Nolan's Journal Chapter 28
"Lucy's UC assignment went in an unexpected direction. The guys from the cartel got wind of Sava's reputation as a driver and decided to hire her to bring in fentanyl from the Texas-Mexico border. Lucy couldn't legally transport the drugs, even as a UC cop, especially across state lines, but Harper put together a scenario so it would look like that's what she was doing.
"Lucy drove a car that the cartel gave her down to the border. That gave Harper time to line up an identical one to switch it with. The drugs were loaded into the original and then seized by the DEA. Harper still has plenty of contacts there. Lucy drove the other car back with a load dummied up to look like fentanyl. It's not hard. A lot of the drug dealers pass off counterfeit pills as fentanyl.
"So, when Lucy delivered a cargo which the cartel members identified as fentanyl, the lot of them were busted. The Mexican cops got the senders on the other side of the border. Lucy was busted too, to preserve her cover in case she needs to be Sava again. Harper and Lopez leaned on the cartel members to give them their bosses. So far, they haven't had any luck with that, but they'll be trying again after the prisoners have cooked for a while in prison.
"Lucy and Celina held a celebratory dinner at their place. Bailey and I went. Essie had a sleepover with Ella, which made both girls happy. Bailey also brought a crock of her famous firehouse chili. I think Celina did most of the rest of the cooking. Her fare tends to be heartier, if not healthier, than Lucy's. Everyone seemed to have a good time.
"Tim was invited but declined. Still, Kojo showed up at Lucy's door with a congratulatory card, so unless Gennie and her boys brought the dog, Tim was lurking around somewhere.
"Unfortunately, there was nothing to celebrate the next day. Someone took an AR-15 to the Walmart closest to Celina's mother's neighborhood and started shooting. Metro got in there fast, but with the speed that weapon can pump off rounds, by the time they took the shooter down, he had killed 27 people and wounded 40 more. The city is in mourning, especially the Latino community since most of the victims were Latino. The city set up grief counseling at the center, and the local churches made sure their doors were open to anyone who needed comfort. We have units outside the center and the churches, just in case another shooter decides to be a copycat.
"Metro had to shoot the killer. He's not dead, but he's in a coma at the university hospital. He may never wake up, so it's possible that no one will ever know his motive. Still, it seems pretty obvious. As much as any witnesses can remember, he was yelling racist slurs while he was shooting. Also, he was fired by a Latino boss for not making his quota on his job. That might have had something to do with it. Still, I find it hard to understand what kind of sick mind would take that out on innocent shoppers just trying to make their budgets.
"Essie heard about what happened from the kids at school. It was the first time she had heard of anything like that since her birth parents home-schooled her and shielded her from news like that. Maybe that was one advantage of living an insular life. Well, she would have known pretty soon anyway. Her school has an active shooter drill scheduled for next week. I'll be helping with it. I wish that, as a cop, I could make it all go away, but the power to do that is way higher than my pay grade."
"An electrical cable blown down by a storm sparked a wildfire up North. It's already covered an area bigger than a small city and shows no signs of letting up. Governor Newsom called in the National Guard, so Bailey had to go. She didn't want to be away from Essie this soon, but her duty is her duty. My family leave has been over for a while, so I'm putting in full shifts. I can get Essie off to school in the morning because she goes with Ella. However, I still needed coverage for a few hours after the after-school program, so I hired Tamara.
"The father tried hitting on her in her last job, and she was happy to sit for someone she knows. She's filling in sitting for babies during the day so she can make her rent. She's also taking child development courses to qualify for being a full-time nanny. If she can do that, she definitely won't have to worry about making the rent again. The thing is, she does have a history of stealing cars. She's long past that now, and she did it as a minor, so the records should be sealed. Still, she wants Wesley to make sure there's nothing that will pop up on the type of background check that many parents do on nannies. I know that when Bailey and I were considering hiring one, Bailey wanted to know if a potential hire ever got into trouble as a kid on the playground. It was a little extreme, but I can't blame Bailey for wanting the best.
"Tamara may have moved out, but Lucy is still very protective of her. She wanted to flash her badge at the father in Tamara's last gig and threaten him with sexual assault charges. Since he never actually touched Tamara, she talked Lucy out of it. She doesn't want it getting around that she's a troublemaker. His new sitter is a guy, so unless he swings both ways, it shouldn't be a problem. Still, Lucy thinks there should be a website to warn potential sitters of parents like that. There are a lot of sitters out there who may not be able to cut and run from overattentive parents of either gender. I suggested that she work with a hacker who stole my identity for a while but reformed after I saved his life. He's doing some good – and legal – work now, so it may be a good match. Tim doesn't like the idea of Lucy working with a criminal, even a reformed one. Still, as far as Lucy is concerned, Tim has no right to have a say in the matter. Until they get their relationship straightened out one way or another, I have to agree.
"After ripping off every snack in the break room, Smitty finally had to endure some consequences. Dominique sent Luna a recipe she picked up from a group of students from New Zealand. Grey loved it and put a container full of leftovers in the break room fridge for his lunch. Smitty sampled it with no idea what it was. One of the ingredients was kiwi. It's uncommon, but Smitty is allergic to kiwi. His lips swelled up, and Grey called the paramedics for him. Too bad Bailey isn't around. She would have given Smitty a piece of her mind, but it would have been nothing compared to what he heard from Grey. I think that food in the break room will be safe from thievery – at least for a while."