Chapter 21

E.J., Bryan, Maya, Harold and Liv watched.

Fitz had left the family alone and gone to check on Sarmango. He wanted to discuss leniency or even better immunity for the man who had helped him survive throughout their ordeal. He also wanted to check in to see if Gary was talking…

Eli Pope shuffled in orange scrubs that had BDC, Boulder Department of Corrections, stenciled on the front in bold black ink. He had a BPD officer on each side of him. He had on white socks with some prison issue sandals. The two cops sat him down and shackled him to the table. There was a large metal ring that was located in the middle of the table. The shackle chain went through the large ring. It allowed for some movement but not a lot. They left his feet free.

The children watched stoically as he was situated. Maya cried silently between them. Finally, the officers were satisfied that he was secured and they left the room. Locking the door behind them. They all looked at Eli

He had aged decades in the span of a night.

Liv knew it wasn't possible, but somehow he seemed to have gone grayer in the hair. He's face seemed to be teeming with wrinkles that hadn't been there before. Liv wanted to cry along with her mother, but she couldn't…she needed to be strong.

E.J. spoke first "How you doing Pop?" he asked kindly.

"I've been better son…I have been better…" My god! He even sounds older

"I fucking hate you for everything you have done and I will never forgive you. I don't have an old man anymore! Your dead to me" this came from Harold. He vibrated with anger. Eli said nothing only kept quiet, looking down at the table as if…cowered? The sight of him sitting there, in shackles and afraid was almost too much.

"You need to tell us everything. Everything! if you want to have a chance with ever making good with me" E.J. said quietly. They all kept quiet. It was a non-verbal show of solidarity with E.J.

They all needed to know everything. Every dirty detail, every betrayal…all of it.

Eli signed and nodded and then told his sick story.

"I didn't start out bad. I wasn't bad…at least not all bad…" Eli shifted and the chains rattled loudly in the room.

"I young, still new to the force…working traffic. I was a glorified meter maid. I spent the day writing speeding tickets and taking in drunks to the tank to sober up. The only good thing was going home to Maya and my new baby…you E.J." he tried to reach for his son, but the chains wouldn't stretch that far. It wouldn't have mattered if had, E.J. pulled back as soon as his old man tried to reach him. Eli sighed and sat back.

"One day, I am writing a ticket for this flash Cadillac and the owner comes out, looks me over in my standard blues and cheap shoes and he just… knows. He handed me a one-hundred-dollar bill and told me to make the ticket go away. It was right there on the street, in broad daylight …. I took the bill and made the ticket go away" Eli shuffled again, and the chains rattled.

"Turns out this guy was part of the Martini crew. He drove around town collecting protection money and he got a lot of traffic tickets. He told me if I fixed them, I would be well compensated. I said yes. It was so easy to say yes. I had a wife a new baby, APD didn't pay shit…After a year of fixing tickets, I was taken to meet the boss…Gregory. Boy he was smooth "

Eli said remembering the stylish mobster he had met in a warehouse downtown decades ago.

"He's says I've done such a good job, he was wondering if I could do a little extra work for them. I get ready to say no, to walk out the door, but they put a wad of money as high as a bible in front of me and that was it. I was hooked. They said they knew that the police had an informant in their organization. They needed me to find out who the undercover was. That wasn't hard. APD back in the day was run like a joke. It took me two days and I got the name and forwarded it back the Martini's. A day later an undercover was found dead in Washington DC…they said he had been carjacked…I knew better" Eli looked out the tiny window in the visitor's room

"I felt guilt about that young man's death…but then they call me and tell me I have done good. I did so good they were going to add on five thousand as a bonus for my good work….it was all downhill from there"

They listened as he told them about the payouts for grassing on informant's, or for losing evidence, sometimes even taking evidence, like drugs to resell. Her soon to be former coworker, Walter Ramirez, had been helping with that facet for the last twenty years. When the Martini family went out of business he ended up working for Barry Capizzi. That's when he had crossed the line…crossed from being a dirty cop to being a murderer.

The amount of money was too good to pass up. They handed him a piece of paper with two names. Associates of Capizzi. Nobody mentioned the word murder, but Eli knew what they wanted. He hadn't had the guts to do it himself so he had blackmailed a junkie he knew who would do anything for a couple of hundred dollars.

He had set it up. Made it look like he was a dirty cop, which ironically he was, looking to sell about five pounds of Heroin that had been seized in a bust. The two associates of Capizzi were more than happy to do the deal. He told them he would meet them in a warehouse in a disreputable part of town. They had agreed. They were young, rash…they should never have gone to the meeting alone, but they did.

The junkie Eli paid was waiting in the darkened warehouse and managed to take out one of the men, but not the other. Eli should have known. Trusting a junkie to take out two guys was ridiculous. The other guy took of running. Eli gave chase and gunned him down near a railway track. He had run back to his patrol car, heart beating out of control.

"I knew…I knew I wasn't coming back from that one. I had killed someone. There's no coming back from that."

