White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 8

Fowler's story

Neal felt strangely uncomfortable arriving at the office in cuffs. It was empty except for Jones and Diana who were both aware of the situation. Still, it felt awkward. The White Collar office was the place where he was not a prisoner. A convict with an anklet, yes, but mostly a part of a team of professional federal agents.

Peter left him and walked up into his office where he saw the back of Fowler.

"Jones and I will get to your place to pick up the anklet," Diana said. "Anything we should know about."

Neal pulled his eyes from the conversion in Peter's office.

"The key is on the coffee table. And take Bugsy out for a walk, will you?"

"You can have your annoying friend for that," she snapped back. She left for the door.

"Dogs don't like her," Jones grinned to Neal. "And she doesn't like them." He left before Neal had the time to say anything about the location of the anklet. Well, maybe Mozzie had freed the little fellow.

Peter left his office and waved for Neal to come. When he got up the stairs, Peter unlocked the cuffs and pocketed them.

He glanced at Fowler when he got in, unsure how he felt about the man. But he had promised to behave, so he kept his mouth shut and leaned towards the wall.

"I was just like you, Burke. Moving up in the bureau. Beautiful wife. Things were good then."

"Your wife was murdered," Peter said.

"Yeah. Did my best to put the pieces back together, but... all I could think about was vengeance. Then out of the blue one day, I get a phone call. An anonymous voice, pointing me right to her killer. So I tracked him down."

"And you killed him," Neal realized.

Fowler looked at him. Maybe there was a slightest of nods, but Neal was not sure. The man fought emotions and continued:

"A few days later, I get a package in the mail. It's a video."

"Of what you had done." Peter this time.

"Followed by another phone call," Fowler nodded. "A man tells me he can arrange it for me to be transferred into OPR."

"OPR?" Peter frowned.

"Yeah."

"He had enough clout to make that happen?"

"Yeah."

"Is he with the Bureau?"

"I don't know. After that, he told me if I could get him the music box, the video would disappear."

"Give it to your mystery blackmailer, get your life back," Peter said.

"That was our deal. So I traced the box to Caffrey."

"But he didn't have it."

"Well, everyone thought he did. But he was in prison."

"So you went after Kate." Pieces began to fall in place for Neal.

"I figured she'd know where you kept it." But she did not know. He had not told anyone where he kept his loot. Not even Mozzie had known.

"You're the man with the ring," Peter said dropping the photo of Kate with Fowler's hand on her shoulder. The hand he for a short time had thought had been Peter's.

"She was signaling you with her ATM card that day, huh?"

"Yeah," Neal nodded. "It worked. Why'd you buy the explosives?"