Day 734: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: red tongue (and, The Posture of Innocence, day 4.5)
Today, the #freewrite prompt gave me a chance at a wonderful analogy for a big piece of the entire story line that runs through The Posture of Innocence, @freewritehouse, @icedrum, @owasco, @misschance, @fitinfun, @wakeupkitty, @scribblingramma, @mgaft1, @iamsaray, @deemarshall, and @whatisnew ... fine-looking people with lying tongues are definitely a feature!
In day 3.5, Lieutenant Anderson went and did his interview with Mrs. DeVille and found out that yes, she was lying about her testimony in the Soames case -- and to get the sense of the importance of that case, here are the prologue, day 1, day 2, day 3, and day 4 so you can get a sense of how much this case connects to!
But in part 4.5, Lieutenant Anderson gets back to the office angry, and with a striking childhood memory to bring to the discussion ...
Lieutenant Anderson was still furious when he arrived back in the division's office after his interview with Mrs. DeVille. Before he could utter a word –.
“Close the door, Lieutenant, first,” Captain Lee ordered.
Lieutenant Anderson did, and then let loose as much as he dared.
“She lied to my face!” the young lieutenant thundered. “She's been lying since the beginning! How has the department let this go since I was two years old? How is it that nobody pulled the neighborhood maps and planning documents before you did it? The real murderer has been at large for 25 years, and the only witness that caused all the trouble just lied and lied and lied to me, to my face! That old woman – as evil as the woman who accused Emmitt Till!”
Then, the lieutenant shuddered.
“I'm sorry, sir,” he said, “but this kind of thing just gets to me … when I was a child, my grandmother showed me a picture of a beautiful woman with a red, dripping tongue. I asked why it was red, and my grandmother said that a lying tongue is red with all the blood of its victims. I just really understood today.”
“It is an excellent analogy, probably drawn from Revelation 17,” Captain Lee said, “where a great and beautiful woman of great wickedness, in league with the devil, the liar from the beginning, is drunk on the blood of the saints.”
“Just think,” Lieutenant Anderson said. “Just think of all the red tongues, and all the people whose blood has been drunk for lies … .”
“I think about it,” Captain Lee said, “every time I look in the mirror. But we are here to be agents of truth – to the evidence!”
“Right – evidence – right, sir, yes, sir, I will do just that!”
Lieutenant Anderson tore through the ream of data he had been given and pulled out all the pictures and construction data about Mrs. DeVille's building.
“That building only had two floors in 1994! Mrs. DeVille from the top floor only could have maybe seen into the second story windows of all those three-story buildings where tenants were dumb enough to leave windows without shades so that nosily imaginative old –.”
“Lieutenant,” came the captain's stern rumble.
“Yes, sir – sorry, sir. I know you don't go for any kind of obscenity and profanity, but this is an obscene and profane situation!”
“I concur, Lieutenant. However, I think what we can make stick are the titles “liar” and “perjurer,” and if you will get calmed down, we can start working on that part.”
“Permission to go run five laps around the block, sir – six, maybe, I am so hot –.”
“Granted. Take all the laps you need, and return ready to channel your remaining energy into careful work. And quietly – there is an answer to your question about why the department didn't do this and that, but it may prove extremely dangerous for anyone asking it too loud around these parts.”
That quieted the lieutenant immediately.
“Oh, no – you don't mean that – .”
“Go do your laps, Lieutenant. We'll talk about it, quietly, when you return.”