Re: V - Buckshot
Kansas Kate walked the length of the saloon taking sips while checking every window, every corner, doing her best to ensure they weren't being snooped on. It's not like she actually had the power to ensure such as the case in any event, but much like the farce with leaving the headless corpse.
She sniffed the air at the dandy non-doctor. "Kansas Kate. Ya say th' whole thing. Coop says yer all right yer all right." She inspected his rig with an inscrutable expression. She paid an inordinate amount of attention to weapons and hands, it wasn't just the good Doctor's that got this treatment, but she was more familiar with the others if only slightly.
Once she was satisfied, Kansas Kate, her bottle perhaps two thirds down, began.
"After Jesse Evans were done convinced ah done kilt Tom O'Folliard, he done sent me ta meet his boss man, Dolan. Dolan offered me a contract ta kill Perez th' school-ma'arm. Ah accepted it, on accout of he said 'take care of her', not kill 'er, though that's what he were expectin', clear as day. Ol' Kansas Kate was 'a gonna play Prairie Lawyer with 'im.
"Ah managed to get Perez cornered and was a' tryin' ta talk her into an okey-doke ta pull Dolan along. But t'were a trap, Murphy hisself, Frank Baker, Jesse Evans, an' Dolly Graham were lyin' in wait, couple others too but ah didn't get them names."
Kansas Kate took a sip.
"They left me outside fer dead, but that Injun Wolf feller came and worked some Injun medicine." And that medicine was firewater Kansas Kate didn't say out loud.
"Since they knew ah weren't gonna kill no damn school teacher, them little chickenshits sent Graham and a feller called Bill Spawn ta kill Tom O'Folliard. Ah don't know how he done it, but damn that Injun is smarter'n a rawhide whip what's been left ta soak overnight.
"Ah got damn lucky, th' Injun happened ta take me up to th' perfect ambush spot. Spawn and Graham are dead. O'Folliard's gone back to th' Tunstall Ranch to round up a posse. We switched clothes with th' dead so Murphy's gang might think th' job was done an' Graham an' Spawn's still 'live. Sent Graham's body off wit' th' Injun. Blew Bill Spawn's head off with this here scattergun while he were a wearin' Folliard's duds, left his body in that cave Folliard were a hidin' in."
Kate hoped that was sufficiently laconic.
"Now what ah'm about ta tell you all sounds plumb loco. Two days ago, if you'd told me things like this, ah'd have shot you in th' face ta make ya shut up. But this here, this ain't like nothin' ah seen before, not that ah done seen everythin' there ever were under the sun.
"But ah have learnt plenty. Murphy has an unholy power, he makes th' cold of hell itself come forth an' fights like a monster. It ain't nat'ral.
"Graham... 'fore she died, she gave up everythin' she had on them. Ah reckon she were either pressed inta her sitch-ee-ashun, or were just hired ta do a job an' got in over her head. While she were bleedin' out, she lost any loyalty she had to Murphy and company. She told me thin's. Weird, disurbin' thin's.
"Jesse Evans is th' only one what ever talks direct to Murphy, who don't leave the ranch much, and he ain't never seen, exceptin' at night. Dolan is th' day to day boss."
Another whiskey sip.
"Graham done said Murphy has a power from the Capitan Peaks, that somethin' happened ta him when he took a wagon train up that way. Ah don't think Murphy can rightly be kilt proper until we takes that power 'way from him. There's another feller ah gots ta find, names Roberts, probably knows somethin'. Ah could use help, ah shoot people, ah don't find 'em."
She emptied the bottle. All in all she'd done a decent job of not going on too long about it all, and leaving out certain... parts, but those wouldn't really help the situation right now anyway. She indulged in a bit of sophistry.
"Ya believes me or ya don't. Ya'll... ah am a piece of human trash. Ah kill, steal, cheat, murder, 'n cuss. T'were all I was ever good fer. But this has gone beyond natural, normal or sane, this here's about destroyin' somethin' wrong. There's th' evil that were meant to be in th' world, an' then there's this horse shit."
She sighed, stopped her philosophizing, and moved on. "Find th' man Roberts, undoes whatever it is that makes Murphy so damn chickenshit, an' then ah, or whoever gets there first ah reckon, kills Jesse Evans, Frank Baker an' Dolan. Reckon we oughtta take a moment to gather up all th' blasting supplies, ammunition, horses an' weapons while we find Roberts, an' Dolan', well that's a Lincoln job if'n ah ever heard a one. And let me make this real clear, either they gonna die, or ah am. Ah don't give a damn no more, they done signed their death warrants when they crossed Kansas Kate."
Again. She thought after saying she was going to die.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:01, Sat 20 July 2019.