CH6
It is supposed to snow all day here today which for North Carolina is not a good thing. However the office has decided to buy pizza for everyone that was adventurous enough to drive into work today, which isn't many. And since I'm already half done with chapter 17 after last night and my beta reader is done with chapter 14, I feel like celebrating.
Lucky you, so don't say I never gave you anything. Enjoy!
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They were finally going into the house after searching the big island along with all three boats. Boats that Kate was in love with. She was definitely going out on at least one of these boats if not all three.
38 Statement "Cuddy" Powered by Triple Mercury 300 Verados, Custom Hard top,
Custom colored Gelcoat hullsides,Garmin GPS plotter, Stereo CD player with Ipod/Bluetooth,
Custom Sea dek flooring, Battery charger, Custom upholstery with "Mullinar" style stitching.
Separate enclosed Head with shower in console.
Forward Cuddy has 7 foot berth and custom cabinetry
Twin stepped hull design gives 70+ mph Performance
41 Rampage was built to perform and born to thrive in rugged sea conditions; its stout construction and Carolina flare create optimal efficiency and performance. Her outstanding ride and incredible range will get you to your destination in contentment.
Viking 92 Convertible (also available in an enclosed bridge model), the largest sport fishing yacht built in Viking's history. Sure to be the queen of the fleet, this yacht raises the bar in sophistication and style. Her stunning profile includes many motor yacht cues, including dual mezzanine decks, one in the cockpit and one on the main level aft deck. The aft deck mezzanine includes rear facing, lounge seating along with a second seating area. The outside galley and grilling area provides for alfresco drinks and dining at a small, comfortable table. Her huge cockpit boasts a large mezzanine and a raised viewing area that leads to her center-lined salon door. The helm station affords superb visibility, ample seating, and plenty of rod and electronic stowage.
"I told you there was nothing here and now it's too late for lunch and I'm tired and hungry and we still have to unload the plane." Rick moans as he walks inside and heads for the sofa to fall onto only to moan again and pulls his weapon out of his pants as it dug into him.
"You're lucky you didn't shoot yourself Castle." Kate was still on his case and adding more black marks under his picture.
"Please, the safety was on. It's been on since we started. You didn't actually think I was going to accidentally discharge it did you?" Rick was hurt that Kate thought so little of him.
Kate took her black marks back down and kept her mouth shut. "Let's go Castle the sooner we unload the plane the sooner we can rest and the sooner we can figure out what there is to eat around here." Kate tells him since she wanted this trip over so she could rest.
"NOW CASTLE!" Kate yelled at the door leading outside. It got Castle up off the sofa with a groan. (Remind me why I saved her life?)
Castle was carrying 2 of the duffel bags, Alexis had one and Kate had one duffel bag and the single long hard sided case. "Castle what is in this thing?" Kate lifts the case up a little. Kate would come back later for her other bag and shotgun.
"That is my pride and joy that I found and bought, she's a beauty." Rick arched his eyebrows a couple of times.
Thompson 1927A-1 "Tommy Gun"/30rd Mag/100rd Drum!
"You bought a Tommy Gun?" Kate wasn't sure she heard right.
"The hand guns are Sig Sauer P227 and they shoot a .45 ACP round and I wanted to cut down on the number of different bullets I had to have for the weapons and a Tommy Gun shoots a .45 ACP so I only needed just the one type of ammunition." Rick defends himself, since Kate seemed to enjoy shooting him down constantly. Hoping she wasn't like this while running her precinct.
Kate thought about it and started smiling since it actually did make sense. "And what's in the bags?"
"Each bag has 40 boxes that each hold 50 rounds of ammunition for the SIG's and the Tommy Gun." Rick explains.
"That's, …. 8,000 rounds of ammunition!" Kate's eyes opened wide, after doing the math in her head.
"The case has a single 100 round drum in it and two of these bags have another 2 drums each, while the other two have another 5 clips for the SIG's in addition to the three that were in each case.
I never got around to loading any of the drums or clips beyond the three in each case." Rick explains.
