Free The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder by Roderick Benns Page A

solving it…like the police do?” he clarified.
    â€œYes,” said John. “Like the police.”
    Elmer gave this some thought. “Summer would want to help, too,” he concluded.
    Ed stirred and turned over in his bed, just as brilliant lightning briefly illuminated the walls in the small shack. For about
    two seconds, John and Elmer could see each other propped up in their beds and Elmer quickly made a scary face with his eyes wide like saucers. John reached out and thumped his brother on the shoulder.
    â€œOww!” said Elmer, slightly above a whisper.
    â€œIf you wake Uncle Ed, he’ll make you sleep outside,” said John. He delighted in the way he imagined his brother’s face looking now. John wished more lightning would flash so he could see his expression. However, the storm must have been too far away because the homestead remained in darkness.
    â€œWell, I’m tired anyway. Goodnight,” said Elmer, barely whispering.
    John grinned in the dark. “Good night, Elmer.”
    ***
    John returned to the scene of the murder in his dream. He was too late—again—and Hans Schneider lay dead, his head propped onto his wife Gertrude’s lap. The same red blood began to spread across the man’s clothes and John was terrified. Gertrude began to wail and John squeezed the sides of Skipper to prompt him to race home. As Skipper approached a fallen tree, the horse froze in fear, sending John flying through the air. John landed hard. He woke sweating in his bed and breathing heavily. He closed his eyes and tried to let go of the anxiety from his
    dream. John thought of something peaceful as he tried to get back to sleep—a fishing trip he went on with his father. But where was his father?
    The great bald eagle sat calmly on the banks of the mighty North Saskatchewan River. It didn’t seem to realize that John was there, observing. Soon it was joined on the left by a buffalo that could walk on two legs who also observed the eagle’s movements with contentment. On the eagle’s right, many spotted horses galloped up to sit beside the eagle, their breath coming in gentle snorts.
    The eagle was using its wings to scoop up the sand along the banks of the river and filter it between its feathers. John sensed that it was a hot day in the middle of summer. For as far as he could see, there was only blue sky punctured by groupings of trees to the north. As the eagle closed its eyes, a cool wind seemed to come from nowhere and ruffle its white head feathers.
    Then, the eagle reached down and scooped water from the river in its cupped feathered wings. John began to understand the eagle was interacting with three of the four elements— earth, air, water. But where was fire?
    Just then the bald eagle arranged large stones in a circle, creating a fire pit. The bird brought out a pointed flint stone and struck down on a small rectangular-shaped piece of steel over
    some dry grass that he had placed inside the perimeter of stones, calmly lighting the fire in the traditional Indian way. There it is, thought John as he observed. Fire.
    As the eagle sat there for a moment and tended its small fire, some of the flames leapt over the protective circle of rocks to the dry land. The eagle was startled.
    It grasped the stray flames with its feathered wings and suddenly turned to John, holding the fire, staring at him in his dream as if all along it had known that John was there. John felt frightened as the eagle held onto the flames with its cupped, feathered wings and began to walk toward him.
    â€œNo, get away,” mumbled John, trying to shout. “It’s fire… dangerous. Fire….It’s fire!” he tried to scream at the top of his lungs, but it seemed as if he could hardly speak at all.

Chapter 8 Everything in its Path

    â€œGet up! John! Get up!”
    John opened his eyes to see his uncle and brother dressing quickly. They looked terrified,