Just back into town, the former bounty hunter crossed the street toward the hotel, he had enough money for a room for the night and a meal in that high falutin restaurant of theirs. it had been a good trip, there was money owed him, and money collected. It had been a bit to get south to collect, but the money was there when he arrived in Deer Lodge. And that called for a night on the town such as it was.
But now he was home again and he still had most of the money he was paid. A night on the town wasn't what it once was, there were no hurdy-gurdy girls, no bar room floozies sitting on his lap, trying to get him upstairs for a quick roll, and maybe roll him in the process, he'd been down that trail once before in Dodge City.
He saw the madam, Missus Adams and as she passed he tipped his hat to her before entering the Belle St, Regis hotel. Little did he realize that he had just missed losing his life, and perhaps taking down the killer of now three people in town. What was a celebratory evening complete with a beef steak dinner and a bath, Misses Adams was choked to death, not thirty feet from that very entrance! And it might well have been him, waiting in the darkness to be discovered.
Storyteller / Shared NPC
There are those who are unaware, and there are those who are barely aware, Ezra Klinefeld was somewhere in the middle as he made his way up the street in his usual evening stupor, much like his afternoon stupor, it was just later in the day. Plodding his way up the street humming to himself, some tune that no one would recognize looking for a place where he might pass out for the night That was when he tripped over something and crashed to his knees, dropping to his face and simply laying there barely attempting to gather his senses.
Normally one would look to see what had tripped them up, but not Ezra. In his drunken haze, little made much sense to him. Ever so slowly, and exerting a good deal of energy Mister Klinefeld rolled half over and looked down the length of his body to see waht had been in his way, it took a few moments to focus on what initially appeared to be a large lump just off to the side of the boardwalk where his unsteady gait had carried him. As he focused in on the lump, it became a black coat, and as he lifted himself there was a leg exposed, with pantaloons and a shoe!
It was a body! "Help!" He tried to call out, then three more attempts before anyone might have heard his cries.
Ezra scrambled to his feet, terrified! 'They could and would blame him for this!' He thought. he stepped back far enough to see who it was, Missus Adams! he stumbled around trying to get his drunken bearings, trying to decide what to do as he yelled for help again.
He had seen dead men before during his time in the war. But he had never seen a dead woman! Not on the streets of Kalispell, not anywhere! This was horrible! He was still scrambling about falling and getting up again, unsure of what to do, but he could not take his eyes off of Missus Adams.
Hearing a call for help as he came back out of the front door of the hotel top fetch his saddlebags, Amos Conroy turned toward the sound of the call, it was Ezra Kleinfeld, now what in the dickens what old drunk hollering about, he wondered, but did his best to run and see what the problem was.
Just short of a few steps from Ezra that he saw what the problem was, Sally Adams, the madam from the whore house, laying dead next to the alleyway. And Ezra paniced.
"Hold on son," Amos said, as he grabbed the man. "Yer fine, let's us gwan overt the Marshall's Office as get young Depatee Wentworth afore some do-gooder thinks we done this here killin'!" With one hand ahold of Ezra's bicep, the two men made their way to the office where Charlie should be.
@JulieS
I took an oath for this job. The oath says bring him in. That's what I'll do.
Charlie leaned back in the chair and put his feet up on the desk. In a few minutes he would have to make the next patrol. Since it was a Thursday night, he would make one or two more patrols before sleeping for an hour or two. The only nights he had to stay fully awake was on Friday and Saturday when the cowboys plus others from the outlying farms, ranches and mines would be in town causing a ruckus. Thankfully, the rest of the week was fairly quiet he was able to get some sleep between midnight and six. One of these days, he would be back to working during the day and then maybe he could think about other things like his social life which had been severely hampered. However, in the long run, it would be worth it as he knew that being a lawman was the only thing he really wanted to do.
He had just gotten a bit more comfortable when the door to the office flew open. Standing up quickly, he was surprised to see that it was Amos Conroy and Ezra Klinefeld. His first thought that Conroy had brought Ezra to the jail to sleep his latest round of drinking. Since this was a regular occurrence, Charlie went over to help Amos take Ezra to the cell.
"Well, Ezra it looks like you've had another good night on the town. Thanks Mister Conroy for bringing him in."
@ [Flip
"No siree he ain't!" Amos stated, "Ezra here flat tripped over Sally Adams, who's layin' dead in the street, overt the alleyway."
