May 12, 1899

Tombstone. 

“Well hey there!” I smiled when I saw Kyle walk over. I hugged him tightly and held him close. 

“Good to see you.” 

“Hello pretty lady. How are you?” 

“Slept in kinda this morning,” I winked. 

“Well, that’s not a bad thing.” 

“Sunday is the day of rest, right?” I smiled. 

“Yes, unless you have a house full of laundry to do!” he laughed. “So... What is Trin up to today?” 

“Trying to figure that out. Got a list of about a mile long of people I gotta find.”

“Law stuff?” 

I nodded to him and said, “Yep... This huge case I’m workin’. Good to have stuff to do, ya know?”

“Yes it is. I have tons of stuff to do before Saturday for the grand opening of the boat and carnival.” 

“Maybe we’ll meet up again later then for some drinks?” I suggested. 

“Sure.” 

I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “You stay safe, you hear me?” 

“I will, take care.” 

I turned and headed for the hotel where I headed inside. “Hey Tye, got any coffee made yet?”

“Always,” he motioned to the kitchen. 

I smiled to the girl standing in the lobby. “Hey there.” 

“Hello there.” 

“Looks like you’ve got some good food there.”

Tye pointed to his own eyes and nodded to me and I nodded, understanding that he was telling me the girl was blind. 

“Yes, this is really good. I never had blackberry before,” she said. 

“You came to the right place for those kind of goodies then! I hear Tye’s food is the best.”

“Miss Quin, we also serve food here, if you are hungry sometime and tired of the stew served at the orphanage.” 

“Oh, thank you.” 

“Like one mind, Tye,” I winked at him. 

“Maybe one day, Pinky,” he grunted. 

I chuckled and headed into the kitchen to pour myself some coffee as the two in the lobby talked about the food from the orphanage. The girl was telling Tye about how there were some doctors in Boston that might be able to help her eyesight improve but it was very expensive. She explained how everything was just really dark grey, almost black, ever since her accident on the stagecoach. 

I walked outside and met a girl named Bella. We talked about how she lived in Coronado and I told her that Black Diamond was as far as I’d gone. I waved Kyle over and introduced him to her. Bella said that she ran a ranch with her daughter Ella and also ran the western union in town. She asked what kind of cases I was investigating and I told her I couldn’t divulge that information, but she said that she could help. 

“You hear of a Dominic James before?” I asked, going with cases that were a little less serious than the Clint Houston one. She nodded and I asked, “You have? What can you tell me about him?”

“He was here in town a few weeks back. Hope he stays awaay. Shot up just about everyone here.” 

“Really, Bella... What else can you tell me? Have you seen him since?”

“He’s kinda sneaky... He don’t talk much.” 

“Well that’s more than I knew before starting this investigation on him,” I winked at her. “Marshal gave me the name, didn’t really tell me why, just that he wanted my help.”

“Just be careful, Trin. He likes to draw... and shoot.” 

“Don’t they all,” I muttered. 

“Yes, but this one gets you in the back.” 

“Who we talking about?” Kris asked, walking over. 

“Dominic James. You know the name?”

“Yeah, I do,” he nodded. “Is he back in town?” 

“Ask Kris, he will tell you,” Bella said. 

“Marshal Ansar asked for my help in trackin’ him down,” I told him. Kris got distracted by the conversation with Wedge and V and I prompted him again but he wouldn’t focus. 

“He’s a funny one,” Bella shrugged. 

“Attention span of a gnat it looks like. Arlight, Bella, I feel like I should ask you about this bigger investigation but I really don’t wanna talk about it in the streets..”

“Well that man you are looking for he came into town and cause a bunch of trouble,” she told me. 

“Well I’ll be leaving it up to the marshals to do the actual catching... I’m just doin’ the tracking,” I winked. 

“Well that’s a shame.” 

“Not really. I’d rather be the brains than the braun, if ya know what I mean.”

“Seems the marshals are preoccupied at the moment.” 

“Well perhaps that one is,” I sighed, nodding to Kris. 

She pointed to Kate’s and said, “So is the other one.” 

“Which other one do ya mean?” I looked over. 

“He is smitten... With Deesue at the moment,” she pointed to Ansar. 

“Oh that one,” I chuckled. 

“Well Kyle, darlin’, should we go find a drink somewhere?” I asked. 

“Hey hun, we still need to go and check on the chair I told you about,” Kyle reminded me. 

Yeah sure, let’s do that. Sorry Bella, we’ll have to say goodbye for now. Safe paths and thank you.”

“You two take care,” she smiled and we headed for Winslow. 

We went to Winslow and then came back to Tombstone for the play they were putting on at the Birdcage Theater. I caught the tail end of it though and applauded anyway as people went off the stage and started exiting the theatre. 

I talked with Dee when she came outside and she told me about the theatre and how they held special events there. Ansar came out and I greeted him, “Hey Ansar... You know those three names ya gave me to work on?”

“Find any?” 

