By the Book

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Invitation to the Party

White Collar Division, New York. December 30, 2003 - Tuesday morning.

Another day, another mortgage fraud case to research. Neal Caffrey had been working at the FBI as a consultant for two weeks now, and was disappointed at how boring it was. Special Agent Peter Burke had warned him he'd be doing research for a while, but he'd never imagined how difficult it would be, stuck at a desk eight hours a day, surrounded by agents who were betting on when he'd mess up or give up. He'd stooped to drinking the Bureau's horrendous coffee. It was only 10:30am, and already he needed the boost of caffeine to keep going.

"Hey, Caffrey," Agent Jones said, grabbing the coffee pot.

Jones was the friendliest of the bunch, maybe because he was closest to Neal's age and had suffered through being the new guy himself not too long ago. But Jones was also having a lot of closed-door meetings with Peter. Neal guessed that Jones was either assigned to befriend him, or to watch him, or both. "How's that burglary case going?" Neal asked, itching to look into something that involved his actual expertise. "You know I could..." An agent Neal didn't recognize was striding across the bullpen. "Who's that?"

"Burke!" the agent yelled. "I need your team, pronto!"

"That's Agent Kimberly Rice, from Missing Persons."

"She's the one who beat out Agent Wiese for the lead job?" Tricia Wiese was about Peter's age. With auburn hair, green eyes, and freckles, she looked like a Celtic Valkyrie when she was angry.

"You're keeping up with the rumor mill, aren't you? That was about two months before you started. Wiese moved to White Collar rather than work for Rice. Still some bad blood there. I do not want to get in the middle of that."

"But you want to watch."

"Hell yeah," Jones said, joining the crowd of agents milling in the center of the bullpen.

Peter stepped out of his office to meet Rice at the top of the stairs. "Agent Rice, you could've called first."

"No time. This is urgent." She swept into Hughes' office.

Peter followed and shut the door behind him, with a glance down at the bullpen. He shrugged at his agents, then took a seat.

After what looked like a heated discussion, Hughes stepped out of his office to stand at the glass half wall and said, "In the conference room, all of you. We have a change of plans today."

Once the team had gathered, Hughes said, "Agent Rice is requesting our assistance with a missing persons case. The prime suspect in the case works for L&B Industrial Supplies, which as you know we have been investigating. Agent Wiese, I believe you took the lead on that case."

"That's right," Tricia Wiese said. "We were looking into Bennet Sinclair, until he took a leave of absence starting three weeks ago. With him out of the picture, the case went cold."

"He's back in the picture now," Rice said. "Think you can keep up with him this time?"

"Agent Rice," Hughes said, "If you want my team's help, then back off. Wiese, we'll need to pull you in as our expert on Sinclair. I want you and Agent Jones to hand off your current investigation to be part of a cross-departmental team jointly led by Agents Rice and Burke. Now, who can take over the burglary case Wiese and Jones were assigned this morning?"

Neal immediately raised his hand.

"Caffrey, put your hand down," Hughes ordered.

"But –"