Amiville.
This morning I walked into town and found out that Icca had been arrested for the crimes he'd been warranted against yesterday. I asked Mel what would happen with Sayler's body and she said it was probably best not to ask them about it now as there was a lot of tension around what happened yesterday. I nodded and went into the saloon, looking for more information.
James and Gramps were there, and they told me that Tristan was the one who read Icca the warrant and took his guns and arrested him. James said that Icca went willingly without showing signs of restraint, but he obviously wasn't too pleased about it. Stacie and Mel were there as well. I asked them what would happen with Sayler's body, and James said he wasn't sure, other than that Icca was supposed to drop the corpse at the clinic to be examined. I was overjoyed, knowing that finally we would get to examine the body and determine the actual cause of Sayler's death. James wondered if since it had been so long we would even be able to recognize Sayler's body at all. I told him that was the brilliant plan because then they'd still be covered and we would never know if it was Sayler or not. Gramps said that Icca had embalmed him, so we should be able to tell. James was more worried about the chemicals that Icca had access to.
Chels and another woman I didn't know came into the saloon and we observed that Chels looked a little beaten up and tired. She came straight over to James and asked him to give her a statement about what he saw yesterday with Icca. I told her that we didn't see much, and that we had only seen Avery shot up in the bakery and took him to the clinic, after seeing Icca and Tessa dragging Kitty away from Mel. Chels said that she was asking James, not me, and said that she wanted James to come to the sheriff's office. James said that there wasn't really any point in going as I had already told her all we'd seen,and Chels observed that James wasn't going to go willingly.
I tried to convince James to go to the sheriff's office and just tell them what he knew, and Chels started to walk out but James told her that they can go and talk, and get it over with.
They left the saloon and I asked Gramps to fill my flask with whiskey/coffee, and told him that I thought it was crazy they had to take him to the office, as we'd just told him everything they needed to know.
We talked about how the carpenter hadn't been around very much and I asked him if he'd picked up the newest copy of the newspaper. He said he wasn't in town yesterday so I handed him a copy as Tex walked into the saloon.
Tex sat beside me and soon Katherine came into the saloon. Shortly after that, James came back and I asked him if everything was okay. He said he had a bad feeling about what was happening and I looked at him, intrigued. He said that it seemed Icca had mentioned his name, which was why the law wanted to talk to him. I asked if Icca had mentioned me and James said that it appeared not. He said that he feared Icca was playing some dirty trick.
Katharine disappeared from the saloon then as Mikk Graves walked in, taking off his hat. Tex continued to drink his coffee quietly as James and I talked. I could see that Tex was very interested in the conversation we were having. James suggested that there was a chance that Icca might try to frame him, and I gasped at the news as Mikk and Gramps started to talk casually.
James said that for this reason we'd have to talk to the people who had seen us there, and seen us in the saloon when the shooting began. I sighed, knowing he was right. I told him that we had to talk to someone about this, like Clif, as the law weren't going to care or hear our story objectively. I agreed though, that something felt off about the whole thing. He wondered if Rosa would help us at all but I thought to myself that she hadn't been around much and probably wouldn't be able to do much. I knew that our best bet was to talk to Clif.
I looked over at Tex then and said that since he knew Sayler, maybe he knew something about how he died. Tex said that he saw Sayler hanging by his hands, not his neck, right out front there. He looked like he'd been dead for a while. He said that he thought someone just hung him for display and I wondered if the hanging was just a decoy. I looked at James and said that I knew something happened in that cave. Tex said there were some not friendly characters around so he didn't stay long. I asked him how many and of what genders, and Tex said he only knew one of them. I put my hand on his forearm and asked him who he knew, a bunch of women and a notorious outlaw.
It was at that point that Rosa herself walked into the saloon, and I thought that she had good timing as we were just getting to the important part of the story. Leaning closer to Tex, I whispered, "Which outlaw?" Tex whispered Buckshott Bill and I almost fell off the stool, grabbing James' arm for support. I cried that I knew it and Tex said that he continued down the street and saw the hearse headed that direction. I guessed that the hearse was driven by Icca probably.
Ed walked in then, and I tried to get more information out of Tex, but knew that it would be hard as Rosa was standing there now. I looked from Tex to James and said that maybe we should head outside and talk. The three of us went to the field across from the saloon and talked alone.
Tex told us that he saw Sayler hanging in front of the Amiville sign right across from where we were standing. I looked between the men and observed that we were all in danger, as Tex was a key witness to the hanging, I was a key witness to the shooting, and now James' name was being brought up for something that Icca was arrested for.
James agreed that we all knew too much, and I told them that the pieces of this puzzle were starting to come together, but we were still missing something. Tex said that he had to go and I told him to watch his back. I looked over at James when we were alone again and told him that I was worried. He said not as much as he was and he hugged me. I suggested that maybe we should head home and we walked to the office together.
