Caffrey Aloha

Chapter 14

Wednesday evening. January 5, 2005.

After dinner, Neal told Peter he'd like to talk to him. "I was too sick to talk about it at first," Neal said, "but there's some stuff we should discuss, kind of related to the case."

It didn't take an FBI agent to figure out that the case was an excuse to cover what had been bothering Neal since before they left New York. Peter had been ready to remind him of his promise to come clean about whatever the problem was before this vacation ended. "How about I buy you one more banana smoothie?" Peter offered.

Neal shook his head. "I think I've overdosed on those. I need a break from banana. Maybe pineapple."

With smoothies in hand, they found a quiet spot on the beach.

Of course Neal couldn't simply start talking. Even when he requested the conversation, it seemed like you had to drag the words out of him sometimes. After a few minutes of silence, Peter decided it might help to start with a different topic. "Everything okay with Henry?"

Neal looked at him oddly. "Why do you ask?"

"He was quieter than usual." And there'd been that hug when they walked into the restaurant, as if Henry needed emotional support. El had elbowed Peter in the ribs to bring his attention to that.

Whatever it had been about, it didn't seem to have Neal worried. He flashed an enigmatic smile and said, "He's gonna be fine. Pretty soon he'll have a whole new lease on life." Then out of the blue he said, "This afternoon Henry reminded me of something we said when we first got here, about Hawaii being Oz. He was the lion, and I was the scarecrow."

"Odd choice for a college student who aced his first semester."

Neal waved that away impatiently. "Studying art's different. I wanted extra brain cells to figure out this whole one-year anniversary at the FBI."

"What about it?"

Neal made drawings in the sand as he spoke. "People keep talking about how much has changed in my life. And they're right, in one regard. All year long I'd kept looking at where I was, at what I was doing, and thinking how I never would have guessed... Even more than that, I wouldn't have believed it would be possible that I'd be working at the FBI, living in a mansion, accepted by my family, and going to grad school."

"That is a lot of change in one year," Peter agreed. He'd prepared for this. He was ready to assure Neal that the rate of change would slow now, and it wouldn't always be so overwhelming.

"The thing is, what changed are my circumstances. I haven't changed." He looked at Peter for a reaction.

"You haven't?" This was a curveball that had Peter revising his mental script.

Neal wiped out his doodles in the sand. "Everyone assumes I've changed a lot, too. But I haven't. I still think con instead of sting. I still hear crew and think of a group of criminals and not a construction team. I hear Tulane describe the Uffizi job and wish I could have been there. I visit the museum here and consider how I'd beat their security. I'm not reformed, Peter. I know that's what you hoped for a year ago. That was the deal, right? I joined your team and was supposed to stop being a criminal. I've put up a good act, and put a lot of impressive-sounding stuff in my year-end accomplishments, but the truth is I failed. I thought you should know. You can fire me, or tell me to quit, or whatever minimizes the impact to your career."

Peter stood up and put his hands on his hips. "Tell me, hardened criminal, how many museums have you broken into this last year?"

"Well, there was that time with Klaus –"