December 27, 1869

Colorado Springs. 

I spent the holidays up north with my family in Canada and then returned to the States, ready to work. It had been good to see them again but it was also good to be back down south. It was here where I felt like I could stand on my own two feet and follow my own destiny. 

I went to Colorado to visit Adder and saw him sitting outside. We went inside the house and sat down in his living room and I asked, “How was your Christmas? Pretty quiet?”

“Aye nice and quiet, just how I like it. Plenty food, plenty whisky, plenty peace,” Adder smiled. “How about you?”

“We had a big dance and dinner in Georgetown. Nice to see everyone... Heard about another case... All is well,” I chuckled.

“Oh nice. Oh aye? which case?”

“One of the horses had been stolen... From the stables. But the more interesting part... Is that this couple found it in the City of Mines.” 

“Nice. Hanging offense.” 

“But when they tried to get the horse back home, this woman with a knife started coming at them. So now as a Pinkerton I’ve got that case too. Some blonde chick with a knife, starting with a J or a K.”

“Sounds like a good one.” 

“Here’s the interesting part though... Suzy saw Buu acting a bit weird around the stables when she was there with her horse. Right before Mio was taken.”

“Hmmm. Well the lack of shooting makes it sound not so much like Buu. But theft is theft, I wouldn’t put it past him to steal a horse. Risky though,” he laughed. 

“I didn’t think it sounded typical Buu either.”

“I just remembered who your judge is. It’s not risky at all.” 

“Probably won’t get the accusation even if it is revealed it was him. We need a new judge.”

Adder grumbled and said, “And your current one needs to be retired. Permanently.”

I nodded in agreement and said, “Well I should head home and make some dinner... It was good to see you again.”

“Good to see you too Trin. I’ll see you to the door.” 

I hugged him goodbye as I walked out of his place and headed back home. 

Georgetown. 

This afternoon, Suzy and I took a walk up to Silver Plume. I told her about getting shot up there with Nile and we looked around before heading back to the newspaper office. We talked about the first edition and how there wasn’t a lot of new stories for the article. We walked over by the stables and Suzy told me she was working on upgrading security since Mio had been stolen. 

“I kinda want to poke around City of Mines...”

“Oh... I sneak up there all the time,” Suzy giggled. 

“I want to see if I can find that blonde chick... The one who attacked that couple with the knife.”

“Oh yes, I heard about that. I hope we don’t run into her though.” 

“That’s why I’m not sure we should do it.. What do you think?” 

“Hm.. well.. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look around, it seems pretty quiet recently.”

We headed into the City of Mines and looked around. “I do tend to venture into the mines a lot,” Suzy said. 

“The mines scare me...” I admitted. 

“Ah its not so bad once you get familiar with them,” she giggled. 

“Uh huh. I generally go to Wyoming but... Things have been a bit weird there lately.”

“Oh? How so..?” 

“Well the chief got attacked a couple weeks ago right... And he acted as if it was no big deal and he didn’t want my help. So then I went back there looking for an apology... Saying I didn’t really feel needed if they were gonna take justice into their own hands. And then he goes into this whole ‘did you come to us every time you needed help?” 

“Sounds like the Cherokee alright. They don’t really seek help from white men.”

“As if he’s forgotten ALL the times I did just that. But see... When I first met them we’d had an agreement... They were gonna let me visit them and I was gonna be a liaison between them and the law... So we could battle the outlaws together. So then they got this guy to be a ‘scout’ and communicate with me whenever there’s a story... So now I don’t even feel like I can visit there anymore.”

We saw someone walking over to us and I thought that she looked somewhat familiar. I told her we were just leaving and Suzy and I headed back home. “I’ve no interest in doing gun battle with that woman. She’s good,” I said, realizing the woman must have been Mai, the girl from Amiville who’d been rumored to working with Jake and the marshals, but not on the right side of the law. 

We went back to the saloon and talked with Sugar about what happened near the mines. Suzy told Sugar that Mio was back home safe. Suzy headed out and then I went to see if the Washington’s were home but no one answered. 

Kansas. 

I rode over to Kansas and talked with the Natives who were sitting around the campfire. They said everything was safe lately and talked about the current events in the area. Someone came in and said they had a poison in them. The person’s name was Black Moon and we talked about Black Moon being bit by a snake and getting poison. Alizbet talked about Apache being attacked by two people before Willow, the child, was born, and they hadn’t been around since, back in July. She said one of them was named Red Paint and I recognized the name since they said it was two men that attacked them. I decided to head home before it got too late and walked back towards town. 

Amiville. 

I walked through Colorado and talked with a man and asked if he knew where White Rose was but he didn’t know that many people. I said goodnight and headed home.