Chapter 12
It was only Josh who got up early Saturday morning to go jogging and by the time I was up and pulled back the curtains, it was almost 1030. I stepped out onto the balcony to breathe in the wonderful sea air and spotted Josh making his way back along the beach. I watched him for a while and gave a supportive wave, although I‘m sure he could have done with a lie in this morning like the rest of us.
We’d been living in the motel for the past four nights and were due to be moving in to our new permanent residence later that day. We were waiting for a text from Luis to confirm what time we were supposed to be leaving as he was out inspecting the property. Suddenly my new Blackberry phone went off with the arrival of a text. It was from Luis and it said, ‘Can you all please be ready for me to pick you up at 1130?’
I didn’t think the girls would be awake yet and I went to knock on their door.
‘Go away Scott.’ Charming, I thought.
I shouted back that Luis was on his way and they needed to get ready. I shook Brandon awake in our room and jumped in the shower first so at least I’d be ready. As I got out the shower Josh came back in the room with a surprise.
‘Here you go Scott, I bought you a cup of real coffee from Coffee Roasters, I found the place while jogging and I think you’ll like it. Oh and they even have free Wi-Fi,’ said Josh as he handed the coffee to me.
‘Thanks man I appreciate it,’ I smelt the aroma, lifted the lid and took a mouthful. It was heavenly and I promised to visit Coffee Roaster when we next had some free time.
I threw my bits into a small holdall as Brandon literally rolled out of bed and fell face down on the carpet, which had to hurt. He got up washed his face, cleaned his teeth and brushed his hair without a word almost like he was sleep walking. You had to smile. The boys were ready on time as usual, but the girls were still trying to decide what to wear. Luis sounded the horn outside the motel entrance and stuck his head out the rental van’s window to call up.
‘Hurry up ladies or you’ll have to walk.’
Jordan hopped out to the elevator with just one shoe on, while Molly sprinted behind with the curling tongs still hanging from her hair.
‘Got everything girls?’ Josh asked.
‘Hope so,’ Jordan replied.
‘After you,’ I said as the elevator door opened.
Brandon finally managed to liven himself up and seemed the most excited about the new pad, probably because Luis had mentioned something about a basketball hoop. It was a relatively short drive from the motel to our new place and we stopped at the Maccy d’s drive thru on the way for a late breakfast.
‘Close your eyes, we’re nearly there,’ said Luis as we drove north along the coastal road.
‘OK you can open them now.’
The van stopped and when we opened our eyes, there in front of us was a magnificent house, very futuristic with a diamond shaped roof and tall side walls. The beach was less than 50 yards from our front door and as I couldn’t see any close neighbours, I assumed we could play our music as loud as we wanted. Brandon spotted the basketball hoop and jumped out the van with a ball under his arm. He was like a big kid and he wasn’t the only one.
Luis opened the front door of the house and because we were huddled so closely behind him, he was nearly crushed as we pushed past trying to be the first to get inside.
‘Sorry Luis,’ said Josh as he squeezed past.
The house was spacious and full of light. Molly and Jordan rushed around checking each of the rooms and were first to shotgun the two rooms located on the east wing. We boys weren’t bothered as closer to the TV and kitchen was our preference. We opened the door to the balcony on the first floor and stepped out to admire the beach view. It felt like Christmas had come early. I looked down and saw Mitch pulling on to the driveway in his flashy Dodge Challenger.
‘Nice view guys?’ he asked as he looked up at us.
‘It’s OK,’ I replied being coy.
Brandon was busy out front beating himself at basketball and looked up momentarily to say, ‘Morning Boss,’ as Mitch walked past.
‘Good morning Brandon,’ Mitch replied.
Luis was making us feel guilty by trying to unload the van all by himself so I ran down to help. Meanwhile Mitch headed straight for the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee and I was shocked to see he was using my new favourite brand ‘Caravan Coffee.’
‘They sell it at one of the local stores,’ said Mitch as I quizzed him about it.
With sunglasses resting on his head and old jeans cut off at the knees to make shorts, Mitch was definitely the cool cop.
‘Well, what do you think of the place?’ Mitch asked as he gave Molly a hug.
‘Love it Dad,’ said Molly as she twirled around.
With everything unpacked from the van, Mitch gave us the official tour. It was an awesome place, loaded with the very latest gadgets designed to keep us occupied when we were off duty. The house was equipped with a surveillance room for the IT geeks amongst us, weapons lock up in the basement for everyone, a gym for Josh, and that wasn’t all. A situation room as Mitch called it had been built behind the garage for private ops briefings. Eat your heart out CSI I said again. Mitch even made sure we had a place to practice our music with our very own recording studio and we had new instruments for the band. Sweet!
