Federal Building. Monday morning. July 12, 2004.

Monday started out as a normal day. Wild theories about clones were forgotten, or at least sidelined as a joke that he'd tell Henry someday when they both needed a laugh.

After the morning briefing, there was a meeting about the latest updates in the search for Robert Winslow. Between the data Travis had collected while undercover and what Mozzie had tracked online, they'd identified the accomplice as a man named Jason Ford.

"From a Ford to a Ferrari?" Peter had asked after Jones outlined how they'd narrowed down the suspect list to Ford.

"That sounds like Robert," Neal said. "Not a lot of imagination. What do we know about this guy?"

"He's thirty-one, lives in Atlanta but telecommutes most of the time. He's logged a lot of travel recently, including trips to Seattle and New York," Jones reported. "At Carlson-Berger he's been a technical project manager for the last three years. Reviews from his managers were all positive. He's worked a wide variety of projects, getting access to the servers for the FBI, the marshals and a couple of other government agencies and some banks. In the last few months he volunteered for one of the least popular assignments in the company: data quality. His latest projects are responsible for checking that data is secure, and that means running lots of queries of data for analysis and validation. It's been the perfect cover for monitoring, inserting and deleting email messages, because he can always claim it's a test."

"What did he do before Carlson-Berger?" Peter asked.

"He was at one of their competitors for a few years." Jones looked down at his notes. "Similar kind of job to what he has now. And before that he was at Win-Win. He started working there part time while he was a student at Loyola in Baltimore, where he was a double major in Business and Computer Science. At first he was an intern in the IT department, but according to Allen Winston he was interested in the investigations side of the business. He showed some talent and sometimes they'd send him undercover for a quick assignment, usually working with a more senior member of the staff. When he finished college he was offered a full time job. His title was project manager, so officially he was in the IT department, but between projects he'd take investigative work. He traveled quite a bit in those investigations. Winston says that most of those cases were managed by Robert, who destroyed the records before he disappeared."

"Did Graham Winslow have anything to add?" Peter asked.

"Not yet. I couldn't get hold of him."

"That's odd," said Neal. "He's always been available for this case. Finding Robert is his top priority." Graham had sent the email as Mozzie had arranged yesterday, and Neal had responded. Robert should believe Henry was being sent to Alaska. "Anything about Ford's family? I'm going to bet his father is deceased or out of the picture."

Jones nodded. "Died when Ford was a kid. How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess." But Neal was thinking back to the psychology courses he'd attended when Henry was getting his masters.

"Care to elaborate on your guess?" Peter asked in a tone that was more an order than a question.

"This guy started his part time work at Win-Win right after Robert and Noelle's divorce was final. They would have been separated for a while before that. There was a distance from Henry, on a lot of levels. Robert didn't see him often, and would have been feeling pressure from Graham, who wanted assurance that he wouldn't lose touch with his grandson. Robert would have blamed Noelle for the distance, and to prove it he probably decided to mentor a young man. He wanted to show he could build that bond and train someone to be an asset to the company. Unlike Henry, who took having a father for granted and wanted to stay away from his dad, Jason Ford would have been eager to spend time with a father figure."

"You're saying this guy thinks Robert is a saint?" Jones asked. "Isn't that a stretch? Everything we have on Jason Ford points to a smart guy."

"I'm not surprised. Robert has high standards, and so does Win-Win, so we assume Ford is smart and a hard worker, who showed a talent for something that Robert wanted him to do. He gave Ford time and attention and interesting projects, convincing him that they're friends and that Robert wanted what's best for him. Ford was grateful and, yes, still believes that Robert's a saint. Think about it. Noelle's as smart as they come, and she fell in love with the guy. They were married for years before she saw him for what he really is. The end result is, when Robert asked for some sketchy favors recently, probably claiming that he's being framed by a jealous son who took his legacy for granted and was never worthy of it, Ford fell for it. He's probably heard stories for more than a decade about how frivolous and devious and worthless Henry is. Ford would see this as his chance to be the son he thinks Robert deserves, giving unquestioning support."

"That's quite a guess," Peter said. "I'm going to take a wild guess of my own and say you've been thinking about Robert's accomplice for a while now."

"Sure. We all have, right? And we've known since Seattle that we were talking about a guy a few years older than Henry who is loyal to Robert to the extent of helping him escape the FBI." Neal could see Peter had a lot of questions, and was grateful when another agent knocked on the door and requested Peter's help.

Peter checked his watch. "I'll be right there," he promised, and the agent walked away. "I want the two of you to brainstorm ideas to implement Neal's suggestion of flipping this accomplice of Robert's. Come up with ways to show him Robert's true colors, without letting him realize we're on to him. Let's reconvene after lunch."

###

Peter managed to slip away for lunch with El. He couldn't tell her details regarding the Winslow case, but he mentioned Neal's profile of a suspect who now seemed more like a victim. "I knew almost from day one that I was signing up for a lot of gray areas when Neal joined the team. This is one of the grayest. The parallels between a guy who was victimized by his mentor and Neal are a little too close for comfort."

"You don't think, because Neal identifies with the victim that he identifies you with the mentor?" El asked as their meal arrived.

"I hope not. Neal's had plenty of bad mentors or father figures who simply wanted to use his talents. I tell myself he doesn't lump me in with them, but we had that rough patch recently." Peter took a bite of his reuben before adding, "He says he's ready to forgive and forget. I thought he meant it, but there was something off this morning. I feel like there's something he's not telling me, related to this case."

"Because he doesn't trust you?" El managed to eat her French dip without spilling a drop of the jus. That always amazed Peter. He inevitably dribbled it on his tie when he ordered that sandwich.

"Or because he's navigating a labyrinth of promises to keep various secrets. Which means that there's some kind of link between this suspect/victim and Henry that I don't know about."

