White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 9

Lollipop

"So, I went to the bank to get the cash we needed," the kid said.

"Big mistake."

"Cashing those bonds was a calculated risk. But it was worth it for the con we were about to run on Adler."

"Yeah, but bankrolling them got us our first visual on you."

"If I recall, I wasn't the only one who made a mistake that day," the kid said with that soft voice of his.

"No, hang on, hang on."

"Admit it, it was then you started to admire me."

"I don't..." Peter halted. He did admire Neal. "At least I knew you weren't violent."

"But you knew I would be hard to catch."

"No," Peter protested. "No, no. At that moment I thought you had made the biggest mistake of your life, getting your face caught on camera. Few criminals make it for long once we have their picture." He watched the con artist's smiling face across the table. "You did though, but it took me a year to accept it."

"You had no idea who I was when we met in the bank?"

"Why should I? Because you were weird enough to give me a lollipop? Thieves don't have it written on their faces, you know. But you, you got my name. And learned it was time to leave the bonds and try something else."

"Yeah." Neal smiled.

"That birthday card baffled me."

"I figured it wouldn't add much to what you already likely knew. There was nothing on the card that could lead you to me, only to the bonds."

"Why did you send it? That first card." Peter had always wondered about that.

"Don't you know?"

"No, honestly I don't."

"I've never been in it for the money."

"It was a challenge," Peter realized. "You raised the stakes before the chaise had even begun."

"I did."

"Why?"

"Don't you enjoy life more when you chaise criminal that is hard to catch, even though it means more work for you?" Peter nodded, absent-minded, thinking it was not the same thing. "I enjoy doing what I do, Peter. The more challenge to it, the better."

"But you knew it would end with you in prison."

"No, not back then, no. At the time, I calculated I could move on whenever I wanted."

Peter figured that that explained a lot.

"When did you realize that you would eventually get caught?"

Neal whirled the wine in his glass, not looking at him.

"Later. Long after Adler."

"Alright," Peter sighed. "Go on with Adler."

"Mozzie was of course upset that I had talked to you at the bank," Neal continued.

"I bet he was."

"I told him it was worth it. 'Know thy enemy' and all that. And we had money to pay for the invitation. He asked me what name I was gonna use. I had never used aliases and had no clue."

"Hard to believe now," Peter chuckled.

"Well, everyone is a beginner in the beginning. I was browsing through the mail pile and came across an ad from 'Halden Legal Services'. And so Nicholas Halden was born. I got ID and certificates and so on for him and a few other names since Moz said it was a good idea to have a few ready. Moz also made me a bottle of wine that looked like an eight hundred-dollar bottle as a gift for Adler. I hope he never drank it or was already too drunk to notice that it was the cheapest red wine you could get. The bottle was a '91 Bordeaux, though."

"The same bottle?" Peter asked.

"No, but the same label." That it was a '91 Bordeaux he had picked for his and Kate's dreams was because of that first bottle.

"Then Mozzie presented me with a suit to wear at the dinner. My first."

"Kidding?"

"No. Shirt and tie, was okay, but a suit? I thought I would look ridiculous. But I could not come on a dinner like that with a bottle of expensive wine in what I wore, so... " Neal shrugged. He had felt awkward in it at first but once he saw Adler mingle before the dinner he had pushed that aside. "I went to the party and walked up to Adler when we mingled before dinner. I introduced myself, shook his hand, and gave him the bottle from my 'collection'."

"And you were palls, just like that."

Neal watched Peter. It had not been that easy. It had been the first time that he had actually acted like someone else, and someone with money for that matter.

"Far from it. Adler didn't say, but I'm pretty sure he thought the bottle was over the top and only to impress, which made him skeptical instead. So I changed tactics and praised him for the nice play on the emerging markets last quarter. And when he asked me what I thought, I could answer, thanks to Mozzie's teachings. He left me to continue to mingle, but I had caught his attention and was pretty proud of myself. I mingled, too. And somehow bumped into Adler again."

"What a surprise."

"And he was watching Raphael's Saint George and the Dragon."

"The one you later stole?"

Neal sighed. It had nothing to with Adler.

"Let's keep some mystery to that one, shall we?"

"Oh, it's like that music box everyone thought you had?"

No, that was not the reason. This one he had stolen, and still had, in a way.

"I've only got immunity from you."

Peter's grin grew.

"Sara."

Neal made his little I'm-not-saying-anything-shrug and continued the story.

"After I pointed out that I knew the painting and said it was a powerful piece, Adler said 'Commodities and art? You've got diverse interests.' I said 'like you, art is my passion.'"

"So Adler is interested in art."

"Yes. Then he said I should talk to his assistant, and called attention to a woman beside him. She turned and I looked into two blue eyes as clear as a summer's sky."

Peter's head went down.

"Don't tell me."

"That's how I met Kate."