The Virginia Mysteries Collection: Books 1-3

by Steven K. Smith

  Sam held it up for inspection. Sure enough, right on top was a big crack in the plastic. “Better the helmet than me, I guess.”

  “Can you ride?” asked Derek.

  “I think I’m okay, if we go slow.” Sam strapped on his cracked helmet and climbed onto his bike. He looked up at the trail to where the boys had ridden off and then back at his brother. “Who were those guys, Derek?”

  “Nobody, just forget it.” Derek started off along the dirt trail.

  “Slow down. I don’t want my wheel to fall off.”

  Derek slowed the pace and Sam peddled up next to him.

  “No really, do they go to your school?” Sam had never seen Derek made fun of like that. It was weird. Derek was always the big kid wherever he went.

  Derek stopped his bike, putting a foot down in the dirt. “It’s just Cameron Talley and his buddies. They’re idiots.” He looked off into the woods, shaking his head. “Believe it or not, some things in middle school aren’t as great as you’d think they would be.”

  “What did they do, give you the royal flush and then stuff you in your locker?” Sam remembered reading that in a book one time. Apparently bullies picked you up and put your head in the toilet bowl as it flushed. Pretty disgusting—and mean.

  Derek shot him an annoyed glance. “No, they don’t do that. They just give some of the younger kids a hard time—especially me. I don’t know why. They think they’re so cool. I think they’re just trying to show off.” He let out a deep breath then looked down at Sam and started laughing. “Dude, you really look terrible! You’re going to have to wash your leg in the river before anyone sees you.”

  “Well what do you think I’d look like after a crash like that?” said Sam.

  “You’re lucky you weren’t hurt worse. You had massive air on that crash!” Derek pushed down on his pedal. “Come on, let’s get back to the bridge so we’ll be there when Meghan comes to pick us up. If you can make it, that is.”

  “I’ll make it,” said Sam. “Just go slow, okay?”

  EIGHT

  Sam and Derek rode the trail to the long suspension bridge at the front of the island. It was unlike any walking bridge Sam had ever seen before, hanging underneath a tall highway overpass from enormous steel cables. The bridge was about six feet wide and made of concrete sections that rose and fell in long arching patterns until it reached the other shore.

  While he knew it was probably safe, since so many people walked and rode bikes across the span, the bridge’s odd shape made him nervous. He tried to stay in the middle, but he had to move toward the edge sometimes to avoid other bikes and people walking their dogs. He also tried not to look down, but the slight wobble in his tire wasn’t helping his confidence level, and too often he found himself staring into the waters below.

  When they finally reached the end of the bridge, Meghan was parked on the side of the road, talking on the phone as usual. Their mom and dad had arranged for her to drop Sam off at the bookstore downtown while Derek went to soccer practice. The boys always loved to stop at a bookstore for new reading material. Derek loved the mysteries. Sam preferred adventures.

  This bookstore was special though, since it was owned by Mrs. Murphy, the mom of Sam’s friend Caitlin. Caitlin helped her mom at the store every Tuesday over the summer. Sam had thought it sounded pretty boring to just sit around a bookstore all day with nothing to do, but after a visit there with his mom a couple weeks ago, he decided it looked fun. The store was filled with rows and rows of cool kids’ books and comfy couches to read them on. Caitlin got to read whatever she wanted, but she also helped to restock shelves and unpack shipments of books, which meant she got to see all the new books first.

  Mrs. Murphy had invited Sam to spend a few hours that day helping out at the store with Caitlin and, afterward, bring him back to their house for dinner. Caitlin told him they would watch a movie before taking him home, which sounded fun. Sam normally avoided girls, but Caitlin had become a good friend ever since she’d helped them out with the mystery over at St. John’s Church in Church Hill, and the Wythe House in Williamsburg. Derek had teased Sam that he was going on a date with Caitlin, but he was just joking. She used to act like a real know it all, but now even Derek admitted that she was pretty cool.

  Meghan dropped Sam off at the curb in front of the store. Derek waved out the window like a goofy maniac as they pulled away, acting as if they’d never see each other again. Sam grinned and walked into the shop.

