White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 8

Batman

The next lunch Neal walked with Mozzie across a parking lot too close to his range limit for comfort, but it was isolated which was the whole point. Hale, a man Neal knew since he first arrived to New York waited for them by his old classic Cadillac.

"What bushes did you rustle to uncover Alex's trail?" Mozzie asked as they crossed the empty tarmac.

"Remember that silver collection she fenced a few years ago?"

"The Spanish pieces from the Almiranta shipwreck?"

"They're popping up again, one at a time." Neal turned his attention to the stern man waiting with his armed crossed. "Hale."

"I don't like loitering," he growled. Neal just looked back, smiling, and waited. Finally Hale could not keep his face and he cracked into laughed. "Neal!"

"I really appreciate this," he told Hale when they hugged.

"So, what happened to your goatee?" Hale asked Mozzie and pulled at his chin. "You know I liked it."

"We all grow up," his friend smiled in return.

"All children... Except one." Hale grinned at Neal. Why did so many think of him as a youngster? He was not fifteen any longer and he had no wish to be either. It had been a dreadful time.

"Did you bring it?"

They walked around to the back of the car and Hale opened the trunk. He handed him a bowl on foot in silver. Neal did not need more than a few seconds. The decoration, the traces of a long time in water...

"It's from the Almiranta." He handed it back to Hale who put it back in the trunk.

"Who's the fence?" Mozzie asked.

"Anonymous."

"The thief?" he asked, wondering where Alex fit in.

"It's the third piece of shipwreck silver I've had come through this month." The trunk was closed and locked.

"Someone's been busy," Moz said.

"Too busy," Hale returned. "I like that 'someone.' So you should warn her the NYPD is on the trail. If they make the Almiranta connection..."

"Understood." He did not want to see Alex in prison. "What do I owe you for this?"

"We all go way back. Just remember me fondly when you pull the next job."

"Well, that might be a while."

"Or it might not," he grinned, not trusting that one of the world's best con-mans could stay on the legal side of life. Well, time would tell. Hale and Mozzie fist-bumped and then they got moving.

"He thinks it's Alex," his friend told him at once. "She knows how valuable this stuff is, and she knows where it is."

"She's stealing back her own stuff," Neal mused. "When the NYPD realizes it's all from the same collection-"

"They'll set a trap."

"Unless we get to her first."

"Oh, that would take FBI resources we don't have access to."

Neal frowned. He was so used to having that kind of things, that he expected them to be there. He wondered if that was a good sign or not. But most of all...

"I can get those."

"How?"

"I con the FBI."

"It will do you good, my friend." Moz could not stop grinning. "I bet you've missed playing games with the Suit."