Kate took a few of those gold star sticker and pinned them on the picture of Castle, Kate had of him in her mind. Kate would have liked to have seen a sniper rifle added, but it was too late now. Then Kate added a couple more gold stars to Castle's picture just for having the guns.
"Just the one Tommy Gun?" Kate was dying to fire this thing now, just once.
"It may be New York, but it was the only one that was local and I didn't have time to have another one shipped. We left to come here only a week after I bought it and all the ammunition.
I had to go to 5 different stores to buy up all the ammunition. I cleaned out 4 of them of every round they had." Rick knew he had gone to a lot of trouble, but he just knew he had to do it.
Kate knew her service weapon fired a 9mm round and she only had 2 spare clips on her with 2 boxes of 50 rounds in her bag, along with 25 rounds of shells for her shotgun. There was also some rope, flares, first-aid kit, cuffs and some misc. stuff that Kate hadn't cared about for a long time in it also.
Kate wasted no time in opening the case to look at the Tommy Gun once they got inside and Rick excused himself to go start dinner. "WOW!" Kate pulled it out and picked up the drum and worked out how to attach it and then pulled the bolt back. "WOW!"
Kate had it put away by the time Alexis came back after a trip to the bathroom. Kate traded places with her to use the bathroom.
"Come on I'll give you the tour." Alexis offers. "Bring your bag and we can find you a bedroom."
"The main building is broken into two different sections. The main section we're in is the residence while the other section is the business." Alexis opens the door between the two.
"The business side is small and only holds the office desk, the front desk to sign in and get your tent assignment, pick up brochures about what is offered, make reservations for deep sea fishing, rent jet skis or even rent one of the boats like the one you're in love with." Alexis points out getting Kate to look at Alexis.
"You were practically drooling over all three of them but you obviously liked one over the others. You're dying to see what it can do, which happens to be 70 plus by the way." Alexis explains, grinning at Kate.
"I didn't think it was that obvious." Kate started blushing and turned her head to look outside to hide it.
"There is also a half bath on this side for workers or guests if they need to." Alexis adds.
Back into the residence side. "Living, dining and kitchen all open to each other." Alexis explains and can see Castle working in the kitchen.
"There are four bedrooms, two share a jack and jill bathroom. Across the hall is a bedroom and the master bedroom with an on suite." Alexis shows her each room.
So far Kate was impressed by all of it. It was tasteful and each room was well appointed.
"Up this spiral stair case is the roof deck." Alexis takes her up to look. "You can see everything from up here."
Kate walked around finding chase lounges and a table with four chairs that had one of those umbrellas that was tied closed at the moment and several solar panels all on metal stands. There was piping leading to two of them telling Kate which ones were solar hot water.
"Down there is the outdoor cooking area and living and dining area, complete with hot tub and above ground pool, that are both empty at the moment." Kate looked over the side down onto all of it.
It looked like all rattan style furniture that all had cushions with them. The dining room table had a retractable cover as did the hot tub. There was a pergola over the living room portion with an outside BBQ grill complete with mini fridge and preparation surface.
"Down there is the outside access to the cistern that is under the building. That room also houses the filter equipment, tankless water heaters that run on propane, solar hot water tank, electrical panels and storage for filters and spare UV lights as well as all the pool cleaning stuff and chemicals.
Out there between the four Honeywell wind turbines that provide most of our power is the dog house holding the battery back-up. … The wind turbines spin to face whichever direction the wind is coming from. You can make them spin by practically blowing on them. They also keep the batteries charged." Alexis explains. "All the tie down wires are for if or when we have a hurricane."
"What's in that building?" Kate points to a different building.
"That houses one quad and one dirt bike and one electric powered golf cart. We were going to use that to get people between the plane or boat dock to the office and back down to the staff tents, where the guest would walk to their individual tent." Alexis explains. "It also has a small work shop to do repairs of fabricate parts. We are kinda on our own out here." Alexis points out.
Kate had heard the 'we were going to' part. These two had plans and it didn't include this. Not that Kate had ever thought of this happening either.
"Where's the radio?" Kate looks up at the monstrously tall radio tower.
"It's in the office downstairs." Alexis answers.
"They're not exactly tents." Kate points out, since when Alexis said tent she was expecting a tent meant for camping.
