White Collar - as an unofficial novel - part 2

Things at their right place

The next day at the office Peter brought him directly into his room.

"Neal, we'll soon have a meeting, and I wanted to prepare you. You need to tell the team you stole the painting."

Neal stared. This he had not seen coming.

"Peter, I..."

"I'll tell the painting is found and that we'll use it to catch Dorsett. The team knows what we found in the hotel suite, Caffrey." 'Caffrey' as to remind him he was a criminal. Only Peter called him 'Neal'. The others kept their distance.

"So you knew it was me?"

"Yeah."

Neal swallowed. Peter had known.

"But you didn't bring me in..."

"Dorsett was a bigger problem at the moment. Without you, I was afraid we wouldn't find him again." Peter gave him a stern look. "I wasn't giving you a slack if that's what you think."

"I wasn't." He had hoped so, though. But he knew Peter.

"You know I'll have to give you house arrest for this, right?"

Neal nodded. It was nothing compared to being sent back to prison. When he came into Peter's office, prison had still been a possible ending of the day. Now it seemed as if he was off that hook.

"What do we do with Dorsett?" he asked to steer the conversation towards something more interesting.

"We'll meet Jones and Cruz in the conference room soon. I know you've been working hard for their trust. But this time it was you ruining it, not I. If you want them to trust you again, you need to tell them the truth."

Neal knew Peter was right but he was not happy about it.

"Neal?"

"If this is part of your punishment, just tell me so."

Peter studied him.

"I hadn't thought about it that way. Is that the way you feel about it?" Neal gave a nod. "Well, you did steal and broke our agreement. Do you prefer to go to prison instead?"

"No. I'll tell them." He would tell them nothing they did not already know. "Thank you."

"You did the right thing telling me, Neal. I hope you understand how glad I am that you did."

It felt good to hear. Neal was glad that he had told, too.

"Why did you tell me?"

Neal stuck to the whole truth and nothing but the truth and told Peter about how he realized he had put Peter's reputation in jeopardy and Dorsett calling on top of that.

"Dorsett called you?"

"Threatened Taryn."

"What did you say?"

"I asked for two days. We'll meet tomorrow."

Peter seemed pleased.

"Shall we join the others?"

Peter took him into the conference room where Jones, Cruz, and a few other team members were waiting. He gave Neal a nod to go ahead. Neal jammed his hands in his pockets and suddenly had cold feet.

"Neal?" Peter prompted.

His eyes left Peter's and they wandered over the assembled in the room.

"I stole the painting," he said. It was done.

"And Dorsett has contacted Neal to get it back," Peter continued and moved the focus from him to their mission. "Neal will deliver the painting tomorrow and we take him down."