July 22, 1900

Tombstone. 

This morning I walked down the street and found Jimmi and Starling standing in front of the food cart by the clinic. “Hello you two!” I greeted them, needing to talk to Jimmi about the bank robbery a while back. 

“Hello Miss Trin,” they both said to me. 

“Jimmi, I’ve been looking all over for you actually.”

“I should try harder to hide,” he said. 

“I heard from Sabi and Poppy that you’d been shot a while back... in a robbery..” 

“That was long ago.” 

“I wasn’t sure if they’d arrested the person responsible or not. I heard about it from a couple of children... and haven’t had a chance to talk to Tombstone law about whether they needed my assistance.”

“I have’t see any arrest report on the shooting or robbery. In all honesty Trin I doubt I will.” 

“That gunfight and hostage situation the other night took up a lot of my attention. Did you want to give me a statement Jimmi? If you were a victim I can get it going, I just haven’t been able to find you in town.”

“I can tell you now what happened. It’s very simple and over in a matter of seconds.” 

“I’m listening,” I took out a piece of paper to write. 

“I can’t give you the exact date Trin; so much has happened since.” 

“I know when it happened. Was the night before the children told me about it.”

“Let’s see... I was in the hotel fetching up some food for Starling and I heard an argument of some sorts going on outside. Was a man called Ben Craven boasting about how successful he was evading capture and he had robbed a bank already.” 

“The one where he kidnapped Miss Pet...” I nodded. 

“He was in conversation with Anthony James. Anthony’s brother was behind Ben and I felt they were either going to shoot him or use him. After a couple of minutes Anthony went to the back of the bank taking. Ben with him. When all were around the back i heard someone shout and shots were fired. I asked Starling to remain in the Hotel in safety. I couldn’t see any law in town that day so I drew guns and got around the corner of the undertakers. I was fired on by Ben. I brought him down quickly.” 

“You have a fantastic memory, Mr. Rubble,” I smiled at all the details. 

“Then one of the James Brothers ran across to the Ladies society building from the back of the bank. He was shooting from the hips and running. I returned fire and he brought me down.”

“Dominic or Anthony?” 

“I can’t remember which. I was too busy taking cover.” 

“So you were shot down by Ben and one of the brothers,” I nodded. 

“Someone shoots at you Trin, you don’t stop and make introductions.” 

“Of course. Just thought you might have known him.” 

“Ben never hit me, he shot at me. And that’s it. There was a lot of shouting going on, the James Brothers left town allowing us to collect the wounded.” 

“So did you see any of them with money from the bank? Bags or anything?” 

“There were three shot down including myself. I didn’t see either of them carrying any money bags.” 

“Who were the other two that were shot down then? Or did you know them?” 

“Maybe the bank was robbed already but they did get in there, the back was open. One was Reverend Easterwood I think they called him. Ben and myself.”

“Raz.... Ben and yourself were shot then.” 

“Yes.” 

“I will see if I can get statements from Raz and Ben.” 

“No law was about to take a statement or raise a posse bur the brothers did not return.” 

“Well I won’t let this go unsolved. Can you sign this for me please Jimmi?” I asked, handing him the form to sign and he handed it back to me. “I also have the two girls’ statements, but they’re combined and hard to follow on their own... So I just included that in my incident report for future reference. Between you, Cravens and Raz we should have a good case here. Thank you, Sir Unfortunately I think my other bank robbery case may go cold... I have six statements but none lead to a specific suspect. And it happened almost a month ago.” 

“Trouble is Trin, those two boys, they appear in town, do a raid and they are gone within an hour, there is so little time to drum up a posse, they must have a stack of warrants as high as my law books.” 

“I understand,” I nodded. “I believe they have shown their faces in Diamond and were arrested for previous crimes. It does get solved, Sir. We just need the statements to back us up. Then they can be made into warrants. But you know how the system works,” I smiled at him. 

“The next thing to consider is will they appear in court?” 

“That isn’t my main concern at this point,” I smiled. “I want to give you, Ben and Raz a voice. Then they’ll decide what to do.”

“Well see what the law does with a full Pinkerton report.” 

“You know as well as I do that they appreciate my work,” I looked at him. 

“Umm who are you bringing the bill to?” 

I stared at him and said, “I do my job, sir. It’s all I can do. I can’t control what others will do with the finished product, but my reports have led to several arrests.”

“Well put it to the Town hall, it’s the Mayor’s bank.” 

I sighed and shook my head. “Thank you for your statement, Jimmi. I hope you stay safe and I wil see you both later I’m sure.” 

“See you again soon Trin and stay out the way of those James brothers,” Jimmi said. 

I walked away then, muttering and wondering what it would take to get the man to appreciate my work. I walked over to the hotel and saw Sabi sitting on the bench with a woman I didn’t know. 

“You alright, kiddo?” I looked at the girl. 

“Hi Aunt Trin. I guess so for now. There is a man wantin to take me away.” 

“Who??” I blinked at her. 

“I am not sure ma’am. He shot Auntie Aeryne though tryin to get to me.” 

