I took an oath for this job. The oath says bring him in. That's what I'll do.
Charlie arrived on the scene at the same time as Phin McVey. He could imagine the headline of the next edition of the Kalispell Union but how Phin would remember was another question. The man had one too many and it might be a good idea to escort him home or to jail depending on intoxicated he was but there wasn't time for that. The body of the whore house madam needed to be moved off the street before anyone else came along.
As he was waited, he quickly inspected the body and it looked like another victim of strangulation...which would make it three in about as many months. The first two could have been a coincidence but to have three was very concerning. This time around the deed had been done outside and so there would be a lack of clues. Still, he would at least write down what he could see for now and perhaps, after Jolly had check the body, there might be more.
Looking up he could see Amos and Jolly making their way towards them. Charlie walked around the body a little bit more to see if he could anything that might tell who or why this had happened.
@ [Flip]
@ [Javia
Amos and Malcom were walking toward where the body was, and Amos had a couple of questions he needed to ask the mortician,
"Now I was wonderin', is there like a finders fee fer the body? Ol' Ezra tripped over it, so if there's one, it'd go ta him." He asked, then he continued, "An' ain't you got a wagon, er at least a cart to move the dee ceased?" Both seemed to be important information to an ex-bounty hunter.
Although he was semi-retired there was always that occasional wanted poster that caught his eye and looked like an easy one. Amos Conroy was no youngster anymore, and he was no longer up to long chases or lengthy shootouts with these younmger desparados, no he was after the older wanted men who were a bit easier to snag.
He would look into this latest body, he was aware that there had been two others, was this one the third, he hadn't had a good look at old Sally Adams to see how she died, if she didn't just fall over dead from a hearty attack, or some such.
@Javia
Storyteller / Shared NPC
Ezra and Amos were pretty close to two peas in a pod when Ezra was sober, and he was now as sober as a judge after stumbling over Sally Adams, a woman he had admired from afar, but then, who'd want a shiftless drunk for a husband, after putting up with her clientle, more than half of which were usually stinking drunk, besides stinking in general.
He stood watching as Malcome and Amos came up to the body, Amos stepping aside to examine the body, that gave Ezra thje opportunity to step over to where Amos stood and speak to him, "Maybe we ought to get the Marshal, if he's in town\. You know this here's the third one like this? Strangled." He stated, "I herad about the other two, ol' Jasper Nichols, wouldn't ham a fly but cheat ya out of enough to buy a bottle overt the General Store, and then Annie Hayden, pretty little thing. Taken right in her bedroom up to the whorehouse."
"Both'a them strangled like 'at?" Amos asked.
"Yep. Didn't see 'em, but I was told by folks who did, 'er were told by them." Ezra replied, nodding all the while. "It's one person doin' this, Amos. Just one."
Amos walked over to Charlie Wentworth and said, "Charlie, I think maybe we oughtta get Speed down here ta have himself a look see, and you kin tell him about how the other two's just the same as this one. We got us a killer on are hands!"
@JulieS @Javia
I took an oath for this job. The oath says bring him in. That's what I'll do.
Charlie knew about the rumours that were flying about town. A lot of people had concluded that the first two were done by the same person and would probably add this one to the list. The problem was that there was no evidence to connect all three murders together besides the fact that they were all strangled. In fact, the murders of Annie Hayden and now Sally Adams had more in common than either of them had with the first murder.
He looked at Amos and shook his head, "The Marshall could be anywhere in town and it might take a while to find him. Besides, the sooner we get the body off the streets the better as I don't want a crowd gathering."
Turning to the undertaker, he nodded, "Mister Jolly, you can take her away."
As he watched, Charlie sighed before speaking again to Amos, "Marshall Guyer has read the reports I've written about the previous two murders and we both agreed that it was probably a coincidence. Now there's a third and I'm beginning to think that they might have been done by the same person but there's still no proof that they are. Whoever, the killer is and if he or she is responsible for all three deaths, then they are very good at leaving nothing to chance."
@[Flip]
"Go head on Malcom, Guyer can see 'er over't the mortuary." Amos agreed, then to Charlie, "Speed's in the mining comp'ny office. Stays upstairs, don't care ta have him an' Alice's names sullied. So that'd be no problem ta get him. You're a good man, Charlie, an' likely Speed's replacement, less ol' Mathew's got him some ideeta hire someone else." Amos informed him.
"Word I hear is, ol' pike might be on his way out. That ranch is a lot of work an' takes up lot's a time. An them with a young 'un already an' mebee more on the way, he's runnin' short on time to be loungin' in that office. Just sayin', you stand to make out aw'right, one way 'er tuther in this lawdog bidness." And what he was telling Charlie was true, at least to him. What could happen? That was not set in stone just yet, but it would not be long before the mining business pulled Speed away from the Marshal's job.
It was not as though the conversation went unnoticed, hardly. At that hour, there were still a few out on the street. Although they had not caught on that there was a body in the street, actually to the side of it, near the alley. And Charlie had been right to want Sally Adams's body off the street.
