Chapter 15

Once the clients left, Elizabeth Burke gathered up her notes from the meeting and let her mind wander back to her husband. She wished she knew what advice to give Peter about this Neal Caffrey person, but it was tricky. After four years of marriage, Peter was slowly getting comfortable with the idea of telling her about his cases, but it still felt like pulling teeth sometimes. Maybe by their tenth anniversary he'd open up more about his work. Not that he ever lied to her, but she suspected he stayed quiet about things that might worry her.

At least his asking her opinion about Neal was a step in the right direction. But it was a step he'd be more likely to repeat if she pulled through for him this time. Honestly, in this instance he'd be better off calling... El smiled, pulled out her cell phone, and hit the fourth number on her speed dial. "Hi, Dad," she said, and asked a professional psychiatrist for insight into a bad boy who had latched onto an FBI agent as a father figure.

Twenty minutes of information overload later, El had a better appreciation for why her mother discouraged him from discussing his work at home. She should aim for a middle ground with Peter; fortunately, she found FBI cases more interesting than psychiatry. Her head was still spinning from all of the scenarios her father had suggested.

The part that stuck with her was that as an FBI agent, Peter would come across first as an authority figure. Then someone would notice the things that made Peter unique: his intelligence, his honesty and loyalty, his belief that the law and justice should prevail. He was the classic good guy in the white hat or shining armor, depending on the type of metaphor you preferred. A successful con artist was perceptive, and thus would notice even more. For instance, he might realize that Peter cared deeply about the people he loved or felt responsible for, and that he was highly protective of them. This combination of traits, for whatever reason, was apparently something Neal Caffrey craved, something that was currently missing in his life, perhaps something that had always been missing.

It seemed to Elizabeth that a con artist would be surrounded by lies and manipulation. Not only did he specialize in those things, but probably his partners did, too. And even the good guys might use those things as tools, justifying it as necessary to catch the bad guys. That would make Peter surprising, intriguing, and probably refreshing.

Of course, this was all speculation. If Elizabeth wanted to understand Neal, she should really talk to him herself. With that goal in mind, she called her husband. Peter mentioned the doctor was there, and she got the impression he wanted to cut the call short and get back to her later. "No," she insisted. "If the doctor believes you're Neal's stepfather, then he believes I'm his mother. His mother would insist on talking to him."

Peter sighed. "Okay. But before you talk to Henry, I need to warn you that he's really out of it right now."

"Oh, did his fever go up again?"

"No. Well, I don't think so. It's just... The thing is..."

"Peter, what are you trying not to tell me?"

"He sort of took too much of a prescription medicine a little while ago. And he may have passed out, very briefly."

"He overdosed?" Elizabeth asked.

"I wouldn't say overdosed, exactly. It wasn't intentional, El. He just got a little disoriented, because these meds will do that to you."

"An accidental overdose is still an overdose. Peter, you sound..." Elizabeth paused to find the right word. "You sound frazzled."

"Yeah. Apparently fatherhood does that to me." His voice got quieter. "El, why are you asking for this?"

"Partly it's curiosity. These criminals you chase... They keep you at work late, keep you working even after you get home..."

"Checking out the competition?" There was a smile in Peter's voice.

"Just trying to understand the fascination. To understand you. And who knows, maybe I'll learn something useful. It can't hurt, right?"

"Probably not." Peter's voice continued, but he was speaking to the people in the room rather than into the phone. "Dr. Santos, my wife would like to talk to your patient, if that's all right." Elizabeth couldn't hear the doctor's response, but then she heard her husband say, "Okay, hon. Henry is all yours." And then, "Take the phone, kid."

"Hello?" said a voice she didn't know. Neal Caffrey, currently posing as someone named Henry, apparently.

"Hi. Tell them to back off if they're hovering. I'd like a chance to talk without them distracting you or eavesdropping."

"She says to stop hovering." He coughed and then said, "Okay. They gave me some space."

"I'm Elizabeth Burke. Peter's wife. And you're Neal?"

"Right." He sounded young and congested.

"You sound pretty miserable right now. Is that why you took too much medicine?"

"I don't really remember that. Everything's fuzzy after the Marshals showed up. I still don't think this is my shirt. Do you think it's Peter's?"

"Does it fit?" she asked.

"It's a size too big. Not bad for sleeping."

"Would you say Peter's about a size larger than you are?"

"Yeah. Do you think he knows I have his shirt?"

"Peter's right. You're really out of it. He says you're normally very bright."

"He really said that?" Neal sounded surprised, and pleased.

"Yes. He also said you may have saved his life yesterday, by pretending you were an FBI agent. I'd like to thank you for that."

"Is he allowed to tell you stuff like that? Stuff about his cases?"

Not wanting to complain about how little Peter told her, Elizabeth simply said, "Peter and I have jobs we love, and we spend a lot of time at them. I think being interested in each other's passions is one of the keys to a strong marriage. Didn't your parents talk about their work?"