It was after Peter returned from lunch that he realized this was not a normal Monday at all. He'd barely stepped into the bullpen when he got the double finger point from Hughes. In Hughes' office, the boss told him, "I don't know what's going on yet, Peter, but it's something big. The Bureau has three people on their way out here from D.C. as we speak, on a flight that's due to land in thirty minutes. Whatever this case is, it has ties to D.C. and New York, and it's political. I've received the names of the agents traveling here, and the two I recognize are with Missing Persons. They've requested help from your team."

"White Collar helping Missing Persons?" In the last six months only once had there been a need for collaboration between those two groups in the Manhattan office.

"They seem to think your team has knowledge or contacts they need to find their missing person. There will be a briefing as soon as they get here. Make it your team's top priority."

Peter frowned. "We have a lot going on right now, and we're finally making headway on the Robert Winslow investigation."

"Turn it over to Win-Win if you have to. When my peers in Washington called an hour ago, they mentioned our worries about the unrest in Eastern Europe having domestic repercussions and said, I quote: This is not a drill."

Peter's thoughts ran to El. Was she safe? But a missing persons case would be about one person being targeted, not violence erupting in the streets. "Who do you need in the briefing?" Already he was thinking how to juggle the team's case load.

"They asked for you and three of your top people. Your pick."

When White Collar had helped the local Missing Persons team at the start of the year, he'd included Tricia, Jones and Neal. They'd done good work, and made a solid team. Tricia had previously worked in Missing Persons. Jones was the best in-the-box thinker on the team, and Neal was their best out-of-the-box thinker. "I'll get everyone ready." He checked his watch. "We'll have to hurry to turn over their existing cases."

"If I need to pull people from other teams, let me know," Hughes offered.

Since Agent Travis Miller was now somewhat involved in the Winslow case, Peter asked Jones and Neal to turn over their work to him. He could coordinate with Win-Win for a few days, and should be in good hands with Allen Winston and Graham Winslow. He just hoped Graham didn't recruit Travis away. The man seemed determined to steal someone from Peter's team. Tricia turned her work over to Agent Badillo.

After the rush to get ready, they gathered in the main conference room and waited for their D.C. colleagues to arrive. Tricia asked Neal and Jones how their hunt for Robert Winslow was going, and they described their plans to turn Robert's accomplice against him.

"You know," Neal said, "we should run this by my aunt Noelle. If anyone knows how to play mind games with suspects, it's her. She was a legend when she worked at Win-Win."

"I remember how she got Hitchum to confess this spring," Tricia said. "I thought I was good at interrogations, but watching her left me in awe. She couldn't stay long that day, but eventually I'd like to talk to her about her experiences and training. If I could go back and do my Quantico training over again, I'd sign up for more classes from the behavioral analysis group."

"Are you serious?" Peter asked. "Because I overestimated our training budget, and I've got to submit a plan this month to spend what's left or return it. If you're open to travel to D.C. this fall, I think we could make it work. But it would be a month or more commitment. They combine training with working actual cases. It's like an apprenticeship."

Tricia looked thoughtful. "Let me check with Mitch and see what the university has planned for him for the fall semester. I think he'd be able to take care of the boys."

Peter made a note of it, and then paid attention to what Neal and Jones were saying. Something about a sketch Neal had provided of Jason Ford. "It was the clincher," Jones said. "Everything else pointed to him, and then that sketch looked exactly like him."

That was odd. Neal had been in the tunnels under Seattle when Ford helped Robert Winslow escape, and that traffic cam footage had been grainy at best. How had he been able to provide an accurate sketch?

Before Peter could ask, Hughes led an agent into the room. "Everyone, this is Agent Diana Berrigan. Agents Silva and Young stayed at the airport to conduct some interviews and will join us later this afternoon. Agent Berrigan will act as a liaison between teams."

Peter introduced himself, Tricia, Jones and Neal. "Welcome to New York, Agent Berrigan."

"Thanks. I've heard great things about your team. This initial briefing will actually be led by Agent DeLay, who'll be calling in from D.C. Then Agents Silva and Young will join us to provide more details."

"Agent Jeff DeLay?" Peter asked.

"That's right," said Diana.

"He's with the Office of Public Affairs, last I heard. What's he doing on a Missing Persons investigation?"

"Actually, I'm with Public Affairs, too. It's considered an extremely sensitive case, and communication to the public and to the friends and family of those involved is to be handled with kid gloves." Berrigan kept her expression as blank as possible, but Peter got the impression that handling things with kid gloves wasn't her preferred way of working. "There are a lot of ties to New York in this case, and we have reason to believe your team has a history with some of the people involved. We'll need your help breaking the news and getting cooperation from these people as quickly and quietly as possible. That's why we're starting with the Public Affairs briefing and then Missing Persons will fill in the blanks."

As Agent Berrigan dialed the number for Agent DeLay, Hughes left, saying he'd return when Silva and Young arrived. Peter wished he could leave, too. Public Affairs briefings were often a painful experience, and he regretted pulling his best people into this meeting. Tricia and Jones understood what they were in for and exchanged a look of commiseration. Neal had never dealt with Public Affairs, but seemed to understand that his full attention wasn't going to be required. He'd found a pad of paper and pencil and was sketching something.

Peter excused himself to get a cup of coffee while Agent Berrigan introduced DeLay and set up a connection so the D.C. Agent's screen would be projected in the conference room. PowerPoint slides. This was really going to be a snoozefest. Glancing over Neal's shoulder while walking out of the room, he saw an impressive sketch of Berrigan, hands on her hips, wearing kid gloves.

Peter made a point of sitting beside Neal when he returned. If this briefing turned out to be as boring as he expected, he wanted to be ready to stifle any career-limiting sarcasm from his consultant.