Woman in Blue Redux

When I was posting the Arkham Files story, The Locked Room, I blogged about Diana and Tricia's use of events from The Woman in Blue. (Echoes of The Woman in Blue) In my latest story, Nocturne in Black and Gold, the White Collar team members are gaining a fresh appreciation of those earlier incidents and how they were being manipulated by the Mansfeld brothers.

Warning for minor spoilers for the Caffrey Conversation series

The initial step they don't yet know about. In the second chapter, Marta Kolar reveals that Klaus stole Raphael's Saint George and the Dragon in an early gambit to win Neal back. In the virtual reality sequence in California, Klaus told Neal that he came to New York with the express design to recruit Neal to his crew. Although the team doesn't know if that's true, they're now convinced Klaus didn't just happen to run into Neal at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Neal and Peter realize that Klaus knew Neal was attempting to play him when he forged the Vermeer painting in the fall, but they don't yet appreciate the full significance of Klaus's actions. When Klaus visited Neal's Columbia art studio and witnessed his friendship with Keiko, he reported his findings to Rolf. Klaus took the crew out to a dinner where he reminisced about Neal being a member of the crew. More valuable data points for the mind games to come.

Klaus didn't have to fake his death. He already knew the FBI was onto him. Was it Rolf who convinced him that making Neal feel guilty over Klaus's supposed death would be the best way to control him? Rolf may not have predicted that Neal would suffer PTSD as a result, but he must have considered that an extra gift.

Klaus told Neal that Rolf staged an elaborate puzzle around a Galileo forgery as a lure for Peter. His veracity is questionable. What is easier to believe is that Rolf made use of the house of horror to evaluate how Neal and Peter worked together as a team. Klaus already knew about Neal's antipathy to guns. Rolf twisted the screw by having Neal think he'd shot Peter.

In Nocturne in Black and Gold, Neal's PTSD symptoms return. The mind games Rolf has been playing are working. What's different is that now both Neal and Peter know the truth about those earlier incidents and how they were manipulated. The next step is for Neal to break free.

Nocturne in Black and Gold on Archive of Our Own
Nocturne in Black and Gold on FanFiction