Neal Caffrey's Daughter

Pilot [2]

"We've confirmed the bond is counterfeit," Peter said in his office.

"Yeah, it's a fake," Neal said as he tossed a rubberband ball up in the air.

"Okay. Tony makes two trips. The first time, he takes a picture of the bond. His second trip in, he steals the original and replaces it with this copy. Can we confirm that?"

"The timed ink-identification test puts the age of the bond at approximately six days, which coincides with Tony's visit," Jones explained.

"We're pulling surveillance video to back it up," Diana said.

"Good." Peter praised "So the question is, why go to the trouble of making a really nice forgery, on the right kind of paper, just to stick it back in the archives?"

"Is the bond still negotiable?" Neal asked.

"It's a zero option, so it never expires. What's it worth?"

"$1,000 face value," Jones replied "Drawing 9% interest,"

"Compounded for 64 years," Diana said.

"$248,000," Neal calculated.

"What he said," Jones said.

"Quarter of a million. Not chump change. And he's got 600 sheets of the stuff," Peter said.

"$150 million...give or take," Neal reasoned.

"He'd be a rich man if he could pass them off. But it still doesn't tell us why he would take out the real bond and put in a forgery,"

Neal stopped tossing the rubberband ball "I think it does. What if he claimed he found boxes of the original bonds?"

"Dragged them out of those caves in Spain,"

"Yeah. How would they be authenticated?"

"They'd be taken to the archives and compared to the original,"

"Which he's already switched out with one of his own copies,"

"So of course they're gonna match." Peter clapped his hands "Oh, this is good. This is really good. All right. Let's think about this,"

Diana's cell phone rang "It's Elizabeth,"

Peter gestured the team out of the room "Diana, show Neal his desk,"

"I get a desk?" Neal asked.

"Yeah, drawers and everything,"

Diana led Caffrey through the office "What's your impression of the Dutchman?"

"He forged a Goya, so he's got style," Neal said.

"Style? You sent champagne to a surveillance van,"

"You been checking up on me?"

"My job,"

"Find anything interesting?"

"Truth or rumor,"

"Is there a difference?"

"The counterfeit stock certificates are your only conviction. You're implicated in a dozen other frauds, schemes, and forgeries. Collecting financial aid for colleges you didn't attend."

Neal smiled slightly, what Diana didn't know wouldn't hurt, after all, he wasn't the one who attended them.

"I should've thought of that." Diana continued "It's rumored you had Iraqi dinars even before Saddam was out of power,"

"It was a good trick if you could pull it off," Neal said.

"You rented offices in Trump Tower back to Trump himself. Ballsy," Diana pointed to an empty desk.