Caffrey Flashback

Chapter 1: Invitation

New York City, White Collar Division. Monday morning. February 16, 2004.

As the morning briefing wrapped up, Agent Tricia Wiese mentioned it was Peter Burke's two-month anniversary as leader of the White Collar Task Force. Peter reminded them it was also Neal Caffrey's two-month anniversary as a consultant at the FBI. It was a good thing they liked each other, Neal realized, because if things worked out they would be celebrating these milestones together for a long time.

Many things had remained constant over the last two months. The coffee was still horrendous. Agent August Hitchum still hated Neal. Surveillance work was still tedious, and mortgage fraud cases were still the most boring thing ever invented.

But some things had changed for the better. Other than Hitchum, the team members had started to relax around Neal. They felt safe leaving their purses and wallets at their desks when he was around. They were willing to talk about vacation plans around him, without fear that he would burgle their homes as soon as they left town. And now Peter was making another show of trust. He had dismissed everyone from the briefing except for Neal and Jones and said, "Neal, after you traded your confession for immunity, I asked Jones to monitor the email addresses belonging to your aliases. Now he's going to turn that task over to you."

Neal responded with an innocent smile he knew would annoy Peter. "You want to pay me to check my personal email?"

Peter didn't roll his eyes, but Neal thought it took some effort. "I want you to let us know if anyone contacts one of your old aliases for illegal or suspicious purposes. This week, Jones will check those accounts with you and walk you through what he's been doing. As of next week, it will be up to you to tell us if you're getting messages we need to know about."

Neal had suspected almost from the beginning that Peter had assigned Jones to monitor him, but this was the first time Peter had admitted it. Even though Neal was certain Jones was checking up on him in other ways, it was satisfying to know that his good behavior recently was being noticed and rewarded. He hoped this would become a trend, because there were other restrictions he wanted to see lifted.

Peter went back to his office, while Jones and Neal remained in the conference room to check the email accounts. Steve Tabernacle typically received porn; Neal had made sure of it as an act of rebellion when he realized the FBI was checking his mail. Gary Rydell received offers from high-end car dealers, insurance companies, and international travel agencies.

"Nick Halden gets the most mail," Jones noted as they logged into that account.

"Five months of working for Vincent Adler under that name is the longest con I ever pulled. I made a lot of connections there before the company folded. Nick was a likable guy." A quick glance showed there were no messages from Kate. There hadn't been for quite a while, but he still had hope.

Jones opened a message from Highbury Professional Connections. "I've heard of these guys. It's the first time I've seen them express an interest in Halden."

"They sent an invitation right after Thanksgiving, but I ignored it," Neal said. "They sounded legit, but if you're interested in them, there must be something nefarious I wasn't aware of."

"Nothing we could prove. Last summer a woman reported her husband was being blackmailed by Highbury. We looked into it, saw that most members pay about a hundred bucks per month for membership, but a few pay upwards of a thousand."

"That's a big discrepancy. What did Highbury say they offer for the extra money?"

"They wouldn't tell us," Jones said. "Said it was an entirely legal set of enhanced professional services for job seekers and therefore none of our business. And no one paying the higher price would admit to being blackmailed. The fact is, a lot of people find good jobs through Highbury, which means the company isn't entirely a scam. In the end we had no evidence and no case. We had to let it go."