Somewhere in Jazz Town...

"Hey Adalet, I'm sorry about this. I remembered I had to buy some whiskey, but I totally forgot to fill the car with gas," Frank sweats nervously as they trudged up another hill.

"You really need to stop with all the drinking," Adalet scolded, "it's not doing you any good!"

"Yeah, I know, you sound like Yann," he messed his left temple, "I really should cut down on the whiskey, otherwise my stomach is gonna strike against me."

"Gather up! Up the hill! Union victory! Union victory!" a man dressed as a Union Officer commanded, "I, Colonel Dexter Blade, on this day in 1863, will take the battle to the Confederates and win the Battle of Pacific Bay!"

"Colonel Dexter Blade? Union? Confederates? Oh crap, Adalet. We just travelled back in time to the American Civil War!" Frank cried as the colonel marched off.

"Ahh... somehow I don't think that's it, Frank," Adalet deadpanned.

"Oh, of course, Adalet. People can't travel back in time, that's just absurd. It must be a historical reenactment show!" he replies looking around the field, "jeez, I never understood why people get the urge to dress up and reenact old historic battles!"

"Thank you, thank you all for coming! My name is Joe Stanford and I will play the role of Colonel Dexter Blade! Today is the grand finale, the day the Colonel prevails!" Joe, the officer that had just seen addressed the men and women gathered before him, "on this day he said to his troops: "I, Colonel Dexter Blade, will lead the Union to glory! May God strike me down if He chooses otherwise!"

Everyone flinched as the explosion of a canon rang through the air. Adalet and Frank ducked down in fear as they heard the cannonball hit its target with a sickening SPLAT!

"What the... !" Frank cried as they straightened up, "uh oh. Either they've got amazing special effects, or..."

"Or we'd better have a look around the battlefield and assess the damage!" Adalet finished for him.

Frank and Adalet walked further onto the battlefield and over to where Joe's body had landed. Half of the man's torso had been blown off by the cannonball which was laying in the grass beside him. Adalet also found a torn tissue on the ground outside of the hole that Joe had landed in.

"Well, I'll be! This Joe Stanford guy got blown up!" Frank exclaims, "I bet this wasn't part of the script!"

"We better get that body to autopsy," Adalet says pulling out her phone, "I hope Roxie enjoys construction games!"

"What else did you pick up, a torn tissue? Well if you think it's linked to the death, we might as well try and fix it, see what it says," he shrugged, "and that's the cannonball that blew the victim away! There was something written on it, looks like someone wanted to deliver a message. Well, that rules out the accidental death! You just found the murder weapon, Adalet!"

"First order of business: retrieve the message!" she responds.

"I hear you loud and clear, Adalet. I'll get the powder kit!" he said jogging back towards the car.

Once Frank had returned with her case, Adalet set to work on recovering the missing message from the cannonball. She dusted the still warm ball and the carbon clung to the engravings on it. She blew away all the excess powder and showed her partner the message on the ball.

"Not bad, Adalet. You managed to make the message on the murder weapon visible again! So what did the killer write?" Frank leaned in for a closer look, "I walk slowly, but I never walk backward". That's a nice one-liner alright, but what's it got to do with the murder?"

"I don't know," Adalet admitted, "but Hannah will!"

"Understood, Adalet. We'll just send that message to Hannah," he took the heavy cannonball from her, "the kid's got an answer for everything."

Frank brought the cannonball to the car while Adalet began repairing the tissue. She quickly taped up the pieces and saw that it was a napkin from a saloon. Someone had written on it with a black marker about a meeting taking place at nine in the evening.

"That's not half bad, Adalet," Frank remarks as he returned, "this napkin you just fixed is from The Cannonball Saloon. It's got a note on it: "Next Reenactment meeting: 9 pm."

"So the Civil War reenactors met at the saloon..." Adalet hums, "then our victim must have gone there!"

"Don't say it twice, Adalet. Visiting a saloon? I'm totally in!" he grinned.

It was surprisingly easy to find the saloon the reenactment meetings had been held out, there weren't very many in town compared to the jazz club population! They searched around the entrance of the saloon for anything related to their case and found a few things. The first was a faded sandwich board sign, while the second was a locked cell phone.

