THE OG AU

[conning]

[summary tk]

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[abrightboy]

Malcolm shrugs.

“I’m just curious as to what the other considerations might be,” he says evenly.

[conning]

Murdoch sighs, drawing out another file. This one is just one sheet—a glossy letter-sized surveillance photo of Neal and Malcolm talking to Rebecca Lowe aka Rachel Turner at the farmer’s market nearly two weeks ago.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm only frowns faintly.

“Me and Neal and Rebecca from the museum.” He tilts his head slightly. “We ran into her when we went shopping. Or are the cucumbers the salient detail?” he asks.

[conning]

This is very clearly not the reaction Murdoch expected. He pauses, startled, and then frowns, the itching assumption that Malcolm is being deliberately obtuse creating an edge of irritation in his voice.

“That is Rachel Turner.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughs, and then pauses.

"You're not joking," he surmises. He looks at the picture again, then looks at Murdoch. "Are you sure? I met her during my first case with Neal. He met her at the museum. That encounter was kind of awkward," he admits, gesturing to the photo. "Because they were kind of almost dating when he met me." He takes a breath and presses his lips together. "What would Rachel Turner be doing working at a museum? Scoping it out?" He holds up a finger. "She got fired shortly before I met her. She got fired for a security breach of some kind. ...Do you think she did that on purpose?"

[conning]

The frown becomes a scowl. He flips the file on Rachel Turner back open, placing the image of her next to the one of Neal, Malcolm, and 'Rebecca.'

"I'm quite sure." His tone says what his words don't. I thought you were observant enough to notice. He pauses, then shakes his head. "I don't know. I know that she's promised several potential buyers an item with a quarter-billion dollar price tag. The item itself is unknown to me at this time."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm considers that.

"What are the buyers usually into?" he asks.

Maybe he can learn something useful to them.

[conning]

Murdoch studies Malcolm carefully. “I would first like to ask what Mr Caffrey’s association with Mrs Turner is based on. If you could elaborate on that.”

[abrightboy]

“I thought it was based on his general sexual allure and his weakness for a decent brain, but now you’re making me wonder,” Malcolm tells him. “Do you think she was getting around to attempting to recruit him if she’d gotten her hooks in him?”

[conning]

“I strongly suspect so.” He pauses. “I further suspect she may have been using Hagen to try and fortify her position with Caffrey.”

[abrightboy]

“What, like they were playing thug cop, sexy cop?” Malcolm clarifies.

[conning]

Murdoch’s frown is becoming perennial, though it’s not totally directed at Malcolm.

“Neal Caffrey provides an excellent target for emotional manipulation. Trouble background, criminal father, tenuous social connections that—by all accounts—don’t have a great deal of regard for him or his well-being. An associate informed me that behind closed doors the FBI’s brass refers to him as ‘their number one asset.’” A pause. “Someone lonely with that kind of value to law enforcement is a very promising potential target.”

[abrightboy]

"You don't say," Malcolm observes flatly. "Tell me more about troubled people with rare talents and criminal fathers."

It's rhetorical and he doesn't wait for Murdoch to answer. He leans forward slightly.

"Mr Caffrey has a considerably less tenuous social connection now. He's in good hands. Rebeccachel won't be manipulating him. So where else might she look for what she wants?"

[conning]

Murdoch gives Malcolm a blank look, clearly confused on some level now. “Have I insulted you?”

[abrightboy]

“No, you’ve just failed to see me, but most people do,” Malcolm informs him. “Ms Turner? What are her options without Mr Caffrey?”

[conning]

That takes Murdoch aback slightly. A moment later, though, it clicks, and he relaxes into a relieved kind of understanding.

“Ah. You and Mr Caffrey are romantically involved. Significantly so. My apologies.” It also opens up new avenues of inquiry, which heightens his own interest again. “How long has that been going on? In an official capacity? You said he and Miss Turner were nearly involved prior to your acquaintance?”

[abrightboy]

“When he thought she was Ms Lowe, yes. Bullet dodged, huh?” Malcolm watches him carefully, fidgeting with his cup. “She would have broken him without a care,” he says softly. “So what are you going to do about her?”

It isn’t hard to summon the indignance for that subject. They need to both solve this case and survive it to free Neal from the FBI’s tether afterwards.

[conning]

“She would have,” Murdoch confirms. “Whether she would have left him broken as a marker of her handiwork or tied him off as a loose end will remain a fortunate unknown.”

He leans forward, having decided that Malcolm’s relationship with Neal makes the former more than academically helpful. “I don’t think she was at that museum to case it. Not as such. And she was not fired by anyone on staff for whom she actually worked.”

[abrightboy]

“So… she quit and told him she was fired for sympathy?” Malcolm guesses.

[conning]

“Not exactly. Her dismissal paperwork is all very well organized, perfectly documented and filed. But no one can identify the signature on the supervisory lines, and no one wants to admit it.”

His whole face is bright with that revelation.

[abrightboy]

“She forged her dismissal. Neal is famous for forgery, too. So what does she need yet another forger for?” Malcolm asks curiously, pulling the file towards him to flip through it.

[conning]

Murdoch puts a hand out to still Malcolm’s perusal, drawing out a different file.

It’s a lot thicker.

“The forgery was Hagen’s work. That’s my belief. She’s very smart and very skilled, but she’s also not an artist.”

He offers Malcolm the file. “None of this is officially confirmed. I can’t get anyone else to take an interest in the case. But I have reason to believe that Rachel Turner is an American-born former agent of MI5, discharged for treason, who then escaped custody and has been at large as a mercenary for a significant length of time since.”

[abrightboy]

“Why kill her forger if she didn’t have control of the next one yet?” Malcolm asks. “What if she can’t get him to do what she wants?”

[conning]

“There are too many possibilities to do more than guess at that just now.” He makes an airy little gesture, like he’s shooing away an annoying bug. “The significant thing is that she believes she can get what she needs from Caffrey. She has something she thinks she can use to force his hand.”

[abrightboy]

“Personal leverage of some kind? Isn’t that what their relationship was supposed to be?” Malcolm muses. “So she’s a spy and a thug, not a forger or a thief. You think she needs both and Neal is both without Hagen.”