The Burden of Love: The last of the Demons
by tarskeewee08
Evangeline looked at the abandoned house wondering why Cletus chose this as his hide away. "The place looks dangerous"
The house had a raised porch with large windows on either side of the door. The painting was deteriorating and chipping around all sides. The snow coupled with the grey sky made the place look depressingly dreary.
"This is where he said it was?" John said turning off the car frowning.
The neighborhood was littered with strays and junkies. The house itself had several hoodlums hanging around the porch drinking beers and laughing at some heard joke they shared. It was obvious that it was some type of crack house. They stared at the group of young men with the car idling.
"They aren't going to let us stroll inside John. They think we're cops." she said watching as the larger of the three wearing a Sean John brown bubble jacket and low hanging jeans that appeared to be buckled at the waist. He stepped off the porch pulling them up and heading toward their car.
The skull hat under his Chicago Bears cap was pulled low to his face. John slipped his hand to his gun as they watched him approach. He came over to Evangeline's window and tapped on it.
"Should I roll it down?" she asked through
her teeth.
"Go ahead" John said keeping his eye on the guy.
Evangeline rolled it down halfway staring up into the low lid eyes of the man not expecting him to respond favorably to their sitting outside of his little drug trap.
"What up yo….yawl shopping or are just 5-0 trying to wreck a brothers day?" the thug asked grinning at them.
John leaned over "What's it to
you?"
"Nothing man, just thought you were Cletus peeps that's
all."
Evangeline looked at him surprised "You know
Cletus?"
The thug looked at her and smiled seductively. "He
said you were fine but damn…."
John opened his car door and
stepped out. "Look bro…step back from the car." He said now
aggravated with the games.
The guy stepped back and the two others on the porch stepped down both with their hands in their pockets. Evangeline braced herself and stepped out the car. She could tell John wasn't too happy about that, but lately her man wasn't happy at all.
"What did Cletus tell you about us?" she
asked trying to diffuse the situation.
The guy looked at her "He
said you would be coming for the stuff he stashed in the basement. He
told us to make sure you got what you needed if you showed up here
without him." He said eyeing John up and down. "You're 5-0….I
can smell it on you!"
Evangeline grabbed the guys arm as John stepped to him threateningly. "Listen to me, we just want to help Cletus, please take us to his things."
The young man cut his eyes at John then looked back at Evangeline, scoping her up and down grinning lustfully "Yeah sweet thang, I'll show you" he said turning and going back across the street.
She looked over at John who still had his eyes narrowed on the young guy. "Come on baby let's go" she said extending her hand to him. John accepted her hand and walked with her across the street his gun hidden under his jacket.
Going up the steps to the abandoned house the thugs parted to let them through all of them checking John out from head to toe. Apparently most of them were familiar with the other side of the law and had an allergic reaction to anyone connected with it.
The house was dark and smelled of piss with a pungent trace of methanol and burning plastic. John knew the smells of crack dens but Evangeline gagged and covered her mouth with her gloved hand, holding his with her other. The young guy glanced over his shoulder laughing. "Takes some getting used too….doesn't it cop?" he said walking toward the back of the house
John pulled her close as they walked past people crouched in corners and propped against the wall smoking poison through glass pipes. Some of them with needles hanging out of their arms were drooling and staring blankly into space. "This is hell" Evangeline said sadly stepping over people. John nodded following the drug dealer down the steps into the basement.
They stepped inside to see a large 4 foot tall safe with a combination lock. Evangeline let go of his hand and went to the boxes stacked on the side of it. They were up on the table and she was sure it was the evidence they needed to see.
John
looked over to the thug that was watching him smugly twirling a
toothpick in his mouth. "Did you go into the safe?"
The guy
laughed "Cletus gave us all fifty g's a piece not too…."
John shook his head. "Get your peeps out of here, clear the
place. Before the day is over the cops will be all over here"
The guy's smile faded. "What? Now wait a damn minute….that wasn't the deal. Cletus said you two were cool."
John stepped to him. "You got your money and I just gave you a get out of jail free card. Don't push it partner"
Evangeline pulled out the folder with John's dad's name on it and looked over at him. "John….you need to see this"
He looked over at her and his chest tightened. Turning back to the thug he frowned "What's it going to be?"
The guy threw his hands up "Hey fuck this…..Cletus my folk but I don't need this shit. Don't think I'm giving up my stash either!" he hissed running back up the steps.
John shook his head and walked over to Evangeline. She looked at him and passed him the folder which he accepted hesitantly. "So this is it?" he asked softly
Nodding she watched his face as he pulled out the files. The papers were detailed lists of police patrolling of local banks in the Atlantic City area. The schedules showed which days certain officers were assigned to certain beats and who the direct reports were. Jacob had a team and so did John's father. Flipping through he saw the instructions written by O'Reilly on where to hit the bank and where to meet Jacob or Thomas on certain days to dissect the spoils of their labors.
According to everything O'Reilly was to keep the bulk of the money and equipment until the missions were completed. John's father's involvement was all through the documentation and there was no way to implicate Jacob without exposing him.
Evangeline paced as John read document after document. She didn't' want to interrupt or ask questions but it was killing her. Going back over to the box she saw the documents of news clippings from different petty crimes in the Chicago area over the past ten years. She also saw the log of 'principles' which was supposed to be the Irishman Clan's bible. "Now this looks interesting" she mumbled
John
looked up from his reading "What is?"
"This…" she said
handing it to him.
