Sibley's Secret
armed forces. He suggested reinstating capital punishment to correct such deficiencies, highlighting a character flaw that would eventually contribute to his end.
Kolchak remained completely loyal to the Provisional Government, as he had been to the Tsar. When the Great October Socialist Revolution began, and Russia withdrew its forces from the Eastern Front in WWI, Kolchak had offered to enlist in the British Army to continue fighting the Germans, but they decided that he could better serve the free world by fighting Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, hopefully to bring Russia back into the war on the Allied side after defeating the Red Army. Kolchak was then appointed by the Provisional Government as a minister in the Siberian Regional Government. The Whites had hoped this would strengthen ties to the British military mission in Siberia headed by General Alfred Knox, but, in November 1918, the interim Siberian government was overthrown in a British sponsored coup d'etat. Kolchak survived and was appointed the head of government in Siberia and titled Supreme Ruler. He promoted himself to full admiral and declared his intention to fight Bolshevism. This was a very confused time in Russia with allegiances shifting often.
The populous Marxist leaders in Siberia denounced Kolchak, calling for him to be killed, and they allied with Lenin’s Red Army. Kolchak countered with persecution of revolutionaries and declared immediate capital punishment for assassination attempts on the Supreme Ruler or for attempting to overthrow his government.
Hoping to rekindle popular support through capitalism and freedom, Kolchak returned the factories to private owners and dispersed the trade unions. He attempted to restore private land ownership; however, there was brutal repression committed by his regime and thousands were murdered. He is reported to have authorized wholesale extermination of villages that did not support him.
Resistance grew in the areas under Kolchak's government, and the Red Army actually gained strength in Siberia as peasants united in rebellion against his dictums. The Red Army started gaining control of the region. In some cases the White forces under his command had some successes fighting the Reds, but Kolchak was not an experienced land tactician. The British, under Knox, helped somewhat, by supplying arms and munitions. The American Expeditionary Force (AEF), also in the region, did not support either the Whites or the Reds, remaining neutral.
By April 1919, the Bolsheviks made defeating Kolchak a priority and the Red Army increased manpower directed specifically against him. As resistance became increasingly futile, Kolchak appealed to U.S. General William Graves for help to evacuate him and his subordinates from Siberia to Vladivostok on the east coast, possibly hoping to escape to America or Japan. Graves commanded the AEF “Pathfinders,” responsible with other neutral forces for protecting the vital Trans-Siberian railroad. The railroad was Kolchak’s only avenue of escape.
The Farm
Chad stood on the weathered front porch with its faded blue bead-board ceiling and fir decking worn bare from years of neglect, looking at the dirt drive meandering out to the four-lane county road. He stood back, taking advantage of the shade in the oppressive afternoon heat. He hadn’t bothered to close the front door after glancing inside. Every door and window was open to let air circulate. Kiki was somewhere inside when he wiped a towel across his forehead, “Mom, I don’t see how grandpa managed this place on his own.”
The farm grounds were overgrown with weeds. The peach and apple trees growing up and over the ridge behind them were showing distress with poison ivy vines overtaking them. Chad could only see the front ten acres or so, but there was over a hundred more acres behind the ancient house and barn.
She called out loudly from inside, “Yeah, it must have been hard on him toward the end. He was living on his Ford pension, and, I guess, the farm was just let go around the time I moved to Detroit. It wasn’t this bad six years ago, but it doesn’t look like anything was taken care of for a long time.” Chad heard something drop on the floor as she started sorting through things. The plan was to spend a few days making funeral arrangements after the medical examiner released her father’s body, then gather up any valuables and papers to take back to New Hampshire. The farm would be auctioned off to pay the bills. They hadn’t decided if they would rent a U-Haul to drive or just ship boxes and fly home. It all depended on what they found. He shouted over his shoulder, “I’m gonna walk around.” Kiki didn’t respond, which meant she hadn’t objected either. She was standing in the middle of the living room, shaking her head at the deplorable conditions her father had lived in toward the end. It was fortunate in a way that he had died while walking up the drive, apparently to get the mail; otherwise, his body might have been left undiscovered for days or even weeks. They didn’t talk much, and he had no other family. Communications had started declining as soon as she went to the police academy. He didn’t understand her feelings about farm life then and never really did later, even after she’d explained hundreds of times.
Her father bought the farm when she was still a baby. He worked at a nearby Ford plant for over thirty years and tried to manage the farm as a hobby, but it was a huge job in itself, so he leased the crop rights to another farmer until the plant closed, forcing him to retire or relocate closer to Detroit. He wouldn’t leave the farm. Early retirement had suited him well, and the farm usually paid a nice profit on top of his fixed income, so Kiki remembered living okay, by small farm standards, but the isolation and land dependency was something she hated. They mostly ate what the farm produced. They shopped at the local general store and farm supply co-op, and went to Ann Arbor on rare occasions to get things that were unavailable in the countryside. She could never think fondly of that time. She knew other farm girls that left, and none of them ever wanted to return.
She had a different life now. She’d moved to the far north in New Hampshire, to the village of Tranquility. They had advertised in the Boston Globe for a police officer with experience. Tranquility just sounded right and hadn’t disappointed her since taking the job. It was a two officer town when she took the job and moved there. The other one was called Chief, even though he had less practical experience than she in major law enforcement. He’d grown up there and had several city jobs before taking the only law enforcement position in town twenty years earlier. In the beginning, he was also the fire chief and building inspector to occupy his time. Kiki was the first new officer hired to support the older man, and two years after joining, she took the Chief position when her predecessor retired to go fishing and build bird houses. To her knowledge, there had never been anything like a major crime in Tranquility and her main occupation involved helping tourists with directions. Recreation was the largest industry in the area.
Chad meandered toward the dilapidated barn not far from the house. The old grey boards looked like they had never been painted since it was built in the late nineteenth century. Several siding boards were broken or missing. It had never served any useful purpose in Kiki’s memory. They had chickens for livestock, but the birds didn’t actually live in the barn. Still, barns have a certain mysterious appeal to a young man. One never knows what old cars or other treasures might be inside. The door was open and probably hadn’t slid shut in half a century. There was no electricity or water in the building as Chad stood in the opening looking over the dirt floor into the dark corners. He stepped farther inside to allow his eyes to adjust. There wasn’t any sign of life and nothing more than broken boxes and furniture pieces and a bench that didn’t seem to have any tools nearby. Large gaps in the old cedar roof shingles let sunlight stream through in spots.
Kiki looked through her father’s desk, which still had unopened mail neatly organized in one corner. After shuffling thought the envelopes, it seemed that the old man had been ignoring bills most of the last year. He must have sensed that his remaining time was short. She grinned at the irony. She wasn’t going to be the one dealing with creditors. She would try to find the property deeds and any important papers, and let a local a
ttorney close out the estate. There wasn’t anything here she wanted. His twenty-year-old truck keys were on the desk, but she would use the Enterprise rental sedan for transportation unless they had reason to move something large. They would not sleep there.
Chad walked out of the barn toward a large metal equipment building on the edge of the property. The deeply-worn tire paths indicated that this was the building Grandpa would have used for farm equipment. The large metal door slid open easily. Inside, there was a red Farmall. His enthusiasm grew seeing the old tractor, and he hurried to it to see if the keys were in it. He climbed up into the tall single metal seat and imagined pulling equipment through the rows of trees. There were no keys, but it didn’t appear that they were needed with the simple run-off switch installed. He had no idea how to operate the machine so left it alone. There were several plows and other tools near the tractor that didn’t make any sense to him. The building was huge, but like the barn, had no electricity for lighting. He dismounted the tractor and walked further inside, exploring the