In the White Collar television series, Peter and Neal often had conversations in Peter's car. The writers used that setting to isolate the main characters from the rest of the world, giving them opportunities to say things they might not mention in front of others. The pilot had memorable car scenes, including Neal hot wiring a vehicle in his prison escape, Neal pretending to be a valet to steal a car, and a conversation in Peter's car where they discuss his lack of ideas for an anniversary gift for Elizabeth. So when I wrote the first story in the Caffrey Conversation series and wanted to capture the feel of the show, I used cars.
At the end of last year when I wrote my newest addition to the series -- In the Driver's Seat -- it occurred to me how frequently cars have played a role in my stories. Silbrith weighed in with reminders of scenes I'd forgotten. The memories were such fun that I decided to write this post about car scenes.
In the first story, most of the action takes place in St. Louis, giving both Neal and Peter rental cars. The cars reveal things about them. Peter has a boring, practical, economy rental because he's following FBI guidelines. In order to protect Peter's identity in an undercover op, Neal swaps car keys with Peter; he takes Peter's car, leaving behind his own car in the expectation that Peter can use the clues in it to find Neal. Neal's rental has a GPS system that Peter uses to discover where Neal has been, and the rental papers in the glovebox reveal the alias Neal is using.
Early in the story, Neal also drives to a lake where he drowned. I'd decided that before Neal ran away from home, he reacted to the truth about his father and WITSEC by taking his car on a drive on a rainy night. On that drive, he hydroplaned and landed in a lake. I had no idea how many times I'd refer back to that event.
The story Choirboy Caffrey picks up where Caffrey Conversation ends. They're still in St. Louis, but Peter has returned his rental car. Now they get to negotiate who will drive Neal's rental. Peter wins that argument, but Neal's more familiar with their location and acts as the navigator. Some of their dialogue on the drive to the airport is taken directly from the TV series, serving both as an homage to the writers and as a reminder to the readers that these are the same two characters we know and love.
On that drive to the airport, Neal mentions that a car used in one of the James Bond movies had been stolen in Florida and never recovered. That served as one of the inspirations for the story Caffrey Envoy, where we hear about very young Neal stealing (or being stolen by) that same type of car.
Of course, I'm skipping over By the Book. In that story, the team must go to Connecticut twice in order to catch the bad guys. Road trip! There had been rumors that the White Collar writers had a road trip episode in mind if show hadn't been canceled, and that was in the back of my mind. Variations on the car scenes I added for By the Book included Peter being tired and letting Jones drive -- showing us the trust he has in Jones, as well as Neal falling asleep in the car. An offer to drive Neal home leads to Peter observing Neal's stress and deciding Neal shouldn't be left alone, leading to Neal's first visit to the Burkes' home, where he meets Satchmo and then Elizabeth.
Near the end of By the Book we learn that Neal doesn't have much experience driving on snow and ice, and that he'd totaled Henry's car in an attempt to learn -- thus inspiring a scene I wrote five years later for In the Driver's Seat. It's also an element Silbrith picked up on, with Peter giving Neal lessons in The Queen's Jewels.
Another element I started in By the Book is including scenes of Henry and Neal together in a car. Their obsession with the radio and music foreshadows things we learn about them in Caffrey Flashback and Caffrey Disclosure. Their experiences "on the road" in the years after Neal ran away are alluded to frequently in later stories, with a full scene about that time in the Splash vignette.
One of my favorite car scenes takes place in Caffrey Flashback, and it's the drive to the Burke family cabin in upstate New York. Friends and family rent an SUV and pack up to take Neal someplace he can heal. The drive and cabin where such fun to write about that Silbrith and I found more reasons to send characters on the drive to the cabin in stories that followed.
I could go on listing car scenes, but you get the idea. We've adopted and expanded on the ways cars were used in White Collar. The cars provide a link back to the series, while revealing things about the characters' pasts, and moving them forward (both literally and emotionally) to places they hadn't reached in the show.
It's been a pleasure taking readers along for the ride.
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