White Collar - as an unofficial novel - part 2

Elizabeth pays a visit

They had been doing minor cases in the office for a few days. Peter did not mind to keep to regular office hours for once, but Neal appeared to be utterly bored. He sat on the other side of Peter's desk leaning his head in his hand, staring at the papers with vacant eyes. Papers that were upside down from his point of view.

Peter mimicked Neal's pose but glared at him instead, waiting for a reaction. It did not come.

"What are you thinking?" Peter asked at last.

Neal raised his eyes and met his.

"I'm thinking it was the accountant, in the law office."

So he had not been that vacant after all.

"With the illegal wire transfer." It made sense.

"Either that or Colonel Mustard in the library," Neal said as if he was dead serious.

"We can pull prints on the candlestick," Peter agreed. "Let's grab his company's financial records from last year. They're on file."

He watched Neal, waiting. The kid saw his face and looked surprised.

"You want me to do it?" he asked.

Peter nodded.

"We have clerks for that," Neal objected.

"I got something better. I got you."

"Okay." Neal rose and left without objections. Impressive. It was about time his protegé learned to find his way around the files. Even better if he learned to ask for help.

Neal walked along the shelves with box files labeled with codes that did not mean anything to him. What was he supposed to do? He noted that Lauren turned up for some material and Neal made an effort to look like he knew what he was doing among the files.

"Sticking around, huh?" he asked. She had been called over to keep an eye on him on the party where they hoped to catch Ghovat. And then she had just stayed.

"Yeah."

She pulled a document out of a box like she knew exactly where to look for it.

"Hey, is it true you once sent champagne to a surveillance van?"

"That's the rumor," he replied. "Been checking up on me?"

"You were part of my thesis at Quantico."

"Really? How did we do?"

"Ninety-four."

Gee, she did find the documents she needed with speed. Neal gave up to do this on his own and turned the charm. The woman had always done her best to act like a mature FBI agent but did little else than appear like a teenage girl in great need to act like an ice cube in his presence.

"Not bad. Find anything interesting?"

"Truth or rumor?"

"Is there a difference?"

"The counterfeit certificates were your only conviction. But you're implicated in at least a dozen confidence schemes, frauds, and forgeries."

It was no secret. If that was all she came up with she had a long way to go.

"Is that why you asked to be reassigned to the White Collar Unit?"

"I wasn't gonna pass up a chance to work with someone I've admired since college."

"Play your cards right, we'll make a case or two," he beamed at her.

"Oh, honey. I was talking about Agent Burke. He caught you twice, right?"