CH11
Kate woke up the next morning pretty much like she had been for what felt like years to them, even if they never did get any older. Kate had her head tucked into Rick's shoulder who had his arm around her holding her in place, while she had her free hand on his chest directly over his heart. It allowed her to feel his heartbeat. It told her that the love of her life was alive and she was in his arms.
Kate moved her hand over his heart a little which told Rick that she was awake. "Good morning my love." Rick dips his chin down so he can look down on her.
"Hi." Kate snuggled into a better location. "You didn't have to do that." Kate points out.
"Yes I did. … I saw that look on your face as you were trying to explain me to your father. In real life we would have been married years ago. Instead we are stuck, and I love you far too much to let you question what we mean to each other." Rick explains.
"Married huh? … You think I would have said yes long ago do you?" Kate couldn't help but tease him, it was just in her nature. Besides she already knew the answer.
"Face it you can't resist me." Rick teases back, except it earned him a pinch to his chest. "OWE! … Evil woman."
It had Kate smiling. "I didn't get you a ring." Kate suddenly felt bad about that.
"You'll think of something. You're brilliant and resourceful." Rick knew Kate would come up with something, and even if she didn't he didn't care.
"Big day today." Kate points out changing the subject.
"Pig hunting, fishing and calling Espo." Rick runs down the big items on their list.
"Shower with me? … Strictly in the interest of saving water of course." Rick offers.
"Only if you are willing to share other things." Kate smiled while she doodled on Rick's chest with one of her fingers.
"Good thing my mother taught me to share when I was young then." Rick offered getting Kate to smile.
After their shower and a little fun, Kate was slipping on her flip flops while Rick turned off the A/C unit in their bedroom. "Is that new?" Rick had noticed Kate wearing something.
"Like it?" Kate twirled in place to give him a view from all sides.
"I'll like it later when I take it back off of you tonight." Rick offered, which got Kate smiling again, since that was precisely what she wanted him to do.
They found that they were the first ones out in the main room. "I'll get the eggs and let the chickens loose." Kate tells him.
"You're going to let them out?" Rick calls from the kitchen.
"That's why they call them free range chickens babe. You're not the only one who does research." Kate smiles. Kate also throws out some chicken feed since what was in their coop was almost gone as usual.
Since no one came for the eggs in a while, there were a lot, so Kate only took what they needed and left the rest to hatch. The sooner they had chicks, the sooner they could have chicken.
Kate also stopped at the greenhouse to collect some green onions.
Rick was working on his second omelet when Alexis showed up. "Hi mom and dad." Alexis came in and turned on the main rooms two A/C units.
"Want one Alexis." Rick asks.
"Yes please. … Grams is in the shower. I knocked and told Jim he could use the shower in the master bedroom." Alexis tells them.
"Something we're going to have to get used to, with only two bathrooms." Kate points out.
"The jack and jill bathroom has outside access from the hallway." Rick reminds her.
The three of them had just finished eating and Rick was loading the dishwasher when Jim and Martha showed up. "Omelet's?" Rick asks of them.
"What are our options?" Jim asks.
"For this morning, that's about it. …. Milk is powdered or condensed, no bacon until I come back with a pig and butcher it and no bread until we make it ourselves." Rick was forced to admit.
"Omelet it is then." Jim resigns himself. "Can you actually scramble them with a little onion and have salt and pepper?"
"Of course." Rick places the salt and pepper grinders on the breakfast bar.
Everyone was done eating and cleaned up. Alexis had slipped into their rooms to turn off the A/C units while they ate.
"Time to go pig hunting." Rick announces. "Wish the big game hunter luck?" Rick kissed Kate's cheek.
"It's a pig Castle. … And a domestic pig running around lose at that." Kate talks while looking at her dad.
"You wound me Beckett." Rick feigned being hurt.
"Just don't shoot yourself with that thing Castle." Kate counters.
"Does Rick not know how to shoot?" Jim asks after Rick was gone.
"Actually dad is an excellent shot. Kate has made sure that we all know how to shoot." Alexis offers.
"Which reminds me, we have work to do." Kate looks over at the pile of bags and the three large hard sided cases. Kate knew loading six 100 round drums for the two Tommy guns was going to take a little time. "We get this done and we can go fishing."
Kate now had incentive to get loading all of the clips done fast, since it meant going out in Flash.
