July 3, 1900

Black Diamond. 

This morning I had breakfast with Alex, Sugar and Sabi. Sabi told us that Mike had been at their house last night when they were swimming in the pool. We talked about how Alex and Aly had planted a tree beside my place so I could sit there and do paperwork in it like when it was at their place. We talked about climbing the tree. I wrote up an incident report about the cantina fire and then followed Alex outside and put the report in the mailbox of their place in Benson.

Tombstone. 

This afternoon I walked into town and talked with Sugar and Jess. John came over and I asked him if he had found Mike but he said he hadn’t. He told me that he had some things for me and we walked over to the office and sat down at the desk across from each other. 

“So what’s up?” 

“Add these to the master file,” he handed me a couple of sheets of paper. 

I smiled and took the notes from him. “Nellie.... Usually for place of residence we just put the town. Where’s Fly’s boardin’ house?”

“I wanna say Pearce... You try gettin a straight answer from her.” 

I chuckled and wrote in the cards. “Works with Ben Stolen huh...? That’s good to know. Oh I should give you something else useful.. A list of gang members that we know about.” I handed him the sheet and he leaned over the desk, kissing me. I kissed him back softly, surprised by the movement. “Well, hi!” 

“Hi! Yes that list would be useful.” 

“You have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve been kissed?”

“Six seconds?” 

“Before that,” I chuckled. 

“Nope.” 

“It’s been... a while.”

“Oh question for you.” 

“Hmm?” I asked, my head still spinning from that kiss. 

“Two ladies approached me today about a robbery, they made report with local law but nothing come of it.” 

“A robbery... where did it happen?” 

“Did you get their names? We could get their statements and create an incident report to give to local law. Sometimes we need to give them statements for something to be done.” 

“I have them hold on. Prudence Cisse and her sister Angel. A blonde woman dressed like a man approached them on the streets friendly like and chatted them up, then robbed them at gun point.” 

“Think you could find them again and get their statements? I’ll pass you a blank statement sheet,” I handed him the form and then got out a list of active outlaws and handed it to him. 

“Yeah, I hope its better than what they gimme earlier.. was a light haired woman, dressed like a man..that was the description I got.” 

“Why don’t you find them and see if they could each fill one of those out?” 

“Trin... One problem on this list,” he said as he looked it over. 

“Hmm?” 

“Soapy Smith is dead. There’s a memorial for him in front of the general store.” 

“Right... I’m sure there’s a few names like that. Sometimes it’s good to know who’s been with gangs before... even just their names. Can help in conversations.” 

“Clint Houston is in both James Gang and Mavericks?” 

“Most of those gang members ain’t even around anymore.” 

“Oh, then disregard.” 

“And that’s an interesting topic actually... The James brothers showed up in Diamond the other month. William McCoy, Dominic James.. Anthony James.. I believe they were arrested with a robbery there. Claimed some nonsense about takin’ over Diamond but I haven’t much seen them since. Oh one more list to give you,” I said and handed him an active list of lawmen. “In case you’re looking around for a specific lawman. Need to keep that as updated as we can. I want to find some law around Tombstone tonight. Oh I should go over some open cases with you.” 

“Yes.” 

“We’ll add this robbery of Prudence and Angel as the fourth case. I’ll let you take charge in that one but make sure to give me the statements when you get them so we’re both on the same page?” 

“I suppose I could... what do I get in return?” he smiled. 

“You’ll see,” I smiled back. “I always write out a timeline for each case... to go over details that I discover. So what do you know about this robbery? We’ll start a timeline now together. Tell me a story,” I winked. “Prudence and Angel were robbed on Allen Street.. Is this Angel, the German deputy or a different Angel?” 

“Angel is her sister. Angel Cisse.” 

“Not the German deputy...” 

“No.” 

“Might want to make cards for both of them if you talk to them again.. So what’d they say when they came to you?” 

“Trying to tell you that now but you wont hush,” he said and I chuckled, sitting back to listen. “Ok so the two ladies were robbed of a small dress pin, family heirloom. T they were robbed right in front of the Russ hotel. Filed report with local law.” 

“Both or just one of them?” 

John took out his interview notes from his conversation with Prudence and read, “‘She was about as tall as my sister there .. light hair like me, and was dressed like a man.. I have seen her in town a few times since.’ That was her description. So a tall blonde haggard lookin woman.” 

“They were robbed by a woman?” 

