7 October 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3249: is this blackmail?
“Capt. Lee, we know it is a furlough day, but we need you to come in for Special Investigations.”
“Oh, so y'all still don't think Lieutenant Longstreet is ready to be more than acting captain?”
“Longstreet was the one who said, 'I'm the acting captain – if you do not call Capt. Lee immediately--!'”
“Well, I need to build more confidence into him, apparently.”
But on getting to the office, Henry Fitzhugh Lee looked over the situation and realized why he had been called.
“OK, so, is this blackmail?” Lt. Horatio Longstreet said. “Isn't it too old for the present laws against extortion?”
“1919, so yes,” Capt. Lee said, “but carried down from generation to generation … this explains a lot of things that have happened between Family A and Family B. The challenge is going to be if what was considered blackmail when Virginia codified this fits under the present extortion laws, and that's going to be tricky.”
“You see why I called you before bringing Family A's head in,” Lt. Longstreet said. “I'm not the interrogator you are.”
Capt. Lee chuckled.
“A fact for which you may as well give thanks,” he said. “You did not have to go through Special Forces, Judge Advocate General, and a few things I can't even talk with you about to become the interrogator that I am.”
“Oh,” Lt. Horatio Lightfoot said. “That's where I need to sign up?”
Everyone laughed, but Capt. Lee knew that Lt. Lightfoot was not entirely joking … that young man was eager to learn all the sides of his commander's work, although he had no desire to be in command of Special Investigations. Capt. Lee considered him the best pure investigator he had mentored thus far.
“Miss the PTSD; just come on and get ready with me for this little situation, Lt. Lightfoot,” Capt. Lee said. “In essence, we need our suspect to admit to some very specific things, so first we have to know the law of the late 1920s, the updates in the 1950s, and the standing law from 1976. We also need to establish that Family A has continued its behavior through the present day. Obviously, we are not prosecuting the dead, and obviously, 1976 would be out of the statute of limitations, but if the behavior has continued, and it fits the present law within the last several years, we have Family A dead to rights.”
Lt. Lightfoot considered this.
“They are not shy about doing what they are doing – if we get the family head talking about why Family B deserves this, he may well say enough to settle it.”
“You're on the right track, Lieutenant,” Capt. Lee said. “We must know our ground so that we will know when our suspect steps on it, and indeed, there are several ways to induce him to step there – or not. It depends on how careful he has been. But all of the family may not have been as careful.”
“We will bring them all in and examine the patterns – yes,” Lt. Lightfoot said and started rubbing his hands together.
“It is very, very hard for a group of people to keep their evil straight from 1919 on, to stay outside of changing law that is coming toward their position to criminalize it even as they are continuing in the activity,” Capt. Lee said. “It may well be that the family head has managed to walk the tightrope, but it is unlikely that all of the members of Family A have – and then conspiracy will catch them all.”
“Just printed all the relative statutes,” Lt. Jonathan Jackson said as he presented two folders to his colleagues.
In the end, Capt. Lee and Lt. Lightfoot learned their material, split up the family members for questioning, compared notes, and worked their way through … and eventually proved that Family A had conspired to commit blackmail under the 1976 statute, because the law had crept just close enough to catch one member, and the rest had aided and abetted.
“Got 'em,” Lt. Robert Carter said.
“Yep,” Lt. Andrew Anderson said. “One down – lots of cold cases to go, but that was a different one, indeed.”