Taking the book he thumbed through it. Everything dictated in it was the principles of the brotherhood. Rob from the rich to give to the poor. The first robberies were showing money that was to be funneled back into the community. Neighborhood watch, boys and girls club, unwed mothers program at the community center."
"When did it become about money for their pockets if it started as money for the others…." Evangeline asked confused.
John kept paging through the notebook. "Stealing
is stealing" he said dryly.
"Yes baby it is, but I never for
one moment believed that your father would join Barnaby just for an
easy quick buck"
John slammed the book and glared at her "We don't know what the hell he'd do! We don't know who the hell he is!"
"That's not true, you know who he is.
You know ….."
"I don't know shit!" he shouted tossing
the book across the room. "None of this makes sense!" he screamed
pushing over the boxes causing the contents to spill out across the
floor.
John griped by his rage now went to the table and flipped it over. Evangeline backed away shocked as he picked up a long pipe and started breaking things on the shelves that lined the walls. Turning her face and putting up her hand she shielded her self from the flying debris. He continued to swing wildly crying and cursing his dad for failing him.
Evangeline pressed herself against the wall watching him attack the steel safe with the pipe beating dents into it before breaking the pipe in half against it.
Finally unable to destroy another thing his head dropped as his cries grew louder and his body shook from the pain of it. "Baby…." She said cautiously. Seeing him drop the pipe and put his hands to his face as he slowly went to his knees broke her heart. She went to the floor on the side of him and sat down. "Baby…" she said gently touching his hair.
He reached for her and pulled her to him as he rested his head on her chest. Remaining on the ground they held each other and John released the last of his pain within her arms. "I'm so sorry sweetie, I'm so very sorry."
He said nothing and Evangeline felt his tears would destroy what's left of her strength, seeing her man in this much pain was killing her. She had to be strong for him but his strength is what she relied on. Selfish as it may be she wanted him back whole and this shit all around them wasn't either of their fault. They shouldn't be saddled with the burden of trying to resolve it. It wasn't fair.
His tears began to stop as he breathing
steadied. She lifted his head and kissed his lips gently. "Are you
okay?"
"I didn't mean to scare you"
"If this frees
you in anyway then its worth it"
"It does…."
"John
listen to me, this can't be allowed to define your relationship
with your father. No matter how monstrous the truth is in the end it
had nothing to do with your relationship…."
Pulling out of her arms he looked at her sadly "It does, I based my whole life after immolating my father, finishing what I thought his dream was, helping and defending people. To know that it was all a lie makes my life a lie as well"
Evangeline shook her head "You're wrong…." She said crawling over to the book and bringing it back. "The truth is here in these pages. Your dad wanted to help people. Protecting a community pulverized by poverty had to weigh heavily on him. This book talks about heroism misguided as it is, he wanted to help his people."
"Are you trying to condone this? Look at this!" John snapped grabbing clippings. "These weren't innocent bank robberies people were killed!"
Evangeline took the clippings from his hands and tossed them aside. Grabbing his face she forced him to stare into hers. "I know that there was bad things that he did, but I want you to know that the good you saw in him was real also."
John looked around at the destruction he caused sighing. There was no way to protect his father's memory he was as guilty as Jacob besides why should he. If he did these things then it should be uncovered. He wouldn't pretend and cling to a childhood fantasy anymore.
"Call the cops…let them sort through it" he said rising from the floor. Evangeline watched him kick through debris heading for the stairs. "John are you sure, we haven't gone through it all there are tapes here too." She said picking up the tapes that fell out of the box and lay next to her.
Stopping he looked over his shoulder at her "I'm
sure…let's go."
Rising from the floor she dusted herself
off. Retrieving her cell phone from her purse she called in their
location and explained what was discovered. She didn't know if he
was coming around or not. But it was time to leave this hell hole and
finish his recovering from this pain somewhere safe where she could
reach him.
After dealing with the cops, Evangeline waited in the car as John instructed them on moving the safe from the house. The junkies left were carted off to jail and the entire neighborhood was out watching all the commotion.
Finally John got in and silently drove them from the curb to her place. She kept glancing over at him wondering what was going through his head. But decided to let him digest all he's learned.
Arriving at her
place she walked inside and glanced over to see him go to her sofa
plopping down. "You hungry?"
"No…come sit with me, we need
to talk"
Evangeline walked over and sat next to him. He placed
his hand on her knee and squeezed it affectionately "I want to
thank you baby"
She looked at him "For what? Loving you?"
"Among other things. Something you said finally got
through."
Placing her hand over his she squeezed it "What
was that?"
He looked over into her face "You said that none
of this changes the good I knew in my father. You were right baby, he
was a man flawed and all, but he was also a father good and loving. I
won't loose sight of that and I won't deny it
either."
"John…"
"Let me finish Van" he said
softly "I'm happy that you are at my side. I'm at peace with
all of this, because the illusion is gone Van, I know who he was and
I love him still"
She nodded "And your mother?"
"My
mother may or may not have known all of it. But what she did for her
boys was preserve the hero in their father. I would never punish her
for that."
"Yes John but it will be all over the news
soon, you have to warn her."
"You're right, I'll go call
her" he said about to rise.
Reaching she pushed him back and
moved into his lap "I'm so proud of you…" she said
relieved.
He looked into her face and smiled weakly "Maybe later you can show me just how proud. I need to be in your arms again" he said in a hoarse whisper before kissing her.
Evangeline kissed him back and held onto him enjoying the comfort of his arms around her and the last of their demons exorcized from them for good.