"I didn't do it Charlie, honest ta God I didn't" Ezra pleaded.
Nope he shore didn't, why he was runnin' 'round like one foot was nailed to the ground, trippin' over hissef he was. Tryin' ta yell fer help, but no louder than we're talkin'. Jest couldn't get it out I reckon." Amos explained. "Best you go have a look. "Anything I kin do ta hep, you jes say the word.
JulieS
I took an oath for this job. The oath says bring him in. That's what I'll do.
Charlie took a moment to think. Sally Adams...how and why? Maybe she just up and died in the middle of the street. As a woman of the night, she would have been susceptible to many things that could have ended her life. Whatever it was, it was his job to find out.
"I need one of you to show where her body is and the other to go get Mister Jolly," Charlie said as he made his way to the door. "We can't leave her out there for too long."
@Flip
Amos smiled, "Good Idee, Ezra, ya wanna get ol' man Jolly out here?
"Yes sue I kin do that, I'll fetch him an' we-we'll be right back." He was still a bit on the drunk side of things.
"I'll go after we show the depity the body. Best I do this. Now, I figger ain't likely that she jest flopped over dade, Charlie. No siree. But best you have a looksee fer yerself" He said as they started to where Sally Adams lay.
Once they reached the body, Amos headed for the undertaker's office to fetch Malcom Jolly. Of course there was no telling if the man was up or sleeping, but he would soon find out. It did not take long to reach the mortuary am]nd Amos wasted no time banging on the door.
@Javia @JulieS
The funeral business is dying, I tell ye, dying on its feet!
He might have known... Mr Jolly never slept! Or so it seemed. No matter what hour of day or night the recently bereaved required his gruesome services, the spectre-like old Scot would be ready to loom at the deathbed of the deceased: clad in black, tape-measure at the ready.
"Och! Mister Conroy is it not?!" Jolly murmured as he cracked open the door of his funeral parlour and taking the measure of the man (5'10"and a wee bit extra, a little wide in the girth but able to be stuffed into a standard coffin if they got him in before he started to bloat).
"I take it ye've come about some sad fell business" he asked, trying not to rub his hands together in glee.
"Dern tootin" I have, now that whorehouse Madam's laying dade in the street an' we'll be needin' yer services right quick afore she starts ta ripen." Amos informed him, "Cain't say as how long she was dade, but I saw her alive afore I went inta the hotel. I come back out an' ol' Ezra's screamin' about a body an' he didn't do 'er." Which was pretty close to the way it was.
"We got young deppity Wentworth out there with her an' Ezra right now, so, soon's you can we'd be abliged, Mister Jolly.: He finished. Amos stood looking at the thin man, waiting for him to get himself motivated. Amos had no idea that this was another murder by the strangler, or that he might well have been the one lying dead on Main Street!
Storyteller / Shared NPC
About this time, one Phineas McVay stepped out for a stroll, and why? Maybe just to get some fresh air, maybe to get a little sober, or maybe he had nothing better to do, and it seemed like a good idea. Sometimes a man steps out of his office, or his home, and into something more than the night air. Something of a mystery that had kind of been hush hush for a spell. Another murder.
Right there in the middle of main street, well off to the side if you're persnickety about things like that, lay what would be the third victim of a strangulation. Was he ever in luck? This was a banner headline of the best kind! And he was Johnny on the spot for it, and reasonably sober for it. Sober enough that Deputy Wentworth would not haul him off to the calaboose for drunk and disorderly, and he just might get an interview in the bargain. And there was old Ezra Kleinfeld almost steady on his feet, and comin' up the street, Amos Conroy with Undertaker Malcom Jolly in tow.
They all converged on the lifeless body of Missus Sally Adams, Madam of the only whore house in town, which was hardly big enough for the one, much less more than that. But he knew the place to be as clean as one could expect, and Sally was a friend, one that would be missed as she allowed a sampling now and again, but that was neither here nor there in light of the tragedy which had befallen her, and not so long since Annnie Hayden had been killed. That would be three strange deaths in one small town.
Now I know that folks hadn't actually put two and two together, but three of a kind, now that would set 'em on their heels. Hard not to say that three stagulations ain't connected one way 'er tuther. Ought to make Marshal Guyer set up an' take notice. And what about the town council? What'll they have to say?
And then there's the Kalispell Ladies Association.