Graham Winslow's hotel suite. Tuesday evening. February 24, 2004.
Peter's first thought when he entered the hotel suite Tuesday night with Reese Hughes, Clinton Jones, George Knightley and Tricia Wiese was that Henry Winslow's grandfather had done well in his time as CEO of Winston-Winslow. Graham Winslow's suite had a staircase leading up to the bedrooms. The lower level was larger than the first floor of Peter's townhouse, and contained a dining room spacious enough to seat them all with space left over.
His second thought was that Henry's hair was longer than it had been when they'd met in early January. Indoors it seemed closer to black than dark brown. As a result Neal and his cousin looked even more alike as they stood in animated conversation beside a piano across the room. It brought back the question Peter had asked Noelle: did Henry impersonate Neal, too?
Soon they were all seated in the dining room, the main course in front of them and desserts and beverages on a buffet table. When the hotel staff was assured that the diners didn't need anything else, they made a speedy exit. The moment they closed the door behind them, Graham said, "I'd like to know why I brought the Executive Decision up the east coast through a winter squall. Tell us about this case."
Peter also felt the weight of his boss' eyes. The afternoon had sped by in a rush of contingency planning, and there hadn't been time to fill him in on the details. Hughes knew they had uncovered issues but hadn't heard specifics of what the issues were or how they had been resolved. "Yes, tell us," Hughes said in his usual dry fashion from the head of the table. "Eventually I'll have to stop avoiding calls from the top brass and fill them in."
"Jones," Peter said, and the younger agent pulled three sheets of paper from a portfolio. He handed them to George, Henry and Graham. "Before we discuss the case, I need those of you who don't work for the FBI to sign non-disclosure agreements. What I'm about to share with you is extremely sensitive information."
Graham looked across the table at Neal, who hadn't received a form. "He really works for the FBI?"
Beside Graham, Henry sighed. "Pops, I told you. You have to stop listening to Dad's nonsense about Neal."
"Neal is not an agent," Peter said with a glance at the consultant sitting beside him, "but he is a full-time employee of the Bureau and a valued member of my team. He also plays a key role in our plans. If I have to choose between his help and yours in this case, I'm choosing his. We can end this discussion right now if you have a problem with that."
Showing no sign of being rattled Graham said, "According to my son, one of your team is a criminal."
"I didn't bring my team here to be insulted," Peter said. "I trust everyone in this room, except you."
Graham studied Peter a moment, and nodded. "If you ever get fed up with being a Fed, give me a call. Win-Win needs strong leaders."
While Peter stared at the man in shock, Hughes said, "I didn't bring my team here to be recruited."
"Get used to it," Graham countered. "Everyone is poaching the best and the brightest these days. Damned Sterling-Bosch won't leave us alone. I heard they're already sniffing around that new girl on your team, Henry. Sara something?"
"Sara Ellis? You've got to be kidding. I just finished training her a couple of months ago."
"You got a reputation for recruiting and training. Now everyone wants to steal your team. All right, Agent Burke. I've signed your form. I won't criticize your people. What's this all about?"
"We have a lead on Vincent Adler." Peter paused as Graham and Henry caught their breath. "Yeah, this is big. We recently learned he has an alias we hadn't been aware of, and under that alias he owns an estate called Enscombe on Long Island. We have reason to believe that he left something important in a safe on that estate. So far the organization leasing the estate isn't aware of the safe, but we expect that to change after the first of March. That's when they'll get the keys to the suite Adler had reserved for his private use and can make over that space to use for their business. In addition to looking for information that will lead us to Adler, we also want to look for evidence that the business using Enscombe is blackmailing some of their clients."
Graham laid his silverware on the table, too fascinated to eat. "What's this business?"
"They're a professional networking and career counseling firm called Highbury Professional Connections. We have reason to believe that they drug new members and then ask for information that could be used for blackmail. We also believe that they are recruiting members of Adler's old team, and drugging them to get information about Adler and Adler's second-in-charge, a man going by the name of Gil Goddard."
"You don't think that's his real name?" Henry asked.
"No. Goddard doesn't exist. And his background is so sketchy that I'm certain Adler was aware the man was using an alias. And he wasn't the only one with a false identity at Adler's company." Peter looked at Neal.
Neal raised his wine glass in a mocking salute. "Adler knew me as Nick Halden."
"We think someone at Highbury learned that Adler is the real owner of Enscombe, and he or she wants to find Adler – or more likely Adler's money – ahead of the FBI. That's why they're interested in Adler's former team. They've been trying to recruit Nick Halden for a few months now, and last week we had Neal respond to their overtures. They're expecting him at Enscombe on Thursday. Since we're talking about a waterfront estate, surveillance from the municipal van we use in Manhattan isn't a viable option. That's where the sailboat comes in. We'll have agents and equipment on board to record everything that goes on when Nick Halden goes to Enscombe. We'll also have personnel on the ground at the neighboring bed and breakfast who can be at the estate in a matter of minutes if Neal needs help. We thought everything was falling into place, but this morning we hit a speed bump. Jones, tell them what you learned." Letting his agent take over the story, Peter finally dug into his meal.
With an apologetic glance toward Neal, Jones said, "A few nights ago I was worried about Caffrey and asked George to keep an eye on him. Turns out that one of the founders of Highbury was also keeping an eye on him. Guy by the name of Isaac Dixon approached George after Neal left. Emphasis on Neal, because he wasn't going by Nick Halden at the bar. Dixon said he wanted to hire Neal to work at his club and asked George if he knew how to contact him."