"Found anything Adalet?" Frank asks as he exited the bar while wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, "sorry I had you do the searching and all. Happy hour at the Saloon was about to finish, I had to jump on it!"

"Frank..." Adalet began.

"Yeah I know I should drink less," he cut off her rant, "but I can't help it if you're so good at catching clues! What a nice sandwich board you've found! "Ban the Reenactment"? Seems someone wasn't happy with the proceedings! Too bad the rest of the message is faded. You think you could retrieve it?"

"Shouldn't be too hard," she replied.

"And you found a locked phone?" he frowned, "I just hate those. If you're so eager to unlock it, you'll be on your own, Adalet!"

Adalet knelt in front of the faded sandwich board first. She dusted the face of the sign and recovered a logo that had been painted on the wood. But there was no more information to go with it.

"Good work Adalet! There was a logo drawn under that "Ban the Reenactment" message! Let's see who wrote this..." Frank leaned in for a better look, "oh, the logo just says "History for Peace"."

"It sounds like a group name to me..." Adalet commented, "a group that protests against the reenactment..."

"Yup heard you loud and clear," he assured, "I'll get that board to Hannah, see if she can dig up more info!"

As Frank was bringing the sign over to the car, Adalet began examining the cell phone they had found. The code was simple to crack and judging by the pink casing and the background, it belonged to a teenage girl.

"Good for you, Adalet! Now you've unlocked this phone we can add it to our forensic mobile phone collection!" Frank grins reaching to take it.

"Hey, you! Give me my phone back! Why do you have it, anyway?" the girl who was the phone's background picture stormed out of the saloon.

"Wow, calm down. Who the hell are you, kid?" he demanded.

"I'm Gwen Stanford. And this is my phone!" Gwen grabbed it from the captain's hands, "my dad took it from me. Just because he plays Colonel Blade in that reenactment thing, he's gotta be all bossy. Freaking lamesauce."

"Wait, kid. Your father's Joe Stanford?!" he gulped, "uh... You might wanna sit down. Capt. Adalet has bad news."

"Thanks, Frank," Adalet hissed at her partner, "Gwen, there's no easy way for me to say this... but your father is dead, I am so sorry, Gwen."

Gwen choked on a sob, "my dad! He's dead! Oh please, why is this happening to me? What am I gonna do, Capt. Adalet?"

"Uh... Everything's gonna be alright, kid. That's what a cop is supposed to say in such circumstances, am I right, Adalet?" Frank whispered the last half to his partner.

"I can't believe the last thing we fought about is my phone. He kept saying it was an anachronism or something. He dwelled on the past too much, that's the thing," she sniffled, "he knew how important my phone was to me. Why would he take it away? I'd just die if I couldn't update Friendnet for more than two days, you know what I mean? The truth is, I think dad loved the Civil War era and his reenactment thing more than he ever loved me!"

Autopsy Victim's Body...

"Hey folks, next time you bring me a corpse, try and bring it in one piece!" Roxie complained, "I had to sew the poor guy back together for almost three hours!"

"Poor Roxie, we had you working extra hours? Don't worry, I'll take you out for happy hour when all of this is over. First round's on me!" Frank promises her.

"You got it, Frank! Well anyway, Joe Stanford here was a Jazz Town native, and apparently never wore anything other than the Union Army uniform," she held up the man's hat, "cause of death is obvious, you were there to see it! The cannonball smashed the guy like a crash test dummy! And speaking of happy hour, I've found loads of mint julep residues over the victim's wounds! It's as if the killer baptized the cannonball with it!"

"I haven't sipped one of those in a very long time!" he remarks.

"And now know the killer drinks mint juleps!" Adalet quipped.

"Wait!" Roxie yelled as she ran over to her table, "I found this too: bits of splintered wood embedded into the victim's skin. Thought you might be interested, Adalet."

"Thanks, Roxie," Frank smirked, "you know that anything you give to Adalet, she will turn into a new clue!"

Adalet took the wooden scraps from Roxie and placed them down on an empty table. She got some glue out and repaired the pieces to see that they made up a compass. There was a note engraved into the cover and she quickly read what it said.

"Your biggest fan, Wayne Billings"." Adalet read out loud.

"That Wayne guy must have given the compass to Joe as a gift," Frank hypnotized, "understood, Adalet. Let's go find this Wayne Billings!"

