The man with the rifle snorts. ”And I’m John Wesley Hardin. Bet you’ve heard of me.”

Evans sighs. ”Kate...I think you can see the problem I’m faced with here. If you are who you claim to be, I’m inclined to think that I could find work for a woman of your considerable talents. But I’m afraid I’ve got to have some kind of proof of your identity.”

“Do you have any suggestions?”

"What, you don't have wanted posters here?"  Kate asked incredulously.

Evans grins. "You know, we could mosey over to Sheriff Brady's office, see if he's got a poster pertaining to you hanging up somewhere. Problem is, tintypes don't always give a good likeness and drawings...hell, they're worse."

"I was thinking of something more practical. See, there's a little problem that Frank here..." he nods toward the rifleman, "...was going to take care of. But if you were to handle it for us, well, I'd see to it that you were paid for your trouble, and I'd arrange a meeting with someone who could provide you with continued employment. At a handsome salary. How does that sound?"

Kate leaned in.  "Ah'm listenin'."

”Fella by the name of Tom O’Folliard. Likes to put his nose where it doesn’t belong. Keep watch on people who don’t take kindly to being spied on. Part of a group of gunhands that call themselves the Regulators. Cowboys who worked for a rancher around these parts who had the misfortune of getting himself shot.”

“O’Folliard and his friends are convinced we’re responsible for all kinds of wrongdoing around these parts. He’s working to catch one or more of us in ambush so he and his fellow riders can shoot us down. I’d rather someone stop him dead in his tracks before he gets the chance. He doesn’t know you, so he’ll never see you coming.”

He nods to the west. “Take care of him. And when you do, drop him by the side door to the Sheriff’s Office. There’ll be five hundred dollars in it for you. And the chance for more.”

“He’s got sand colored hair down to his collar. Favors a black hat. Hangs around the Main Street most hours. Spends a lot of time at the Thornton-Curry Saloon.”

"That sounds like a man who has made a mistake.  I take you don't want O'Folliard and his posse to know whose behind this?"  Kate asked.  "It's my workin' presumption, but some folks want it known.  Got their reasons and all."

”For the time being, it’s best left a mystery,” Evans says, ”My only specific request is where the body ends up.”

Kate leaned forward, not articulating the question, merely asking it with her eyes.

”Right in front of the side door of the Sheriff’s office,” Evans says, ”Make it easy on the law to get him over to the undertaker.”

Kate considered this a moment.

"Well that's awful specific.  Course... it is five hunnert.  Not my usual way... but ah can make it happen."

“When you have it done, find a fella named Jim McDaniels here at Wilson’s,” Evans instructs, ”Tell him ‘The spy’s finished’. He’ll make certain you’re paid.”

“Stay around town afterward. It won’t take long for me to catch up to you.”

Kate nodded.  If they were done with her, she was headed back to the Thornton-Curry.

Okay, so Kate's objective is to first make sure she's not tailed.  The second is to make contact with Lee, Cooper or possibly McGraw (we might need his shop).  Might have to pass messages through the bartender.

Evans tips his hat, settling back at his spot, leaning next to the door of the saloon. Neither he, nor any of his companions, take their eyes off of Kate as she departs.

The street remains quiet. Only a handful of people move along it, shopkeepers by Kate’s estimation, setting about opening their places of business. As she starts westward, she notices a female deputy loitering on the steps of the courthouse, and a lone rider, his hat pulled low over his eyes, passing the Thornton-Curry as trots unhurriedly into town. Otherwise, Lincoln’s main avenue is still.

OOC: Kate give me a Notice roll. If you’re planning to try to reach the Thornton-Curry unseen, give me a Stealth roll as well.

All right let's see how she does.

19:09, Today: Kansas Kate rolled 2,3 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3.  Notice.

19:09, Today: Kansas Kate rolled 1,6 using d4-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+2)8.  Stealth.

Huh.  Some mixed results there.

The shadows remain long enough that Kate finds plenty of spots to slip into to conceal her true destination, giving the casual observer the impression that she walked between the Torreon and the Tunstall Store and headed north. Taking her time and watching her surroundings, the outlaw is able to reach the back door of the Thornton-Curry Saloon without incident and, to the best of her knowledge, without being seen by prying eyes.

