Trestle Over No Name Creek - Book One

About the mystery... rank, a dark-skinned old man, is found dead in No Name Creek under the railroad trestle. The local small town kids unravel the mysteries surrounding the old man they called "Friend." In the 1960's, the idea of a friend over 30, a grown-up they could call by first name, a friend with no last name who liked to visit and teach them interesting stuff was reactionary and now he was dead? The grown-ups ignored him. No one knew or cared who he was except the kids. Surviving life controlled by rigid codes of conduct, every move monitored by grown-ups (and the local tattle-tale cop), the junior high kids gather at the local Drug Store 'n Soda Fountain Shop after school to share accumulated clues. They form the Meanderthaller gang and set out to uncover the truth. Was Frank's death an accident, as the grown-ups prefer to think, or was Frank's death a murder?