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#Post#: 738--------------------------------------------------
Take The Deal (John LeTour)
By: Infinimata Date: January 15, 2025, 11:00 am
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# Take The Deal
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## John LeTour / 2025-01-15 00:51:29 | 8096
*To the living, we owe respect; to the dead, we owe only the
truth* - Voltaire
Diner (L.A.)
The fact that John was asked to meet Estabon at a diner, not at
actual police HQ, told him this wasn't going to be the most
formal thing in the world. Maybe it meant there was something on
offer, but only under the table. And that in turn meant
something John was not going to savor.
He didn't order coffee. He knew they had tomato bisque soup and
he'd been craving a cup of the stuff ever since he got word
they'd meet here. It warmed him up in a way coffee didn't.
"John," said the other man. Estabon barely came up to John's
chin, but this little mustachioed fellow had been the source of
worlds of terror for cops throughout the department.
"Is there something on offer?" John said. If the other man
wasn't jollying up or making small talk, no reason to do the
same thing.
"This is me offering," Estabon said, "not the department.
Because I can speak for myself before they speak for
themselves."
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## John LeTour / 2025-01-15 00:57:48 | 8097
*To the living, we owe respect; to the dead, we owe only the
truth* - Voltaire
Diner (L.A.)
John didn't reply, just put his spoon in the cup and stirred the
parsley sprinklings and croutons into it.
"The word inside," Estabon went on, "is that they don't want you
back inside. Not at a desk and not anywhere, really. They have
all the reasons in the world to do this, not least of which is
Detective Mavrides's family. Their wrongful death suit was
dismissed but as you can imagine that has only made them more
resentful."
"All I'm hearing is old news," John said. "I thought there was
an offer in here somewhere."
"The offer is this," Estabon said. "You leave the force and take
a *three-fourths* pension, up from the two-thirds admin-leave
pay you are currently drawing. This will be recorded as a
voluntary retirement, so there will be no marks against you -- "
"Not officially." Not like it mattered.
" -- and with enough time and changes in administration, they
may reconsider, but I would scarcely consider that worth pinning
hope on." Estabon shifted in his seat. "I am laying all this out
for you now because I have it on good word that by the end of
the week they plan to dismiss you anyway. If I come to them with
this before then, they will take it. Of that I am certain."
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## John LeTour / 2025-01-15 01:03:26 | 8100
*To the living, we owe respect; to the dead, we owe only the
truth* - Voltaire
Diner (L.A.)
John blew on the soup and downed some of it before fitting his
next words together with care:
"I didn't believe for a minute," he said, "that it would come
down to anything but one of those two things. Either I leave, or
they throw me out a window. Or off the roof. I would have walked
out myself if I hadn't been stupid enough to think all those
bullshit rumors about what happened in the desert would blow
over. Or at least been refuted by the higher brass. But no, I
guess they were short on scapegoats that month. -- So what now
if I say yes?"
He had barely finished saying those last couple of words before
Estabon produced folded pages from the inside of his jacket.
John was practiced enough at reading such things that he could
simply slide his eye down the middle of each page and get the
gist of what each paragraph said. Especially the one about how
he would agree, on pain of the loss of his pension, to refrain
from disparaging his former employers or divulging information
about the conducted investigation into his misconduct ...
"No fucking way." John flicked the pages back at Estabon; they
slid across the counter, and only Estabon's quick movements kept
them from spilling across the seat and under the table.
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## John LeTour / 2025-01-15 01:09:49 | 8103
*To the living, we owe respect; to the dead, we owe only the
truth* - Voltaire
Diner (L.A.)
"John -- "
"No. Fuck that buy-my-silence shit."
"John, the other side of that is they will also promise not to
embroil you in any further legal action that might arise from
*future* investigation. You really should have read the other
pages. Sign that and yes, you have to keep your mouth closed,
but you'll be indemnified."
"What if I don't want that? Did you ever think of that?" Tomato
soup had been a bad idea; his stomach was now curling in on
itself. "Did you ever think maybe I'd rather have even the bad
things out in the open?"
"John -- if you think radical demands for transparency and truth
will save you here, they did nothing for you before. Why would
it be any different now?" Did that man ever blink? "You've
already avenged yourself, so to speak, on the men who did this
to you and your partner. You gain nothing by trying to make the
world believe anything. You must let this go, John."
For a moment Estabon thought John was going to spit at him, hurl
the remainder of the soup in his face -- one of any number of
explosive things, from the way that muscle on the side of his
neck corded up. Then the cord unwound, along with John's sagging
shoulder, and he reached for the pen that had been sitting next
to Estabon's coffee cup the entire time.
So I won't be a cop anymore, John thought. Big fucking deal -
it's not like I've been one for some time now.
Because I know now I'm something a whole hell of a lot different
from all that.
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