Weekend Freewrite - 12/14/2019 - Single Prompt Option: Fire (and, The Posture of Innocence, epilogue 1)
After the fire ... the clearing of the air around guilty and innocent, and the extent of the victory so far as the wider world around Big Loft gets to know about it...
To get totally caught up on The Posture of Innocence, here are the prologue, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 3.5, day 4, day 4.5, day 5, day 5.5, day 6, day 7, day 7.5, day 8, day 9, day 9.5, day 10, day 10.5, day 11, day 11.5, day 12, day 12.5, day 13, day 13.5, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 16.5, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 19.5, day 20, day 20.5, day 21, day 22, day 22.5, day 23, day 23.5, day 24, day 24.5, day 25, day 25.5, day 26, day 26.5, day 27, day 27.5, day 28, day 28.5, day 29, day 29.5, day 30, day 30.5, day 31, day 31.5, day 32, day 32.5, day 33, day 33.5, day 34, day 34.5, day 35, day 35.5, day 36, day 36.5, day 37, day 37.5, day 38, day 38.5, day 39, day 39.5, day 40, day 40.5, day 41, day 41.5, day 42, day 42.5, day 43, day 44, day 44.5, day 45, day 46, day 46.33, day 46.67, day 47, day 47.5, day 48, day 48.5, day 49, day 49.5, day 50, day 50.5, day 51, and day 51.5!
It took three days to get what was called the Ridgeline Fire out – Big Loft's fire department with the help of Lofton County's and Roanoke County's fire department had managed to make the necessary fire breaks at the appropriate places, and the evacuations below them had also gone well. However, the fire had claimed the lives of 120 people, a number adjusted downward when Lieutenant Deadwood's bullets were discovered in certain proximity with certain remains. The fire he had set had killed 99. He, personally, had killed 21. Because of the time of day, the casualties had been limited because people had been out and about; an evening strike would have had many more casualties.
(Captain Lee thanked God that Bruce Deadwood was not quite the planner his would-be predecessor 27 years before had been.)
The Gilligan House Burning finally left the news when the Ridgeline Fire, and all the revelations Captain Lee had made just before it, took over. Everybody knew what had happened, and why it had happened – the big shots in Big Loft had gotten a little too sure of themselves, and the fire of judgment had literally flown up in their faces.
As a result, both Virginia and the federal government finally had to look into the matter, however reluctantly … all the data was available to them, and reluctantly, they had to move. In the end, that same governor's office that had refused to see the principals of the Lofton County Free Voice had to do what those principals had demanded … with the eyes of the world squarely on the matter, the new governor of Virginia began vacating the convictions of everyone whom the data said had been falsely accused, tried, and convicted in the scheme to keep the prison full. The vast majority of these were Black men.
Tom Jones also, after 25 years, came back home … the man falsely accused of murdering John Soames by Mrs. DeVille, who had beat the case but had to flee for his life, visited for the celebration held at the Innocence Project's headquarters in Charlottesville, where Mr. Black, his team, and several principals of the * Lofton County Free Voice* came and relished the victory with dozens of exonerated men who at last could start their lives over. The guilt, at last, rested squarely with the guilty – the posture of innocence had been smashed in Lofton County so that the truly innocent could go free. That took quite a while, but it was underway even before the last smoldering spot of the Ridgeline Fire was fully quenched. In that segment of Lofton County – 39 percent of it – the celebration would continue, family after family, community after community.
Captain Lee and his lieutenants worked overtime for a long time after the Ridgeline Fire, preparing and making data available to everyone who needed it, traveling to Richmond and even Washington D.C. to present to those who needed convincing, showing up at dozens of local and state hearings. Commissioner Scott took the heat as his people just told the truth; Captain Lee with his truly statuesque form and old-style Lee manner made the truth impossible to ignore.
In that same time, dozens and dozens and dozens of cold cases fell together for the division that was responsible for solving them – once one understood the whole scheme and what the actors had done in it, and had all the data in hand, things resolved quickly. Other people came forward with information as well, because the people they feared were in hand – hundreds of cases were suddenly solvable, and the charges just rolled up on the guilty pleas already in existence.
“We're going to burn ourselves out of being a division,” Lieutenant Longstreet commented to Captain Lee in mid-October.
“The budget next year will likely put us out anyway,” Captain Lee said. “We will go out from victory to victory – in a fiery blaze of glory!”