Restoration

Chapter 54

Nolan scans the crowd at the bar for Janet. One advantage of hunching over a computer all day, even if it did kill his shoulders, is he is on time to meet her. Hopefully, she'll be the same. He spots her at a table near the dartboard, watching the competition between Smitty and Wrigley. From the expression on her face, she's not impressed with either player.

John's not surprised. Of the cops at Mid-Wilshire, they're the least impressive, and not just at darts. But every profession has its slackers, and even those two score a decent arrest once in a while. He hopes he'll still have his enthusiasm for the job when he's been a cop as long as they have. That's assuming that his eyes and mind still focus when he gets there. Making detective in five years would be a damn good start if he can pull it off.

He catches Janet's eye and waves before joining her at her table. "Been waiting long?"

"Watching those two, it seems like a long time," Janet admits. "But I got here about five minutes ago. No one's given me that stare that means order or find another place to hang out yet."

"Good, I'll make sure they don't," John offers. "What's your pleasure?"

"Other than a night not spent going over case notes? A boilermaker."

John flinches.

"Don't tell me you were expecting me to go for a cosmopolitan. I'm not Carrie Bradshaw, John."

Air whistles through John's pursed lips. "Whew! Thank God you're not. It's just that my father drank boilermakers, and he wasn't a great person to be around when he did. I avoided him when I could, except to distract him from my mother. Nothing she or I could ever do was right. He took off when I was a kid, leaving us without a dime. But it wasn't the booze; it was the man. He could have been drinking club soda, and he still would have been an asshole." John shakes his head. "I don't know why I told you that. I never told anyone in the department about my dad. I guess I don't want anyone thinking I'd be like him."

"John, I don't believe I could picture you like that if I tried. You're a classic guardian. You can't keep from wading in to help."

"That's what my T.O. says, but she doesn't mean it as a compliment," John confides.

"I do, but you promised me a drink, and I still want a boilermaker."

"Far be it from me to renege on a promise, especially to a savvy attorney," John declares. "I'll be right back."

Janet watches Nolan approach the bar. If anything, he looks even better from the back in his civilian clothes than he did in his uniform. She couldn't miss the callouses on his hands. His build comes from physical labor, lots of it. He had to be in shape to make it through the academy, but that kind of muscle takes years to develop. Finding it on a body that also has a lot going on between the ears is almost irresistible.

John returns with a beer and a shot for Janet and a beer for himself as Smitty's dart hits the wall. "Pretty hopeless, huh? I've never known anyone who glories so much in lowering the bar. But then no one expects much from him. I think Grey gives him easy duty because he's afraid he'll mess up anything else. Our watch commander's spent most of my rookie year, giving the tough assignments to me so I would screw up."

"But you wrecked his plans."

"I got lucky, but he still could bounce me."

"I doubt it was luck, John. My guess is you worked your ass off. So, how long until the end of your probation?"

"About a month. I think it will be the longest month in history."

"I have a feeling you'll come through just fine. And when you do," Janet promises, "I'll be buying you a beer."

Laugh lines fan from John's eyes. "I'll look forward to that."

"But in the meantime," Janet proposes, it looks like the Keystone Kops are finished with the board. How about a game?"

John raises his beer in a toast. "You're on!"

For about a minute, John considers going easy on Janet. But it becomes apparent that it would be like sparring with Lucy. One wrong move and he's flat on his back. Janet doesn't do anything to lose, and he doubts she'd respect him if he did either.

It takes aim trained on the range by merciless taskmaster Nyla Harper for John to win the competition, and he doesn't beat Janet by much. "Good game, Officer Nolan," Janet admits. "Do you shoot as straight as you throw a dart?"

John shrugs, shaking his head. "Not if you ask my T.O. But she is always driving home the point that a miss can be fatal. For most of the last two decades, a miss meant no more to me than a sore thumb. I hammered a lot of nails. I still do."

"Right," Janet recalls, "the rehab project that caused Serj Derian to come after you."

"Yes, and I rehabbed a house I bought out of foreclosure. That's what gave me the idea. I built my house in Pennsylvania from the ground up, but I had to sell it as part of my divorce settlement. For better or worse, this one is all mine. I get to keep it, and what I've built with the L.A.P.D., in no small measure due to you."

"I just made my clients do what was best for them. That it got you out of a hole was a side effect. But you're welcome. I don't meet many men who put things together, John. Usually, they either spend their time pushing paper or tearing things apart. I'd like to see what you built sometime."

John checks his watch. "We could go now. It's been long enough since I drank my beer for my alcohol level to be close to zero. I can show you my home if you really want to see it, and bring you back to your car later."

"Always aware of the rules, I see, Officer Nolan. For the record, I don't drive if I'm over the limit either. Even if getting caught wouldn't mean blowing my credibility and my career, I've seen too many tragedies, including one in my own family. So, show me the works of those talented hands."

For a moment, John wonders if Janet is still talking about construction. At the same moment, so does she.


Ruben Derian slams his fist against the wall of his over-furnished office. His brother is in deep sh*t, and right now, he can't see any way to get him out of it. But depending on what came out of Serj's mouth on the video the D.A.'s office has, Ruben could be circling the drain himself. Botts and the politically ambitious Heifer have slammed the lid on tight. The most any of Ruben's sources could get was that there is a secret team going over the footage word by word. He doesn't know where and he doesn't know how.

Aside from Serj, Haig is the only one who knows if Ruben is in danger or not. Ruben's got to get to one of them somehow. After the miserable failure in the woods, security around them is almost impenetrable – but only almost. Ruben still has sleepers he can activate. The men's noses have been clean for a hell of a long time. The hard part will be getting them to cooperate, but Ruben has a few ideas about making that happen.