Nolan's Journal Chapter 27
"Lucy received a new undercover assignment. She will assume her Sava identity, which she used when she was undercover as the girlfriend of Tim's doppelganger, Jake. Since Jake's been killed, Tim couldn't be part of the assignment, which he'd have no wish to be anyway. That's more closeness to Lucy than he's willing to experience – yet. He's been finding ways to be on the same call with her. I'm not sure if he wants to be around her or just wants to make sure she's safe. Either way, he's been doing it, and no one around here, including Grey, has missed it. As yet, it's not a regulations problem, but if those two do become a couple again, they won't be able to work together. Grey's also sent out the signals that if someone goes, it will be Tim.
"Lucy will be using the training she's been doing with Celina. She's supposed to worm her way into working at a club where members of a Central American drug cartel hang out and gather information about a series of deaths among lower-level dealers. Harper's theory is that the cartel is consolidating operations and making sure its people are the only ones profiting from sales. Lucy will be walking a thin line, cozying up to cartel members without getting too cozy. Harper's set to pull her out if things get too dicey, but since Sava's persona is, for lack of a better description, hyper-sexy, Lucy may find the club's clients making demands she has no wish to fulfill.
"I only know the few details I know because I got them from Celina. As far as I can tell, Tim knows nothing except that Lucy's going UC. He's never really accepted her wish to do that. If he knew what I know, he'd do his best to keep her from taking the assignment. Worse, he could shadow her and totally screw up the works. Fortunately, after Tim's success in de-escalating the gang fight, Grey gave him more supervisory responsibilities. He'll be the field supervisor for any large armed confrontations, which should keep him busy and away from Lucy's assignment.
The work on Gennie's kitchen was completed, so she and the boys are no longer using Tim's. Still, the boys got pretty attached to Kojo and vice versa, so Gennie takes them over to see him when she has a chance. They're already asking for a dog of their own. With all the schedule juggling Gennie is already doing, she's hesitant to add another complication. Still, she asked me what it would take to build a dog run. Normally, I'd be happy to do it for her for the cost of materials, but with the way Bailey and I have to work out our schedules to spend as much time as possible with Essie, I just can't do it. I gave Gennie contact information for a couple of carpenters I got to know in James' neighborhood. I think either one of them would do good work for her without completely blowing her budget.
"I'm actually also doing a little carpentry for Essie. I was clued in by Ella's grandmother that Essie has been looking longingly at a doll house that's been in Ella's family for generations. It's much better than the plastic one sold to go with Barbie. So, I've been building something like it for Essie to play with after she gets her Christmas presents. I've been keeping it in one of the cabinets I built into the garage so she doesn't see it and working on it when she's asleep. The construction of the house wasn't difficult, although I dovetailed most of the joints to make them as durable as possible. However, I'll also be building Barbie-sized furniture, which is very fine work, especially for well-over-forty eyes. Still, my back appreciates not having to haul loads of lumber or bags of cement. And I can't wait to see the look on Essie's face when I can give the house to her."
"Lucy's on her UC assignment now, so we're down a unit. We really could have used her today. A gang that's been doing home invasions chose what they thought would be an easy target: a small house occupied by an intellectually challenged man. Intellectually challenged may be the wrong description because I understand he is more of a savant, someone with very advanced skills in one area but with difficulties coping with everyday chores. His skills are computer-related, and he has several expensive computers. That is probably what the gang intended to steal.
"What the gang didn't know is that his home has two-way communications with a monitoring center. They help him with things like remembering to shower and cooking his meals. They also have cameras to make sure he doesn't need emergency assistance. From what I understand, the whole thing goes through an iPad. When the gang broke in, they were within range for the person doing remote monitoring to see and hear at least part of what was going down and call the LAPD. The gang blocked the obvious cameras but were unaware that the iPad was transmitting.
"We had four shops, including mine and Celina's, at the house almost immediately, with Tim in charge. He might have brought in Metro, but the closest unit was handling a bank robbery, so Tim was on his own. Actually, not entirely on his own. The monitoring service transmitted the feed from the iPad directly to the computer in Tim's shop so he could see where people were inside and what was going on. Then, he had me look at that and the construction of the house to figure out if there was a way we could make a surprise entrance.
"Like many Southern California houses, this one was built on a slab, so there was no way in from underneath. But there was attic space we could get into from the rear without being detected. I couldn't see the ceiling access to it from the iPad images. That wasn't a bad thing. It meant that it would be out of the gang's view as well. We could drop down and surprise them.
"They managed to get a few shots off when we broke in. Tim was in the lead and ended up with a bruised rib from a bullet hitting his vest. Webb's leg was grazed, but that was it for our injuries. Two of the gang members were wounded, but the doctors expect them to pull through. The young man was frightened but did a lot better with what happened than many people would or could do. He turned the whole thing into an online comic.
"His creation drew over 100,000 views. Who would have expected that? Mid-Wilshire received kudos from unexpected corners, and an incident generated some positive PR for a change. That made the brass happy, which made Grey happy. He had Luna come in with a cake. She actually was able to keep Smitty from taking more than his share before everyone got some. The woman is formidable. As far as protecting food around the division is concerned, I think she scored a first."