"They're off limits." Suddenly Neal sounded much more awake.

"Your parents?"

"Family."

Elizabeth wanted to argue, but decided she'd have more luck if she respected his boundaries. "What made you decide to help Peter yesterday?"

The pause lasted so long that Elizabeth was about to ask if Neal was still there, when he finally said, "Do you know how a con artist works?"

"Well, I know con is short for confidence. It means convincing people to have confidence in you, so they'll believe what you tell them, making them more likely to do what you want."

"A good con creates the illusion of an instant bond, one that rarely lasts more than a few days or even a few minutes. After a while, every relationship you have feels temporary, and fake. You get so good at hiding your real self that you're not even sure you can find it anymore."

"Your relationship with Peter, as he chases you – that's one of the longest relationships you've had recently, isn't it?"

"With someone I can trust, yeah."

"And it isn't fake. Peter wants to find the real you, get to know who you are. That's it, isn't it? You think he's one of the few people who can do it, and who you trust to get it right. You want him to find you."

"Maybe. Not for the being arrested and going to jail part, though." There was a sound that Elizabeth thought was a suppressed cough, and then drinking from a glass of water. "Chasing after me must take a lot of time. It's probably not worth it. Do you want me to disappear for good?"

Elizabeth gasped. Was the overdose not accidental? "You mean, kill yourself?"

Neal's response was somewhere between a sigh and a moan. "What is it with everyone today? I'm not suicidal. But I could leave the country permanently, go beyond the FBI's jurisdiction."

"When you said chasing you isn't worth it, do you mean you think you're not worth it? Because that's not true. Peter knows there's something different, something special about you. It bothers him that you're a criminal, because he can see your potential for good. I've never seen him react this way to anyone else he's chased. If you let him, he can help you."

"It's not that easy."

"Yes, it is. You're complicating it, because you're scared of what he'll find. But Peter has good instincts about these things. If you're afraid to trust yourself, at least you can trust him."

"Maybe I'm conning you now. Maybe helping Peter yesterday wasn't anything personal. I saw Roland was getting hot under the collar, and I don't like violence, so I stepped in."

"You made yourself the target of a violent man, so an innocent man would be spared. Is that version of the story supposed to make me like you less?"

"Maybe it was all an elaborate plan to fool Peter into thinking I'm a good guy who just got a little turned around. That way, if I get caught someday, he'll recommend leniency."

"I'm not buying it."

"That's just because," Neal stopped to yawn before continuing, "I'm not really trying. If I were on top of my game, you'd hate me right now."

"Still not buying it."

"I totally conned you from the start. Now, even when I confess that I was lying, you don't believe it." Another yawn could be heard.

"And why would you want to con me?"

"Practice. Mischief. Indirectly influencing Peter. Take your pick." He was sounding tired and yawned again. "Sorry."

"You know, it's hard to believe you're evil when you're being so polite."

"Peter will glare a hole right through my head if I swear at you. What?" Elizabeth realized Neal wasn't talking to her. "No. Go away."

In the background, Peter said, "The doctor wants you to stay awake. Since you can't stop yawning, that means coffee. Give back the phone and drink up." A moment later Peter was much clearer, speaking directly into the phone. "Hey, hon."

"Is he wearing your shirt?"

"Is he still going on about that? Yeah, mine was the easiest thing to grab after he was sick this morning."

"Oh, poor thing."

"Well, fortunately the doctor was here, so there wasn't much for Nurse Burke to do."

"I meant Neal. He sounded miserable. He's sick, and scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Himself, mostly. I think he's having an identity crisis. Part of him wants you to find the real person hidden under the slick con man exterior, and another part of him is convinced that the real person isn't worth finding."

"That's quite an analysis from one short conversation," Peter remarked.

"He claims he conned me, trying to gain my sympathy. Do you believe he could?"

"He's certainly capable of it."

"I think, between the fever and overdose, that he told me the truth about his fears. And then he panicked and spent the last half of the conversation trying to convince me that the first half had been a lie."

"El, a staggeringly unconvincing lie is how he manipulated Villiers yesterday. He denied being a Federal agent, while looking and sounding so much like an agent that Villiers was suspicious."

"Isn't that actually a staggeringly unconvincing truth? Unless you're telling me that Neal is actually an undercover agent."

"A lie wrapped in a truth presented as another lie. He's an expert at this stuff."

"And you're an expert at Neal. Do you think that right now he's capable of pulling off such a complex con?"

Peter huffed out a breath. "Going up against my brilliant wife? Unlikely. But I'm willing to bet that by the time we check out of here, he finds a way to steal that shirt."

"A small price, if you can convince him to change his ways."

"I'm just waiting until he's not impaired, and we'll finally have the Caffrey Conversation. Then we'll see if I let him keep the shirt."