“Is Aeryne alright?” I asked. 

“Uncle Alex saved her. She is sleepin.”

I nodded, smiling. “Have you seen Nat around?”

“She was here this morning. She is supposed ta being careful since she has red hair like me too.” 

“Alright. Hope she’s okay too. Haven’t really seen her much since she left that note for me about the fire here.”

“I like her. She is a good friend.”

“You kids watch out for each other, alright?” I smiled at that. 

“Always Aunt Trin.” 

“Don’t think we’ve met yet,” I looked at the woman beside her. 

“Well Sabi since your aunty is here I guess you will be safe with her for a bit. I need to do some work in my room for a bit,” the woman said and stood. 

“Okies Miss Susan, thank you for watchin out for me. You are wonderful!” 

“Nope we haven’t, Miss. I am Susan Davis,” the woman waved to me. “You’re welcome, sweetie. You know where my room is if you ever need me.” 

“Thank you ma’am.” 

“Aunty Trin?” Sabi looked at me when we were alone. 

“Yes Sabi?” 

“You are a deeteckive. Do you think my daddy could be alive and be a bad person also?” 

I raised an eyebrow and walked closer to her. “I remember you asking about that when I first met you... about how you didn’t know if you were a bad person like your daddy.”

“But that was Miss Muriel funnin me. Now it might be real if that fella is who he says he is.” 

“Ignore Miss Muriel,” I shook my head. 

“And I don’t remember my daddy so I don’t know if its him or not.” 

A girl came over and announced that her name was Kamani Lawrence Norwood. We talked for a while about how she was David and Katie’s daughter even though they weren’t together anymore. 

“Yanno what Miss Trin?” Sabi said after a while. 

“What, Sabi?” 

“I don’t think that man is my daddy at all. Mr. Mike is my daddy. “

“Can you describe the man, hon?” I looked at her. 

“I ain’t seen him myself Aunt Trin. But I guess he came by and was all mean to Miss Pet and Uncle Alex... Then I guess he shot Aunt Aeryne! I saw her layin in the clinic sleepin.” 

“Alex is a good doctor. I’m sure she’ll be alright,” I looked at her. 

“He said she was gonna be okies. Just sleepin for a time I guess.” 

“I need to go get some work done girls. You stay safe,” I nodded. 

“But that guy is still around here somewhere.” 

“I’m going to figure out who he is Sabi.” 

“Okies Aunty Trin. Be careful.” 

“You too,” I turned and headed down the street. An hour later I walked into the Oriental and got a drink. Ben Cravens walked in and sat down beside me. 

“Well well well. Look who it is!” he exclaimed, looking at me. 

“Hey there,” I looked over. 

“How are you?” 

“Doin’ fine, thanks. Was hoping to ask you about something actually.”

“Oh? What might that be?” 

“Well... I know it happened a while ago but... I heard you got shot during a robbery with the James’ brothers a while back... Jimmi was shot too...”

“I remember,” he nodded. “What of it?” 

“Well... if you got shot, you could write a witness statement for me and we can maybe arrest them for shooting you. Unless of course you were involved......” I hesitated. 

“Can’t do that,” he grinned. 

“Why not?” 

“Coz they didn’t shoot me.” 

“Oh. Jimmi said...”

“Said what?” he narrowed his eyebrows together. 

“That you were one of the three that got shot down,” I shrugged. 

“That’s right. I was.” 

“You just said...” I looked at him. 

“Tell me something. Who is your best friend?” 

“What does that matter?” I sighed. 

“You always answer a question with another question?” 

“You always avoid answerin’?” I chuckled. 

“Well, this is going nowhere fast. Unless you got something I might be interested in,” he looked me over, “Then I’m out of here.” 

“Ben... were you or were you not shot down in the middle of a bank robbery by the James brothers?”

“Nope.” 

“Were you around?” 

“Yes.” 

“But you can’t write me a statement?”

“You ain’t told me who your best friend is yet.” 

“You ain’t told me why you want to know.”

“Answer my question and I’ll tell you. If not....” he shrugged. 

“My best friends are a doc and a sheriff,” I sighed. 

“Well, would you write a statement against them, if they did something wrong?” Ben asked. 

“They wouldn’t do something wrong. But I see your point.”

“Wrong in the eyes of the likes of you, that is. So, you just drew a blank, huh?” 

“Alright then, I guess I’ve heard all I needed to hear.”

“I guess you have. Mind you, you got nothing to charge me with.” 

“Who said anything about you? And I’m not the one doin’ the chargin’.”

“See? Folk don’t know what’s going on under their very noses.” 

“What do you mean by that?” I looked at him. 

“I’m not going to confess to another thing, since last times mess up. You want something, I’m not handing it to you on a plate.” 

“You already did, Ben. You already did,” I smirked and started to walk out.

“Nope. Nothing to stand up in court anyways.” 

I shrugged and continued to walk out of the saloon. I walked down the street and greeted the group in front of the hotel. I met a woman named Lacey and then headed back to my office.