"I met Dixon when I went to Highbury as Halden last week," Neal said. "He didn't say anything about recognizing me."
"Yeah, and it gets more ominous," Jones said. "Dixon convinced George to try out Highbury's services. Last night George went to Enscombe. This morning he had a mark on his arm that indicated he'd been given a shot of something, and he had a big gap in his memory about what happened. We have to assume he was drugged and that he told them that Neal works for the FBI. We also have to assume that they know Nick Halden and Neal Caffrey are the same person."
"Has Highbury rescinded their invitation to Nick?" Neal asked.
"No," Jones said. "They still want to hear anything you can tell them about Adler. Knowing you have access to the FBI's files should be an incentive in their eyes. Means you might be able to tell them even more. The thing is, they don't know that we've figured that out. We lucked out with George's mild allergic reaction to the shot. Otherwise we'd still be in the dark."
Elbows on the table, Neal leaned forward. "I can use that."
Across the table from Neal, Henry said, "There is no way you're doing this."
"It's perfect," Neal said.
"It's too dangerous," his cousin argued.
"You'd do it."
"It's ridiculous."
"You know you'd do it," Neal repeated.
"I'm not letting you –" Henry started.
"You can't stop me," Neal interrupted. "It's my decision. Isn't that right, Peter?"
"No," answered Hughes. "It's my decision. Both of you shut up and eat before I kick you out of this meeting. You're annoying the grownups. Peter, what are the options?"
Aware that he very much wanted to take Henry's side, Peter tried to distance himself from his feelings. "The first option is that we could try to find someone else to get into Enscombe as a Highbury client. That would work to get evidence of the blackmail scheme, but we couldn't do it in time to search Adler's safe. Any evidence there would probably be lost to us. The second option is that we could try questioning Dixon about Adler, but right now we have more speculation than evidence, and we could risk Adler learning what we know while getting nothing to show for it. Or as the third option, we could send Neal in as we had planned, letting Dixon think that he's a step ahead of us. We have an inside man starting as a bartender there tomorrow, and now George Knightley is a member who can come and go at will. Between them, they could help Neal slip away long enough to get into Adler's safe. We can take the contents of the safe as evidence, and abandon the blackmail investigation, getting Neal out before anyone tries to drug him."
"What?" Neal sounded startled. "No, you have to let them drug me, and record the questions they ask about Adler. When you have that evidence, they'll trade what they know about Adler in return for leniency on the blackmail charges."
"No!" Henry said.
"Neal, I really don't think that's a good idea," Peter added.
"They aren't going to hurt me," Neal pointed out. "They want me alive and well to answer their questions. In fact, they're fools if they don't try to set up a repeat performance. They'll want to plant a suggestion that I go through the FBI files for any additional details they need, and will ask me to come back later to go through it all again."
"And what happens when you're under the influence of the drug and you tell them that you know what they have planned, and that the FBI is listening in?" Henry demanded.
Neal rolled his eyes, "Well obviously before I go to Enscombe I research the drug's effects, and when I'm there I convince them I'm under its influence before it really hits me. I answer their questions while I'm still in control. Then, when the drug actually starts to affect me, I make it look like I'm having a bad reaction. Maybe make it appear to be an overdose. They panic and stop questioning me long enough for the agents at the B&B to arrive and make an arrest."
"I don't like it," Henry said. "There are too many things that could go wrong."
"I can do it," Neal insisted.
"Enough," said Hughes before they could launch into a repeat of their earlier exchange. "Peter, do you think Neal can pull off the option he's suggesting?"
At the New Year's Eve operation, Peter heard Neal convince a doctor he was having an asthma attack. And Henry's own mother called Neal Henry during the open house this weekend. Based on these experiences and on the many impressive cons for which Neal had been granted immunity, Peter had to say, "He has a genius for this kind of thing. If anyone can pull this off, it's Neal."
"I want those agents you're stationing at the B&B to be on the estate before anyone tries to drug Caffrey," Hughes said to Peter. "Response time has to be under a minute, or we pull the plug on this." Then he turned to Neal. "Last week you said the Bureau isn't taking advantage of your full potential. Here's your chance. Don't squander it on an attempt to show off. The minute you need help or things go out of your control, you let Peter know. Peter calls the shots. Got it?"
"Got it," Neal confirmed. He didn't look smug, but he was an expert con artist.
Meanwhile, Henry looked as concerned as Peter felt. And Graham leaned over toward his grandson to say, "You are never going to try something like this, understood?"
It made Peter slightly jealous. He might feel like Neal's father, but he was precluded from acting like a dad here. Tonight he was an FBI team leader and had to stay in that role, even to the point of recommending something he dreaded. If he couldn't be objective as a boss where Neal was concerned, Hughes wouldn't let Neal work for him anymore. There wasn't another team lead in the New York offices who would appreciate Neal's potential. Peter couldn't stand to see him tossed out of the FBI, likely returning to a life of crime to support himself. And Peter couldn't stand the thought of Hughes turning this op over to another lead agent. If Neal was going to try something this risky, Peter was going to be there every step of the way to make sure the kid had all the help and backup he could get.
A/N: Graham Winslow's hotel suite is inspired by the hotel room Peter had in the episode Company Man.