White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 9

Neal and Mozzie teams up

"When I was back home," Neal continued the story. "I had barely time to hide the money before there was a knock on the door. 'I'm the guy from the park,' he said when I opened, as if I had missed him the first time. Different wig didn't change him that much. I closed the door."

"I bet you did," Peter grinned.

They moved outside to the patio, enjoying the coolness of the night.

"The guy didn't leave that easy," Neal said, smiling at the memory. "He knocked again. 'Hey, I'm not here to give you hospital time, kid', he said through the door. I told him he would not get his money back, and he said I could keep it."

"That was the start of a beautiful friendship."

"Not yet," Neal shaking his head, trying a sip of the wine and once again regretting it. "I opened the door and asked him about his angle.

'Look, I been running find-the-lady for years, and even I didn't catch that swap,' he said.

I asked him about his partner and he said he left him.

'Why?'

'I need an upgrade.' He had a strange feeling of honesty about him. I liked him at once."

"I bet you did. Did you say Mozzie had a goatee?"

"Well, only to distract from his toupee. We talked. Moz told me about his Detroit days. He'd been running street cons since he was a kid."

"Mm. Notice my lack of surprise. What does any of this have to do with Adler?"

"Well, he's the reason Mozzie found me. I showed him my bonds—"

"Those bonds?"

"Yes, the bonds that put me away in prison," Neal nodded. "Mozzie liked them.

'These forgeries are exquisite,' he said. I was quite vain and asked him who said they were forgeries. He gave me one of those duh-looks—"

"I know what you mean."

"— and said 'given your living conditions, I do.'"

Mozzie had asked how he had made them, how he matched the tricolor seal, the one that was supposed to be impossible to forge. He had told him that he had just eyeballed it. Some things are best to do when you do not know they are supposed to be impossible.

"Mozzie said that if we became partners, we could move way beyond the street hustle. I asked him what he had in mind and he said a long con, which, if executed properly, would enable us to purchase and retire on neighboring temperate-zone islands in a mere six months."

"So you partnered up?"

"No, I wasn't in it for the money, really. It was for the challenge. To retire that young, no. But then Mozzie flipped the coin and said: 'I'm talking about summiting the Everest of swindles.'"

"That trigged you."

"That trigged me," Neal nodded in agreement. "I asked who the mark was and Mozzie said —"

"Vincent Adler."

"Yeah."

"Oh. Now, this is getting good."

Peter leaned back in his chair, drinking his beer. He loved every second of this night. He had always wanted to hear this story. He had thought about this immunity before but until now he had had no valid reason to, beyond his own curiosity.

He noted that Neal had a green shirt. The kid never wore green for some reason. Why now?

"It was the first time I heard Adler's name," Neal said.