"KATIE!?" Jim didn't know what was in the cases, but saw a Tommy gun come out of the first one.
"We may be isolated out here dad, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way." Kate is forced to tell him, especially since she knows that those two idiots will show up eventually.
Just that they couldn't let their guard down even if those two were all that showed up after all this time. Things might change.
Kate put one Tommy gun along with three 100 round drums in the kitchen while the other one went out in the storage building.
The sniper rifle went up on the roof. Kate put her service weapon and its clips in the master bedroom. Rick's SIG and five spare clips went inside the DVD cabinet while Alexis's SIG and 5 spare clips went in one of the kitchen drawers.
They would move the shotgun out to the store later when they had time.
"Ready to go fishing dad?" Kate was smiling as she fished the keys out of the drawer in the kitchen.
"Now you're talking my language." Jim smiled since he hadn't been fishing with his daughter in years.
"Why is Kate smiling so wide? It's just fishing." Martha asks after they are gone.
"Because Kate's idea of fishing likely isn't Jim's idea of fishing." Alexis was smiling wide, wishing she could see the look on Jim's face. "Help me with the bread machines grams?" Alexis asks.
Jim was in a seat sitting next to Kate as she piloted the boat, with pilot being a good word to be using, since Kate had the boat almost literally flying.
Jim also now understood what Rick meant by bringing a spare pair of shorts. Jim also had no idea where they were going.
To Jim it felt like hours later when actually it was only minutes and Kate had pulled up to some shallows and they had their poles over the side of the boat.
Finally! Time for some fishing. It's just that Kate was soon giving Jim a lesson in fishing. They needed five this trip instead of three and Kate had already caught three of them while Jim hadn't even gotten a nibble.
Still Jim was nothing if not a fisherman and started watching what Kate was doing and soon found himself with the last two.
"You should see what Rick can do with these dad. He is really good." Kate was looking forward to the taste of catfish.
Alexis and Martha had the two bread machines working off in one corner and now Martha was helping Alexis pull out a pair of vacuum sealers. "What are these for dear?" Martha helped Alexis arrange them on the counter.
"We're going to eat the fish they come back with tonight, while most of the pig dad is out hunting, is going to go in the freezer. Using this device will help cut down on freezer burn." Alexis explains.
Jim had the cooler that had their fish in hand and was standing on the dock watching his daughter tie off the boat and curl up the excess rope into a nice tight swirl. (Where did she learn to do that?)
"You actually have done this a few times, haven't you?" Jim comments just as Kate finishes the last of it.
"More than you could ever guess dad, more than you could ever guess." Kate wanted this to end and it leaked out in how she sounded. "We still have to call Espo this morning. The bridges should be blown by now leaving them isolated in Manhattan."
Rick was bringing the last of the pig inside to Alexis to put in the freezer or refrigerator for later as Jim and Kate came walking up the walkway.
Kate and Alexis started preparing the fish for later while Jim went off the bathroom to wash up. He found Rick standing outside. "How was fishing?" Rick asks him, smiling.
"Eye opening." Jim smiles back. "I know Katie is a serious person now after her mother." Jim assumes that Rick knows about Johanna. "However I also saw some of her wild child teenage years in that fishing trip."
"I never really thought of how she pilots the Flash as being a part of her teenage years. I'm just happy to see her having fun. To see that smile that threatens the break her face. The thrill of hearing her yell because she is so happy. … That's what makes my heart soar for her. It makes me double my efforts to make that smile permanent." Rick offers what he feels for Kate.
"Katie said something about a phone call." Jim offered since he wanted off the conversation, so he could process what Rick had told him. IF they were both right, he was going to have the next nine months to learn all about Rick and what his daughter sees in him.
"Right after I take a shower, since I'm pretty sure I stink after being outside, going through brush and fruit trees. The pigs love the fruit and nuts that fall from the trees. It makes them easy to find, just not necessarily easy to kill and get into the trailer on the back of the quad, followed by using saws and knives to get the pieces we want and turn the rest into pulled pork sandwiches." Rick tells him and heads for the master bedroom and the on-suit bathroom.
Kate was placing the baby back ribs and pork shoulders into the refrigerator for later this week, while Alexis was using the vacuum system on the last of the pig just as a clean and fresh smelling Rick joined them all in the main room.
"Ready to call Espo?" Rick lightly shakes his cell phone that had a piggy back satellite phone system attached to the back of it.
