White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 8

Hot-wire a Lamborghini

Back from lunch, Neal took upon himself to convince Jones to follow him to en exhibition. First of all, he told Jones about the Marshals using his tracking anklet to find out where he had Peter had been.

"So, that's why Peter works from home," Jones concluded.

"Exactly," Neal nodded. "And I figured I could hang around with you, as a decoy."

Jones glanced at him.

"You know, I work with other cases as well, and some of them are out of your radius," he said, "so to speak."

"Alright, I get it, but speaking of radius, are you busy this weekend? You see, there is an exhibition I'd like to see and—"

"It's outside your radius and you need a chaperon."

"You're gonna love it."

"I'm not into art. Sorry, Caffrey."

Jones began to move away but Neal jammed the flyer into his hand.

"Just look at this, will you." It did not seem as Jones was about to so Neal tagged along towards the conference room. "I'm telling you, Jones, you cannot miss this. It's mostly office motifs, all right? Imagine Shepard Fairey meets Dilbert."

"That means nothing to me." Jones returned the flyer without looking at it.

They both stared into the conference room where two unknown U.S. Marshals were going through their material.

"Where's Deckard?" Neal asked.

"He went to Chase down a lead," one of them answered.

"Where?" Jones wanted to know.

"He didn't say."

Jones and he exchanged a look and walked into Peter's empty office. Neal closed the door behind them. Jones dialed on Peter's desktop phone and put it on speaker. Neal heard the signals go through.

"Yeah?" Peter's familiar voice answered.

"Peter, Neal and I are on speaker in your office," Jones said.

"What's going on?"

"Deckard left the FBI," Neal said. They heard a sigh at the other end, and then as he spoke a bit away from the phone:

"Jack, don't break in."

"Are you with Jack Franklin?" Neal asked. And he just asked the guy not to break in?

"Yeah," Peter confirmed. "Volker's office. Franklin says that Deckard is the one who's selling witness information. And there's evidence in Volker's office to prove it."

And so he just took a suspect and a fugitive on a tour there? That was not like Peter. If it was not an emergency.

"That may be where Deckard went," Neal sighed.

"Wait, wait, Peter," Jones said. "You're with Franklin?" The man seemed as shocked as Neal felt.

"Yeah." It sounded like a sigh, like 'I know this sounds insane.'

"Do you need backup?" Jones asked.

"No, we're in Glen cove. It'll take you a half-hour to get here," Peter answered. "Jack..."

They heard a voice but could only make out the last:

"You can wait here or follow a fleeing suspect," they heard Franklin say.

"Peter, I'm gonna call local P.D." Jones could not quite believe that Peter was doing this. And neither could Neal.

"No, I'll manage," Peter aborted. "I'll let you know if things change."