From Down Here Chapter 34

Kojo hears Lucy get up before Tim. She comes out of the bedroom, strokes Kojo's head, goes to the kitchen, and makes coffee. "I have to go to work early," she says. "I'm going to have a meeting, and Harper and Lopez and I have to get things set up."

Kojo likes Lopez and yips at the sound of her name. Lucy puts part of her paw to her mouth. "Shh! Don't wake Tim. He was nervous about me being UC again and was restless last night. He can use the extra sleep."

Kojo isn't sure what Lucy means about Tim being restless. She said something like that about Skye, but the puppy was just all over the place like some puppies Kojo saw at the shelter. Tim isn't a puppy or even a young one like Genny's little ones. Still, if Lucy wants him to be quiet, he'll be quiet. He just hopes that Tim will get up soon enough to cook him some good breakfast. Lucy puts food from the big bag in Kojo's bowl, but he still hopes Tim will make him something."

Lucy has been gone for a while, and Kojo eats some of what she put in his bowl before Tim comes out of the bedroom. His face looks dark under his eyes. He gives Kojo's head a little pat. "Lucy left already, huh pal? Looks like she gave you some breakfast." Kojo goes into the kitchen. He looks up at where Tim keeps the pan he cooks Kojo's food in and barks. "Still not crazy about dry stuff? It doesn't look that good to me either. I'll cook for both of us."

Tim starts cooking but jumps back, saying some mad-sounding words, and runs his hand under the water from the sink. Kojo smells something bad and barks. Tim goes back and looks in the pan. He says mad words again before looking at Kojo. "Sorry pal. The bacon's burned, and we don't have any more. I was going to pick some up today. You'll have to live with your dry food for now. I hope someone put donuts or something in the break room at Mid-Wilshire. I don't usually touch that stuff, but Nolan's been bringing in cake samples he and Bailey have been sampling for their wedding. They haven't been half bad. And I'll bring you something good when I come back. You want a chew bone?" Kojo barks and wags his tail. "OK, at least you don't have to worry about me burning it."

Lucy comes home before Tim does and sees Tim's pan in the sink where he put water in it. She looks at Kojo. "Tim left a pan to soak? He never does that. He's too anal-retentive to leave anything in the sink."

Kojo doesn't know what anal-retentive means, but it doesn't sound good. He rubs up against Lucy's legs. "It's all right," she says. "It's been a weird day. When I got to Mid-Wilshire this morning, Bailey was there talking to Harper and Lopez. I don't know why. There was no call out for medical services at the division, and anyway, I thought Bailey would be all busy getting ready for her wedding. And she stopped talking to Harper and Lopez when she saw me. Bailey hardly ever stops talking. It's a contest between her and Nolan which one can talk more. But she just said a quick hello and said she had to leave. I asked Lopez and Harper what was going on with her. Harper said she was just talking to them about marriage stuff. But I don't know why she'd shut up about that when she saw me coming. Still, sooner or later I'll find out what's going on. I always do."

Kojo yips his agreement.

Lucy sticks her head in the fridge. "There's not much in here for dinner. If Tim doesn't have a Metro call-out, it's his day to do the shopping," she says. "But I don't want to get on him about it if he's working."

Kojo remembers Tim saying he was going to buy bacon and barks. But Lucy doesn't seem to understand, and he doesn't know how to tell her what Tim said.

Lucy closes the fridge again. "Maybe I should just order pizza. I can order a veggie for me and a meat lover's for Tim." Kojo yips at the word 'meat.' "I guess that sounds right to you. And if Tim shops, we can always put it away for later."

Lucy pulls out her phone and Kojo can hear her talking about pizza.

Kojo can smell the pizza before Lucy answers the knock on the door. And as the man who brought it is driving away, Kojo hears Tim's truck. He can tell that Tim put it in the driveway, but it's a little while before he comes in carrying bags. Kojo's tail starts going when he smells bacon. Tim looks down at him. "I remembered, Buddy."

"Whatever you remembered, he's happy about it," Lucy says.

Tim gives her a happy face. "You're home! How did your UC go?"

"Hey, I know you were worried. But it went great, actually," Lucy says, grabbing things from Tim's bags and putting them in the fridge and cabinets. "The dealer who showed up at the meet started bragging about his plans to take over a lot of Elijah Stone's territory and how much high-purity product he could get. The minute he admitted to his intention to distribute, we arrested him. And then Wesley got him singing like a bird about his supplier. We should be able to block a lot of flow into the city, the Inland Empire, and San Diego County, too."

"Sounds great!" Tim says. "I guess we can eat the pizzas to celebrate."

"Yeah, I'm starved. It's hard to keep any food around the division with Lopez there. Last time she was pregnant she was working so hard to prove herself to Carradine that I don't think she had time to worry about eating. And then – La Fiera. But this time, she's like a super-vac, sucking up everything in sight."

"Yeah, I had a look in the refrigerator in the break room this morning," Tim says. "I had a little misstep with breakfast."

"I washed the pan you left," Lucy says. "I know how you feel about stuff sitting in the sink."

"Thanks. Anyway, there was nothing in the break room except some of Smitty's leftovers."

Lucy makes a face like she did when she stepped in poop at the park. "I hope you didn't try any."

"Wouldn't go near them with a ten-foot pole," Tim says. "But I thought I saw Bailey going towards the ladies' room. I didn't hear about anything the division needed from LAFD this morning, and Nolan was already out on patrol."

"She was talking to Harper and Lopez this morning, but they wouldn't tell me about what. They didn't talk about it on the way to my UC setup either," Lucy says. "I thought maybe you heard something."

"Not a word," Tim says. "But maybe it was last-minute wedding stuff. When I was helping Lopez, there was a ton of it, until Jackson took it on and hired the kids to help."

"From the look on their faces, I don't think they were talking about the wedding," Lucy says. "And they'd have no reason to shut up about it around me."

"If Bailey talked about something at the division, it won't be secret for long," Tim says. "Sometimes I think Smitty plants bugs, except that he's too lazy. But somehow he seems to spread everything around." Kojo's heard about Smitty before, but it never sounded like anything good. "If Smitty spouts off about something Lopez and Harper want to keep secret, he's not going to like what happens to him."

"No," Lucy says, "he absolutely won't."