Later the next day he had tracked down the junkie and provided him with enough heroin to kill an elephant and then he had let nature take its course. It did. An overdose death was reported at a local transient hotel that very night.

Capizzi had been busted shortly after. He was being serviced by a local prostitute who was smart and recorded his pillow talk. Barry's Achilles heel, he talked to much during sex…a fatal flaw among many a man.

Once Capizzi was in jail. Eli sourced out a new benefactor. Daniel Eze.

It was the same deal as all the others. It was amazing how decades went by, but the services needed from a dirty cop remained the same. Provide names of informants, destroy evidence…. not much changed except the employer and the amount of money expected to do the dirty deeds. In time he managed to recruit Chief Wright into doing the dirt for Eze. Wright had married above his weight class. His beautiful wife liked expensive things.

Eli could have retired years ago. He had over five million dollars in his Cayman account, but he had decided to play it safe. If he suddenly retired and was found to be living high off the hog, he could have been soused out by Internal Affairs. No, the prudent thing was to put in the required twenty to twenty-five years, live low key, never go above your means. Then retire….to paradise. That had been the plan.

E.J. suddenly exploded. He had heard enough …

"Did you ever think about us…about how this would impact us if you got caught?" E.J. asked angrily "How are we supposed to go back to being cops, now you've done this? We're all finished. There's no going back…"

"I am so sorry. I did think about you. I thought if I had enough money, I could take care of all of you…" Eli said, trying to pacify his eldest son. E.J. wasn't having it.

"You think I want to live off your dirty fucking money? You think I do this because I need to?! I do this fucking job because I want to!... I thought you did to!"

"I did in the beginning, but the money…" Eli continued, trying to explain the unexplainable.

"Where's the fucking money now dad, huh? Where's the money? You throw everything away… family, career, reputation and what do you have to show for it? You're sitting here in a jumpsuit as a fucking federal prisoner!"

"If I could do it again, E.J…."

"Well you fucking can't. You have ruined us…do you understand that? Ruined us! Unless you can tell me how the fuck we go back to APD being the children of a fucking dirty murdering cop? Tell me dad, how do we pull that off?"

Liv broke in, she didn't know why, but her head was reeling "E.J. …"

"No Liv, let him answer the goddamn question! How do we go back and do what we love to do? Answer me you motherfucker!" he yelled. E.J. was losing control. He had known about Eli the longest, he had been bottling it up for months and now…now it all came pouring out.

"I don't forgive you for this. I don't forgive you not for what you've done to me, but what you've done to them" he pointed at his siblings and his mother.

"I am going to testify against your murdering ass and then I never want to see you again…you hear? I bury you after that trial. You're dead to me…" he pushed his chair back so forcefully it fell. He banged on the door of the visitor's room and the officer standing guard let him out.

"I may forgive you…down the road, but not today…bye dad" Bryan walked out of the room next.

Harold grabbed Liv's hand and she looked at him questioningly. He spoke to Eli "Do you remember calling my sister a whore in your home?" Harold asked calmly.

"That when I knew. Not about all of this, but about…you. I knew you were not a man worthy of my respect. Now I know you're not a man worthy of my love either" Harold squeezed Liv's hand and was out the door.

Liv was quiet sitting next to her mother who hadn't stopped crying the entire time. Liv turned to her mother

"Did he…did he ever tell you about any of this?" she asked quietly.

Eli answered for Maya "She didn't know, I think she suspected…. but she didn't…she didn't know" his gaze was fixed on Maya, but she hadn't looked up.

Liv knew then. Her mother had known. She wanted to cry like a baby…she played along though…for now. She wasn't one to kick a dog when it was down and her mother was a mess.

"Okay" she said quietly

"Dad I…" she sighed "I am with Bryan…I might be able to forgive you, but that's not going to happen today. I am with E.J in that I hate you not for what you've done to me, but for what you've done to my family, and I am with Harold because the day you called me a whore I knew you were not worthy of my respect and now you have confirmed that you are probably not worthy of my love…" she paused

"…but here's the kicker…I do love you. Its not a faucet I can turn off... I love you" she stood up and looked at both her parents. She could practically hear the cracks forming in her heart.

"I'll leave you two alone…bye dad" she said quietly and walked out of the room. Her brothers were standing outside in the hallway. All of them looked gutted; lost in their thoughts.

She stood there confused…unsure. She didn't know what to do…what do I do now?

"Livvie" she heard his voice behind her.

Fitz.

He had been standing on the other side of the door, giving her brothers space… waiting for her. The sight of him leaning against the wall…waiting.

Her world righted itself. That's what she needed to do. She needed to be with Fitz.

She walked over to him numb. He was wearing a coat and he opened it up to her. She walked in and snuggled in the warmth, putting her hands around him. He tightened his hold around her.

She took a deep breath…It took a minute, but finally the dam burst.

She wailed and lost all strength in her legs. Fitz caught her. He lifted her up into his arms and carried her out of BPD while she cried and cried. Her brothers followed silently behind. Together they all walked out of BPD. To a future that was so uncertain it was unnerving…