By Amanda Pizzolatto
(PG)
Tom Gates was hanging around with his friends, enjoying a lovely summer day, when his younger brother came rushing towards them out of the woods.
“Tom! Tom! Tom!” While Sid was now thirteen and Tom was fifteen, Sid never really grew out of grabbing his brother’s arm tightly when he was panicking. As such, when he grabbed Tom’s arm tightly, Tom put all thought of fun and turned his focus on his brother.
“What is it, Sid? What happened? Did something happen to Aunt Polly?”
Sid shook his head. “No, thankfully, not Aunt Polly, but Mark Potter! He’s been arrested for murder!”
“What? Murder?” Tom’s friends cried out. Mark Potter was an ensign stationed at nearby Fort Franklin and was a favorite of the boys, along with his best friend, Ensign Joe Dancing Feather.
“Who do they think he murdered?” Riley Finn, Tom’s best friend, asked gruffly.
“I-I don’t know! I-I just heard they arrested him and came to find you guys!”
Tom grabbed Sid’s arm and nodded. “A good thing, too. Come on, I’d like to get to the bottom of this.”
The other boys agreed and the whole group traipsed towards the fort, Tom and Sid in the lead.
The boys were well known at the fort, having been there many times to take survival lessons from the two Ensigns, despite being pretty well versed in survival skills. They just enjoyed the Indian knowledge Joe offered and could sit for hours hearing him and Mark tell stories. But when they got into the fort this time, it seemed everything was in chaos. Men were running to and fro, several captains were shouting orders, and Joe was found sitting on a bench, his head in his hands. Tom made a beeline towards him.
“Joe! What happened?”
Joe glanced up, his bronzen face taut with concern and his black eyes were ablaze, but they softened and widened when he saw the boys. “What are you fellows doing here?”
“Sid heard about Mark, came and told us!” Jim Harker blurted out.
Riley planted his feet in front of Joe and crossed his arms. “Who died and why do they think Mark killed him?”
Joe shot him a rueful smile and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the appearance of a soldier. The soldier saluted him. “Ensign Joe, the Colonel wants to see you.”
Joe stood up and sighed. “Thank you, Cadet.” He glanced at the boys. “I hope he doesn’t mind the addition of an audience.” He nodded at the boys and walked towards Colonel Robinson’s office. The boys paused only a moment before dashing off after him.
Joe announced himself as he entered the Colonel’s office. Then the boys rushed in.
The Colonel raised an eyebrow at their appearance. “Hello boys, and to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“Mark Potter didn’t murder anyone and you know it!” blurted Riley.
The Colonel was taken aback by the announcement and glanced at Joe.
Joe sighed. “It seems Sid overheard the arrest and told them about it.”
“Ah, I see.” The Colonel cleared his throat as he turned to the boys. “Boys, sometimes we find out that the people we like are capable of doing horrible things.”
“Well yeah, but …” began Riley, but stopped when the Colonel raised his hand.
“You are going to have to finetune that intuition of yours when it comes to people. If it gives you pause for anything, listen to it, like I am doing now.” He turned back to Joe. “And that’s why I need you to clear Mark.”
“Wait, you know he’s innocent?” blurted Ben Cooper.
Riley’s hand came down hard on the desk. “Then why did you let him get arrested?”
The Colonel sighed. “Because we don’t have the real culprit. If he thinks we believe Mark did do it, I think he won’t stay in hiding for long. But I can hold off this mob for only a certain amount of time and then we’ll have to go to court … where he’ll certainly be tried and hanged if we don’t catch the real culprit in time.”
“Who was murdered?” Tom’s voice was calm.
“Doctor Langley.”
The boys’ mouths dropped.
“D-Doc Langley? What? Why?” chorused several voices.
The Colonel raised his hand again. “If we knew that, we’d have our culprit, but we don’t. All we know is that Mark was on night patrol and the good doctor was murdered with his knife.”
Riley scoffed and crossed his arms. “Not sure about him being good.”
“Riley,” Tom said, a warning in his voice.
The Colonel chuckled softly. “No, he’s right. Here I was telling you to fine tune that intuition, but it looks like they are solid. Mark is good, the doctor was shady. I don’t know why he was in the graveyard last night, but it might have to do with why he was murdered.”
“He was in the graveyard?” asked Sid.
Riley nodded. “Oh yeah, he was up to no good, that’s for sure. Probably digging up some poor body for his dumb experiments.”
“We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here.” The Colonel turned to Joe. “But there is one thing that might be in our favor. You were supposed to be on watch last night, weren’t you?”
Joe blinked and nodded slowly. “You haven’t had a problem with Mark and I switching before.”
“No, I never did, and still don’t, but I was thinking about it and I’m wondering, what if the murderer was hoping you were the one on duty, to frame you for the murder? You’ve been in more arguments with Doc Langley than Mark has.”
Joe’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
“And that might be the mistake that dwells poorly for the murderer, because I know you’re determined to bring him to justice so Mark doesn’t get hanged.”
“Mark would do the same for me.”
“That he would, but you’re more skilled than he is at picking up subtle clues.”
“So’s Tom!” Sid blurted.
The men glanced at Tom, who shot them a sheepish grin.
Riley bobbed his head. “Yeah, he is great!”
The Colonel furrowed his brow. “That may be, but we are dealing with a cold-blooded killer here, and I don’t want any of you put in danger.”
Tom leaned forward on the desk. “But you’re putting Joe in danger.”
“He’s a trained soldier.”
“Alone?”
The Colonel started to speak, stopped, and winced. “Dang it, Tom, when you’re right, you’re right.”
Tom shot him a smug grin and crossed his arms. “Consider Tom Gates on the case!”
The Colonel held up a finger. “I’m placing Joe as your commanding officer, you do exactly as he says or I’m taking you off the case, understand?”
The boys saluted him. “Yes sir!”
“Good.” He turned to Joe. “And you report back to me as soon as you have anything. We might end up chasing a lot of dead ends, but by golly, we have got to find something to clear Mark with, and fast!”
Joe nodded. “We’ll get on that right away sir.” He quickly saluted him before motioning the boys to follow him. “Come on, we need to check out the graveyard for clues, and fast before we lose anything!”
“Aye aye, Ensign Joe!” The boys saluted Joe, then the Colonel, before dashing out the door after Joe.
