Fanfiction: A Pack of Lies (2/8)
Title: A Pack of Lies
Author: runenklinge
Artist: petr_slavik
Genre: Crime
Characters: James Jesse, Neil Caffrey, Peter Burke, Hartley Rathaway, Mozzie, Diana Berrigan, Clinton Jones, Elizabeth Burke, Peter Hernandez, Sandra Kilgour; mentions of past Rogues
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 27k +
Warnings: mentions of past canon character death, character death
A/N: as you may or may not have guessed, this is a White Collar AU, just with more James Jesse. I want to thank petr_slavik for her terrific art, and kidezt for her wonderful management and handling of all things. I could not have done this without her.
Summary:
A new crime spree calls New York's White Collar unit to the task. But since the crimes bear the mark of the famous master criminal, the Trickster, the FBI decides to send in their expert on all things Trickster: Special Agent James Jesse. What follows are questions, doubts, more crime and a lot of lies.
This is my RoguesBang entry, check out more awesome entries there
Part 1 I Part 2 I Part 3 I Part 4 I Part 5 I Part 6 I Part 7 I Part 8 I
Alternate at AO3: here
You have to check out the beautiful art hoples made for me
Art Link: LJ
Chapter 1:
The sky was blue, the sun was bright and Neal wore his new hat to work. He was still not used to his job as a criminal informant for the FBI, but he liked it much more than he expected to. Peter, Agent Burke, treated him sometimes as if he was still a criminal, one step or grab away from his next theft, but he didn't have such poor impulse control. Besides, his criminal past....and best friend Mozzie, who was a sort of criminal, had proven invaluable on more than one occasion. Really, Peter should be more thankful, with Neal as his criminal informant he had an alleged excellent forger, con man and thief on his side. And his colleagues, Diana and Jones liked Neal....they didn't trust him as far as they could throw him, sure, but they approved of him. Besides, he had a fixed place of residence, all the fine suits he ever wanted and no reason to do something stupid. Well, nothing too stupid. He had stopped to get coffee for the team and carried the cardboard tray to the office. Neal had stepped out of the elevator, but before he could take three steps, Jones walked past him, said “hi” and grabbed a cup. Apparently he was on a job Neal had been decided to not be privy to. Diana followed suit - at least she smiled when she greeted him and took her cup - and he was left standing with a half-empty tray and a look of mild confusion on his face. “Is it Neal-is-invisible-day? If yes, someone please tell me while I can still take advantage of it.”
“Let's thank god you remain in the visible spectrum, it's best for really all of us. I dread to imagine what an invisible Neal could do,” Peter said and went up to him.
Neal smiled brightly. “It's a neat idea, I should ask Mozzie if he has any gadgets that cater to this.”
“Please don't,” Peter said with a mock-grimace and reached for a cup. Neal spun the tray, “Trust me, you'll want this one.”
Peter took a sip from his newly-assigned cup and apparently approved.
“Do you mind telling me what's up with Jones and Diana?”
“Hughes decided they'd play chauffeurs today to pick up an agent from Chicago from the airport, he's been asked to come and consult on our new case.”
“Don't they trust your expertise? I get it why they'd want an extra pair of eyes watching me, but I thought you were inscrutable.”
“Agent Jesse is an expert when it comes to this sort of crime. A museum robbery, pulled of with a certain ….little trick. I trust you heard about the theft at the Lammoglia Gallery?”
“Yes, I have been asked if I had anything to do with it.”
“Neal?”
“Peter.”
“And?”
“Of course not! Gee, you cannot think that I'm suddenly responsible for any crime in New York.”
“One can never be too careful around you.”
“I'll decide to take that as a compliment.”
Peter gestured for Neal to follow him to his office. “The official report states that at around 8:06 pm, the alarm sounded at the gallery. The guards immediately rushed the place, but didn't see anyone. A single piece was stolen, a necklace.”
“A gift from the tzar to his wife.”
“And how would you know?”
“I went to see the exhibition last Thursday. It's in the radius, check the anklet data if you don't trust me. That was a beautiful piece of jewelry, and undoubtedly very expensive.”
“Nothing was damaged, no one was hurt and they didn't find any trace, except a glass disc cut out from the case the necklace was in.”
“Impressive.”
“The impressive part is yet to come: the guard watching the monitors went outside for a minute to let a fellow guard who was late for work in. Except, there was no guard. When he opened the door, there was a cardboard silhouette taped to the door.”
Neal started laughing.
“This isn't funny.”
“I disagree, this is genius!”
Peter gave him a stern look, which got Neal to quiet down. He was still grinning.
“Anyway, the police checked the call he got - the cellphone of the guard had been stolen, of course - and the call came from somewhere near the gallery itself.”
“What about the camera? It must have still been recorded, even if the guard wasn't watching in real time.”
“That's the thing. The CSI team went to collect the DVD, but there must have been a technical error, since the recording only shows black since 8pm.”
“Someone tampered with them.”
“Obviously, the thief must have sneaked into the camera hub while the guards were all at the exhibition room and deleted the evidence. And then left before the cops showed up.”
“Must have been quite a feat.”
“Yes. But the lead CSI at the scene had been transferred from Kansas recently, and this crime closely resembles a string of crimes there - robberies with no violence, no casualties, and minimal damage. Plus always a little trick involved.”
“No.” Neal said suddenly.
“What?”
“You're talking about, no, it can't be!” Neal half-rose out of his seat, eyes shining like those of a kid on Christmas. “Peter, you can't mean the Trickster!”
“I do.”
Neal stood up and paced through the room, a wide smile plastered on his face. He ran his hands through his hair. “This is brilliant! This guy's a legend! He robbed a bank with a squirt gun once, stole a painting from the French embassy, and people claim he's behind the missing copy of 'The Concert'. This is amazing!”
“Neal. Neal, sit down. You're not supposed to admire art thieves.”
“But, he is a master, what he does are works of beauty. He's phenomenal!”
“He's a criminal!”
“Who cares?”
“I do. We at the FBI do. You should do, too, since you're now working for us.”
“I guess so. It's just - the Trickster is a legend. Everyone knows the story, knows what impossible things he did.”
“That is why we have called in our expert, he's an agent from Chicago, here on personal request from the big boss himself.”
“Hughes?” Neal asked in disbelief.
“His boss's boss.”
“Oh, so the big boss. Must have been important. Who is this guy exactly?”
“Oh, you're gonna love this: his name is James Jesse, also known as-”
“The Trickster?!”
-> next part