White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 9

Recruting

Peter had invited Diana and Jones home to his place. Now his two guests sat on his sofa in uncomfortable silence. He held three beers in his hands. He handed one to Diana.

"Thanks, Peter."

Jones was not as eager.

"Oh, I'm fine."

"You're gonna need it," Diana said. She was probably right. He sat down opposite them.

"Thanks for coming, Jones."

"Of course," he replied, somewhat stiff. "I don't know why you kept me out of the loop in the first place."

"To protect you," Peter said.

"To protect me? From who?" A smile lurked in the man's corner. It would take some time to make him understand the gravity of the situation.

"Julian Larssen."

"Julian Larssen? Is the risk that he shoots me higher than for you?"

He was hurt that he had been kept out of the loop, Peter understood that and did not blame him.

"At first," Peter began, "it was just a matter of making sure Fowler or his goons did not find out. So I talked to Diana who was not working for White Collar at the time. It was not a matter of trust, Jones. It was a matter of finding a way around OPR's access."

"Okay. And what was it you wanted to keep from Fowler?"

"A music box."

"A music box? Open it up, it plays a little tune. Ballerina goes around on top?"

"Something like that," Diana nodded.

"This one's a little more special," Peter said.

"It damn well better be."

"It was common knowledge that Neal had stolen it. And Fowler used Kate as leverage to get access to it."

"But he did not have it?" Jones guessed, taking a sip from his bottle.

"No. He did not even steal it in the first place." Peter saw Jones's eyebrows go up. "He did not bother to correct the rumor because it gave him good cred. But, no, he did not steal it. With the pressure and help from Fowler, he got his hands on it—"

"How?" Jones broke in.

"Took it from the Italian embassy."

"Wow."

"He delivered it to Fowler," Peter continued. "Got his ticket out of the country and then the plane blows up."

"We found the music box in Fowler's car," Diana said. "Someone wanted the music box badly and we did not understand why. It was expensive, it belonged to Catherine the Great, it played a tune. Not worth all that trouble," she shrugged.

"I asked Diana to hide it and we switched it to another one which we logged into the system," Peter sighed. He did not like false information in the Bureau's system.

"And now you did not tell me, because...?"

"Someone was ready to kill for that music box," Peter said. He had a nagging feeling that the plane had blown up because the music box had fallen into the hands of the FBI instead of Fowler delivering it. "I wanted Neal away from it, and I wanted it gone. Diana was already involved." Having a team of four with three keeping something from the fourth was hard and, Peter thought, ethically wrong.

"So you know why the music box is so important?" Jones asked.

"It contains a code."

"A code to what?"