Kate ventured forward and butted in.

"Yeah... do we have time to get across lots?  I'm supposed to be somewhere else mighty soon."

Montaño nods. ”The man you saw, Ranger Lee. It was Señor Murphy. I have taken it upon myself to watch the coming of the wagon train three times in the last year. Each night that it rolls in, it will not depart until Lawrence Murphy emerges and acknowledges its presence.”

Her face becomes somber. ”The monster you describe...you are right, Señor Cooper. I feel certain it is the same one that the Apache have feared for generations. There have been times it has made itself known before. Never within the town proper. But out on the range, in the mountains. It has found prey like a cougar. Animals...and men, but only every few years. At least, that we knew.”

She sighs, folding her hands in her lap. ”What it did to the sheriff...I believe it was compelled to act as it did. Controlled by another.” She looks to Tamsin River. ”The one who scattered something you could not see in front of the courthouse. I believe it was him. He brought the creature to Lincoln.”

20:06, Today: Lena Bauer rolled 1,9 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+3)9.  Notice.

Bauer regards Kate with a narrowing stare. Frowning, she looks to Cooper, her tone hard and suspicious. ”Who is this exactly?” she asks.

"An associate of mine. She's helped me out in a couple of clutch situations." He tipped his hat to Kate.

OOC:

Persuasion: 14 if she respects the Rangers, 12 if she doesn't.

21:55, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 6,14 using d6+3,d6+3, rerolling max.  Persuasion.
 

Albert raised an eyebrow at the question from Bauer. "And she's a war buddy of mine. We rode together fer some time. Awful good eye and shootin' iron ta have on yer side."

Bauer relaxes somewhat, though suspicion lingers in her gaze. ”Fair enough. She just bears a resemblance to the shootist that gunned down Tom O’Folliard.”

“Sorry,” she tells Kate, ”No offense intended. It’s been a wild couple of days here in Lincoln.”

“I won’t go into details, but I will swear on my life life that she didn’ gun down Tom Folliard,” Tamsin adds. “You say he brought the creature to Lincoln, do you know who he is? I’m not familiar with everyone around here just yet.”

"Be good to know how many o' them critters there are out there. Coop took down one last night. Might not be a bad idea to hunt down a few more, you know, before they can get sicc'd on us," he said.

"Dammit Ah ain't got time for this jaw jackin', like a bunch of old bitches at a church social in here.  Listen good you slack jawed polecats.  This here's a big Okie-Doke.  That O'Folliard feller's death was faked.  If'n he really is dead, it weren't my fault.  I pretended to plug him.  Don't believe me go ask the Thornton proprietress, ain't got time to argue about it.

"Ah done got in their gang, or good as the gettin's gonna get.  They done paid me to kill a man, money's right here, and it's evidence."  Kate produced the wad, obviously not having much patience for all the double talk here.  She looked at Ranger Lee.  "Yer gonna take that this time by the way, the law will need it if they get wise and gun me down.  Ain't safe with me carryin' it.  They might be on to me already, ah don't know.

"Ah don't know how much longer I can keep this hoodwink up.  There's evil in this world.  Yer lookin' at it. But it's the evil men were meant to endure.  What they're up to... that ain't right.  Got me a heap big things ta jabber about but ah do not have the damned time ta go over 'em all.

"Ah'm going to try to go talk them into burning down a farm to send a message.  Ah don't know if it will work, but it's better than them summoning more of those horrors.  You give me a good place to go, someone they'd want to get, then do yer best to warn 'em.  Because ah am gonna trash the place, make it look good.

"What ya'll do with that opportunity, ya'll do.  Ah reckon th' smart thin' would be ta let it happen while ya figger somethin' else out, but smart ain't th' nature of men.  There'll be water if God wills it, they say."

He held his hand open, willing to take the wad of cash. He didn't know how to establish any kinda chain of evidence beside his word and those of these witnesses for a wad of cash that coulda come from anywhere, but it could help serve a purpose at least.

"Best it be someone that favors Murphy then. Could say they turned informant, and were workin' with me on providin' evidence against the House. Either way, if you can learn about how they control those critters, that'd help."

"Right."  Kate nodded with genuine approval as the Ranger grasped the plan.  "T'would help if'n ya'll gave me a clever name.  These fellers got the creepy crawlies but they don't know how to outlaw properly.  Imma learn 'em.  Amateurs is real impressed by someone with a plan out of nowhere, especially if'n they get ta be cruel.  Ah highly advise ya pick somewhere ain't gonna be no chitlins.  Ah got rules about chitlins, can't vouch fer anyone else."