  A bell rang as Sam entered the bookstore. Mrs. Murphy waved from behind the counter as she scanned another customer’s purchases. “Hi, Sam! Caitlin’s upstairs in the office. You can go on up if you like.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Murphy.” He hurried down one of the dozen or so rows of books before she could question him about his injuries. Meghan, not surprisingly, hadn’t noticed.

  Sam wondered how Mrs. Murphy could ever hope to sell all these books. There never seemed to be many customers when he visited and there were always boxes of new books arriving. He supposed it gave folks a good selection to have them all here, but it would probably take ten lifetimes to read every book in the place.

  “Sam Jackson, please report to the mystery aisle,” a voice echoed through the store. “Sam Jackson, please report to mysteries.”

  Sam looked up and saw Caitlin waving at the top of the stairs from behind the bookshelves. Her sandy blonde hair was blowing in her face under the air conditioning vent. She pushed her hair away from her eyes, grinning behind a microphone that was connected into the store speakers. She ducked back through the office door as Sam walked over to the mystery aisle.

  All the books in the store were set up by category—genre, as Caitlin called it when she was trying to act smart. He looked across the shelves at all the bright covered titles. His mom had left enough money for him to buy one book. Sam ran his fingers over the spines, looking forward to the selection process and choosing one at random to pull out first.

  “Ooh, that’s a scary one.” The voice came from behind the shelf. Sam leaned over to see a blue eye staring back at him from between two books.

  Caitlin giggled and came around the corner. “Hey, how are ya?” she said.

  “I’m okay. How’s it going working in the bookstore?”

  “I like it. There are so many interesting things to look at and read. Plus, a lot of other kids come in for books, so I get to talk to them too. Billy actually came in this morning. I hadn’t seen him since school ended.”

  “Wow. I didn’t think he knew how to read,” joked Sam. Billy Maxwell was another kid in their grade. He tended to be obnoxious. He and Caitlin used to really hate each other, but they were starting to get along better. Maybe Billy was maturing, or Caitlin was mellowing out. Probably some of both.

  “Yeah, I think he just looked at the picture books,” laughed Caitlin, walking closer. “Oh, Sam, what happened to your arm? It’s bleeding!”

  “Well—let’s just say I had a little mishap at Belle Isle on my bike,” replied Sam, sheepishly. He wasn’t sure whether crashing on his bike made him sound rugged or weak, but there was no hiding the blood on his arm. He told Caitlin about the teenagers that had cut him off and how they had been bullying Derek at school.

  “What jerks,” huffed Caitlin. “I don’t know why guys have to act like that, always trying to be so tough.” To Sam’s surprise, she sounded really worked up.

  “I know. I didn’t think that could ever happen to Derek,” said Sam. “He always acts so cool around everyone else. I never figured him to be the one being picked on. I guess things are different in middle school.” Sam thought about how he was only a year away from middle school himself. “I’m not looking forward to it.”

  “We’ll be okay. You have lots of friends that will be going with you. I’m sure things will get better for Derek too.” She grimaced at the blood on Sam’s arm. “Why don’t you go wash your arm off in the bathroom. It’s over next to the biography section and under the stairs. There might
even be Band-Aids in the counter. Then I want to show you a new book about coins that my mom just got in. I think it has some pictures of an Indian Head cent like the one you found.”

  Sam walked over to the bathroom, happy to think about coins rather than bike crashes and middle school bullies. He and Derek had found a stolen collection of rare coins in the woods behind their house when they first moved to Virginia. Ever since, he’d been growing his personal coin collection, although he had nothing close to the value of the rare 1877 Indian Head cent they’d found in the woods. That one could be worth thousands. It was too bad they’d had to give it back to the museum.

  After Sam got cleaned up, he spent the rest of the afternoon with Caitlin looking at books and talking about friends from school. It was weird—when they were in school, they couldn’t wait for summer vacation, but during the summer, they spent lots of time talking about school. Sam decided it was a lot more fun to talk about school than to actually be there.

