White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 9

Burning aliases

Neal did not argue.

"Thanks."

Peter took the kid up to the office and his room. He opened a file on his desk and handed it to Neal.

"Our suspect. His name is Julian Larssen."

"This is who shot Moz?"

"We think so," Peter said. Diana and Jones had worked all night. "And, according to Fowler, he's the right hand behind whoever's manipulating you, Kate, the music box, everything."

"Where is he now?" Neal asked. Peter hoped the kid would not run away on a new crusade.

"He's gone underground. If he's smart, he'll leave town, and we need to make sure that doesn't happen." Peter watched the young criminal in front of him. "How'd you stay ahead of me when I was after you? And don't say good looks and charm."

"Aliases. I had several."

"I kept burning them."

"And I kept making new ones." Peter nodded and they shared a grin. The kid showed him something from the file. "But this passport... I recognize the work. It's a forger out of Belgium."

"Larssen doesn't forge his own I.D.s."

"It's not easy. You need specialized equipment, ink, paper..." While listening to Neal a plan formed in Peter's head. "If we burn all of his aliases, he'll have to have new papers made by someone here in the city," the kid voiced his thoughts as if they were thinking it at the same time.

"Exactly," Peter grinned and sat down by his computer. "I'll work up a list of all of Larssen's aliases and start shutting 'em down, put him on every watch list until he has no way out of New York."

"All right, I'll talk to the forger community to make sure he can't buy another one."

Peter picked up his phone and suddenly...

"Wait." Neal turned by the door. "What if we let him buy one, one that we pick?"

The kid's smile was all the approval he needed.

"I'll arrange that," he said and was out of the door.

And Peter started getting in contact with anyone who knew anything about Larssen. An hour later a fine young military officer sat in his visitor's chair.

"Julian Larssen worked intelligence in Special Forces. You served with him. We need to find any aliases he might be operating under."

"Michael Glassuner is the only one I remember."

Peter wrote it down and gave the note to Diana. The officer left and a bar owner took his seat. A third guy passed the doors.

" Jones, put him in holding till I finish with this guy." He closed the door to his office and handed the man a photo of Larseen. "Larssen's a regular at your bar. What name does he use there?"

"Uh, I can't remember."

"And keep in mind that I know about your expired liquor license."

"Kyle. His card says Kyle Albertsson."

"Thank you."

Peter worked himself through the cue of people.

"Diana, how's it going?" he asked over the phone when he had a moment alone.

"We've burned Larssen's Kyle Albertsson alias."

"Good." He drew a line across the name on his list. "I've got another name to add to the list. Brian Blitek."

"Our suspect," Peter said, handing him a file. "His name is Julian Larssen."

Neal was utterly baffled about how open Peter was.