‘Ah there’s nothing like bringing your work home with you,’ said Brandon as he inspected the weapons lockup.
There were a few more surprises in the garage. We had our very own custom built van, dirt bikes and two off road vehicles to share, which looked fantastic.
‘WOW,’ said Josh already holding a spanner in his hand.
He was happy and immediately started to strip down one of the dirt bike engines to improve its efficiency he said and we left him to it. It felt a bit like a cross between Teen Cribs and Tracy Island from Thunderbirds, what with all the crazy gadgets and secret rooms.
‘NO WAY - A SWIMMING POOL,’ Jordan screamed as Mitch opened the patio door to the rear garden.
‘Yes way and one of you will need to take responsibility for cleaning it every day and someone else to cut the grass,’ said Mitch.
‘I guess there was no budget left then to pay for a pool guy or a gardener?’ I said as I volunteered for pool cleaning duty. We could work out a rota amongst ourselves for the other household chores. I did start to wonder just how much all this had cost the fine tax payers of Washington State. It was obvious that so much was expected of us and I hoped we wouldn’t let anyone down.
‘Welcome to your new home,’ said Mitch as he handed each of us a set of keys.
Now we really did feel like grown ups with our very own front door key.
‘Look after the place and enjoy it because work begins on Monday,’ said Mitch as he was leaving.
Molly had a quick chat with her dad outside by the car while the rest of us quickly unpacked our clothes. Then it was time for some fun at Casa Teen. I slid down the banister on my belly like a big kid and managed to pull off a perfect dismount right by the front door as Molly walked back in. This would have easily earned a nine score at the teen Olympics. Brandon was out front again playing basketball, so he was busy. Josh had finished working on the first dirt bike and was taking a break in the home gym of all places. Luis was spread across the lounge sofa watching sports on TV with a big bag of crisps and the girls headed for a dip in the pool. I decided to join them and announced my arrival with a dive bomb, much to their displeasure. I soon got bored, jumped out to dry off and headed for a walk along the beach.
‘See you at lunch,’ I shouted to everyone, but there was no reply.
I found a small wooden pier along the beach and sat to admire the view. With my legs dangling above the water I sat back and took a deep breath ‘Ah,’ it was perfect. I kept thinking just how lucky I was to be free and then things got even better. A very tall attractive young lady walked past and I said ‘hello’ so as not to appear rude. We struck up a polite conversation and I asked he
r about the best local places to eat. At that moment I remembered another one of Mitch’s little house rules, no relationships and I hoped this surely didn’t mean forever? I thanked the young lady for her restaurant tips and said goodbye.
‘Goodbye Scott,’ she said walking off along the beach like a top model, damn Mitch and his rules.
‘Ciao,’ I replied which is a bit lame I know, but I had been out of the dating game for a while now, due to my circumstances.
Another one of ‘Mitch’s ground rules’ meant no guests back to the house in case our cover was blown. I think we were all cool with this one for now, but at some point we would need to have a small house warming party surely, perhaps when Luis was out the way.
By the time I got back to the house, Josh was in the garage again working on the van engine.
‘Hey Scot take a look. I managed to double the fuel intake on the flim flam valve,’ Josh said very excitedly. Well that’s what it sounded like to me any way.
‘You lost me at hello, buddy,’ I said.
Brandon was cooling down in the pool after wearing himself out playing basketball, so I decided to sit on the grass and listen to some music.
Luis would be living with us 24/7 as part of the agreement struck with Warden Ellis and we were all cool with this, especially because Luis seemed to be the best at finding fast food restaurants wherever we went. We would enjoy regular treats of chicken, pizza and Chinese takeaways during the next few months all thanks to Luis, but as we were on a tight living allowance we couldn’t go crazy on the takeaways. We took a vote to see who would cook the first Casa Teen home meal and I won or lost, whatever way you look at it. Luis went food shopping with the two girls, while we boys took care of the household chores. I was cooking one of my mother’s favourite recipes, Spanish meat balls and pasta followed by four cartons of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, the perfect meal.
After clearing up the dinner things we all went up to the balcony and sat to admire the first sun set at Casa Teen. We talked about how eager we were to get stuck into our first case and how nervous we were at the same time. Luis suggested we take our minds off police work for one night and do a little band practice, as we hadn’t done any since leaving the training academy. Although we groaned at first after consuming such a big meal, we realised it was a necessity and went down to the studio. The studio was fantastic and it inspired us to practice for a couple of hours at full volume as there were no neighbours around to upset.