28 february 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2661: directory of lost things

Image by Ludmila Uleva from Pixabay

“Are you serious – Halleck has decided not to cut us all?”

The men of the Blue Ridge Precinct and Special Investigations were not sure they were hearing what they were hearing from the new state conservator of the Big Loft Police Department, at a live press conference call.

“After my initial review, it is strongly apparent to me that a great number of the budgetary and morale problems that have led to the state of Virginia judging it good to take over this department have been resolved. It is often true that the very ones most targeted for attacks and finger-pointing were so attacked because they were the very ones doing the work to make things as they should be – BLPD owes a great debt to its Blue Ridge Precinct and Special Investigations stationed there, and to its joint captain, decorated Green Beret and Army reservist Henry Fitzhugh Lee.

“The nucleus of Special Investigations is also the group of police officers who went straight into the line of approach of Ridgeline Fire to organize the first evacuation efforts and bring the arsonist to justice. I marvel that these facts, openly brought to light by Chief Scott as early as October 2019, were not at the forefront of efforts to keep BLPD out of the state's hands. Chief Scott, stepping into the role of commissioner also in September 2019, is not to blame for this – his efforts have been commendable, just too late.

“Be all that as it may, I have had occasion to examine the BLPD's operating expenses since Chief Scott's tenure, and since men innocent until proven guilty have been awaiting trial, the problems in the budget have resolved. The problems have resolved. The only reason BLPD is in budget trouble now is because of the settlements owing to past civil judgments, which I, with the full faith and credit of the state, will seek to renegotiate. Obviously, the pandemic has put many officers on rotating furlough, and that has helped budget difficulties – we will have to look toward the next fiscal year with an eye to how many officers we can bring back full-time. But for now, the state will not be seeking to balance BLPD's budget on the backs of any of its officers – every man and woman's job in this department is safe in this fiscal year, so long as they maintain the level of service and discipline that is required of police officers in stewardship of the public safety.”

Lieutenant Robert Carter condensed it.

“Captain Lee got to him today and straightened him all the way out – I mean all the way out!”

“That meeting they had must have been something else,” Officer Riker said. “I mean Halleck is singing a tune his background in bean counting does not even suggest he knows how to play – but he got some music lessons today!”

“It's simple,” Lieutenant Horatio Lightfoot said. “Chief Scott was the fifth man in five weeks to be running things. Mr. Halleck wants to live. He knows what time it is.”

Everyone stopped to consider that … and that brought to their ears a unique call of the police.

“Capt. Lee, Blue Ridge Precinct speaking – hello, Cousin Amanda. You need to report a crime? My word – who shot John indeed? Wait – he was trying to rescue women in the red light district but the police were after him and he got shot and nobody knows who did it?”

Officer Baxter chuckled gently.

“We all know Amanda,” he said. “Such a sweet little girl.”

“You must have overheard this from your grandfather, huh? Then Vertran told you about Who Shot John soda – they've already made a meme out of it, huh? That's not good. Tell you what. I'm about to go meet with the officers of Special Investigations right now – we've got it from here, Amanda.”

He opened the door just then, and that allowed his officers to hear Amanda's response.

“See, as long as you and your men are police, I know I can call and get justice! The ones when I was in foster care didn't care, but as long as you are there where you are, Johns and Amandas are both going to be OK, especially if y'all just go pick up the rest of the Johns in the red light district so they will be safe from people shooting at them!”

“Oh, yes, Amanda, the sting is going on for another night tonight – we'll make sure that they and the big Amandas are safe. You go on and have lunch, give your sister Eleanor her phone back, and tell your grandparents and all your siblings and friends I said hi.”

“I will – thanks, Cousin Harry!”

Capt. Lee hung up the phone, and then called Mr. Halleck.

“I just want you to know that a concerned citizen called and expressed her confidence in BLPD's new direction, just after your press conference.”

“So soon?” Mr. Halleck said.

“In minutes,” Capt. Lee said.

“Well, it looks like we are on the right track, then, in restoring the public trust – thank you for calling, Capt. Lee.”

Capt. Lee hung up his phone and turned it off.

“Now,” he said, and the entire Blue Ridge Precinct and Special Investigations broke out laughing.

“They're going to eventually make you chief if you don't get recalled to the army first,” Lt. James Longstreet said later to the captain in private. “You know that, right? You basically were the only responsible man in the department in 2019 running anything until Chief Scott and Captains Oriole and MacMurray were elevated – but they haven't been running things. Everybody knows who is.”

Capt. Lee suppressed a shiver, knowing full well who, in 1865, had accrued more power than any other man in Virginia, though not wanting it. That ancestral Lee uncle had never been able to get out from under that.

“The problem, Lieutenant, is if that is the case, BLPD and probably political Big Loft are about to be a bigger mess after the election than is good for anyone,” he said.

“Capt. Lee, honestly,” Lt. Longstreet said. “Your cousin is the mayor picking up the wreck Big Loft already is, and your other cousin his father is basically going through the city's directory of lost things and figuring out what is unclaimed and can be auctioned off to keep the budget going so the city doesn't go into conservatorship – but the reason they can do any of that is because Cold Cases and Special Investigations has cleared out their enemies. So that still comes back to you, and you know what it was like here when you came.”

Capt. Lee sighed.

“Lt. Longstreet, you are the same age my son would have been had he survived the day of his birth,” he said. “I say to you plainly that I am doing what I am doing so that you, and my Cousin Amanda, and any children you may someday have, and every citizen of Big Loft, no matter their race, color, gender, or creed, may call their local police and not fear that they have invited another enemy into their lives. I would rather have put this down – I would rejoice to see you made captain in my place. But, it is not yet possible.”

Lt. Longstreet sighed.

“Lee and Longstreet problems, just in the 21st century.”

“I will say that you are a better listener than your ancestral uncle,” Capt. Lee said with a gentle smile.

“And you keep a much firmer hand than your ancestral uncle,” Lt. Longstreet said, “because we can't be out here losing every war.”

“Exactly,” Capt. Lee said. “We need not repeat any of our ancestors' 19th-century mistakes.”