“Findin’ a lot of info on Clint... Got a bit more on Dominic today. Would really love to have a last name for Nikki though, or even what she did.”

“But have ya found a location on them?” he nodded. 

“I just started three days ago, Ansar. Give me some time,” I chuckled. 

“Just asking. Ain’t rushing ya, I know I been looking and I know what they look like.” 

“If I had more on Nikki it would be nice...”

“That’s what she called herself. Um... Been a while since I seen her. It’s hard to give a good description of her.” 

“Nikki?” Dee asked. 

“Mullery... Think that’s her last name,” Ansar nodded. 

Dee scratched her head. “Ya sure ya got the right name?” 

“Ya wanna tell me what she did?” I asked and Ansar pulled out a list. 

“Shooting without killing times two, shooting law without killing times two, robbing bank, weapon unholstered in town times two. Then there’s another case here with three times shooting law without killing, obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, weapon unholstered, weapon used in a crime.” 

“Hey, I got a wanted poster for Dee for arson. Hear tell she burned down the courthouse,” Rikki came over and announced, and I raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Ya shush now,” Dee shook her head at her. 

“Been getting the most on Clint from Tye, but nothing you probably don’t already know,” I said. 

“Dee burn down her workplace? Then she be out of a job,” Ansar pointed out. 

“Yeah that don’t even make sense hypothetically,” I chuckled at the suggestion. 

“See, he knows I wouldn’t do that,” Dee said. 

“No telling why she does it, maybe she needed a break,” Rikki shrugged. 

“If she wanted a break there’d be less destructive ways to do it.”

“Plus, I been spendin’ my time with a certain marshal. He know just what I been doin’.” 

“You’ve got a built in alibi,” I chuckled at Dee. “Well I need to carry on. I’ll talk to ya’ll later!” I waved and headed off. 

I walked around looking for Pet and then found her working in her garden in front of her house. “Pet! Just the woman I’m lookin’ for!”

“Oh? What’s up?” she asked, curious. 

“Do you have a few minutes or are ya busy with church stuff?”

“Well I only have thirty... or so minutes before church starts.” 

“I wanted to ask you about something from a while back.... Ain’t sure if you’ll remember.”

“Ask away...” 

“Wanted to ask you about when Clint Houston threatened you and your daughter.... Back in August... Or sorry no not Clint, Avier.”

She thought about it and then snapped her fingers, “I remember him!” 

“You do?!” I smiled. 

“Yes, I do,” she nodded. “How can I help you?” 

“Can ya tell me about what he was threatening over? I’m digging into some past cases about Clint... and this came up as a question I wanted to answer if I could.”

“Threatening over? Hmm, well, let’s see... He tried to rob me the day I met him. Then he tried to rob me again a few days later. That was the time with Ru. But we got out of there once I was able to get her to calm down. That kid has a temper and feels she can take over the world sometimes,” she rolled her eyes. “Does that help you, Trin?” 

“Seemed like he left when Clint came over... Was trying to figure out Avier’s connection with Clint.”

“Well, he did. Yet we, Ru and I, walked off and he followed us.” 

“Clint followed you or Avier did?”

“Avier.” 

“Why did he follow ya’ll? Kept tryin’ to threaten you?”

“To continue to rob us even after we told him we didn’t have any money.” 

“So he didn’t leave ‘cause Clint walked over, he left ‘cause he was more interested in ya’ll...”

“Hmm... I think so in a way. I believe it was an excuse to get away from Clint as well.” 

“Alright. That is big help then. Thanks so much, Pet.”

“Would you like to come with me to church? I really need to hurry.” 

“I’ll let ya go. I might be over there,” I smiled and headed off towards home. 

***

I headed to the saloon this evening and found Kyle inside. We talked for a while and I suggested we go for a walk. As we were headed towards Black Diamond we stopped in the road, seeing Poe. 

“Didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

“You won’t,” he smirked with a whisper. 

“Problem?” Kyle asked. 

I looked from Poe to Kyle, back to Pope. “Why won’t I?” 

Poe looked over at Kyle and asked, “Problem here?” 

I went to stand beside Kyle and asked, “You thought you could get away with impersonating a marshal? To a retired marshal?!”

“I see you have been listening to your good friend Tye.” 

“No, I’ve been listening to what I witnessed.”

“Two different things.”

“Don’t think so. I know what I saw.” I looked to KYle and said, “Come on, Kyle. Let’s keep going.”

Poe smirked and shot the man a mocking glance. “So is this your new boyfriend?”

“She has moved up from boys to men,” Kyle told him and I raised my eyebrow, swallowing nervously. “Let’s go, Trin.” 

“Oh that’s very funny. So when is she moving back?” Poe laughed. 

I walked on and Kyle walked after me and asked, “What did he mean by moving back?” 

“He meant when am I moving back to boys I guess. Let’s just keep walking.”

We continued on and found the saloon in Black Diamond where we danced, trying to forget the conversation that had just happened.