White Collar - as an unofficial novel - part 5

A rare moment

Peter watched the girl Lindsey threw herself in the arms of her father, who just arrived at the docks. He heard another car arrived and saw Neal step out of it, together with Jones.

"Where you been? Missed all the action."

"Oh, yeah? I got hung up with an old friend."

Peter took a good look at the kid. He had been kidnapped and put under a lot of strain.

"How'd that go?" he asked.

"Think I may have burned a bridge," Neal answered without a hint of trauma. He watched Lindsay and Gless hugging with Rice hovering nearby. "Looks like Agent Rice is ready for her close-up. Heard the camera crews are already on their way."

"Let her have it." Peter had never cared much for that kind of attention.

Rice though pointed at them and gestured for them to come. Peter was flabbergasted. She of all people!

"Oh, jeez," his pet convict whined beside him. "Did she just give us the finger point?"

"She did."

They walked over to the reunited family.

"You're the men responsible for bringing my daughter back," Gless held out his hand towards Peter. He shook it.

"We're all a team here," he said.

"Mr. Gless—" Neal started.

"I'd say we're more than even now, Caffrey," Gless interrupted.

"Thanks," Lindsay said to Neal, "for playing round two."

"Don't mention it."

The happy family left. Rice turned to Neal.

"Was a hell of a thing you did today."

"I could say the same thing about you," the kid replied.

Rice looked at her feet for a second.

"No hard feelings?" she asked.

"Don't..." Neal shook his head slightly, "stretch it."

To Peter's surprise, Rice did not. She just nodded, accepting the facts. And he was even more surprised when he saw her leaving. Peter followed her.

"You're not sticking around for the press? You're the hottest interview in town."

"I probably have a disciplinary hearing to prepare for anyway," she said. "About how things went down last night—"

"Oh, look, in the end, we got it done." If she had learned something from it, Peter was happy.

"Yeah, even so..." she said. "I hope we work together again sometime. Even if you're the one calling the shots."

"One day, I'll remind you that you said that."

They shared a grin, and Rice continued towards her car. Jones came up to him.

"Got Caffrey's anklet."

Peter blinked and turned to Rice.

"Thought your people already put it on him."

"Not me. He's your consultant, remember?"

Peter sighed. Then he realized that Neal was not around any longer. The kid has disappeared into thin air.

"Anybody seen Caffrey?" he called out to the agents and police officers standing around them. He just got a 'no, sir' in return. There were at least ten people around!

"Damn it," Peter cursed. "You gotta be kidding me." Rice just smiled and left.

Peter held out his hand to Jones who gave him the anklet.