Recovery
Chapter 19
Journal of John Nolan
I think I know how Bradford felt when Rachel Hall left. Tamar is leaving L.A. In a way, I'm glad. The gang war is on her doorstep. The cemetery where Bradford and I found the La Fiera's and Madrigal's people shooting it out belongs to Tamar's church. The gangs turned a graveyard into another graveyard. By the time Tim and I moved in, all the soldiers were dead. We could tell which ones La Fiera sent to their deaths. They were wearing the signature yellow sneakers. They would have done better with yellow body armor.
But the war isn't why Tamar is leaving. She's always been passionate about the health of children. That's why she worked so hard on her nutrition programs. She'll be attacking a problem that may be worse than food deserts: lead-contaminated water. I've heard about Flint, Michigan. I think anyone not living in a cave has. But I didn't know that lead's a problem all across the country, affecting millions of people. Tamar will be spearheading an effort to fight it.
While she'll be traveling a lot, she'll be headquartered in Pittsburgh. Ironically, I left Pennsylvania for L.A., only to lose the woman I've been most comfortable with in my whole life to the state I left. We'll stay in touch, but a long-distance friendship is the most we'll be able to handle. The best I can say about that is that it's better than nothing.
Henry isn't in L.A. either. He is rehabbing in Arizona. Abigail is with him, and Sarah was there for a while too. I considered asking my brother to look in on him, but that may be more stress than Henry can handle. So far, according to Abigail, Henry is making good progress. I hope she's right.
One thing I find difficult or even painful to believe is that the department hasn't fired Stanton. I don't know the whole story. Apparently, he appealed his case and got rehired. I don't think I've ever seen Jackson so angry. He barged into Grey's office. I have no idea what he said, but they put their heads together about something.
Professor Ryan is still working on getting Stanton criminally charged. I know she's trying to be balanced in class, but the discussion is tipping a little more anti-L.A.P.D. I think the only thing that's keeping the other students from wanting to dump cops entirely is the drug war. They know it's not safe out there. And they may not trust us, but they trust the drug cartels even less. It's come down to the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That's a lousy situation, but it's where we stand.
On a happier note, and I can use one, I met someone today. What happened is like something out of a bad sitcom. My neighbor's pet-sitter, Bailey, got locked out of the house wearing only a towel. As becoming as that was, I gave her my hoodie and invited her in. We had one of those immediate clicks. It wasn't the instantly warm and cozy kind I had with Tamar, but it was nice.
Fortunately, I had my neighbor's spare key. I suppose they felt safe leaving it with a cop. I got Bailey back where she belonged, but I'm thinking about asking her to go to Angela's wedding with me. I'd intended for Tamar to be my plus one, but she'll be gone by then. A wedding is not usually where you take someone on a first date, but I'm hoping that there will be drinks, food, and hopefully the kind of dancing I can actually do. I'll also have lots of friends around if things start going south. But I don't think they will. The way things are on the street, everyone, especially my fellow cops, is desperate to have a good time. I believe we'll try our damnedest to make it happen.
Anyway, I invited Bailey to come over after my shift.
Lucy wasn't at roll call. Harper was there, along with Grey, filling us in on the latest developments in the drug war. I guess Lucy is setting up her cover. I suppose she can't be seen on the streets as a cop just before she makes herself out as a chemist. That could be a sudden death that's not metaphorical.
Harper's story about how she got spotted at a supermarket when she was out with Lila sent chills up my spine. Apparently, it scared Donovan even more since he used the incident to get full custody of Lila. Now that Nyla's finally won back joint custody, I hope working on a drug operation doesn't screw things up for her again.
On top of everything with the cartels, Bradford and Jackson are trying to handle a wedding disaster for Angela. She not only had to change the venue to her bachelorette party, now it's the whole wedding. They have my sympathy, and I wish them luck. The two of them are working together on the street too. That simplifies things for them. And they're both worried about Lucy. Bradford denies it six ways from Sunday, and so does she, but the two of them developed a tight bond.
With Bradford riding with Jackson, Grey assigned Smitty to be my T.O. Smitty is another one of Bradford's problems. He thinks he's the wedding D.J. That was news to Tim. I have no idea if Smitty can handle the music or not. Being a D.J. is a high-energy gig, and I've never known Smitty to be high energy at anything. But with a change of venue, who knows? There might not be a D.J. at all. The only part of the arrangements I've been in on was making calls to contractors I know, to get some fixing done on the emergency location. At least I could help with something.
Smitty didn't want the extra work of being my T.O. He told Grey I could be out by myself. Needless to say, Grey disagreed. But, then, my new T.O. didn't want to be behind the wheel of a shop. So I drove for the first time since I trained with Bishop. She'd wanted me to drive so I'd learn about techniques like tapping and how to keep from hitting everything in sight on a high-speed chase. But I think Smitty only wanted me to drive so he wouldn't have to put in the effort himself. Still, I tried to view it as a chance to see what's going down on the street from a different angle.
As it happened, it wasn't the driving that I needed to worry about. Working with Smitty was like my first day as a rookie. I never stopped running. When I was after a shoplifter, I slipped and dislocated my hand, as I've done at least five times before, doing construction. It was nothing. I took care of it myself, but Grey told me to document it.
Unfortunately, that allowed the D.A.'s office to go after the suspect for assaulting me. Apparently, it likes up-charging misdemeanors to felonies. To me, all the suspect did was run. I fell on my own. The thing is that he's a foster kid who got kicked loose when he turned 18. I don't believe he wanted to hurt anyone. He was just hungry for the food he stole. He needs help, not a cell. The prosecutor is that asshole Del Monte who screwed up charging Rosalind for the deaths of all her victims. He's bad news.
I didn't know what else to do, so I called Professor Ryan, who was already aware of the general problem. She was at my house, and we were having wine when Bailey came over again. That situation could have been almost as much of a disaster as Angela's loss of venues, but it wasn't. Bailey held her own with Ryan just fine. I was the one feeling intimidated. Bailey is a firefighter and in the Army Reserve. She's also a Capoeira instructor, which Ryan loved. I think Bailey can handle just about anything – except being locked out in a towel.
I've decided that I am going to ask her to be my plus one. I'm just not sure how to do it. I could knock on her door bearing gifts, maybe cookies or something. Damn! I don't even know if she eats cookies. She could be gluten-free or keto or something. Maybe not. She had no problem sharing the wine Professor Ryan and I were drinking. But when a woman shows up in only a towel, it's hard not to notice that she has a dancer's body. She takes care of herself one way or another. Maybe I'll ask Smitty. He has some weird ideas sometimes, like goat yoga. He thought I should take a week off just because of a sore hand – as if I'd want to put off making P-2 any longer. But maybe right now, weird is what I need.
I'm looking forward to the wedding. With La Fiera still doing her best to set the city on fire, we all can use some happy moments.
A/N Unlike the show, I'm not taking a hiatus for the summer. I'll give you my version of how the cliffhanger comes out. After that, I have something else in mind. I wrote most of this chapter before the season finale and rewrote and edited like crazy during commercials while the show aired live and for a while afterward. During the season, I got clues from promos. But now I'll be on my own. It's going to be a hard wait until Season 4, but revelations will come.
