Nolan's Journal Chapter 43
"Christmas was great! Henry made it to LA with none of the complications he encountered before our wedding. Neither Bailey nor I got called in for emergency duty. Essie loved her gifts, and I guessed right about my present for Bailey. All that joy lasted until Bailey and I were just about to turn in. Some asshole decided to celebrate by setting off fireworks. With the fire danger in LA, that's illegal as hell for anyone except a licensed pyrotechnics technician. Still, we expect it to happen sometimes on New Years and of course, the Fourth of July. But Christmas? Whatever the reason, and we don't know because we haven't caught the idiot yet, it touched off a massive blaze in a rundown neighborhood where the houses caught like tinder.
"Bailey's firehouse is part of the battalion that was called in. Mid-Wilshire had to provide crowd control. Thank God Henry was at the house to stay with Essie. The fire burned for hours before even a battalion could get it under control. Two people died, and twenty more were transported to the hospital. Five of those are still critical. When we do catch the sonofabitch responsible, they'll be facing multiple murder charges.
"At least Essie slept through it all. We told her that Mommy and Daddy had been called in to work that night, but by now, she's getting used to that happening with at least one of us. Bailey would have been willing to make breakfast, but I could see how exhausted she was. She cared for two of the victims on the critical list. Anyway, I got to the bakery just before it opened and made a raid on the fresh-out doughnuts. Henry made eggs and hot chocolate and we ended up with a sweet family feast. Fortunately, Essie was too busy with her new presents to even think about going near a TV. She's still not much of a TV person anyway. So she was spared any gory details appearing on the news. She's had more than enough gory details in her young life.
"Lucy managed to call in the troops on the network of porch pirates two days before Christmas. Some of the packages that were still addressed and unopened were delivered to their intended recipients by cops in Santa hats. Unfortunately, most of the stolen items may take months or longer to return, and a lot of the intended owners may never get their things back. It's too bad, but at least Lucy did a good enough job of smashing the syndicate that packages should be safer for a while.
"Lucy wasn't the only success in Grinch-busting. Stella's theory about tracking the raccoons actually worked. They led us to a house surrounded by several empty and overgrown lots. There wasn't any activity to scare the animals off, and they had been trying their best to scratch their way inside. They'd actually succeeded with the attic space but hadn't found their way down to the living area where all the stolen food and toys were stashed. Stella thinks that if we had been a few hours later, the food would have been eaten and the toys trashed. Fortunately, we made it in time to call James in to identify the stolen articles. Harper put a super-rush on the paperwork so everything could be distributed to the families needing it. Still, when someone suggested that she should wear a Santa hat, her glare could have burned through steel. I think James wore a hat, though, and so did his boys and Lila, who all helped distribute the bounty."
"With Christmas behind us, the LAPD and the fire department are concentrating on preparing for New Year's Eve. It's always a busy time for all of us. The number of intoxicated drivers on the road leads to more accidents and injuries. We're just hoping to minimize those as much as possible.
"All sorts of organizations will be offering free rides, and there's a new one this year called 'Been There, Done That,' or BTDT for short. It's made up of now-sober abusers of alcohol and drugs who have been in serious accidents that served as wake-up calls. They've put their contact information out to businesses serving alcohol as well as all over social media. Some of the postings include pictures of accidents from last New Year's Eve. They can be pretty graphic, but there may be something to be said for shock value.
"I'll be on that night with Stella, and Cox will be on with Lena. There's probably no better time for our rookies to practice detecting and coping with compromised drivers. It may be more experience than they would want, but Cox and I will be there to back them up.
Bailey will be working that night, too, but Henry doesn't have to go back to Japan until the following week, so he'll be home with Essie. Essie isn't familiar with New Year's celebrations. They weren't a thing with her parents or with their church. So, other than being off from school, she doesn't see it as a holiday. But she's still happily playing with her new gifts. She chafes a little at bedtime, but Henry is really good at reading bedtime stories. He acts out the characters the way I did for him sometimes when he was little. Maybe my mother's grifting skills manifested themselves as a little bit of acting talent in us. Wherever it came from, it worked with Henry, and now it works for Essie.
"Something else that might be starting to work again is the relationship between Lucy and Tim. The word through the cop grapevine is that after she wound up her UC operation, the two of them had some time together at his house. No one knows what happened, but both of them seem to be happier, especially Tim. He is, because of his demotion, still in line for the least desirable duty, meaning he'll be on patrol in Hollywood on New Year's Eve. Following her UC success, Lucy would be eligible to be off that night, but she volunteered to work. I can't say that I blame her. Celina will be working too, so Lucy would either be alone at Tim's house or alone in her own apartment. Her family will be celebrating the Chinese New Year on January 29. So, even if she wanted to celebrate with them, which she doesn't, there would be nothing to celebrate.
"Maybe when Lucy and Tim get off work, they can have a New Year's breakfast together. That's what Bailey and I are planning to do with Henry and Essie. Bailey says she has a recipe for special pancakes that are supposed to be good luck. It seems to me that tough as the year has been, with Jason's escape and finding out about Bailey's damaged tubes, we've also been incredibly lucky. We both have work we love. The nightmare with Jason and Oscar is over, and we have Essie. What could be more fortunate than that?
"Still, Bailey is almost as superstitious as Celina. If there's anything she can do to turn the fates favorably in our direction, she'll do it. So she'll be making her lucky pancakes for a family feast. After that, we'll see what the New Year has in store."