Caffrey Flashback

Chapter 43: Closure

Airstrip near the Hudson. Monday afternoon. March 8, 2004.

A limo picked them up in front of the Federal Building. Mozzie drove as Henry outlined what to expect. The passports Neal had liberated from the safe at Enscombe contained a code suspected to reveal Adler's location. Kate had the passports now, but she'd given Neal the bond that held the key to cracking the code. That bond had been in his jacket pocket when Jane Fairfax had spilled potpourri all over him. That jacket had gone to the Enscombe laundry. When the FBI came in and made their arrest, they found the jacket, but not before Mozzie took the bond. With Neal still out of it in the hospital, Mozz had given the bond to Henry, who had made a deal with Kate.

Now Kate and her father were ready to leave New York and join Adler. They had a plane and pilot, and only needed the passports to be decoded before they could leave. That's where Mozzie came in. He had a laptop and supplies in the trunk of the limo, and when they arrived at the hangar he set up an impromptu office. Kate gave Mozzie the passports, and Henry handed over the bond. Mozzie soon had headphones on, lost in his own world as he listened to Don Giovanni and studied the code.

The pilot was walking around the plane, going through a pre-flight checklist. Kate's father stood outside the hangar, keeping watch. Kate spoke to him, and then walked over to Neal and Henry.

"We keep the passports Adler made for Neal," Henry said. "That's the deal. Neal never asked for them, and their existence is only going to make trouble for him. The minute Mozzie is done with them, we burn those passports and the bond. There will be no evidence they ever existed."

Kate nodded. "They're yours. What you do with them is up to you."

"I'm going to check on Mozzie," Henry said. But Neal knew it was too soon for Mozzie to have made any progress. He was giving Neal a chance to say goodbye to Kate.

Over the last few weeks, Neal had started to make his peace with the fact that he and Kate were going in opposite directions. It hurt, and it would probably take a long time for the pain to fade. Talking to her, getting some answers, would help. Trust Henry to understand, and to make sure Neal got that chance. It was hard to jump into the questions he really wanted to ask, and instead he started with, "Were you always in on Adler's plan?"

Kate shook her head. "Vincent doesn't let anyone that close. We knew about the Ponzi scheme, and that he had a plan to get out before anyone caught on, but he didn't tell anyone when or how he'd escape. He's waited the better part of a year for us to prove that we wouldn't turn on him, and even now he's making us show we're clever and determined enough to join him. He won't tolerate freeloaders. If we want in on his next job, we have to be worthy."

"You admire him."

"He's brilliant."

"Yeah, I won't argue that," Neal said, "but is that a good reason to drop your whole life here to join him, wherever he is? You said you weren't the Daisy to his Gatsby. What do you get out of following him?"

"He came to my rescue at a time when I'd lost all hope. And then when I thought Dad had given up hope, he gave us a second chance. Suddenly we had a purpose, an opportunity to be part of something big, bright and exciting."

"He was using you," Neal countered.

"That doesn't make it any less intriguing. You never know what he's planning. Just imagine it, Neal. After everything he's done, he isn't sitting around resting on his laurels. He has something else planned, something bigger. And he's going to let me be part of it. How can I turn that down?"

"I get it," said Neal. And he did. Byron had described the life of a con as an addiction, and what Kate was saying wasn't that different.

Henry had returned, standing silently off to the side. Kate hadn't noticed him, and Neal ignored him.