He continued reading from the girl’s statement, ““Personally I was shocked as we stood there for some time enjoying the good company before she back off the walk way to the street and pulled her gun and robbed us.’ And her hair was long.” 

“Right. I wonder which law they reported it to...” 

“Well if it happened in front of the Russ, I would say local Tombstone law here. Angeles, Matt or Chris.” 

“Right, but I mean which specific lawman. They probably don’t know who to arrest. That’s something we could help them out with. Or you could,” I winked at him. 

“When I see them again, I’ll try to get more details from them. There was a lot of activity on the street today, and they were pretty closed lipped. But I have a way of loosening women’s lips,” he smiled. 

“Fantastic. See if you can get them to a saloon or something and work your whiles,” I winked at him. “Let’s just make sure we keep having these meetings... We’ll talk about all the cases we’re working and how they’ve been going so we’re on the same page. That way if someone comes to us about the other person’s case, we know what we’re talking about. We can help each other out that way,” I smiled. “So... you want to hear about the other cases?”

“Yes.” 

“Alright, we’ll start with the mysterious money because you already know some details about that one. I talked with Aeryne Massiel because Sabi’s aunt, Autumn, lives with her out in the Canyon. She said that there were some apartments above the orphanage and that the money might not even have to do with the orphanage, which we both agree on already. We both agreed that Mike wouldn’t be the sort to hire a hitman. He’d take care of the issue itself. We also both wondered if Angi just didn’t want to have anything to do with the money because it would draw attention to the orphanage, and bring potential danger. So her not caring was actually a way of her caring.”

“Mmhmm, I was with you for all of this.” 

“Right... not for it from Aeryne’s perspective though. Just proves one other person agrees with us. She made an interesting suggestion though.”

“That being?” 

“Looking into potential bank robberies and seeing if that’s where the money might have come from.”

“Good luck tracing that, the bank is robbed here constantly.” 

“The only open warrant I saw this morning in Tombstone was for Javier... when he shot me last month. And he shot Deputy Angel.”

“So it’s robbed and they ain’t caught.” 

“Or it’s already dealt with. I don’t buy it personally... It’s too easy. There’s something else going on here. So what do you think we should do next... aside from find Mike? Though I really don’t think it has to do with him either.”

“Interview the orphans... all them kids, one of them might have seen something.” 

“I was wondering about that as well,” I nodded. “Should we even bother to find Mike?” 

“I still wanna talk to him.” 

“Alright, next case?” 

“Okay.” 

“A couple of weeks ago or so.. I received a telegram from Angeles asking me to look into the ladies society fire and get with Kris to talk about people who were witnesses.”

“Okay..” 

“I talked with Pet and Amara about the fire. Pet gave me three pictures of the fire. Pet said she was visiting friends in Tuscan and had no idea what happened. Amara said that Angeles was standing there when it happened. According to Kris, she stood there and did nothing. Kris was very upset about it. I want to find Kris tonight and see what he can tell me about this. I haven’t been able to get ahold of him or any other Tombstone law.”

“Okay he was here a few minutes ago.” 

“One more case,” I smiled. “The bank robbery during that dance...”

“I gave you Meg’s statement, right?” 

“Your interview with Meg was priceless. We need to talk to more people about that.”

“Seth, Jann and Sniper need to be interviewed.” 

“And Mac, if we can manage it.” 

“Not that they will be much help.” 

“Right. Can’t hurt to try.” 

“Yeah it can,” he laughed and I chuckled in agreement. “Now.. you have notes from that robbery?” 

“The one during the dance, yes I have a timeline,” I said and handed him the timeline. “Shall we hit the streets?” 

“Wait..” he said, reading it. 

“Amara or the other guy said Meg yelled out to someone, and asked what he was doin’ at the bank... Jack I think. Wasn’t in your report.” 

“Where should it go?” 

“Amara’s statement.” 

I wrote out: Amara said that Jack was in town sniffing around suspiciously. She heard Meg yell out to Jack and ask, ‘What are you doin’ at the bank?’” I looked up at John showed it to him. “Better?” 

“Yes. Do we have a last name for Jack?” 

“Smith.” 

“Okay, so I know who to look for.” 

“Jack Smith... why not call yourself John Doe?” he asked and I chuckled at that. “Okay you want to see if Kris is around and I’ll see if the Cisse’s are about?” 

“Mmhmm.” 

“You look for Kris.” 

“Alright,” I smiled and squeezed his hand before we headed out the door.