Nolan's Journal Chapter 15
"Tim and I both got new rookies today. Grey assigned them as we might have expected. Tim's boot, Gary Graves, is ex-military, Navy, as I understand it. He didn't come straight from the service to the academy. He served aboard a commercial ship in the Red Sea that was attacked by Houthis in response to the situation in Gaza. The ship was severely damaged, and with no immediate other prospects, I guess he decided it would be a good move to go for a job on dry land. I don't know that working in the LAPD will be any safer, but I wish him luck. The last time Tim had an ex-military rookie, Lucy got annoyed as hell because he treated his new boot so well instead of coming down on her the way he did on Lucy. But he only had her for a day, so Lucy got over that. Maybe it would have been better if she didn't and their relationship had never happened. Since their breakup, neither she nor Tim is exactly a happy camper, but I suppose time will tell about how things will work out.
"My rookie, Stella Robertson, has never been near the military, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to handle a gun. She comes from a family that has a small farm in Appalachia. They can eat what they grow but shoot most of whatever meat ends up on the table. According to what she told me, you become a very good shot if missing means going without eating. Still, she says that her sister, Crystal, who never did learn how to shoot straight, is the brains of the family. She got a scholarship to college and became a mining engineer, one of the few really good jobs in the area. So with Crystal helping the family out that way, Stella decided to try her hand at something she thinks she can be good at. She also fell in love with movies when she had a chance and the money to see them, so she did a lot of California dreaming. So far, LA hasn't quite lived up to her imaginings, but she did see Cher crossing the street, so that was exciting for her.
"Stella has the kind of fitness that comes from doing hard work, not spending time in a gym. As far as her rank at the academy, her physical prowess compensated somewhat for her middling performance in the classroom and on written tests. That could be a problem for her in terms of passing her rookie exam. I've always been a good reader, which is how I got my scholarship to Penn State. It got me through becoming a licensed contractor, too. Memorizing everything in the rookie manual was still hell for me, so it could be worse for Stella. I'm trying to relate what's there with whatever I can that we encounter on the job. That seems to help her internalize the information.
"With all her psych training, Lucy may have some ideas about learning tools that Stella can use. I'm hoping I can get the two of them to sit down together and work some of that out, but Lucy is doing UC for Harper and Lopez again. Grey is not too crazy about having one less cop on patrol, but Lucy has an already established identity that is perfect for the job, so he has to let her do it.
Even now that they're broken up, Tim is never comfortable when Lucy is undercover. I think it scares him almost as much as Bailey running into a burning building scares me. Still, both women are highly competent at their jobs and would be miserable if they couldn't do them. Tim and I and all the other men who care about women in dangerous professions just have to bite the bullet and tough it out. If Tim and Lucy ever get back together again, he'll have to accept that reality."
"The other shoe may be about to drop on Oscar Hutchinson and the Federal Reserve Bank. He was spotted there again but also disappeared again before he could be taken into custody. No one, not even Harper and Lopez, has any idea yet what he's planning. Since it's a federal building, Garza and his people are monitoring the situation, but they don't have a clue either. Still, the third time may be the charm.
"Jason still hasn't shown up yet. Bailey and I would like to think that he took off for somewhere he wouldn't be recognized, but in our guts, we know better. He's not a man to let a grudge go. He will come after Bailey and me. He's just biding his time and perhaps building up a war chest by draining some vulnerable woman's resources. Judging by his past behavior, he's already managed to con whoever his victim is into buying him a computer or at least giving him the use of one. He'll be employing it to put whatever plan he has in motion.
"After my past experience with identity theft, all my accounts are constantly monitored. So are Bailey's. Jason knew her social security number, so she jumped through all the hoops required to change it. If he tries to use the old one, it will be flagged. That may be one way to track him down. He was laundering money for the Western Front, so he has a very good idea of how the system works. He also knows how to obtain drugs, like the cocaine he used to frame Bailey. He could be selling drugs or laundering drug money again or both. He might be preying on a drug user.
"This town has people who are rich enough to use cocaine and other drugs without ending up starving in the gutter somewhere. Some of them are women. With his experience with his mother's production company, Aaron Thorson has come up with some ideas of women like that who could be Jason's targets. Like the rest of us, Grey needs Aaron on patrol, but he's using his off-duty time to check out the women on his list. Bailey and I couldn't appreciate it more, but that's not why Aaron is doing it. He has a heart for justice, especially for those who have been falsely accused. The way Jason framed Bailey goes to the very heart of what Aaron's determined to fight. He's not about to let Jason frame Bailey or anyone else again if there's anything he can do to prevent it.
"With Monica Collins still out there, we have a continuing triple threat. Garza is still trying to come up with something about her, but so far has nothing other than a few more, but unconfirmed, sightings. The longer she's out there, the more chance she has to put some grand scheme together. For all we know, she may be behind whatever Oscar is planning. She's used him before. She can use him again. If he is part of Monica's plan, anything happening at the Federal Reserve may be tangential at best. She may even have instructed Oscar to allow himself to be spotted there to put us and the FBI on a completely false trail. It would be like her.
"Wesley's decided to use Blair London to try to get into Monica's head in exchange for a recommendation for reduced sentencing or even WITSEC. However, the deal is that whatever Blair comes up with has to lead to Monica's capture. Talk about motivation! We'll just have to see if inspiration comes with it.