  Before long, Mrs. Murphy said it was time to close up the store and head home for dinner. Sam brought one of the books that he’d been looking at over to the register.

  “Will there be anything else, sir?” Caitlin said, moving behind the counter to the register.

  “Seriously?” asked Sam.

  “Seriously. Hmm…I don’t think we have anything by that title, sir. However, you might check in the humor section to be sure.”

  Sam made a goofy face at her lame joke as he handed her his book. Apparently she knew how to operate the register, so he played along.

  “Ah, submarines, very exciting. I highly recommend this book.” Caitlin punched a few numbers into the register. “That will be eight hundred and thirty-nine dollars, sir.”

  Sam’s jaw dropped at the price. “Eight hundred dollars! What are the pages made of, gold?”

  “Oops!” Caitlin leaned in, studying the screen closely as she tried to keep a straight face. “Aha! My mistake, sir. That should be eight dollars and thirty-nine cents.” She looked back up at him confidently.

  “That’s more like it,” said Sam.

  “Will that be cash or charge?” She couldn’t hold it in any longer and broke out giggling.

  Sam patted his pockets. “Why, I seem to have left my credit cards at home, but I did bring my penny collection, will that be okay?”

  Caitlin made a shocked face as he pretended to lift a huge bag of coins onto the counter. He laughed, finally handing her a ten-dollar bill. “I may have to report you to management, lady.”

  Caitlin dropped a dollar and some coins in his hand. “Thanks for shopping with us today, sir. Please come again!”

  NINE

  Sam and Caitlin walked out of the bookstore and onto the tree-lined sidewalk while Mrs. Murphy locked up in the back alley. Sam began flipping through his new book. He hardly ever made it all the way home without peeking. Uncovering a new adventure was too tempting to wait. Despite stumbling upon several real-life mysteries with Derek, it was still fun to read about them. Besides, the books were like training manuals for their true adventures down the road.

  He stared at the grey submarine motoring past a colorful coral reef on the book cover. He imagined joining the crew inside the sub, just like in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which his dad had read them at bedtime a few years ago. He studied the rich detail of the picture, noticing for the first time a pair of eyes lurking in a dark cave in the corner.

  “Sweet! Caitlin, look at this!” He held the book out to her just as a loud noise sounded on the street. Sam wasn’t watching where he was going, and his foot accidentally slipped off the sidewalk into the street.

  “Sam, look out!” screamed Caitlin. A high-pitched horn blared right in front of him as a loud motor roared. Sam jumped back as a motorcycle buzzed by him, knocking the book out of his hand.

  “Get out of the road, kid!” growled the motorcycle rider, turning and shaking his fist in Sam’s direction.

  Caitlin grabbed Sam’s arm, yanking him back to the sidewalk. “Are you okay?” She leaned over to pick up his book.

  Sam’s heart was beating fast. He had almost been road kill.

  The biker continued on down the street. He looked tough. He was wearing black leather pants and boots, a leather vest, but no shirt underneath. Colorful tattoos were scattered over muscular arms that looked like they belonged to a football linebacker. Long hair waved from underneath a black helmet that was decorated with a red flag with a familiar looking, star-filled ‘X’ on it. He looked like the kind of guy that you didn’t want to meet in a dark alley—or anywhere, actually.

  “Wow, look over there!” exclaimed Caitlin, pointing up the street.

  As Sam had been staring at the man on the motorcycle, a sound, like a giant swarm of bees, had been growing louder and louder behind him. He turned to see an enormous parade of bikers approaching. There were dozens of them, several with red flags just like the one on the first rider’s helmet waving behind their bikes.

  “What is that flag they’re carrying?” asked Sam. “I know I’ve seen it, but I can’t remember where.”

  “Sam! Even you should know that. It’s the Confederate flag. Don’t you remember learning about that in class?” She looked at him with one of her ‘know it all’ glances that used to drive him crazy.

