White Collar - as an unofficial novel - part 2

The Watch

At the office the next morning Peter noted Neal was quiet. He did not blame him. It was a hard blow to arrange a trap and catch the wrong guy. In the position Neal was in, he was extra vulnerable. Well, their consultant had done nothing wrong and no harm would come to him because of this.

"Thanks for the wine and the cheese," Peter said, out of the blue. Neal stared at him, not getting it. "I set a trap for you once, remember?"

Neal smiled at the memory.

"Yeah. The Monet."

Peter was glad Neal trusted him enough to at least admit to these episodes although he more or less confessed to doing a break-in.

"No one lost their job because we were outsmarted by you. Relax, Neal. You did a good job yesterday."

The kid seemed to loosen up and sent him a grin.

"Ghovat did not leave us any wine though."

"Yeah, too few do," Peter agreed. "The Champaign was a nice touch too."

"It was New Years Eve. I felt sorry for you guys," Neal shrugged.

Peter and Jones had been in the van, surveying a party where they had heard Neal Caffrey would show up. Proof that he was there, and they would call for backup and arrest him.

"Were you at the party?" Peter wanted to know.

Neal chuckled.

"A friend of mine was there first and found your bugs. Then I found your van." They shared a grin. "It was a close call though."

"Was it your friend who helped you with the Dutchman?" A mystery man Peter was dying to meet one day.

Neal nodded.

"He's paranoid. Sometimes it's a good thing."

Lauren stood in the doorway.

"Got some info for you, Agent Burke."

They walked into the conference room and Lauren got the screen started.

"So, our ghost finally has a name," Lauren said as she presented images from the party on the screen in the conference room. "It's Idil Hazeva."

"Let's stick with Ghovat for now," Peter decided. "Do we know anything more about him?"

"Not much. No criminal record. Name's not coming up on any of our international watch lists. We can't find him registered in town." The footage they took at the night showed Ghovat place his phone in the other man's pocket. They could have seen it in the van if they had observed the right man at the right time. They had not.

"Anything about the girl?"

"A model," Lauren shrugged. "We're looking into her."

"What about Dmitri?" Peter wanted to know.

"Andrei Dmitri, Uzbekistan national. Linked to a handful of enterprises." Peter noted pleased that Lauren spoke to both of them, including Neal in the team. "Arms trading, money laundering, prescription-drug fraud."

"Not the kind of guy you'd expect to show up at Fashion Week," Neal noted with a faint smile.

"Yeah," she agreed.

Peter was thinking.

"Does he still think he got away clean?"

"Yeah. He slipped out the northwest exit. Jones is sitting on him."

"Tell Jones to keep his distance. Don't want him getting tagged. See where this guy leads us. Good work."

Lauren smiled.