Neal Caffrey's Daughter

Book of Hours [Final]

"How did you know she was in on it?" Hughes asked back at the office.

"Lucky hunch,"

"Hm. Ruiz?"

"I checked Paul's credit. He got wired 10 G's from a shell corporation in Gibraltar owned by your lady professor,"

"Oh, by the way, how did last night's fishing go? Get any tape?"

"Equipment failure," Peter claimed. "But Caffrey says she has the book. She'll sell, but only to him,"

"Of course, he'd say that. The terms?"

"Two fifty, wired to a Swiss account,"

"No way," Ruiz denied. "What if he cuts a deal with her? He runs away with the book"

"What choice do we have?" Peter shrugged.

"We don't," Hughes admitted. "I don't need another dead body washing up in the East River. We'll set up a dummy account,"

"That's risky. What if she takes a shot at Neal?"

"I wouldn't lose any sleep over it," Ruiz said.

"Morning, guys," Neal said as he walked into the office. "Everybody sleep okay?"

***

"Cayman's First National." Peter explained the plan to Neal "I'll e-mail you the PIN right before the buy,"

"First, they're sending me back to prison. Tomorrow they're giving me a quarter million taxpayer dollars in an offshore account. Guess that shows how much confidence they have in you,"

"And how much I have in you," Peter nodded.

***

Neal paced outside of Maria's apartment complex, looking up as she exited the door.

"Hey," Maria greeted.

Neal leaned over as though he was going to kiss her. "We have a chaperone. White van over my left shoulder," he moved his arms to pat her down. "You're clean,"

"Thank you. Your turn," Maria kissed him and ran a scanner over him. "No bugs. So, um, where's my money?"

"Where's my book?" Neal challenged.

Maria unlocked her car. "You ready?"

"When I cut my anklet, my friends are gonna know I'm running," Neal reminded. "Can you lose them? I'm not going back in,"

"I've been chased by the Carabiniere, drug cartels in Bogotá..."

"I get it. You're good," Neal leaned down, his gaze drifting to a nearby motorcyclist as he cut off the tracker.

"With all due respect, Neal, we could make quite a fine pair,"

"With all due respect, Maria shut up and drive,"

***

Maria stopped the car at the edge of the sandbank. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she huffed as she got out of the car. I spent a long time looking for her,"

"I guess it wasn't meant to be," Neal claimed as he followed her to the trunk of the car. He opened it to find the book. "It's calfskin vellum. Golden Chalice of Paul,"

"You satisfied?"

"Very." Neal closed the book and took out his phone. "Sending. It's on its way,"

Maria looked at her phone as she received a ding. "And here it is. Thank you very much,"

"It's a pleasure doing business with you,"

Maria smirked as she took out a gun and aimed it at Neal. "You'll never know how much pleasure it could have been,"

"You know, I had a feeling all that love-dovey stuff last night was BS,"

"Next time, you should trust your instincts,"

"Oh, I did," Neal reached into his pocket. "Clip. Lifted it when I patted you down,"

"You forgot about the one in the chamber,"

"Damn it. I've never been a gun guy,"

"Give me the book, Neal,"

"Sorry." Neal used the book as his own shield. "If you're gonna take me on, it's gonna cost you a small fortune. What's the matter?" he taunted. "You can't do it? Is it because of the money or the history?"

"I think you know the answer to that,"

"Is that why you killed Paul?"

"Paul decided that he wanted the money and the book,"

"Yeah. That's what happens when you get greedy,"

Maria fired the gun.

"Drop the gun." Peter ordered as he and the other FBI agents arrived at the scene "Gun down or we shoot. Gun down! Right now, put your gun down. Your hands behind your head," he hurried over when he noticed Neal on the ground.

"Cut it a little close there, pal," Neal said as Peter helped him up.

"Guess the big guy had your back, huh?" Peter noted as he looked at the bullet lodged in the cover of the bible. "Well, I'll tell you one thing. You made Lauren's day,"

"Yeah, not Barelli.

"How did you and your Cub Scouts find out about this?" Peter asked as the mob boss walked over. "NYPD?"

"I got one of those police scanners." Barelli reasoned, "It's a hobby." he noticed Maria being placed in the back of a car. "She's Paulie's shooter? Some kind of lover's quarrel?"

"Just business." Peter revealed, "I hate to break it to you, but your nephew decided to freelance behind your back. Oh, it's sad, you know. If you can't trust family, who can you trust?"

"So if you guys are done, I'd like my Bible back," Barelli said. "Mass starts in one hour,"

"Would it kill you to say thank you, huh? Would it?" Peter shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it would. All right, just give it to him,"

"What?" Neal asked.

"What do you mean what? Give him the Bible,"

"I gave it to some FBI guy,"

"Some FBI guy?"

***

Liz smirked proudly as she held the Bible close. She walked through the crowd of Agents, blending in thanks to the jacket and hat she wore.

Once away from the scene, she took out her phone to send her dad a victory selfie.