"No, not your typical camping tents. They're actually Yurts, like what they used in Genghis Kahn era. We're hoping they stand up to hurricane winds better and easier to fix if they are ripped or even blown away." Alexis explains.
"You seem to have everything and thought of everything." Kate points out.
"We hope so. … Right now our problem is meat and fresh vegetables with nothing in the freezers. We need to either go fishing tomorrow or go pig hunting." Alexis points out.
"I saw them while we were scouting the island, you do have a few of them." Kate points out. Kate had also seen a pair of buildings on the other island that were also made of concrete block like the main house. Kate had been told while they were there that they were the store and the shower facilities for the guests and staff.
"We didn't used to have that many, they've been breeding so we may need to go pig hunting just to reduce the population." Alexis points out.
"Fruit trees are all over the island, but mostly over there and the nut trees are all over there." Alexis points in a general direction.
"You said you had a greenhouse." Kate points out from her memory.
"It's kinda small and is on the other side of the garage for the quad and dirt bike." Alexis points.
"You want to unpack, we can go find you a swim suit or two down in the store next to one of the staff tents on the other island." Alexis offers and goes back downstairs behind Kate, closing the door behind her.
It didn't take Kate long to unpack her one and only bag that only had 4 days of clothes in it along with a few misc. items. Kate was groaning. She had so very little and was hundreds of miles away from home and didn't know when she would get to go back.
Kate finally emerged from the room she had chosen, which was one of the jack and jill bedrooms, finding out later that Alexis had already taken the other bedroom.
Kate found Alexis with Castle in the kitchen. "What's for dinner?" Kate was starving and wondered what Castle was making with empty freezers.
"Teriyaki glazed papaya steaks with cut up fruit. All freshly picked just moments ago." Rick answers her question. "We have no beef, no pork until we go hunting and no fish until we go fishing." Rick is forced to admit since he really did want some meat of some kind. This vegetarian stuff just wasn't him.
"It sounds fine Castle." Kate was hungry and more than willing to eat it.
"We can go down to the store and find you a bikini after dinner or a one piece if you prefer." Rick tells her.
"Trying awfully hard to get me into a swimsuit Castle." Kate teases, not that she didn't understand why, it was just Castle's motives that she questioned.
"You don't strike me as the skinny dipping type Beckett and you're going to find that it's too warm here most of the time to be wearing anything heavy during the day." Rick adds. Like what they were all still wearing at the moment and had been baking in while securing both islands.
"He is right captain Beckett, it's why each room has its own A/C unit. If it's too hot tonight even with the windows open you can turn your unit on tonight. The two in here will be on tomorrow." Alexis advises.
"Most definitely, I'm not baking sitting in here tomorrow." Rick points out. "Especially after spending tomorrow going pig hunting using the quad and then cooking him in a pit of hot coals."
"What are you going to do with all that meat after?" Kate was curious.
"We have two of those Foodsaver vacuum food saver kits along with several cases of bags." Alexis answers her question. "The pantries are through those two doors." Alexis points. "Have a look." Alexis didn't want to hide anything from her and she wanted to impress Kate.
Kate got up and walked over to one of the doors and turned on the light. "WOW!" Kate started walking around. There was case after case all stacked on industrial shelves like you would find in a Costco. It was even two cases deep!
Actually that's what Kate thought the room looked like, Costco. From floor to ceiling, nothing but boxes. It looked like all canned goods. Corn, green beans, tomatoes, sauces, peas and countless of others.
Kate moved to the other pantry. "WOW!" This room was just like the other room. It was just as big and was filled with boxes, except this time it was all dry goods. Flour, sugar, breakfast cereal, and countless other things.
Each room had the walls filled with boxes on shelving from floor to ceiling plus still more boxes in the middle of the room on shelving. Kate walked the circle of each room looking at only some of the boxes. Kate found an upright freezer in each room that really was completely empty when she opened them.
They were definitely not going to starve to death!
Kate came back outside and found Alexis and Castle smiling wide. "O-kay, color me impressed. … What about toilet paper and all those feminine products?" Kate asks.