  “Oh, yeah.” There had only been a few weeks of summer vacation so far, but his memory of school was already fading from his brain. He remembered now that it was the flag of the confederate states in the Civil War. He looked back at the bikers. “What are they doing, having a parade?”

  “Looks like it. They’re all stopping down there around that statue.” Caitlin pointed to a big patch of green grass with a tall statue in the middle that was in the traffic circle farther down the street. The procession was looping around it, flags waving enthusiastically.

  “What’s all the commotion?” asked Mrs. Murphy, walking up the sidewalk. She turned to where Sam and Caitlin were looking and groaned. “Oh. There they go again. Causing a ruckus through town.”

  “Is that a biker gang?” asked Sam.

  Mrs. Murphy huffed. “You could say that.”

  “What are they doing?” asked Caitlin.

  “Celebrating their right to congregate,” answered Mrs. Murphy.

  “Congregate?” said Sam. “What does that mean?”

  “It means they’re meeting together, probably having a rally,” said Mrs. Murphy. “They’re loosely affiliated with an old historic group called the Ghosts of the Confederacy. I say loosely, because it’s said they’re more interested in drinking, fighting, and causing trouble than ever having a meeting.”

  Sam gulped at the name Ghosts. That word had been coming up a lot lately. “That sounds like a biker gang, alright.”

  “Confederate Ghosts?” said Caitlin. “Is that why they have the Confederate flag on their helmets?”

  “That’s right, honey. This year is the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Civil War. Although it seems like somebody’s always interested in still fighting it.”

  “They want to fight the Civil War again?” asked Sam. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to do that.

  “No, not literally, Sam,” answered Mrs. Murphy. “I think many of them just use it as an excuse to have a party. A lot of folks like to hold onto the past, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. The smart ones try to learn from it, but others do it just to stir up trouble.”

  “Daddy says those people are just ignorant. Right, Mom?”

  Mrs. Murphy laughed. “That’s a good word for it sometimes, honey.”

  “What’s that statue that they’re all circling?” asked Sam.

  “The General? Oh, come on now, Sam. I know your family is from the North, but surely y’all know about General Robert E. Lee? He was the commander of the Southern troops.”

  “Oh, sure, I’ve heard of him,” fudged Sam, nodding his head. The name did sound familiar, although Sam hoped that Caitlin didn’t ask him right then to expl
ain. He wasn’t always that good at recalling details on command.

  Mrs. Murphy laughed, patting him on the shoulder good-naturedly. “We need to get you educated on Southern history, Sam.” “Richmond was the capitol of the Confederacy, you know. It had its own currency, its own president, even its own White House for a time.”

  Sam remembered hearing Mr. Haskins say that Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy, but hadn’t known about the other stuff. “Wait a minute, I thought the White House was in Washington, DC. And wasn’t Abraham Lincoln the president during the Civil War?”

  “All true,” said Mrs. Murphy, “but eleven southern states seceded, declaring that they were no longer part of our country. They formed the Confederate States of America and named Jefferson Davis as their president.”

  “Wow,” said Sam. That sounded pretty serious. “No wonder it started a war.”

  “Can we go home now?” said Caitlin. “I’m getting hungry.” She turned and smirked at Sam. “We can’t teach him everything about the South in one afternoon.”

  “Hey, you didn’t know all of those things either.” Sam said. His brain was starting to spin. But if Caitlin thought it was time to stop talking about history, it must really be time to stop.

  “Okay, maybe there was one thing I didn’t know,” replied Caitlin.

  “Only one, honey?” said Mrs. Murphy. “How humble of you.”

  “Mom!”

  Sam covered his open mouth, pointing at Caitlin. It was funny to hear her mom give her a hard time.

  Mrs. Murphy chuckled and winked at Sam. “Alright, let’s get going. Sam, what do you like—hot dogs or mac and cheese?”

  “Both would be great,” he answered. He’d been caught up in all the stories of the war, but now that someone mentioned food, his stomach was growling loudly.

  “Sam!” said Caitlin.

  “Sure, we can have both for dinner,” said Mrs. Murphy. “You must be hungry. We’re not used to having a growing boy at our house.”