White collar fan-fic

Chapter 5

"I do remember him; he came by several months ago and then again last week. This is what he came to see" Vincent told them

Carefully laying a piece of parchment on the table

"The Spanish Victory Bond. He took several photographs of it, said he was going to write a book. It's a shame he's dead. This bond does have a fascinating history." Vincent told them

"It's a Goya." Neal said

"Yes. Beautiful, isn't it?"

Peter took out the parchment from the book and layed it over the bond.

"Oh, look at that. A perfect fit. You're starting to earn your 700 a month." Peter told Sam and Neal

"You said it had a fascinating history." Neal said to Vincent

"Quite. It was issued during the war."

"1944." Sam said

"Yes. Yeah, the U.S. issued it to support the Spanish underground in their battle against the Axis. Very few have ever been redeemed. There's speculation that entire boxes were captured and many are still hidden away in the caves of Altamira."

"Whole boxes of these?" Peter asked

"Yeah. Boy, that would be something, wouldn't it? This is the only surviving copy"

"Except it's a forgery." Neal said

Peter and Vincent looked stunned. Sam on the other hand was not surprised at all

"No, that's not possible" Vincent said

"What are you talking about?"

"Ah, it's the ink. This is an iron-gal dye mixed to match the period colors. But it hasn't dried yet. You can still smell the gum arabic." Neal told them

Neal offered it to Vincent and Peter for a sniff. They sniff it and Vincent said

"Uh, no. This has been here since 1952."

"It's been here less than a week" Neal told them

"Neal can I see?" Sam asked

"Sure" Neal said handing it to her

Sam studied it and said

"Neal's right its a fake. Not that there was any doubt in my mind that he was right. I just wanted to see for myself"

When they got back to the White Collar division of the FBI Peter called a meeting with Diana, Jones, Neal, and Sam in the conference room.

"Okay, Tony makes two trips. First time he takes a picture of the bond. The second time he steals the original and replaces it with this copy. Can we confirm that?" Peter said starting off the meeting

"The timed ink identification test puts the age of the bond at approximately six days. Which coincides with Tony's visit." Jones said

"We're pulling surveillance video to back it up" Diana told them

"Good. So, the question is why go through the trouble of making a really nice forgery, on the right kind of paper just to stick it back in the archives. Peter said

"Is the bond still negotiable?" Neal asked

"It's a zero option, so it never expires. What's it worth?" Peter answered

"Thousand dollars face value, drawing nine percent interest." Jones told him

"Compounded for sixty-four years." Diana added

Diana and Jones bent over a calculator

"248 thousand dollars." Neal told them

"What he said." Jones said