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Kate took the phone and dialed the satellite phone that she had left locked in her desk.
"Hello?" Kate recognized Espo's voice instantly.
"Hi Espo, I'm glad you found it." Kate tells him, since the only way Espo had the satellite phone was if Lanie had opened her envelope and found the key to her desk and given the phone to Espo.
"Kate, what's going on?" Lanie called out over the phone allowing everyone to hear her since Kate had her phone on speaker.
"Tell me what you know Espo and don't leave anything out." Kate asks of him.
"They've blown all access in and out of Manhattan, the military has turned us into an island. We're being told that there is some kind of virus that is spreading fast. The precinct has gone nuts Beckett." Espo tells her.
"Do you have your envelope?" Kate asks him. Kate can almost instantly hear paper ruffling.
"Yeah, we each have one. It looks like a list of some kind." Espo tells her.
"I need you to go get everything on that list Espo. Do what Captain Montgomery tells you, but I really need to you go get everything that is on that list. Everything Espo, each and every item." Kate tries to make it plain.
Kate couldn't see Espo looking at Ryan. "We got it. … What's with this other page?" Espo had read it to.
"That's one more thing I need you two to work on for me. Go back to where you found the phone and pull out the flash drive and go give it to Tori. She'll know what to do. … And Espo, it is critical that you tell Montgomery nothing about this. If you three want to keep living, you can't let Montgomery know what you are doing." Kate knew Espo wasn't going to like this part.
"Beckett, he's our boss." Espo points out. Beckett was in charge of the overall floor and was going to take Montgomery's place as captain, but she hadn't done that yet.
"Read those pages Espo and get that drive to Tori. After you have gotten everything on that list and talked with Tori you can use that phone to call this number. It's already per-programmed with every number you will need." Kate tells him.
Espo had done a little reading of all the papers , same as Ryan. "This is serious stuff Beckett." Espo states the obvious.
"Life and death Espo. … You guys and mine. Be very careful Espo, very, very careful." Kate warns him.
Kate ended the call and let her friends think it over and start working on what they needed to.
"We would have been trapped there if we had stayed." Jim points out.
"You and Martha would be sleeping on a sleeping bag on the floor in the precinct after I asked Espo and Ryan to go get you. Otherwise you would have been on your own dad. Now you're here instead of there." Kate tells both of them.
Espo looked at his list. "We're going to need some help." Espo points out. "You grab Karpowski while I get LT. You take the food trucks while I get the home heating oil trucks." Espo tells Ryan.
"What about me?" Lanie asks, since Kate was her friend too.
"Find that flash drive and get it to Tori." Espo tells her.
It took some time, but Ryan had all four of the food trucks parked in the parking garage along with their owners. They were each tall and had only just barely scrapped the roof edge as they entered.
Espo in turn had all three fuel oil trucks that required them to be driven in with flat tires in order to clear the entrance.
"Now what?" Ryan asks and watched Espo pull out his list. However Lanie showed up in that moment.
"Montgomery has split the precinct into teams. He's after weapons, sleeping bags and camping equipment, freezers and refrigerators along with lots and lots of food. Even small kitchen appliances." Lanie tells them.
"Food, food. … Kate has an entire list of places to get food from. Give Lanie your list. Lanie take the restaurants on that list to Montgomery and have him empty them.
You two go get the generators, starting with the three at the construction sites and move on to the Honda generators. LT and I will go get the gasoline tankers. Then we can go get this Sta-bil stuff." Espo tells them and they each split up.
By the end of the day Espo, Ryan, Karpowski and LT, along with everyone else in the precinct were dead tired and barely still on their feet. Even with that Montgomery didn't close the doors and had created a rotating shift to man the front doors that were still open, but barricaded and manned. All the other doors had been sealed closed as best they could.
Everything on Kate's list along with everything that Montgomery had thought up was in the precinct. Tomorrow was going to be another long day as they started pulling in civilians to live inside the precinct with them.
Espo had even called the 54th and told them to do what Kate had left them in her papers. Turned out the 54th had already considered doing just that. Just that instead of doing it later, they had done it all today. Including doing what the 12th had spent the day doing. Just that instead of tankers of gasoline, they went out and got tankers of diesel that were on Kate's list.
"How did Beckett know?" Espo asks as he and Ryan were downstairs with Lanie.
