Echoes of a Violin

Chapter 1: Travel Plans

New York City. Thursday, May 19, 2005.

"To Paris!" Mozzie clinked glasses with Neal. "In eleven days, we'll be drinking champagne on the Champs-Élysées."

Neal gazed at the bustling Manhattan street from the sidewalk cafe where they were having lunch. Soon that scene would be replaced by the sights and sounds of Paris. "Our first time to work in the City of Lights together. When do you leave?"

"Tomorrow morning. I will have finished the job with Gordon Taylor by the time you arrive on the thirtieth. It's quite a coup to have your trip to London financed by Interpol."

"John Hobhouse couldn't have picked a better time for the initial meeting of the art crimes task force," Neal agreed. "Peter and I will fly to London next Monday. The cost of traveling to Paris afterward is negligible."

"Peter, of course, believes you're going to France for a romantic vacation with your girlfriend Fiona."

"And he's correct," Neal insisted. "Retrieving the Braque painting isn't the primary purpose."

"Right." Mozzie viewed him appraisingly. "I assume White Collar continues to believe that Adler's interest in the painting is due to it being somehow connected to a hoard of Nazi-looted art."

Neal nodded. He took another bite of his chicken Caesar salad. By now his pangs of conscience from not telling Peter about the painting barely caused a ripple.

Back in February when he found out that an extravagant sum of money was being offered for the Violin and Candlestick, the correct course wasn't so clear. Peter might have understood the circumstances. Neal and Klaus Mansfeld had stolen it years ago. At the time Neal thought it was a copy and only later discovered it was an original masterpiece.

But that was all water under the bridge.

Peter had as much as told him that any unreported thefts Neal had committed abroad before joining White Collar needed to stay buried, particularly since he was now a member of the Interpol art crimes task force. But how could Neal ignore a painting that was so desired by Adler? That painting could contain the key to the recovery of many of the most famous missing masterpieces from World War II, perhaps even Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man.

So now the only reasonable option was to retrieve the painting. If it was still where he and Klaus had left it, Neal would bring it back to New York, solve the mystery, and then somehow anonymously return the work to the proper authorities.

Mozzie brushed the ciabatta crumbs off his lap. "Peter knows that you intend to research the paintings on the shipping manifest while you're in Paris, right?"

"Correct. He just doesn't know you'll help me. Not that it would necessarily be a problem, but ..." Neal ended the thought with a shrug.

"Discretion will be our motto," Mozzie supplied, with an approving nod. "How about your cousin Henry? Will he also be in Paris?"

"Possibly. He's going to Germany to look into the background of Adler's father, Wilhelm. He immigrated to the States shortly after World War II, but we don't know what he did during the war. Henry's working with Jones on the project."

"Has Jones persuaded Henry that Adler believes there's a missing U-boat somewhere on the ocean floor filled with plundered art?"

"That seems the most likely, not just to Henry but to the rest of the team as well. Wilhelm Adler worked in the submarine construction business in the States. His son is suspected of owning a marine salvage company, so it's a logical theory." Neal glanced at his watch. "It's time for me to head back. Are you coming early tonight?"