Wyatt Earp sat at his table, studying a list of minor fights and incidents that had taken place across Dodge City the night before. The two most serious incidents had been the harsh beating Ralphie Simpkins had given a young black man named Walter Jackson and a gruesome murder. Simpkins had always been a thorn in Earp's side, and he planned two days out to run the man outta town, though he suspected he'd have to put at least a few of the Wilderness Riders down before they'd back away peacefully. Still, maybe there was hope that the old miner and his nephew could talk some sense into them. A shred of hope, maybe, though probably not much more than that. Most likely, it was a fool's errand and a lost cause.

It'd been a pretty late night. He'd watched two of the deputies, Darling and Hawthorne, make their way back towards the Dodge House. From the look on Morgan's face, he suspected that he had been taken in by Mrs. Newman's good looks and had just discovered she was married, though neither of them said anything of it as they walked back to the jail with Gabby. A brief exchange of words with Sky Dog let him know that the man was going to walk Walter Jackson back to wherever he was saying safely. It was a good idea, and one he probably should have thought of himself. A strange man, and a strange group of deputies, but they had done about as well as they might given the trouble that hit their side of town.

Then there was the matter of the murder, which is why he'd sent for them this morning to gather their thoughts and try and share any information that they had. He looked over the assembled men. And woman, and sighed, answering the question about Suzy. Had he answered it before? Despite having two men to share his watch, he still felt a bit tired this morning. After Gabby and Caleb had taken their turns at watch the night before, Earp had taken his after the both of them departed for their own beds. Knowing the doctor to be an early riser, he saw that Suzy was admitted into his care.

"Suzy's not here anymore. She's over at Doc Smith's. I had her admitted there this morning before you folks got here. Doc Smith got up with the dawn. He had my message from earlier, so he's already been over to the Dog Eye and conducted a detailed examination, and then sent for the undertaker to have that body seen to," he said, summarizing the relevant events, or at least the information he deemed needing passed on.

"Did any of you find something worth passing on last night that the rest of us need to know?"

Having been sent off on his own the previous night, Daniel was curious what the others had to say about what happened. He had been briefly told that there was a murder by Randolph, but then sent off by the man, which was more than a bit suspicious. Daniel was curious what the others had to say but had nothing yet to say in response to Wyatt Earp.

The shaman uncurled himself from his favoured spot by the wall. "I asked the window what passed through: the thing that killed the spy was big like a man, but not so big as Dalix, and shaped like a man also: it puts its shoulder into the glass with point first, yes? Not all the...round, top of the arm, as a woman must."

"It is faster than a man, that it can come from the corner, cut off bits whilst the woman is gone, turn itself in the air not to land flat from how it was charging, and go far away before the blood stops running, as it was when I came there. And it is more...tough, that it is not sliced up in little bits, though Uncle found some cloth caught - it does not wear armour."

Sky Dog considered for a moment after this statement. "I think it is less clever than a man also, to jump at the window like a little bird when poor Suzie is just making noise. It would not take so long to open!"

Gabby yawned and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long, long night, and he hadn't slept so well. He petted Clementine absently...it didn't looks like she or Danial had found anything during their excursion.

He tried to make sense of what Sky Dog was telling them...without coffee, his brain was a bit muddled, and the Siberian Indian seemed to be making even less sense than normal.

"So we're talkin' about somethin' that ain't human doin' this?" he asked. "Shaped like a person, but ain't been cut up by glass? Is that why it wanted to take the head and arms with it? For food or somethin'? We never did find them." he yawned again. "The dead man was a spy fer the Yankees. Found credentials on him while I was lookin' him over. I was thinkin' that maybe he was killed to shut him up, some kind o' spy games, but if the killer ain't human, then who knows why this man was attacked. And why didn't it kill Suzy when it had the chance? Seems to me, the body-parts it done stole were important somehow. You don't cut a man's head and arms off and then take them with you, with all the chance o' been seen that entails, without some kind o' reason."

"I have little to add other than I saw the woman and man having a very heated discussion the day of the murder.  He seemed to be trying to bully her into something, though left quickly when he saw us watching."  Fan open, she waved it lazily in front of her face to stir up her own personal breeze.  "How is the colored boy doing?  Did the doctor tend him as well?"

"I have seen it in...Alaska, where the shaman builds a thing and sends it. Maybe Suzie sees this and is frightened out of sense, though if it was not sent for her, it would not harm her, or any other person that did not-" the shaman frowned at a mental gearcrunch and made grabbing motions "-catch onto it. The arms, I do not know, but the head of the shaman's enemy is good proving that he is dead. Do you know what the doctor said of the wounds, Wyitterp?"

Cora's manner of referring to a man slightly older than him got a puzzled twitch of a frown, but a thought stirred and he turned to Morgan. "Jackson did tell me his arm had been first set on the street - do you know maybe who did that?"

"I never caught the name of the man that set Jackson's arm," Morgan said, "His accent made me think he hailed from the Deep South. He was also quite drunk. I was honestly surprised he could stand, much less provide help to anyone."

Randolph sits in the window, looking spruce and well-rested. He reaches into his pocket and pulls forth a slightly crumpled paper. "Here are the dead man's credentials. They don't say anything more than that, not even a name, which seems prudent." He muses for a moment, rubbing his closely-shaved chin.

"I keep wondering how someone cuts two arms and a head off a sleeping man, gathers them up, and crashes through a window while carrying the arms and head and the weapon used, and lands in the alley without dropping any of its burdens? Then scampers off through Dodge without anyone noticing." He chuckles mirthlessly, shaking his head.

"I mean, a head's not a handy thing to pick up, let alone carry. It seems he must have had a sack or valise to stow the appendages in.

"Doc Smith have any opinion what sort of implement was used for the dissection?"

Darling picks up on Sky Dog's question and Morgan's comment: "Sounds like the Good Samaritan could have been the fellow I stood to a drink in the Dog Eye. He seemed like a regular. McNary may know who he is."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:07, Sat 23 Mar 2013.

The soft whistled whisper of wingbeats heralded Korpi's arrival via the open door. She landed on Earp's desk and laid down a freshly-bludgeoned young rat with a *spak* of its tail against the list. "Yasak," she explained with corvid gravity, and nudged the gift towards the Deputy Marshal. "Koorr...yasak."

Sky Dog shuddered a little without noticing. "A shaman or a medicine-worker can do some things he is long trained for, drunk; it might be well to speak with him." The shaman rubbed his arm absently and gave the fuzzy far corner of the room a wary glance. "He was on the street soon after and may be aware of...strangenesses." To Darling, he added: "It maybe has blades in its form, this all-carrier. It did not use a tool to break the glass."

He grinned at Gabby. "Maybe it is an eater of arms! Ah, but it will be well to speak to the medicine drunkard - he also has nearby a room in the Dog Eye, I think."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:17, Sat 23 Mar 2013.

"Not only that," Gabby says in reply to Randolph, "Now, there was a lot o' attention out front with the attack on that poor negro, but someone in that crowd must have seen somethin'. Maybe them Wilderness Riders saw somethin' land, chased it, then saw the negro and assumed the worst. But where did the blood go?"