24 January 2026, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2993: illegal extension

“Give those bad guys all the smoke – We are here for it! Show them crime is not a joke – We are here for it! Get the bad guys here, get the bad guys there – Break bad on them everywhere! Give those bad guys all the smoke – We are here for it!”

Eight-year-old Edwina and seven-year-old Amanda and six-year-old Grayson Ludlow were just rejoicing, singing Edwina's lyrics in the tune of “Old MacDonald” while watching one of the former mayors of Big Loft get carried off live and in living color on the morning news – it was breaking news and their cousin, Col. H.F. Lee, had flipped into police captain mode and got the warrant at 9:00am sharp to go get this official who had done a very bad thing.

“So, you can't build a neighborhood without sewage pipes, right?” 16-year-old newspaper man Tom Stepforth had explained to him the night before. “I'm giving you the tip before the Lofton County Free Voice puts it out: we got the paperwork showing that former Mayor Metnick is the person who fudged the permits for the illegal extension of sewer pipes into Bayard Heights, and also what he got paid.”

The colonel in his persona as captain of Special Investigations had gone to the office, alone, and combed the database of cold cases and curious things going back 40 years, and then called Tom Stepforth.

“Bump up y'all's scoop while I got get this warrant,” he said. “Go to the Big Loft planning commission and look up the planning documents for the Gilyard Heights neighborhood.”

“Aw snap – that's where some of the richest folks in the county live!” Tom said.

“And where plumbers move in, having made their money in the last 25 years working in there – someone knows something,” the police captain said. “Go to it, young news hound, while this old sleuth hound hunts down a former mayor!”

So, by 11:00am, former Mayor Metnick was at his country club, having his third morning martini, when Robert E. Lee walked in – of course, he would granted entrance into any proper Virginian club – wait, what, no, that had to be a relative – and strode on over and arrested him.

“But you can finish the martini, Mayor Metnick,” this Lee said softly. “Might be a good while before you see another one.”

Then it hit the mayor through the buzz that he was under arrest, and this was Capt. H.F. Lee, the Angel of Death himself, come to get him. And so off he was dragged – the angel was very strong, and had his Special-Forces trained grip where it paralyzed everything but the suspect's mouth – through the club, cussing like he never belonged in such a refined establishment, and the television morning news was all there waiting because Tom Stepforth tipped them off!

And thus, Edwina and Amanda, and Grayson, all three upset about Bayard Heights because they knew lots of kids like them had lost their homes on some foolishness, had read over their grandfather's shoulder in the Lofton County Free Voice and knew why he had turned on the news livestream when Mrs. Maggie Lee tipped him off. Capt. R.E. Ludlow smiled went on and added bass harmony to his rejoicing grandchildren's improvised ending where they went up to a high note of C5. He went down to a C2.

“Give those bad guys all the smoke – We are here for it! Weeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaaaaarrre heeeeeeeeeeerrre foooooooooooor iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”