***
That afternoon I walked into town to find out what I could discover about the search for Sayler's body, if anything. There was a huge crowd in front of the marshal's office and I saw most of the town law standing there. From inside the office I heard Bill and Kitty yelling. I was amazed to discover from Ed that they'd arrested both Kitty and Bill. Nell was angrily trying to get into the marshal's office but Stacie would hear nothing of it and told her to back off until Bill was out. Bill shouted for a lawyer and Ed pulled me and a woman nearby over to the archway of the livery. Ed introduced me to the woman, who's name was Lara, and we stood there waiting to see what would happen.
The second we saw Stacie pulling out her guns and Bravo looking furious, I looked at the others and told them that I wanted to live to write about this story and that I was going to the saloon. We stood outside and talked with the local people around and then I realized that I really needed to talk to one of the marshals about what I knew. I heard a gunshot and ran over to see that Nell had been shot down and was being taken to the clinic by Bravo.
I went over to talk to Nate and told him that we needed to talk. We went to the sheriff's office where I told him that I knew something was wrong in the Sayler's murder investigation. I told him that I guessed that Bill and Icca were behind Sayler's murder, otherwise why would it have taken us so long to be able to examine the body for proof. He thanked me for coming in and I headed home.
***
I walked into town that night and saw the sheriff's office on fire. I called out that there was a fire and Gramps and Avery came from the saloon where they were bar-tending. They put the fire out and everything was under control, but Gramps told me that he'd seen Bill and Marvia setting fires around town, including at the marshal's office earlier. I told him how crazy it was as I had just been in the sheriff's office that day, and they said that the outlaws were just doing it because there was no law around. We walked to the saloon and I had a drink of Brandy, trying to relax before my gig.
I did my gig and there were quite a few people coming in and out. When I was finished, I saw that Rosa was flirting with a man at the corner and I asked her if we could talk outside. We went out to the field across the saloon and talked about everything that had happen in the past few days surrounding the investigation of Sayler's murder. I told her that I'd heard Icca was arrested from a telegram that was sent out and she said that she would promise to talk to him about getting Sayler's body so they could investigate the actual cause of death.
I saw JC walking over and went to say hi to him, as I hadn't seen him in ages. As we were talking I noticed he was very distracted and didn't rally answer my questions of how he was. I then realized that there were bandages around his chest and asked him what had happened, but he turned away and wouldn't answer. I pressed him and finally he said that a girl set fire to a building and he was passed out by it, and tried to get to a river but didn't make it so lay there burned for a while until the law finally came for him. He said it wasn't too bad now, but the first couple of days he was begging to be shot.
From where she was sitting Rosa started to pass out and Sean came running outside to check on her when Trax called for a doctor. Clif came out too, looking drunk and unstable.
I dared him to walk in a straight line but he couldn't do it, so I held him up again. He said he just needed to sit and be somewhere safe so I led him to the courthouse.
We went inside where he told me that he'd been to Mexico to torture a man who had killed his family years ago. He wondered how he would be able to judge the town after he'd done such an awful thing and I just wrapped my arm around him, not knowing what to say. He thanked me for listening and I changed the topic, talking about how Icca had been arrested and how I'd talk to Rosa about getting Sayler's body. Clif said he was going to get a subpoena for the body and I thanked him for that.
I said goodnight to him and went on my way back home. In the street stood a man who I'd seen in the saloon, whose name was Trax. I asked him if he was new and he said he was, and asked if he'd had the grand tour yet. He said he hadn't and I took him around the town, showing him the sights. I asked if he was planning to stay a while and we looked in the hotel for rooms but nothing was available. We wandered around the cabins past the livery but nothing was available there either. We went back into town and found Tristan and Mel by the marshals' office, but they didn't know of anything available either.
We walked back into the saloon where Rosa was and Trax drank some milk while I drank my whiskey. Rosa seemed a bit on edge and I made a comment about all the men drinking milk lately, and Trax joked that he'd drank milk from his mothers' breasts as a baby and grew accustomed to it, and I had a thought about him drinking from mine and looked away, embarrassed. Rosa said he could leave hers alone and he looked over, observing that she was well-equipped but then apologized for the comment, as he'd just met her. She stormed out of the saloon and Trax whispered to me that she was having women's issues.
He finished reading the newspaper and told me that it was one heck of a first page. I told him the second wasn't much better and he kept reading until Rosa came back. She was still not in the best mood and he told me that he could see why I drank whiskey as he was starting to want one. I handed him the bottle and he drank it, then pretended to choke and fall to the ground. I grabbed his hand and rolled my eyes, knowing that he was faking, and lifted him back up.
I got up and asked Trax if he would walk me home and he said that it was probably a wise idea before Rosa killed him. He walked me home and he complimented me on the office and its location as it was so near to the town. I said I better be heading to bed and he thanked me for showing him around before shaking his hand. As he walked out he turned and winked, saying that I was well equipped too. I smiled and blushed as I watched him walk home, then went upstairs to bed.
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