Stepping through the door, she finds Desiree Thornton seated at a table, mixing whiskey and water into clean glass bottles. The bar owner looks up with an arched eyebrow. ”Did you forget which way you usually come in, or should I be worried about who might come looking for you?”

Kate tapped the bar.  It would look weird to go into a saloon and not drink.

"Both."  She locked eyes with the proprietress, hoping she'd get the other woman's focused attention.

Thornton nods, indicating that Kate should follow her into the main barroom. When the pair enter it, Kate sees that all of the tables are unoccupied, the first customers of the day having not yet arrived.

Without a word, Thornton fills a shot glass with whiskey from a new bottle and slides it across to Kate. ”So, tell me what has you needing a drink just little bit after sunrise.”

Kate leaned in real close and murmured in a low voice, and grabbed the proprietor's collar and pulled her in close like she was threatening her.

"Ah will beg yer pardon ma'am, but ah gotta make this here look good.  Ya know how ya sent me over to yer competition if'n I wanted to make a quick buck?  I done did it.  Man named Jesse offered me five hundred dollars to kill a feller named Tom O'Folliard.  Ah think I can get in their gang, but Imma need a bamboozle.  Ah need word to get back to tha Ranger, or anyone who can run in between.  Cooper would work.  Ya follow me?"

Kate shook her like she was shaking the proprietor down.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:24, Sun 29 July 2018.

Thornton allows herself to be shaken, her expression one of wide eyed terror. ”Alright! Alright!” she says loudly, ”Calm down! I’ll tell you what you want to know!”

Shifting her voice to a whisper, she says. ”I’ll get word to the Ranger or the first of his other friends I can find. I’ll ask Renata Montaño for help.”

“If it’s Jesse Evans you talked to, he isn’t a man that’s easily fooled. And the one he’s after, O’Folliard, he’s one of the Regulators...John Tunstall’s old hands. I’d tread very carefully if I were you.”

"Well I've gotta make it look good.  That means staking out O'Folliard.  For all intents and purposes, it's going to be exactly what I would do if I planned to kill him.  Listen, I need someone to clue O'Folliard in, and I need someone to pull a few bullets and get me some wax cartridges."  Kate passed a handful of .44-40 discretely.  "You follow me?"

Thornton scoops up the bullets discretely. ”I’ll get them to the Tunstall store. I imagine I can have some wax bullets here for you by noon,” she whispers.

”But listen. I will try to talk to O’Folliard. Once I have, I’ll hang a blue dishrag out on one of the posts outside. But...O’Folliard and the Regulators...they’re planning something. Something big. They won’t even tell me what it is. It’s why Tom isn’t here yet this morning. Whatever it is, it’s important to them. And I doubt they’ll look kindly on anything resembling interference.”

Kate smiled.  "Outlaws ain't exactly known fer makin' sense.  But I'm awful sorry about this.  Put it on my tab."

"Shut up you dumb bitch!"  Kate backhanded the hapless bartender, scooped up the whiskey bottle, and stormed out.

Emerging onto the street, Kate sees that it remains largely quiet, the business men and women of Lincoln slowly readying themselves for the day’s commerce. For an instant, the outlaw thinks she perceives movement across the street, in the vicinity of L.G. Murphy’s store, but it is fleeting.

Glancing to her left, she spies a young man in a duster step out of the front door of the Tunstall Store. He begins walking in the direction of the Thornton-Curry Saloon, sand colored hair visible under the hat he wears. The sight stirs Kate’s memory of her first visit with Desiree Thornton and one of the patrons that she saw seated close to the bar’s front entrance. She is almost positive that the approaching figure is Tom O’Folliard.

OOC: Kate, kindly provide me with a Notice roll.

20:35, Today: Kansas Kate rolled 2,3 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3.  Notice.

I'm sure this will end well for Kate lol

Directly behind her, Kate hears the hard, metallic click of a rifle’s lever action. ”Mornin’,” a male voice says, ”Not certain I’ve seen you around here before. But, something you need to understand, me and some friends of mine...we think real highly of Miss Thornton. Real highly.”

“So why don’t you do me a favor? Take that smoke wagon out of your holster with two fingers and set it down on the porch. Nice and slow. I don’t think I need to tell you what will happen if you don’t.”