with an unknown man waiting by the doors.

"He just hid an envelope in his jacket," he mumbled to Peter. He had a feeling about this. "I'm gonna tail him."

"You don't have much time," Peter responded. He heard by the echo that Peter was indoors, hurrying up the stairs. It was not a no, so Neal followed Slater. When he stopped in a short corridor, Neal slipped inside a doorway and peeked at his doing.

Slater unlocked one of the pupil's lockers and put the envelope inside one of the books in there.

"All right, he just put the envelope in a locker."

"Can you tell whose it is?"

"No, not from here." He glanced at Slater, who locked the locker and left. "I could break in." The bell rang, doors were opened, and pupils filled the area. "Class is about to start. The kids are all going for their lockers."

"Somebody picks up that textbook, we lose the envelope," he heard Peter hiss at the other end.

"Well, if we could clear out the hallway..."

There was silence and then a humph at Peter's end.

"I have an idea," his handler said. Five seconds later, the fire alarm went off.

"Did you just...?" Neal asked, fascinated by Peter breaking the law.

"Yeah, just get in the damn locker."

Neal could not help grinning. He watched the students being guided out.

"Isn't pulling a fire alarm illegal?" he asked as he hurried down the empty corridor to the locker.

"So send me to the principal's office."

The padlock saw was easy to pick. Neal opened it. The images inside the door said it all.

"Peter, this is Chloe Woods' locker." He picked up the book he had seen Slater with. At the back was the envelope. "He put the envelope in the back

of her calculus book."

"Find out what's inside and meet me in the quad."

Fortunately, it was not sealed. He opened it, pulled out the paper, and photographed it. Then he put it all back the way he found it.

Peter waited, trying to stay out of sight with his blue hand. It would be hard to explain why he was sprayed with blue paint if he had not pulled the fire alarm. He saw some of it on the sleeve of his suit, too. Damn it.

"Here," Neal turned up, holding his phone, though he pulled it back when he saw the hand grabbing it. "Ooh, careful, Papa Smurf."

"Very funny. Give me the phone." Peter looked at the image. "This is a quarterly report for the school's finances."

"Slater's sending it to Woods via Chloe's books so there's no electronic trail," Neal said. "It's smart."

"It's dated next week. This is what's going to the board."

"Yeah, Woods gets an early look at it..."

"…So he can see how much money he can siphon from the endowment," Peter said. He loved how the two of them worked together.

"We need to get a look at Woods' personal accounts to prove it," Neal said. There were girls' giggles. "Peter, Peter," Neal whispered and gestured for him to back out of sight. Peter did and Neal jammed his hands in his pockets and walked to meet the girls.

"Hi, Mr. Cooper."

"Hello, Chloe."

Peter moved so he could see the meeting.

"Um, I was wondering if you ever did home tutoring. We're about to start 'A Tale of Two Cities,' and I would love it if —"

"Oh, well, listen, I-I'm just here temporarily…" Neal did not seem comfortable with this young girl's appreciation, but getting to Wood's home was exactly what they needed. He got eye contact with Neal and nodded. "…But I'm sure we could work something out," Neal finished.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"You could come over?"

"As long as your dad's home." Smart Neal, Peter thought.

"Dad? Yeah. Um, tomorrow afternoon?"

"Okay. You know what? We should invite Evan."

"Who?"

"Evan. You know Evan?" Evan joined the group when Neal waved for him. "Evan, this is Chloe. Chloe, Evan. We're meeting at Chloe's for a tutoring session tomorrow."

"Yeah. See you then." Chloe had eyes only for Neal.

"See you then."

"We're going to her place?" Evan asked, perplexed.

"Evan, you're gonna be fine. Trust me. I'll see you in class."

The giggling girls and Evan left, and Neal returned to Peter.

"We'll have to get a no-knock warrant to search Woods' home," he said, returning Neal's phone. "It's a perfect opportunity to get into his office and find those accounts."

"Yeah, good thing I'll have an honor-roll student for backup."

"Yeah, I heard. Why did you invite Evan?"

"Because Woods might be more inclined to leave us alone if there's another kid there," Neal said. Peter sent his partner a look. "And because Evan's in love with Chloe."

"Ah. Which may help deflect her amorous designs on you."

"One can hope."

"I felt the same way about Mrs. Fitzgerald, my algebra teacher," Peter confessed.

"Thus your lifelong fascination with numbers."

"And smart, leggy brunettes."

Neal could not help smiling as Peter made a third try to remove the paint from pulling the fire alarm. The same Peter who told him to do it by the book committed a crime himself—probably a crime that he could explain and have a valid excuse for, but did nonetheless.

They sat in the conference room, he, Peter, Diana, and Jones, while Peter called Woods over a speaker phone.

"It's Woods," the call was answered.

"It's Peter Stone. I looked over the endowment breakdown, Mr. Woods," Peter said. "It's very solid. I do have some final questions I'd like to go over in person. Are you free tomorrow evening?"

"Unfortunately, I'm stuck at home," Woods answered. "My daughter has a tutor coming over." He spat the word 'tutor' as if it was something the cat brought in.

Neal smiled at Jones and Diana. The plan had worked.

"Tell you what," Peter said, after a moment's thought. "I could come to you."

"My girlfriend's cooking me dinner. I'll be in the doghouse if I turn it into a business meeting," Woods said. "Unless you bring yours."

Peter was taken aback.

"My...girlfriend?" Peter stared at Neal, searching for help.

"I insist. What's her name?"

Peter was mute. Neal could not suggest anything since they were on speaker.

"It's Danielle," Diana said, leaning across the table.

"Oh. You're together? Right now? Whoa." Very mature reaction, Neal figured. "Mr. Stone... Danielle… I'll see you at my place at 5:00."

"Wonderful," Diana said. "We'll see you then." She hung up and turned to Peter. "So, what's this girlfriend business?"

"What would Junior say?" Neal asked.

"Cute. Let's just focus on the plan. Jones…"

Jones turned the wall screen on.

"This is Woods' apartment. His office is on the second floor."

Neal studied the drawing.

"All right, I'll be going after his desktop."

"That's right. You'll copy the hard drive with this portable cloner." Jones pushed a device across the table. Neal picked it up. Did not look complicated.

"The Problem is, his office is wired," Diana said, " with a state-of-the-art catic sensor."

"Yeah, well, the whole apartment is," Jones agreed. "I mean, the guy is working with the Juarez Cartel and running a scam on the side. I'd be paranoid, too."

"We'll need to circumvent the main panel to shut off the alarm," Neal said. That was tricky but doable.

"Or get Woods to shut it off for us," Diana suggested.

"While you enter the office," Peter said, "I'll accidentally open that door." He pointed on the patio door beside the dining room. Neal liked the idea.

"Yeah, if Woods thinks you set off the alarm by mistake, he'll deactivate it."

"We do this at six P.M. on the dot."

Peter held out his watch to him. Neal checked his and ensured their watches were in sync on the second.

"Tardiness will get me more than a demerit on this one," he sighed. "If we're off by a second, Woods will know."