CH56
It was the weekend so Alexis didn't have school, so Rick let her sleep in. She got to talk with Kate yesterday so she should feel better now.
Rick went back to typing notes about his next book. His office was presently ripped apart waiting for the contractor to come back and put in the darker wood cabinetry that he had asked for.
Alexis had found him. "Hi pumpkin how do you feel?" Rick asked him.
"Fine." Alexis didn't sound it though.
"You want to go for a bike ride. We can look around our new area. See what is near us. Maybe there are some kids near here." Rick offers.
"Ok." Alexis perked up a little.
"You go get your helmet and I'll meet you in the garage." Rick tells her.
They had been biking around for a little while. They were both getting a look at at some of the homes around them. Some of them were huge, even compared to theirs, some 10,000 sq. ft., easily. However they didn't see any children out and about. But they didn't actually see any adults out and about either.
They got back home in time for lunch. "Hi grams, you going somewhere?" Alexis asks.
"I heard there was a shopping area near here that I've never been to before. I thought I would go see it." Martha explains.
"Do you need a ride mother?" Rick offers.
"No dear I called for a taxi, it should be here soon."
"Have fun mother. Try not to spend me into the poor house." Rick teases.
"I make no promises dear." As Martha waves her hand on the way out the front door.
"Relax dad, she only teasing." Alexis tells him.
"Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that." Rick teases back.
"Can I go swimming dad?" Alexis asks wanting to try out the new pool.
"Sure, but you can only use it when there is an adult watching you. Do you understand pumpkin?" Rick tells her the terms.
"I'm not going to drown dad. I know how to swim." Alexis counters.
"That's the rules pumpkin, take it or leave it?"
Alexis hesitates. "Fine, you can come watch."
Alexis goes upstairs to change while Rick goes and gets him laptop so he can type while she swims.
Alexis was getting better at swimming, Rick was starting to get worried that he would start losing to her soon.
They made the trip to Roy's house for dinner.
"Roy!" Rick embraced his old friend and slapped his back while Roy did the same.
"Come on in. Hi Alexis." Roy greets her too.
"Hi Uncle Roy." Alexis greets him back.
Then they move on to his wife and kids.
Rick was enjoying the food. "Roy, how did you get so lucky to find someone who can cook like this?" Rick asks him.
"Thanks Rick." Evelyn tells him.
"I had to resort to tricks and threats and a little begging to get her to marry me." Rick tells him teasing his wife.
"Roy!" And she slaps him.
"Why don't you two talk while we clean up?" Evelyn offers after they are done eating.
Rick and Roy are in his office talking. "How do you like being Captain now that you are one?" Rick asks him.
"It's a lot more work than I thought it would be, but it's rewarding at the same time." Roy tells him.
"When's the next book coming out?" Roy asks.
"Not for 2 or 3 months still. It's still in the hands of my publisher who is probably bleeding all over it wanting to make changes." Rick tells him chuckling.
"You sound worried this time." Roy was reading him.
Rick glared at him. "Yeah, a little. I did something I'm sure she isn't going to like. Though it may be the last book she or her company gets from me." Rick confides.
"She did something?" Roy is now curious.
"She had been after me for weeks to go out to dinner with her. I always said no. Then she found out from my publicist that I married Kate and she went ballistic on me. Wanted to know why I didn't marry her instead. She thought she was a much better match for me." Rick tells him with venom in his voice.
"What did you do to get her to think that?" Roy asks.
"I didn't do anything. The only time I ever saw her was at meetings about the books. She pissed me off so much. I asked Kate if she would shoot her for me." Rick confides.
"This was after you married Kate?" Roy asked. Getting a nod from Rick. "She might have taken you up on that if she got anywhere near her. She's changed a lot since you two got married. Kate is so much more, …. I don't know, peaceful. She is certainly smiling more now. I thought sure I would never see that till you came along." Roy has to confide in him.
"Kate has a passion and determination I've never seen in another woman. But I will admit at first it was like talking to a brick wall." Rick agrees.
"Kate is a very serious person about everything. She's come alive in the hands of you and your daughter."
"Kate has been really good for Alexis. Kate is just what she needed in her life."
"So what are you planning on working on next?" Roy asks meaning the next book.
"I'm making progress I think. Has he leaned on you lately?" Rick asks.
"No he has been quiet for a little while now. Kate is not investigating her mother's case so he has left her and me alone. Do I want to know what you are up to?" Roy asks.
"I don't know. Are you willing to lie convincingly?" Rick asks.
"I may be good at poker but these guys play for keeps so I think it would be best if I didn't know." Roy tells him.
"As you wish." Rick will listen to his friend.
"Is there an ending anytime soon?" Roy prays.
"I'm getting there. They are no doubt worried by now and a little pissed. I plan on increasing their discomfort."
"You just be careful. I've already paid a high enough price. I don't need to add you to that price."
"Not to worry old friend, I happen to like my life. Especially with Kate now in it."
"We should get back to the others before they think we escaped for a drink." Roy teases.
"Oh I'm too old to do that now and so are you." Rick teases him about their past exploits.
"I'm still amazed we made it home in one piece. I was convinced my father was going to kill me."
Rick laughs. "I didn't have that problem, but I sometimes wondered what it was like to have a father. I was always jealous of your life."