"Kate handed me that envelope and forced me to promise to not open it until today." Lanie tells them.
"Jenny got something delivered this morning that told her to come into the precinct with me this morning from Beckett" Ryan points out. "Jenny and Sarah Grace would be outside of Manhattan if she hadn't come with me." Ryan adds.
"I heard the same from Evelyn." Espo adds.
"So how did Kate know?" Lanie asks the question again.
All three of them were interrupted when Tori showed up. "You should see this." Tori tells them and then disappears.
Ryan, Epso and Lanie are right behind her and step into her room and close the door with the blinds already pulled.
"I haven't gotten very far into this but I found something that you should see. … For my own personal reasons I took this first part in an effort to prove that he's not involved. Except it lead me to, ..." Tori stops since she knows she's not making sense.
"One of the things that's on this drive is that Captain Montgomery bought a guy named Richard Castle's summer home out in the Hamptons. When I saw the location I thought maybe he had bought a time share spot. …. You know, those places that you partially own the home but can only use it for certain months each year. Usually 2 or maybe 3 months.
It makes it easy to have access to a very expensive home at a fraction of the price. Except that's not what he did. Captain Montgomery bought it, paid for it basically using cash. Technically it was a wire transfer from a bank in the Caymans." Tori tries to explain.
"Ok so he bought a house and paid cash." Espo didn't get it.
"Oh it's a house alright, more like a mansion really. … This house to be precise." And Tori brings up a picture of the house that she found when Rick had put it up for sale.
It got Espo's and Lanie's mouth's to hang open while Ryan simply whistled.
"He paid $11.233 million for it." Tori tells them.
"And, in just one payment, with no mortgage." Tori tells them.
"Where did he get that kind of money?" Ryan asks. Ryan knew that he had taken a second job until Jenny was off maternity leave and could go back to work. Living in New York on a cop's salary with a wife and a new born baby was difficult. They needed that second salary just to get by, let alone save for the future. Theirs or their daughters.
"He didn't." Tori tells them and watches their mouths fall open again. "The money came from an account in the Caymans. Normally that would make it untraceable unless you could find someone to hack their system. However we had the Feds come in and take over a case about a year ago and they had to gain access to the banking system. These same Feds were stupid enough to leave the password out in the open." Technically Tori had watched the Fed guy input the code and she had memorized it. Not that these three needed to know that. Besides Tori thought the Fed guy was an arrogant asshole, simply because he was a Fed and she worked for the lowly NYPD.
"The money was transferred from an account that is owned by this guy." Tori tells them and pulls up his name and picture.
William H. Bracken
"It also allowed me to see the account balance that was in that account. The same account that Montgomery got the money from to buy this, … mansion in the Hamptons. And Tori pulls up a screen shot that she took of the account, that showed the balance.
Lanie damn near fainted straight away. "No you made a mistake somewhere. Inserted the wrong number or something." Espo offered.
"Montgomery is dirty." Ryan stated what was staring them in the face.
That however got Ryan shoved up against the door by Espo who held him there. "Don't even think that bro, he's our Captain. He's done more for this precinct than any other. We have the highest closure rate of any precinct in the city." Espo growled at him. Just that the longer he talked the weaker his words sounded.
"Javi, you're a cop. We go by evidence not our personal feelings. We've got evidence staring us in the face. We can't just ignore it simply because it is inconvenient. You know as well as I do, we let the evidence speak." Ryan makes no attempt at getting Espo to let go of him.
Espo does however take his attention off Ryan and turns to look at the screen, Tori and Lanie. Espo lets go of Ryan and punches the door, HARD! Causing him to pull his hand back and hold it with his other hand and start cursing in Spanish.
"JAVI, language." Lanie chastises him and takes his hand to look at it.
"OWE!" Espo complains but doesn't pull his hand away.
"I don't think you broke anything, but we need to put some ice on that or tomorrow it's going to be worse." Lanie tells him and takes Espo downstairs to her domain.
Ryan closes the door. "Just keep looking at that drive." Ryan doesn't bother reminding Tori not to tell anyone else. Tori was too smart for that. "And make a copy of it and hide it somewhere."
Ryan exits the room and sees Montgomery talking with one of the teams that had gone out looking for stuff. Likely wanting to send them back out again tomorrow, let alone spend the night distributing everything amongst the floors.
What kind of shit had Kate found and now gotten them into, since Montgomery was their captain.