Fallout
Chapter 16
The Journal of John Nolan
I never thought I'd meet a bigger psychopath than Oscar Hutchinson, but the Hannibal Lecter wannabe's just been demoted in favor of Jason Wyler, Bailey's husband. It still stings even to describe Jason as her husband, but that's the situation for the moment.
The good news is that Grey permitted Harper to take the drugs found in Bailey's car to her chemist. But the bad news is that Jason got them from a current source, so the analysis didn't help Bailey's case. I had to go at the problem from a different angle. Fortunately, Angela Lopez lent her support. She and Grey have a lot of history, aside from the Guatemala mission. So she was the perfect person to get him onboard with exposing Jason.
He allowed me to take all the "vacation" I needed to follow the sonofabitch around until I could find a way to get Bailey off the hook. The judge, bless his heart, released her on her own recognizance. It didn't hurt that Bailey has a spotless record, commendations for heroism, and a commission in the National Guard. And I heard that the judges' wife is a capoeira fan, but that could just be a rumor.
In any case, Bailey insisted on going on stakeout with me. But she was surprised at how boring it was. Worse, it was unproductive. However, we did find out that Jason wasn't showing up at the SRO he declared as his residence. Living elsewhere is a parole violation. It could send him back to prison, but that wouldn't help clear Bailey. We needed more – and fast. That brings me back to Oscar.
I guess it takes a psychopath to understand a psychopath. And Oscar had Jason's number. Oscar gets letters and money from misguided women he refers to as "nightingales." So did Jason. Bailey and I got Jason's mail from the warden and went through it.
Some of those writings should have come with barf bags, especially for Bailey. Jason plied those women with some of the same lies, sometimes word for word, that he used on her. Bailey picked out our most likely target, Evelyn Reed. She recalled that at the beginning of her time with Jason, she could have written what Evelyn did.
It wasn't easy getting through Evelyn's door. Jason had her pretty much brainwashed. So I did the threatening, and Bailey did the rest. It must have torn Bailey's guts out to lay herself bare the way she did, but she got through to Evelyn. By the time Jason arrived, his latest mark was ready to throw him out. He wanted to take a laptop with him, but she wouldn't allow it. She'd paid for it, along with his car and his other expenses. As far as she was concerned, it was hers to turn over to us.
Fortunately, Jason showed as much of a lack of creativity in his passwords as he did in coming up with stories for the women he victimized. The computer people at the division cracked his laptop pretty quickly, and the motherlode poured out. Jason wasn't just sponging off Evelyn. He was running a complicated money-laundering operation. In fact, if it hadn't been for his sick need to squeeze his victim, we might not have found out about it at all. But the game was finally backfiring on him.
Still, Jason had one more card to play, one Oscar predicted. The abusive jerk turned himself in to make a deal to flip on the Southern Front Criminal Organization. When I found out what ADA was involved, I thought we might be dead in the water. It was Chris Sanford, the one Lucy tangled with. But Grey took the reins, and Sanford went along with what the sergeant wanted. I said a silent prayer thanking God that Grey was on Bailey's and my side.
The idea that by turning CI, Jason would get only 18 months was sickening to me and worse for Bailey. But I tried to put the best spin on it I could. I didn't expect him to, but Grey let me participate in the sting operation. Maybe in my gut, I was hoping things would go south for Jason and someone from Southern Front would take him out. That would have solved Bailey's problem permanently. But as a cop, I had to push that feeling aside, much as I wished I could embrace it.
Just as things were going down, I got a call from Oscar. As usual, he'd been covering his ass. He'd discovered that Southern Front had a hit on him, so he threw Jason under the bus to save his own skin. For a split second, I was about to let Southern Front have their way, but my better angel kicked me in the head. I sounded the alarm and rushed in with the rest of the team to rescue Jason. But the fool grasped at the confusion as one last chance to escape. When I went after him, he wanted a bare-knuckle fight. Why he thought he could beat me, I don't know. Later, Oscar suggested that Jason might have a warped idea that Bailey was draining my masculine power. If he did, he couldn't have been more wrong. If anything, fighting for her made me stronger. And it didn't hurt that the man who took his joy in making women feel weak and helpless had a glass jaw. I don't think it took me more than two seconds to take him down and cuff him.
Needless to say, Grey got Sanford to pull Jason's plea deal. He'll be in prison for eight years. As a father, I know that eight years can pass in the wink of an eye. In the dark, I still wonder if it would have been better to let the Southern Front end Jason once and for all. But then, we wouldn't have been able to rope in a large chunk of a criminal enterprise. Also, the rest of the prisoners will know that Jason is a rat. He may live a lot less than eight years. I can't say I'd shed any tears at his final demise. I don't think Bailey would either.
But as far as things stand for Bailey and me, that she's safe from Jason and had her drug charges dropped doesn't change the fact that she lied to me. I finally got the chance to tell Henry what happened – everything that happened. We agree that if I have trust issues with Bailey, I can't think about making her my wife. However, the best way to build, or maybe I should say rebuild, that trust, is to spend the time to get to really know her.
I suppose I've started the process. I provided the wine, and she cooked the food – thank God. I don't think that either of us is ready to climb back into bed together. But the time may come. I can wait.
Maybe Harper should have waited a little while with James. She just found out she's pregnant. That can't make her custody fight for Lila any easier. It can't make her job any easier either. But Lopez thoroughly kicked ass while she was carrying little Jackson. I believe Harper will do the same. And I know the division, most of it anyway, will help any way that it can. I don't know how much help Aaron Thorsen will be, though. It seems his mother convinced him to shoot a reality show in the precious hours a rookie has off. That kind of exposure could build him, and the department for that matter, up in the public's eyes. Or the whole project could go off the rails. If it does, I can only imagine Grey's response. Ouch!