Day 798: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: recycle

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Captain Henry Fitzhugh Lee had known the Lofton County Free Voice was hardly finished with the accounting of the Ridgeline Fire, and would not be satisfied with the numbers given by the Blue Ridge Station of the Big Loft, VA police to the Big Loft Bulletin for the count of the dead. All the station and the mainstream press had done was recycle the idea as old as the founding of Virginia, and the entire country: White landowners counted and their servants didn't. White landowners among the dead in 4,000 destroyed houses: 120. True count of the dead: quite, quite different.

Captain Lee had questioned the official math because he had been involved in evacuating the neighborhoods on the opposite side of the ridge from the fire, and had included his skepticism in his report. Commissioner Scott had noted this, but then both had been swamped in the police matters that had set off the arsonist, Lieutenant Bruce Deadwood.

Yet, Captain Lee was counting down in his mind, for it was only a matter of time … time for Black and Latino families established in the area to notice how many of their family members were missing … time for the coroner to pull together his report and discover that it would take a lot longer than he expected … time for Commissioner Scott to get caught up and read the report.

Commissioner Scott already had been furious with the Blue Ridge Station for being shown up in its evacuation duties by 83-year-old Mrs. Selene Slocum-Lofton. Then he got the coroner's report at last. That had been the last straw. Captain Lee had heard the explosion all the way to his office on the second floor, and then had looked at Lieutenant Longstreet.

“Commissioner Scott has finally gotten the coroner's report,” he said. “I have every confidence that you will be able to run the cold case division in my absence.”

“Yes, sir, I am ready,” the lieutenant said, and swallowed down the lump in his throat as he and Captain Lee both looked at the phone and waited for it to ring.

The phone did not disappoint.

“Captain Lee,” said Commissioner Scott, “could you please step up to my office?”

In his mind, Captain Lee already knew what he was going to see … but even he, knowing the mathematics, was shocked to see it confirmed on paper.

“Captain Lee, I thought I had seen every evil that could have come out of the Soames matter, but today -- when this all comes out, we are going to be in all evil from here to Mexico City – a national and international incident!

“I know we hired you for cold cases, but you are the only man I can trust. I need you to take over as divisional commander at the Blue Ridge Station tomorrow, and get this situation under control!”

“Yes, sir,” Captain Lee said. “I will be in position by 8:00am. I will need to take three lieutenants to manage all the records before folks start slipping things into recycle bins and shredders.”

“Take whoever you need – the rest can just crack two cases this week, and that will be all right. We have got to deal with this.”

And so it was at 4:45pm – Captain Lee was dealing with things, including being prepared for the inevitable arrival of the Lofton County Free Voice's senior reporter, Mr. Nathan Turner.

Photo by VanveenJF on Unsplash