Kate had showered, fixed breakfast. Though she liked Castle's better. Then went back to reading and r-reading, and re-reading, and, ….
She debated about calling Castle to talk to him again. If she was younger she would have called it homesick. But she knew she was having withdrawals when it came to Castle and Alexis. And even a little about Martha.
She even wanted back to her new home, not this tiny apartment she was in. Still she was leaving tomorrow morning. Damn, back to reading.
Rick and Alexis had made it back home after thanking the Montgomery's for dinner. He would invite them over as soon as they got settled into their new home better.
Roy was interested in what Rick and his money could buy them. And wondering what their combined tastes where like.
Rick was at the washer and dryer starting a load of laundry. "Richard one of the burner phones I cloned is ringing. Caller ID is not enabled." Jack tells him.
"Probably McMasters or Wichita. I wonder if either of them was at the site the other night. …. You might as well answer it. And use the same voice as last time." Rick tells him.
"You made a mistake the other night." The voice sounds hostile and threatening.
"Terribly sorry about your men. I trust you paid them enough to cover their medical expenses." Rick talks thru Jack trusting Jack to alter his voice.
"You should be more concerned about your own medical expenses. You don't know what you have gotten yourself into, and you never will."
"Since you sound fine, which one was your friend? The one with no knee? The one with no hip? Or the one with no ass?" Rick asks sounding happy.
"You have underestimated our reach and what you have gotten yourself into."
"I expected better from a college graduate and a West Point man. Didn't your Sith Lord teach you better?"
"What is it you expect to get out of this?"
Rick smiles. "I expect for you to learn something. And today's lesson is your finding out that you can't trace this call no matter how long you keep me talking. Can you say the same?" Rick asks, and has Jack end the call.
"So the big boys have decided to talk. Must be running out of hired killers." Rick talks mostly to himself.
"Without their mole in the 12th and no Lockwood, Maddox or Coonan they are likely to lean on Roy now to get information to determine if Kate is involved." Jack warns.
"Which means I need to keep Kate out of the loop as long as possible or she will become a target." Rick reasons.
"She is not likely to like you leaving her out of this well." Jack cautions.
"No, she'll be mad at me that's for sure. I wonder what Obama told her about my present case? Kate did mention he would let us work together."
"You talked to her after her conversation with him. If he had told her she would have been mad then. She sounded anything but mad." Jack notes.
Rick chuckles. "That's true. If that conversation had gone on any longer and we would have been having phone sex. And I'm not sure even a cold shower would have fixed that.
Still Kate is likely to get involved in this at some point." Rick sighs heavily. "Just how do I include her and at what point?"
"Kate strikes me as someone who does not like to walk on egg shells. What you have been doing is just not her style." Jack comments.
"No if she was involved she would want direct action, not these games. …. Maybe if we shake the tree a little. Anything on the toys I left behind at the Senators houses?" Rick asks, thinking they are next.
"So far just normal home activities. That now include going to a local hospital every three days." Jack tells him.
"Every three days. …. Maybe a hospital visit to one of them. Preferably the one in New Jersey since it is closer. Keep your ears open and let me know when they leave for the next dialysis trip. I'm going to need your help putting something together. We are going to pay the good ex-senator a little visit and leave a flash drive behind.
Let's see if the great and powerful OZ from the state of New York is willing to talk to us yet?" Rick is dreaming up a plan.
Rick is sitting at the kitchen counter again with his laptop, since his office is still not finished, the gun safes, gaming tables and such are also still not here yet.
"Let's see, we need to include the number to that burner phone. We need to include the account number that they had all their money stored in. They haven't found that yet have they?" Rick suddenly asks.
"They never made it past the first two accounts." Jack tells him. Getting a pleasing smile out of Rick.
"We need the loss of his two best friends. Need to include the loss of Lockwood, Maddox and Coonan. We also need to include the loses from the other night. Making sure to mention one of them getting it in the ass."
"Do you want to include what it takes to get you off their backs?" Jack asks.
"No, no too soon for that. Let's let them suffer a little longer. Let's see if they do something to expose themselves or do something else stupid.
We're going to need to sign it. Now who do we use?" Rick wonders rubbing his hand over his face.
"The bad guy from Star Wars perhaps?" Jack suggests.
"I like the Jedi mind trick idea, but he's not quite the guy I'm looking for." Rick rules him out.
"There are some bad guys in the X-men series." Jack offers next.
"Special mutant powers? Interesting option. Ok, we'll leave that one on the list. How about Vlad Prince of Wallachia?" Rick offers.
"Dracula?" Jack sounds shocked.
"Well we are trying to suck the life out of his evil empire." Rick defends.
"In that case how about Charles-Henri Sanson
Charles-Henri Sanson, full title Chevalier Charles-Henri Sanson de Longval (February 15, 1739 – July 4, 1806) was the Royal Executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI and High Executioner of the First French Republic. He administered capital punishment in the city of Paris for over forty years, and by his own hand executed nearly 3,000 people, including the King himself." Jack offers an alternative.
"Cut the head off the snake." Rick thinks about it a moment. "I like it! We're going to need a picture of a guillotine."
Rick puts it all on the flash drive and then pulls it out of the laptop. "All set, now we just need to know when the next dialysis trip is."