"Mostly the attic space of the storage shed with the quad and dirt bike." Alexis answers her question.
"There is also some down in the store on the other island that guests could purchase." Rick answers that question.
"Along with boxes of potato chips, candy bars, peanuts, Gatorade bottles, beer and a multitude of other items." Alexis adds.
"There is no hard liquor for sale, just what is in the house. Boating and drinking don't mix and we didn't want to lose even a jet ski to some idiot who got himself drunk." Rick adds.
Kate remembers seeing the building but hadn't gone inside since the doors were all still locked with the storm shutters all pulled down and locked in place. "How does it get its power?" Kate asks.
"There is a single Honeywell windmill with battery back-up down there too." Alexis explains. "Along with another solar hot water system for the showers. All the water for everything comes from the giant cistern below us."
"You really have thought of everything. … Do I even want to know what all this cost you?" Kate asks and immediately is sorry she did since it was none of her business. "Forget I asked, I have a big mouth." Kate quickly adds.
"It's alright, I don't mind. … The Beechcraft was $5.5 million, the three boats were $2.3 million, the restoration of this house was $3.3 million, everything else combined was a few more million. The purchase of the islands was the most expensive part at $39 million." Rick tells her, getting Kate to sit back in her chair at the breakfast bar where she and Alexis were sitting.
"Dad sold everything. The land and buildings he owned in New York, the Ferrari, the loft. … Everything." Alexis adds knowing her dad was all in for this little adventure. It had actually amounted to a lot of money.
"My god Castle!? … Do you even have anything left?" Kate didn't see how after spending that much. He wasn't that rich, was he?
"I moved the rest of it to a bank in Nassau, plus there is roughly $130,000 in cold hard cash around here somewhere. I'm not broke yet. … Yet." Rick didn't know what was going to happen now.
Rick didn't even know what Alexis knew yet since Alexis hadn't had time to tell him about what she knew, like the nukes that Martha had told them about or the one the F/A-18 E pilot had warned them about.
"How did you get all of this out here? I mean this is an island that Alexis here told me was 300 miles from Miami." Kate asks, still amazed.
"Our plane brought some of it, the rest got here by boat. … Several boats actually." Rick started serving up dinner.
"The tents went up first as well as everything on that island. The workers all stayed in the tents for a week and were shipped back to the mainland for weekends. Took us three years to complete everything." Alexis points out.
Dinner was eaten mostly in silence as Kate was allowed to digest her food and everything she had been told and seen.
Playboy Castle wasn't a playboy and his daughter, that obviously lover her father very much, was amazing. Especially for a 16 year old!
Kate offered to help clean up but was shooed out of the kitchen while Alexis and Rick cleaned up from dinner. "Go turn on the TV and see if you can find something." Rick offers.
"You have TV out here?" Kate got another shock.
"Direct TV actually. … I know a guy who got me in for free. … Just don't arrest me captain." Rick smiled.
(Damn, he really is handsome and that smile could melt women, let alone what he might be capable of with those hands! … Mind out of the gutter Kate!)
Kate turned on the TV and started flipping through channels getting nothing, absolutely nothing. "Nothing, how are we supposed to find out what is going on?" Where they really that cut off from everyone?
"Dad and I have our phones plus there is the radio tower." Alexis counters.
Kate pulled out her phone and got a 'No signal' message. "You have a cell tower?" Kate didn't remember seeing one and Alexis didn't mention it on the tour.
"Dad's and mine's cell phones have a piggyback satellite attachment that turns our cell phones into satellite phones. Plus we have a real satellite phone in the office, the ham radio and the communication system in the plane. …. Oh and the ones on each boat that can talk to the unit in the office." Alexis hands Kate her cell phone.
"Call your friends see if their alright, and ask about grams please." Alexis all but begged Kate over the last part.
The cell phone Alexis gave her looked like any iPhone that she had seen except it had this fat black attachment on the back of it. Kate decided to call Espo after using her phone to look up the number. Kate was so used to using her contact list to call people so hadn't memorized anyone's actual number.
Kate left a message. "Went straight to voice mail." Kate tells them, so she looks up Ryan's number. "Straight to voice mail." Just where was everyone anyway?