White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 10

Pis aller

Hughes had called him, Neal, and Diana to the conference room. The senior agent pushed a file across the table towards them.

"As you're aware, Matthew Keller plead down to manslaughter after you two brought him in for murder."

Matthew Keller. Peter wished he never had to hear that name again. He saw the man's grinning mugshot smiling towards him from the open file.

"Yeah?"

"His sentencing was this week," Neal said.

"He got 20 years at Barksdale," Diana added.

"Yesterday," Hughes continued, "he contacted the Department of Justice. He says he has information critical to national security."

"His sentencing didn't go well; now he wants a deal," the kid concluded.

"Probably," Peter's boss agreed, "But we do that sometimes, Caffrey. We make deals with con men."

Peter glanced at his favorite con man, who had little to say to Hughes' remark.

"What did Homeland Security say?" Peter asked.

"Keller wouldn't talk to them. He insisted he would only talk to you."

Of course. The man had something fishy up his sleeve.

"Neal's right. I seriously doubt he has any real information."

"There's no harm checking it out," Hughes said. "Go talk to him."

There was no room for interpretation there, Peter sighed. Then he sighed once more when he realized he was doing a 'Neal' looking for loopholes.

"Who is this guy?" Diana asked when Hughes had left them.

"He's an old rival of Neal's. They were baccarat partners in Morocco."

"Backgammon in Monaco," the kid corrected. "Close. And we were never partners." The kid said the last with inescapable emphasis.

"A contemporary of Neal's," Diana grinned. "This I gotta see."

"No. He's not what you'd expect," Peter said at once. "A little more Ratso Rizzo than Cary Grant." Though they on paper might be considered the same, Keller was-

"I'm Cary Grant?" the kid asked beside him, all smiles.

Peter sighed. Had he just compared a convicted felon and a con man with an actor that mostly played the hero? Nice and charming, but Peter reminded himself that Neal Caffrey was a criminal.

"Only by comparison to Ratso Rizzo."

That did not stop Neal from grinning.

"Any problem join me inside?" Peter asked him on the way to Sing Sing, the current prison Keller was situated in.

"Kidding me?"

Peter glanced at him.

"No. Why would I?" His handler sounded obviously baffled.

"Keller behind bars. I cannot imagine anything else I rather see."

"I was afraid that visiting a prison, Sing Sing, in particular..."

Well, Peter had a point, but he was visiting. And visiting someone he enjoyed being there, too.

"As long as you bring me with you when you leave, I have no issues," Neal told him.

To his pleasant surprise, a familiar face let them in.

"Doing well, I see, Caffrey," Bobby smiled at him.

"Could do a lot worse," he beamed back. "How're you doing without me, Bobby?"