Before going to find Wayne to ask him about his connection the victim, Frank and Adalet headed to Hannah's lab to see what she could find out about the cannonball and the sandwich board.

"The quote you revealed on the murder weapon sounded familiar, Adalet, I thought it was from Battlestar Wars season 2 episode 9, but in fact, it's from..." Hannah pauses for dramatic effect, "Abraham Lincoln! "I walk slowly, but I never walk backward." President Abe was one hell of a wordsmith alright!"

"Oh but you're right! Of course, it's Lincoln! What was I thinking?" Frank slapped his forehead, "my grandpa used to drop this quote every time he told me about the Civil War."

"Well, the person who engraved this message on the cannonball is clearly good on Abraham Lincoln's writings, too!" she replied.

"Thanks for the History class, Hannah! Adalet, now we know our killer reads Abraham Lincoln!"

"Let's hope we catch them in under seven days!" Adalet jokes, "now, about that sign, Hannah..."

"I'm done processing the sandwich board you sent me, Adalet," Hannah answered, "I didn't know you and Frank had become anti-war activists!"

"That's very funny, kid. How about less stupid jokes and more worky-worky, huh?" Frank grunts.

"Alright, alright," she rolls her eyes at the detective, "I found out what the "History for Peace" printed on the board stands for. It's an anti-war program run by Harriet Davis, the local school teacher."

"Well, I think this warrants a talk with the teacher," Adalet shrieked.

"Roger that, Adalet," Frank responds, "clearly this Harriet Davis had a hang-up about the victim and his reenactment. Let's go find her!"

Adalet and frank left the station and drove out to the school where Harriet Davis works at. They found the woman's classroom up on the second floor and knocked on the glass window of the door before letting themselves in.

Hello, Mrs. Davis. I reckon you've heard about Joe Stanford's death? He was the head honcho of the Civil War reenactment club," Frank tells her, "and judging from the sandwich board Capt. Adalet found outside the Cannonball saloon, you had declared war on the reenactment!"

"War? I've been fighting against the glorification of war since College! This country is ensnared in its culture of war and violence, and things must change now!" Harriet proclaimed, "and isn't Joe Stanford's death the proof that war is dangerous? He wanted to play war, see where that got him! Well hopefully, he will not have died in vain. Maybe people will finally realize that such celebrations shouldn't exist."

"Looks like we'll just have to wait and see," Adalet replied, "but for now, were more concerned with catching a killer... Thank you for speaking with us, Mrs. Davis."

The cops left the school and returned to the Cannonball saloon to look for Wayne Billings and see what he had to say about the victim. They found the war reenactor walking down the sidewalk and stopped him before he could get too far.

"This is such sad news. Joe Stanford gone? Who will be in charge of the reenactment show now? It was such a great show!" Wayne sighs after they had asked him about Joe, "the reenactment was the best opportunity to learn the history of the Civil War while enjoying a fantastic show! It was so realistic! This is why I admired Joe so much. Thanks to his efforts, all the kids know what Colonel Dexter Blade did for Pacific Bay! He was the bravest!"

"Well if Joe was such a hero, why would someone kill him?" frank inquired.

"Well, even though it's old history, the Civil War is a topic that still stirs tensions even today," he replies, "people like Joe help us understand the past, but our vision of the past is maybe not to everyone's liking. That sure doesn't bode well for the future..."

Later, on the Battlefield...

"Well, Adalet. What do we know so far about Joe Stanford's murder? Except that it happened right here, on this battlefield..." Frank tapped his foot on the ground, "it seems Wayne Billings will genuinely miss our victim. He was a real fan, he even gave Joe a vintage compass!"

"However, the local school teacher, Harriet Davis, loathes anything war-related," Adalet countered.

"She even campaigned against the reenactment. Everyone needs a hobby, right?" he snickered, "let's not forget the victim had a daughter, Gwen Stanford. And she didn't seem to love the past as much as he did! Uh... Can you hear something, Adalet? Like a small, whooshing noise..."

"Take cover, Adalet!" Frank cried as another cannonball exploded just the feet away, "someone's shooting at us with a cannon!"

"It came from over there!" Adalet pointed in the direction of billowing smoke, "the blast came from that estate up there! Let's go see who shot at us."

"I'm right behind you!" he ran to keep up with his partner.

