14 March 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3042: can’t find the evidence

Seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow sighed contentedly as she climbed up into her Cousin Harry's lap while waiting on barbecue coming from their neighbors the Trents.

“I'm so glad you're back around!” she said. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yes, Amanda,” Cousin Harry said. “Everything at the police station is back on track.”

“Can you even imagine what has gone down in the past week in the Big Loft Police Department?” 18-year-old Vanna Trent said to 21-year-old Melvin her brother.

“No – and the Lofton County Free Voice wouldn't even let Tom anywhere near the story because he is still just 16, so you know it had to be bad,” Melvin said. “But then, you know it had to be bad because how are you just going to roll up on a major murder case and then can't find the evidence?”

“And, you know it had to be bad when you already know your most deadly police captain is an Army colonel with all the Special Forces and Judge Advocate General skills and you're going to have to put him and his crack team of lieutenants on it from Special Investigations,” Vanna said.

“Listen, Vanna,” Melvin said, “our dad is a sergeant and our uncle is a major, and they both say PTSD is bad. So what do you do when you are the one hiding the evidence and they send a guy who has turned his PTSD into just another tool to find you?”

“We don't need to have PTSD, so we don't even need to know all that,” Vanna said. “Pays to live right.”

“Ain't it the truth,” Melvin said. “We're just going to be as not-knowing as our little friend Amanda, and enjoy the sunshine and the barbecue – oh, that reminds me that I gotta get the tofu out of the dry rub for Amanda and her brother George, because they are still stuck on blue pigs and worried about the food supply.”

“Yeah, they have enough to deal with in this world, even at half our ages,” Vanna said. “Nobody needs to know and deal with what happened except the people it happened to because they did what they didn't have any business doing.”

“Pays to live right,” Melvin said as he got up to get the tofu ready for his father to barbecue it as the vegetarian option.