Renata Montaño listens intently, her expression shifting to a concerned frown. For the moment, she remains silent, keeping whatever her thoughts are unspoken.

Bauer shifts in her seat. ”You don’t mind me askin’, who is it you’re tryin’ to convince with this plan of yours? The way Sheriff Brady had it figured, there’s only three people in the House that give orders: Murphy, Dolan, and Jim McDaniels. You sayin’ you’ve gotten close to one of them?”

"I've busted up a couple criminal syndicates before. By my guess, Murphy is the kingpin. Dolan is the second in command, but more willing to get into the dirty details to keep Murphy one level removed, and McDaniels is the numero uno Lieutenant. If that's the way this one works, my guess is McDaniels," he said, looking to Kate for confirmation.
This message was last updated by the player at 14:05, Fri 12 Apr 2019.

Kate gave the best answer she could.  The dynamics of the gang weren't something she really knew much about yet.  "Ah has only talked ta one or two of them fellers, not near enough to reckon who's really what.  Ah gotta give 'em somethin' to chaw on real good 'fore they learn me real good.  Right now I'm a mushroom to 'em, as a hired killer would be."

”Well, if you’re talkin’ to Jesse Evans or any of his bunch, don’t let ‘em fool ya. They make act like they own the place, but they ain’t nothing but gunhands. Brady was pretty convinced they only do what James Dolan tells ‘em to. And they’re right damn afraid of him, too,” Bauer says.

”There’s a lot of folks around here, farmers especially, that don’t want to get on Dolan’s bad side.”

”I am not certain that Jim McDaniels is a teniente, a lieutenant, as you say, Ranger.”  Montaño offers quietly. “Holt Shaw, a farmer whose daughter was taken from the schoolhouse, was forced for a time to buy seed from the Murphy Store. He told me he had seen James Dolan defer to McDaniels on a heated matter that was being discussed just outside the shop with a number of Señor Murphy’s employees.”

“Señor McDaniels...some claim that when he came to New Mexico, he settled in Angus. It is a town not far from here. A ghost town. It was thriving only two years ago, then was abandoned. Almost overnight. Some that left...no one knows where they went. What became of them. But not long after the town emptied, McDaniels came here, and was hired by Lawrence Murphy.”

Albert listened closely to the back-and-forth about the Evans gang. His left eyebrow inched upwards when discussion turned toward Angus.

He looked over at Lena. "Angus...ain't that where Reverend Benton went off ta? Believed it were connected ta the grave robberies somehow?"

Bauer nods slowly. ”Yeah. Yeah, it was. Don’t know if he made it there or not, but it was the last place he talked about goin’ in that journal he kept.”

Kate listened but would only do so for a moment longer.  If they had no idea, she didn't either, so that was fine, but she'd have to leave and meet her rendezvous soon.  She just couldn't stay here long in the event her deception was actually working.

”What about Virgil Dunne?” Kearney asks. ”For a place to burn down, I mean.”

The mustanger looks to Kate. ”Dunne’s got a small farm. Raises pinto beans and a few goats. But...I’ve always heard he’s a rustler and a horse thief. Snags a few animals here and there from other spreads and sells ‘em, Sometimes over Roswell way. Other times...to Murphy.”

”He has a quick temper as well,” Valentina Perez adds, “One afternoon, he became involved in an argument with a packer who was passing through on the way to Santa Fe. He beat the man senseless with the butt of his pistol, in full view of my students, who were out playing. I had to rush them all back into the classroom.”

“Deputy Bell told me he’s been arrested more than once for that sort of behavior.”

Albert looked over at the two women that were talking about Dunne. It upset him a bit to hear folk cavalierly talking about burning down a place. That sort of thing wasn't exactly neighborly. "The lady asked fer someplace that Murphy's folk'd wanna send a message. Dunne don't zactly seem ta fit the bill."

He furrowed his brow. "Though if he beat some undeservin' man with a pistol with witnesses all about...what in tarnation's he doin' still 'round here? Judge go light on him or somethin'?"

Kearney frowns. “I thought the Ranger wanted someone that Mr. Murphy might believe had turned traitor on him. Way I hear it, the only thing Virgil cares about is the money in his pocket.”

Perez shakes her head regretfully. ”I heard later that the man Señor Dunne attacked refused to cooperate when it came time for him to go to trial. Said the whole thing was his fault, not Dunne’s. The prosecutor wouldn’t go further without the packer’s testimony, so the whole thing was dropped.”

”Best I know, Virgil’s never had to set foot in a courtroom,” Bauer says, ”Mr. Murphy’s people sure do ride some fine horses, though.”