Up the hill...

"Phew, that hill was steep! Let me catch my breath, Adalet..." Frank pants hunched over holding his knees.

"Move away!" a woman brandishing a ramrod orders, "I am about to shoot a second salve! I, Veronica Blade, will honour my an-"

"Whoa, crazy gorgeous lady! Nobody's going to shoot a cannon again today! You almost hit Adalet and I!" he exclaimed.

"Oh!" she looked sincere, "well, I wasn't aiming at you. I shoot the cannon every year to pay homage to my ancestor and his triumph over the Confederates!"

"Your ancestor... Wait a minute, you said your name was Veronica Blade?" Adalet inquired, Veronica nodded, "That's the name of the Civil War officer our victim was playing, Colonel Blade!"

"Miss, we'll need to have a word with you. See, the guy who was playing your ancestor was shot with a cannonball earlier today... And we don't believe in coincidences," Frank explained.

"We'll also need to have a look around your property," the captain adds.

"So Mrs. Blade, if you're done handling your cannon," he says, "we'd like to talk about the death of Joe Stanford, who played the role of your ancestor, Colonel Dexter Blade."

"It's Miss Blade, not Mrs. I haven't found a gentleman eligible enough to take me to the altar... yet," Veronica smirked, "and how dare you come here to badger me about Joe Stanford, that raccoon-faced carpetbagger!"

Adalet blinked, "you have quite the creative insults, Veronica."

"I may own all the land in Jazz Town, but without family honour I have nothing. And that reenactment stamped all over my honour. When I looked up from my usual breakfast this morning, a double mint julep, I saw Joe Stanford pretending to be my Grandpapa. I nearly fainted!" she produced a fan from her dress and fanned her face, "Stanford wasn't worthy of playing my ancestor, hell he wasn't even worthy of playing a slav... servant."

Veronica turned on her heels and sashayed into her large mansion without giving the officers another piece of information.

"Oh gosh, Adalet, this Veronica is something else! Fierce, gorgeous, shooting cannons: a woman after my own heart!" Frank sighs.

"Picking favourites already are we Frank?" Adalet smirks.

"Erm, of course, Adalet. I'm perfectly impartial about our suspects! On we go!" he changed the subject quickly.

Adalet and the dogs searched the large, swampy grounds of the estate looking for anything of use to their investigation. Adalet found a blue credit card with their victim's name stuck in a potted plant while Dean and Hunter came across a faded paper that had been pinned to the gate of the estate.

"Come on, Adalet! We're in the poshest place ever and all you could pick up is a faded piece of paper?" Frank rolled his eyes as she joined him by the car, "I know you're going to retrieve some crucial info from there, but still!"

"How about this then?" Adalet asks holding the card up with two fingers.

"Ah, that one's better! A credit card with our victim's name on it!" he grins, "half of the numbers are illegible... But with that brain of yours, it shouldn't be too hard to decipher them, right?"

Adalet smirked as she took a look at the victim's credit card. She laid a piece of paper over top of the ID numbers and rubbed the side of a pencil tip across the raised digits. A faint impression appeared on the paper and she took the paper away once she had them all.

"Not so bad, Adalet!" Frank praises, "now you retrieved the missing numbers from the victim's credit card, I guess we'll give it to Hannah as a treat."

Adalet passed off the credit card to the senior detective before she turned to the paper she had placed on the hood of the car. She dusted the faded section of the paper and discovered that it was an enlistment form for the reenactment club that had been submitted to Joe by Wayne. Unfortunately, Wayne appeared to have been refused admittance to the club, if the large 'REFUSED' stamp on the page was anything to go by.

"Alright, Adalet, so what's this boring piece of paper about?" Frank asks taking the page as she packed up her tools, "hm, it's an enlistment form for the Reenactment Club, to participate in their fake Civil War."

"But take a look at who submitted the form," Adalet says taping the suspect's name.

"Hey, you're right, "Wayne Billings"... That's the name of one of our suspects! Didn't he tell us he was a huge fan of the victim?" he frowns, "doesn't seem like it was mutual. The form clearly shows his application for playing a Union Officer was refused! This refusal must have been a major downer for him, he already had the Union uniform. He was born ready for this gig!"

"Which means we gotta go ask Wayne about this!" she responds.