Nolan's Journal Chapter 22
"Except for painting the interior walls, the addition is finished. Since we don't know the gender or age of the child we'll be adopting, we're not going for a traditional baby pink or blue. Bailey's not crazy about pastels anyway. She's not a pastel person. She doesn't want the contractor's standby, Navajo white, either, and primary colors might be too stimulating if the child's been traumatized. That doesn't leave us with many choices. Tamara, Lucy's former roomie, offered to paint a mural like she did on the walls of her room at Lucy's place. That one was kind of dark, but she said she could brighten it up for a little kid. Bailey's thinking about it, but she can't think too long. The paperwork is all done and we could be getting a child at any time. I want to make sure everything is ready, or as ready as it can be. Luna says that every adoption is different, and we'll have to be prepared to go with the flow. I certainly had to do that with Henry's illness, so I've at least got that experience to fall back on.
"Bailey and I are not the only ones with problems. A suspect coughed right in Tim Bradford's face, probably on purpose. The next thing Tim knew, he was down with COVID-19 and a pretty heavy case of it. Lena was riding with him before he showed symptoms, so she came down with it too. Despite what happened between her and Tim, Lucy wanted to help both of them. She masked up and brought soup to Lena. She tried bringing something to Tim, but he wouldn't even let her into the house. So she finally just left it outside his door. He won't be completely on his own. His sister Gennie and his nephews will be looking in on him. But knowing Bradford, they'll probably just have to leave anything they bring at the door too. It may be just as well. The current strain is kicking the incidence of cases back up. So far, the vaccine has kept cops from getting sick enough to need a hospital, but it's temporarily thinned the already thin ranks.
"Dana Ballinger has finally nailed down which Vanuatu island Monica Collins is using as a hideout. Now he and Wesley are trying to cook up some scheme to get her back to the U.S. It won't be easy. From what Dana's been able to find out, she has enough resources for a very comfortable unlimited stay. However, Wesley thinks she bores too easily to settle in for an extended period. He said that when they were engaged she was always going for the bigger, better thrill. Even if she doesn't need the money, she'll want to pull off another criminal operation just for the challenge. So the bait he and Dana will need to lure her off that island will have to be the promise of something risky and complicated enough to feed her ego. Unfortunately, they have no idea yet what that might be. I'm wondering if Oscar might. He has an almost supernatural feel for what will most appeal to a mark's evil nature. He also does nothing for free. I have no idea what Wesley might be able to offer him to come up with something. Where Wesley is involved, there's always another possibility. Angela could get into it and find a way to scare the sh*t out of Oscar so badly that he'll cooperate. Scaring the sh*t out of people is her special talent, and when Harper is with her, their capacity to instill terror more than doubles. If they decide to go that route, I would almost pity Oscar – almost. That sonofabitch deserves anything bad that can possibly happen to him – and a hell of a lot more. Whatever that would be, I'd love to watch."
"I finally got the child's room painted. Aaron turned me onto a woman who paints sets for children's TV shows and she helped me turn it into something like a cozy library reading corner. We even have a pile of comfy pillows to go with it. All that should work regardless of the child's age and can be updated when necessary. I finished just in time. The agency let us know that a child will be available in a few days as soon as the necessary medical checks and so forth are completed.
"We still don't know the child's gender. That information is confidential until the final placement approval, but it doesn't matter. Bailey is over the moon. She's also working as many hours as she possibly can so she can take time off when the child comes.
"I was already putting in the maximum number of hours at work. Every cop at Mid-Wilshire has because we're so short-handed. Almost every cop, anyway. Somehow Smitty always finds an excuse to do the least amount of work possible, but Grey knows that and accounts for it in the scheduling. I think he'd fire Smitty if he couldn't use every hour he can get out of him. Smitty also has a lot of connections dating back to when he was union rep. Trying to toss him would raise strong objections in some quarters, and that's a battle Grey doesn't have the time to fight.
"Smitty does have his uses. He keeps his ears open to department intrigues the way that Hollywood reporters do to celebrity spats. So he always knows when some member of the brass is on a rampage, and we have to keep our heads down. He also manages to either bribe or sweet talk, I don't know which, the guy who fills the vending machines into giving Mid-Wilshire the best snacks, or at least the ones that aren't past their expiration dates. As thinly spread as our patrol units are right now, sometimes that's the only food we can fit into our schedules. I'm hoping that when we finish training Stella and Lena, they'll stay on at Mid-Wilshire, and we'll get new rookies right away. Still, assuming that happens, it won't be for many months. We'll have to go with the force we have.
"That force includes Tim and Lena again. He tested negative before she did and was out on the street for a couple of days by himself before she joined him. That's going to put her even further back in her training, but there's nothing anyone can do about that. On the upside, she was able to spend her recovery time studying, so she may be ready for the next round of testing when Stella is. It will be up to Tim to decide if she's ready or not. No one, least of all Lena, expects him to cut her any slack.
"Wesley and Dana Ballinger have yet to finalize a plan to lure Monica Collins off her island, but they've pulled Garza into it. As I understand it, they're going to make it look like the U.S. is negotiating a deal with Vanuatu to cut off the funds of criminals using their banking system. They'll have to plant clues on the dark web or something. I don't really understand it, but Garza is trying to convince the FBI Cybercrimes Division to get involved. From what Wesley has been able to gather, that will involve calling in some serious favors, but over the years Garza has earned them. I can only hope that when the scheme is in place, Monica falls for it. Considering how many numbers she's pulled on law enforcement, it would be poetic justice."
