June 25, 1901

Black Diamond. 

I walked into town tonight after receiving a telegram about some fires in the area. Suzy was the first one to greet me. “Here is Trin. She can start working on finding out who did it.” 

“Hi folks. Heard there were some fires,” I looked around. 

“Some fires? Half this damned town is charred,” Jackson muttered. 

“Yep someone broke in the ranger station and tried to get it on fire. And some tried to burn Jackson’s office.” 

“Tried? My favorite chair works better as an art utensil!” 

“The ranger station? The fort over in Tombstone area near the Apache village?” I asked. 

“No the one on the hill behind town here,” Suzy replied. 

“Oh there’s one there? I didn’t know about that one.” 

“Yep.” 

“Ok.... I need a list of all that has been burned, please.” 

“It was on the note I left ya. You can go look at Jackson’s office.” 

“So the ranger station and the campaign office are the only things that were burned down?” 

“So far.” 

“They left their picture,” Jackson said. 

“Can I see please?” I asked and walked over to the office. Reading the picture out loud, I sighed. “Will O’Sullivan for governor… Well that don’t leave it much of a mystery, now does it?” 

“I’m gonna go see if I can find anything on Allen Street,” Suzy said and wandered off. 

“Suzy this case is pretty much clear,” I said as she walked away and shook my head. “Was this same picture on the ranger’s fort?” 

“That’s what I said. I see them sombitches I ain’t gonna hesitate.” 

“I understand. But frankly... I don’t see why I’m here,” I said and nodded to him. 

“No, nothin left by there that I know of. Well I am glad we agree darlin.” 

“Suzy has more jurisdiction in this case than I do. We already seem to know who did this. It’s right there on the damn picture. Don’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out.” 

“Glad there is one other reasonable person round these parts,” Jackson said with a laugh. “You do have a point miss Trin.” 

“Of course, Jackson. Just don’t appreciate my time being wasted by a general who doesn’t want to do the work.” 

“I nearly shot her when she told me we needed to investigate,” he said and spit. 

“Alright well… Here’s what I want you to do.” 

“Well I’ll pass on your professional opinion,” he said. 

“If you could write a statement and explain everything that is here on paper, and drop it into my man’s mailbox... At the sheriff’s office... He will make the arrest as soon as he finds the man. As for the fort... If it is indeed a soldier fort, Suzy can take care of it. Do you know where this fort is? That sound reasonable?” 

“Up in the canyon. I tell ya… This town needs a sheriff. I ain’t spending my career as law to sit by helpless as they burn my town.” 

“I understand, sir. And a mayor who knows what the bloody hell she’s doing. Unless…” I started to say and then thought about it a bit. “Unless this is all too obvious… We don’t know that Will is the only one behind this, do we? Or that it was indeed him. However…” 

“He and Rikki been after me ever since the shooting at the ladies society.” 

“Oh have they?” 

“And since I gunned down Rikki in the street.” 

“Ooh… Well… Seems like they have the most motive… Now we just need proof.” 

“If you look in there I think you’ll see a man and woman’s boot print. In the ashes, I know it’s them. My gut served me in decades as a lawman.” 

“The good news is I have Will’s boot print on file. Unfortunately I don’t have Rikki’s however.” 

“I won’t ask. God damned mess…” 

I walked inside and looked around at the mess. I found boot prints and sighed, nodding. “Mmhmm... As you said. One woman and one man print. Give me a moment... I need to go across the road and get a file to compare.” 

I ran across to the office and found the file for Will and ran back across the street. I leaned down and studied the print in the office and compared it to the one on Will’s file. “Definite match to Will’s boot print. Not sure who this other print belongs too, but it’s definitely a different print. There were two people in here. Any idea what started this?” 

Jackson puffed on his cigar, ashing on the floor. “It doesn’t matter. They started a beef with me at a campaign event. Bullets flew. I was shot along with some other folks.” 

“Here in town?” I nodded. 

“Down in Broken Rose.” 

“Oh okay. Did you inform Sheriff Angel then?” 

“The next day I confronted Rikki. She ended up shot in the street. Kris was aware. The marshal.”  

Tom rode over then and I looked over, opening the door for him. “Oh good, darling, you’re here. Careful of your step.” Looking over at Jackson I said, “Jackson, I don’t know if you’ve met my man, Thomas Wallace. Deputy of Black Diamond.” 

“Hey Thomas, the name is Jackson Menkes,” Jackson introduced himself. 

