October 11, 1869

Amiville. 

This morning I greeted a man in front of the sheriff’s office and said hello to Logan. Mel wandered over too and we could hear something going on inside the sheriff’s office. “What’s goin on in here, Mel?” I asked. 

“Adder was shot .. god knows why ... Marriana did it.” 

“Of course he did,” I rolled my eyes. 

“She just randomly shot him?” Logan frowned. 

“Why’d she shoot him?” I asked. 

“Marshals help me with the gang, since Pablo and another girl decided to join and help her,” Mel said. 

“I seed whut happened if you want to know!” Philo exclaimed. 

Logan wandered inside and I said, “I’ll go ask Philo what he knows.” I walked outside and asked him, “So what’d you see, Philo?”

“Think we may need a doctor!” Logan called out. 

I saw Philo walk inside and then he walked back out when I heard Chels yell at him from inside. “Philo I was trying to talk to you out here...” I told him. 

“Yep,” he said simply. “That crazy Mexican woman was trying to hunt for a boar. She had her guns drawn and Marshal Adder told her to put her guns away. They argued fer a spell then the Mexican woman started shooting.” 

I nodded and walked into the sheriff’s office then and and nodded to those around. 

“What were you hunting for in town?” Logan was asking the woman. 

“Was a wild boar on the loose..she was just doing the sheriffs job,” Pablo explained. 

“A Boar found its way into town...boars make great source of food for mexican recipes,” Marri said. 

“So you drew a weapon in town to shoot a pig...” Logan summarized. 

“She wasn’t going to talk it into the pot sheriff,” Pablo laughed. 

Logan folded his arms and looked at the woman. “Why does that not seem likely? Surely you people have more sense than that...”

“No... I drew a weapon in the cantina...and ran into town after pig...pig hid in the stables...I was looken for it and the sheriff got in way of my guns,” she said. 

“She’s lyin, sheriff,” Philo said. 

“They have a way of doing that Marriana..and being in burning buildings,” Pablo said. 

“She’s lyin’ you say?” I asked Philo. 

“Alright.... I’ll go find Adder and see what he has to say about it. I’ll be back in a moment,” Logan grinned a bit. 

“Mel started with his statement..then she had to go quickly...sure she will tell you when she gets back,” Chels looked at me. 

“Maybe you should hire smarter lawmen.......pig was able to stay hidden from my guns but your lawmen runs right into them,” Marri said. 

“Yep, she’s a lyin,” Philo said. “The sheriff didn’t just get in the way of her guns. She shot him pure and simple.” 

“Is not the fist time snake boy has done that I theenk he has a death wish,” Pablo said. 

“She shot him because...?” I asked. 

“She chased Adder all over the place shooting at him,” Philo said. 

“You look like a bigger idiota than before senor,” Pablo said. 

“Why was she chasing him?” I asked. 

“She pulled her guns to shoot the boar, and the sheriff told her three or four times to put em away,” Philo said. 

“Yeah well now you know what silly head dress this kinda thing is Señor...” Jake said to Pablo. 

“Do you know if Adder is in the hospital?” Logan turned to Jake. 

“No unholstered weapons in town,” I nodded. 

“That’s whut he told her,” Philo nodded. 

“I would think so... He took a shot,” Jake told Logan. 

“And she didn’t listen?” I asked Philo. 

“Nope, in fact she was very rude about the whole affair.” 

“Rude to law, huh?”

“Threatened the sheriff.” 

“Be sure to stop by and get it back when you’ve served ya time,” Jake said, flicking the rim of Pablo’s big hat. 

“Poor man... there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t take a bullet,” Logan sighed and glared at the woman before walking out of the office. 

“Yep, rude to the lawman, don’t let her tell ya no different,” Philo said. 

“What does Pablo have to do with it?” I wondered. 

“You can keep eet senor I no want eet after its been on your steenking head,” Pablo said to Jake. 

“I’ll be back in a moment...” Logan said then and opened the door, walking out. 

“Okay Logan. Want me to join?” I asked him. 

“If you will, please stay with Melany and Jakob in case they need help with anything,” he requested and I nodded. 

“Well, the crazy Mexican woman run off the cantina, thats when Pablo got involved, talkin the same trash to the sheriff’s,” Philo went on and I stayed behind, watching Jake dancing and singing about 

the sombrero on his head. I walked back to the cells and started to talk in Spanish, teasing Pablo. 

“Thanks for telling us what you know,” I said to Philo. “We appreciate your help.”

“Much obliged,” he nodded. 

“Is there anything else you can tell us Philo?”

“Nope, thats pretty much what I see’d.” 

“Alright then, guess that’s all we need.”

“Glad to be of service to you fine folks.” 

“Of course, Philo. We do appreciate help.”

“Thanks Mister,” Chels nodded. 

We sat down at our desks for a while and then Sean came in to take a look at the prisoners. He told me we needed to talk about the paper after he was done and I made sure Mel had heard everything from Philo’s statement. Jake and Chels left the office and I went back to paperwork as I waited for Logan and Adder to return. 

An hour later, I was working in my office at the news office when a woman came over with a basket and offered some sausage but I said I was alright for now just very busy. She left and then Sean walked into the office. 

“Hey Sean,” I greeted him. 

“Hey there. Any new articles?” 

“Not really... Just working on journaling. How are you?”

“Doing well indeed. You?

“Not great,” I shrugged. “Clifton retiring has hit me hard. Though I had a good conversation with TJ last night.. I think we’re pressing charges against Bill. I want to press them against Rosa too. But I doubt that will go very far.”

“Oh? Last person you should go to about Rosa is TJ.” 

“Who else do I go to, Sean? I talked to Clif... But now he’s gone. So the whole thing’s messed up.”

“Well, far as I know, Clif is the only honest Judge in the territories.” 

“Doesn’t really help me now that he’s retired, does it?”

“I’ll have a long talk with him. So what’s up with you and Rosa?” 

“She tried to sell me off to Bill and his gang. They were all surrounding the church when I was in there talking with Logan... and to get rid of them Rosa said ‘I’ll give Trin to you if you give me 2000 coins. I told TJ about it last night... He was pretty steamed... We were upset with Bill and he came in and kept threatening me so we filed charges against Bill but... I still want to file charges against Rosa.”

“Okay, I guess we need to do an expose on Rosa for the next edition. We’ll include that story and the eyewitness account of how she told bill to shoot Karan and Chane and she’d look the other way.” 

“Do we really have to give them that kind of attention, Sean? I want her locked up. Not being a judge anymore.”

“No, we can leave corruption to fester and get worse.” 

“Well I’m not writing it..” I sighed. 

“She’s still a Judge last I recall. She didn’t actually step down. Well, I best go see who’s been shot in the past 15 minutes.” 

“Deadline is tomorrow for the paper... I’ll let you know if anything else comes in.”

“Okay!” he smiled and waved as he left the office.