Secret Service Agent Gates was seated in front of Secretary of War Stanton. Stanton, wearing wire-rimmed glasses perched on his prominent nose, stroked his beard. “Your two agents were there when Major Adams killed this…” Stanton picked up a piece of paper, looked at it and then at Gates, “Hiram Kinkaid?”
“Yes, sir they were assigned to watch Major Adams who was suspected of being a spy for the Confederacy. He was fed false information about troop movements, and he immediately went under the cloak of night to a known spy, Miss Kenna Collier. Her courier, the murdered man, for reasons unknown, had a confrontation with Adams. Now it"s known by us, that both Kinkaid and Adams were infatuated with Miss Collier. Kinkaid had a pistol in his hand when he was killed.”
“From what I"ve heard, half