“Nice to meet you sir. What in the world happened here?” Tom asked as he looked around. 

“As you can tell, we were flooded,” Jackson said with sarcasm. 

“Well it would seem two people set the office on fire. There’s two prints here. One of them belongs to Will O’Sullivan,” I said and chuckled at Jackson. 

“When did this happen?” Tom asked, shaking Jackson’s hand. 

“A day or so ago.” 

“Jackson, could you please write me a statement? With all that you know about this incident?” I handed him a blank copy for him to work on. 

“Sure, can’t do so right now but I will do.” 

“Just as soon as you can.” 

“Indeed. Alright folks, I must get back to the ranch.” 

“Alright, Jackson. We’ll ask around for witnesses and such.” 

“You find these folks, or I will,” Jackson said as he stormed out the door. 

“Thank you Jackson, we’ll be in touch,” Tom said as he left. 

“Not much else we can do since the fire destroyed hopes of evidence,” I said with a sigh. “I hate fires.” 

Tom looked around and kissed me on the cheek. “I hate fires too, and we better keep an eye on Jackson to make sure he doesn’t take law into his own hands.” 

I nodded to that, hugging him tightly and looking around. “I don’t even know what I could learn from this. Most fires that have been set here in Tombstone are done with a lamp oil of some sort. But that won’t help me prove who did it.” 

“This is not going to be an easy job for sure. We’ll be lucky if you find prints or anything to give us proof who did it. Did he say if anyone saw who might have done it, or if he knows who might done it.” 

I took his hand and led him outside, pointing to the picture on the window. “His boot print matches one of the ones I found in the office. With a print I have on file for him. Jackson said that Will and Rikki have been at him since he started his campaign here.” 

“Will O Sullivan....where have I seen him before?” Tom asked. 

“Will has been arrested several times, dear. We can’t seem to get rid of him.” 

Tom glared at the poster and shook his head, taking out a piece of paper and a pencil, writing down Will’s name. “I will check around the territory and see if this guy has been in trouble elsewhere.” 

“Honey... Rikki conducts the train, does she not?” 

“Ummmm....I think so....she is on the thing almost all the time.” 

“And it’s either her or that big man who drives the train, right? So what if…” 

“Was this the only place burned?” 

“Suzy mentioned some fort out in the canyon, then went off to find information in Tombstone. I’d like to treat them as separate cases though. Since they’re under separate jurisdictions” 

“Fort? I thought the only fort in the territory was out between Tombstone and the Apache village. Takes his hat off and runs his fingers through his hair. "What the heck is going on dear? We take a little vacation and all hell goes loose.” 

“Honey... I wanna find that train. If we get a print from the conductor room, we might be able to pick up Rikki’s prints.” 

“Well if we wait here long enough, it will be through here shortly.” 

I got out my picto-camera and took pictures of the building and the evidence and looked up and down the train tracks. “Feel like going for a horse ride, dear?” I winked at him. 

“Why did I know you were going to ask me that question?” Tom sighed, looking at me. 

“Cause you love me so much?” I giggled. 

“Sometimes!” He smiled and winked at me. 

Tombstone. 

I grinned seeing the train and hopped on it, going as close as I could to the conductor’s area without actually going in it. I asked the conductor for the print from his boot and lifted up the other print with my equipment. I hopped off the train then and asked if Rikki was the only other one to come into that area on the train and he nodded. “Eureka!” I said proudly and then was stopped by a woman asking me what I was doing, but I couldn’t tell her any information on the active investigation. After I was done, Tom and I rode back to Diamond. 

Black Diamond. 

We walked into the campaign office and compared the prints from the train with the ones on the floor that weren’t Will’s. “Looks like a match, dear!” 

“Great! Are you sure that matches to Rikki’s boot print?” 

“It’s perfect, dear. See the lines here? It’s all the same.” 

“Ok. I will have to take your word for it dear. I don’t know anything about that kinda stuff.” 

“Well dear, the evidence part is done. Now all we need is witnesses.” 

“Did Jackson say he witnessed it or what did he say?” 

“He said he’d write a witness statement... Not sure how much he witnessed. I hope he did. Would have been nice if Suzy had stayed around.” 

“Yeah… looks like my vacation days are over....back to the old grind stone for me it seems sweetheart.” 

“Yes indeed... Well, it couldn’t last forever dear. But I do have one good suggestion for how to end this evening…” 

I took his hand and we headed to the saloon where we held each other close as we danced together.