by Frederic Rohner

Created on: April 23, 2008   Last Updated: March 15, 2012

The Mystery Of Buford's Flag

Suspects:

Kevin
Josh
Derrick
Jaime

Mystery:

Every year in our town we hold a Veterans Day parade to honor the many soldiers who were born and live in our little community. One of the many attractions of the parade for townspeople is the chance to see our prized American flag. It was carried into the Battle of Gettysburg by the most famous person born in our town, Brigadier General John Buford, one of the key generals in the battle. The flag is one of our town's treasures, and it is a point of pride to watch it flap, tattered and stained, every year in our Veterans Day parade. However, this year Mr. Warner, the parade organizer, was shocked when he discovered the flag missing two days before the parade!

The flag had always been stored in the basement at the local middle school, and it was discovered missing on the same day that the whole school was off on a field trip to a local history museum. The entire student body had an alibi and all were cleared of suspicion; all except the four students who were absent on the day of the field trip.

The discovery of the missing flag was made at approximately 1:00 in the afternoon along with two clues: a muddy shoe print, and a small glob of peanut butter that was found on the door to the closet where the flag had been stored. Janitor Williams told the Principal that he had been by the area at around 11:30 that morning and noticed nothing wrong. All four students were led into the Principal's office the next day for questioning. Through talking to the parents and friends of the students, Principal Thompson discovered that two of the four, Jaime and Josh had been kept home on the day in question so that they could go to appointments they'd had at the doctor's office. The other two students, Derrick and Kevin had been kept home sick (although a few fellow students mentioned to the Principal that they had seen Kevin riding his bike when his parents had to leave the house and take care of some business at the flower shop they owned).

Derrick was the first to be questioned by Principal Thompson. While there was a rumor that Kevin had been faking his sickness, there was no doubt that Derrick was feeling under the weather. He sat in front of the Principal looking very tired and sniffling constantly. Principal Thompson decided to simply get the questioning over with, "did you take the flag Derrick?"

Derrick looked very nervous and uncomfortable when he answered, "No sir. I've been really sick for the

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