White Collar AU Siegel
Elizabeth's Tale
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Burke," the man at the door said while showing his federal ID, "I'm Agent Siegel, the man who needed Mr. Caffery's help the other night. As you know, he's in a lot of trouble. I'm wondering if you could help me find some perspective on that." Soon they were both inside and seated at the kitchen table with a coffee cup each.
"How can I help you with Neal?" Elizabeth asked, wishing she could have her husband's help for this conversation.
"Agent Burke caught Mr. Caffery committing a serious crime right before I needed his help with a case. Agent Burke, quite understandably, wanted to have him booked right away, but I required his immediate assistance. If I had to wait for another person qualified to complete the task that I needed help with, I likely would have needed a new warrant and my suspect could possibly have evaded discovery. It was a time sensitive matter that I could not disclose to Agent Burke. When he seemed like he was going to refuse to let Mr. Caffery go with me, he begged him to call you. Why?"
"I suppose it has something to do with our history over the years. I often saw things a different way than Peter did regarding Neal, and that helped them push through difficulties in their relationship and find creative solutions to problems."
"When he called you, you appeared to be hesitating. At least it seemed that way to me, just watching Agent Burke on the phone. Mr. Caffery went out of his way to make sure you heard him say that this was important. He shouted for you to connivence him…to 'do whatever it takes.' Why was he so sure you would side with him?" Elizabeth stared silently into her mug, considering the harrowing events of the past few months and the closure the young agent at the table with her had been bringing to them over the past few days. Things had felt like they were hanging by a thread for so long, and if that thread snapped, Peter would be taken away forever. Those fears were over now, but here was something new. Or was it old, ready to surface once again, only this time to take her from Peter. "Your husband is safe now Mrs. Burke. You were there in court yesterday. The pictures discovered in Andrew Dawson's safe definitively prove that Agent Burke did not kill Senator Pratt. Andrew Dawson will pay for what he did to your family, Mrs. Burke." The agent sighed and continued, "But Neal will pay for protecting it." Then he fell silent. She knew he would wait for her, so she held her coffee in the silence until she finally spoke.
"When Peter was arrested and over the six weeks he was in prison, Neal was like a rock. He was over every day, even if he didn't have an update, just to make sure I was eating, he made tea, listened to me cry… But of course, he couldn't be with me all the time. About three and half weeks in, I started getting messages on my phone. The first one was, 'Mrs. Burke, I strongly advise you to make sure Neal Caffery is motivatived to make sure your husband is promptly freed. I must warn you. Delete this message and tell no one of it if you want him to get out alive.' I received a message a day, sometimes two or three messages, all telling me to make sure Neal was willing to do anything to get Peter back, all telling me to delete them and tell no one about them. I only received them when I was alone. At first, I tried to beg Neal and the others on Peter's team to pursue every legal avenue for bringing him home. I held out for about two weeks, maybe two and half weeks. Then the messages became worse. They told me to encourage Neal to look into ways", Elizabeth indicated quotation marks with her fingers, " 'outside of the strictly legal to clear Agent Burke of the capital murder of a sitting United States senator.' " There was a picture of an electric chair once. Another time, there was a sketch of Peter in a prison uniform strapped to a table. His sleeve was up and someone was putting in an IV." Her voice cracked as she remembered the image. Siegel said nothing as Elizabeth waited for her voice to return. "After that," she continued at last, "it was over. I told Neal to bring him home. That I didn't care if how he did it or if it was illegal. I told him to 'Do whatever it takes; just bring him home.' I said that he owed Peter for getting him out of prison, and was overall nasty to him." She thought about telling the agent what she had told Neal about Peter still having his job being the reason he wasn't joining him inside, but decided against it. She would apologize to Neal privately for that if she ever had the chance, but she knew that wasn't why Neal had risked everything for Peter, so why put the idea of a selfish motive on his part into this agent's mind. "When Peter was released," she said, "I didn't ask questions. I just held him close and tried to ignore the awkwardness whenever I saw Neal."
The agent sipped his coffee, surely cold by now though he made no sign of it. "Mrs. Burke," he said, "I believe your story could help Mr. Caffery in court. If you would be willing to speak with the judge and let him see these messages, it could possibly reduce the amount of time he has to serve on these new charges. It still could also help Neal to make sense of everything."
"I already deleted the messages, Agent Siegel, like they said to. Without them, would the story even matter?"
"Possibly, but it would be better to have the messages corroborating the story. Not to worry, I can easily get them back as long as the SIM card is intact."
"Agent Siegel," Elizabeth snapped, not even trying to hide the irritation in her voice, "the only way my story can possibly help Neal is if I give you my phone to find evidence that could be used to prosecute me for criminal conspiracy. Furthermore, I would have to tell the story in court, for any messages you found to have the required context or you may as well not have them. Do you have a warrant to search my phone?"
"Solicitation actually. The act of inviting, encouraging, or commanding another person to engage in a criminal act," he said quickly. He took another sip of his coffee and continued, "No, I don't have a warrant for your phone, and I probably couldn't get one if I tried."
"So why even ask?"
"I was hoping that the family-type relationship that appears to exist between you and your husband with Mr. Caffery is actually real to you. Clearly it is to Mr. Caffery, but it comes down to this: Are you going to take the naturally loyal, highly trained fall guy who showed up in your lives, use him, chew him up, and spit him back out, then go about your happy life with the husband Neal Caffery risked everything to give back to you? You know he will never betray you if you do. You will be just as untouchable as whoever pulled the strings on both of you that I will never be able show that they even existed. Neal falls alone, and he falls farther because of it. Or are you going to show him that his life and his freedom are not less valuable the lives and freedom of the people he loves most. Will you show him that family are the people who stand by you when you need them the most? He is going down for your sakes and he deserves good people to return to at the end of it all. Stand beside him when he falls, Mrs. Burke! He stopped talking, took a breath, placed his coffee cup and his business card on the table, rose, and smiled graciously. "Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Burke. Think about what I have said. Mr. Caffery will be sentenced a week from Thursday." He gestured to the card, "You have my number if you ever need to contact me. Remember, as long as the SIM card is intact, I can use the messages to help Mr. Caffery. Think about it and make your decision, preferable before Wednesday evening."
As he began showing himself toward the door, Elizabeth called to him, "Agent Siegel." He turned to her and she silently held out her cell phone, unable to voice her fear that if she let him walk out of her home without it, she would never be able to make herself do what she must. He looked at her with soft eyes and a slight smile as he reached into his pocket and withdrew an evidence bag. He opened it and she dropped the phone inside.
"Thank you, Mrs. Burke," he said gently as he turned to go. Before he could place the evidence bag in his pocket, the door was opened from the outside and in walked Peter. Elizabeth could not meet her husband's eye at the moment, but she watched the two men. "Good evening, sir," said Siegel as he slipped the bag into his coat pocket, "I was just heading back to the office." Peter said nothing, but simply nodded his head, his eyes wide and staring a hole in the pocket where the evidence bag had been placed.
"Hon?" Peter choked, pulling her close. In the whirlwind of the past few days Elizabeth had managed to avoid telling her husband about the messages and her words to Neal, but she knew the time had come. As she buried her head in her husband's shoulder, she heard the soft click of the door closing behind the young agent.