By the Book

Chapter 19

Chapter 19 Win-Win

Warehouse, Connecticut. January 8, 2004 – Thursday evening.

Neal stood still after Peter left the warehouse, catching his breath. He'd wanted to follow, but Henry had held him back, saying Peter needed time to think.

It still felt like he'd been sucker punched, and the adrenaline that left Neal's heart racing moments ago was rapidly dissipating. Soon he felt tired and sat on a stack of pallets. "Peter's going to send me to prison," he said. He was starting to feel the cold in the drafty building, and shivered. He wrapped his arms around his torso for warmth.

Henry placed a hand on his shoulder. "No, he can't do that. You have immunity for your crimes now. That was contingent on your confession, not on working for the FBI."

Neal nodded. He loosened his arms slightly.

"The thing is..." Henry paused, swallowed, and started over. "The thing is, with a resume that shows only three weeks of a legitimate job before you were fired by the FBI, there aren't going to be a lot of opportunities open to you."

Neal's arms tightened again. "You both think I'll return to crime."

Henry removed his hand from Neal's shoulder and sat beside his cousin. "It's the most statistically likely scenario. Neal, I'm sorry. This is at least partly my fault. What I did last night... I could tell Peter was almost ready to think of you as his son, and I knew it would help you manage the flashbacks if he went ahead and took that leap. But he wasn't ready for all of the repercussions. He couldn't handle seeing you in a life-or-death situation this soon. He led with his heart, as a dad, instead of with his mind, as a boss. If he'd had a little more time to process everything first, he'd have reacted more rationally here."

Neal relaxed his arms and sighed. It was a ragged sound, revealing more emotion than he wanted to show, but he couldn't help it. "I'm going back to a life of crime, and Peter will catch me and send me to prison. Win-Win won't let you talk to a convicted felon until 2013."

"No," Henry insisted. "First, once Peter calms down, there's a chance he can be convinced to give you another try. Second, if that doesn't work out, you have another option he isn't aware of. Neal Legend –"

"Is Shawn's sidekick," Neal interrupted.

"Damn it, Neal. You have to get past Shawn's ego. You were a partner, not a sidekick, no matter what he said. But you won't have to go it alone. I'll be Shawn again full-time. I'll tone him down and we can make it work. It'll be fun," Henry insisted with a determination Neal knew well.

"You can't. You have a job at Win-Win. You need to shake them up and open your own branch in New York. And you have to bring down Masterson."

"You're more important than Win-Win, and I'm starting to think that I can bring down Masterson without them."

"Thanks," said Neal. They sat in companionable silence, lost in their thoughts. Neal was planning how he'd escape and elude the FBI, preferably without disrupting Henry's career. And he was pretty sure Henry was planning how to escape and elude Win-Win to go on the run with him anyway. "Let's take the truck," Neal suggested after a while.

"Take it where?"

"Back to New York. It's evidence, right? It should go to some evidence graveyard in New York, and taking it there beats sitting around here. At least it would be warm." Neal stood up.

Henry stood, too. "You gonna tell Peter first?"

"We can call him from the road, ask him for directions to wherever the FBI stores impounded vehicles."