One set of eyes was directly on the knot of men around the body. Eyes curious to see what the men were doing. But, the men spoke in low tones that could not be heard by the watcher. Eyes searching the area for any sign that could have been left, but it was dark, and the light was poor, at best, from the lanterns that were hung on the buildings. If there was anything, it seemed clear the men had not noticed it, so the watcher slipped deeper into the shadows.
@JulieS
@Javia
Mr Jolly, who usually saw dead bodies through the filter of dollar signs in his eyes, seemed very upset at the sight of Mrs Adams' dead body. He was one of her most loyal customers, always choosing her over the younger and more lovely prostitutes in her employ. To be fair, that was mainly because she was cheaper, but still.
"Och, the poooor woman, th' pooor, pooor woman. She's wi' the Angel the noo, y'ken." he kept intoning as he and his young assistant, Raymond Matthews got her onto a stretcher-like board and carried her off.
Ten minutes later Raymond was back and skittered up to Deputy Charlie.
"Sir, Mister Jolly says he'll leave the body, er, Mrs Adams, as she is for now in case you want Doctor Danforth to examine the body, but he reckons it's that same strangler feller that did Sad Annie and that Store Clark feller that always used to short change folk. Something about a ... what was it he called it... a ligature." he panted, a little breathless from carrying Mrs Adams' not inconsiderable bulk and then running back to the 'Scene of Crime'.
"Every town needs a newspaper."
Phin McVay stepped out of the door of the Kalispell Union's office. He stretched and yawned. Thje night was cool, partly cloudy, and the half moon shed enough light to almost see by. There were two coal oil lamps mounted on either side of the hotel entrance, and their light illuminated Deputy Charlie Wentworth, two figures easily recognizable, Amos Conroy and Ezra Klienfeld. Also in that gaggle of human beings was old Malcom Jolly and his boy Raymond Matthews.
In the middle, another body.
Pulling his coat closed, he started for the gathering. If this were another strangling, he needed to print the news to warn folks of the danger present in their town. This would be three victims, and that was three too many as far as he was concerned. As he got closer, just as Raymond started off toward the mortuary, he recognized the body as that of the Cat House madame, Sally Adams. He recognized the shawl she wore daily, rain or shine. That gave him pause for several minutes.
"Even fellas, looks like we got us another strangling." He noted, as Raymond came rushing back to the group, Charley Wentworth, in particular, was still gathered at the scene.
"Sir, Mister Jolly says he'll leave the body, er, Mrs Adams, as she is for now, in case you want Doctor Danforth to examine the body, but he reckons it's that same strangler feller that did Sad Annie and that Store Clark feller that always used to short change folk. Something about a ... what was it he called it... a ligature."
Phin smiled, yes, a ligature, that would be the term for a device used to strangle someone. So, it was a third victim of a murderer who rarely, if ever, left anything but a body behind.
"Well Deputy, I cannot in good conscience, leave this to word of mouth as I had agreed on the last one. The late Miss Hayden. This needs to get out, and the sooner the better." Phin announced,
I took an oath for this job. The oath says bring him in. That's what I'll do.
"Thanks Raymond," Charlie replied.
"Well Deputy, I cannot in good conscience, leave this to word of mouth as I had agreed on the last one. The late Miss Hayden. This needs to get out, and the sooner the better." Phin announced.
"I wish you would reconsider or at least leave it until Marshal Guyer can give you a statement. However, if you can't, then...well..."
He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. A story in the Kalispell Union would just add fuel to the rumour mill that was surrounding these murders already. Even though McVay was right in a way about letting people know what was going on he wasn't sure if now was a good time. The lack of evidence to link all three murders to the one killer was something that annoyed and frustrated him.
"Other than the link between Miss Hayden and Miss Adams, there is no real logic to all of this. Whoever the person or persons are that behind the killings...they know what they are doing. It's almost like they've..."
Stopping himself before he voiced what has just occurred to him, he turned to Phin. "Well, it looks like they know the law and they're making sure they don't leave any behind to incriminate themselves."
@[Flip]
"No Irish!"
More and more people were gathering to look at the sad sight, either coming out from their homes or rolling out of the saloon late. Mrs Wigfall was one of them (the former, of course). She was standing close to the two men and had the sharp ears of a gossip.
"What's that you say? This has happened before?!" she shrieked shrilly. "This woman was no more than a trollop, and got no less than she deserved, but what about decent women like myself and my daughter?! It's bad enough that my son got gunned down in the street alongside poor Mr Falmer Browne, but now this!! What's the law doing about it Deputy, what are you doing about it?!! And YOU..." she pointed an accusatory finger at McVey "You need to report this in that sorry excuse for a newspaper you run! Women need to be warned! I'm all in favour of clearing the streets of these painted trollops, but next time this monster might pick on a decent woman!"
Her hand flew to her chest and she looked like she was about to swoon (Mary Wigfall had never swooned in her life). "Oh! To think, it could be my poor innocent delicate daughter next!!" (Jemima Wigfall was 4 weeks pregnant and could crack walnuts in the crook of her arm, it might be added).
Amos stood listening to Mary Wigfall going on about her daughter, who was anything but innocent or delicate. And her son, Hector, was indeed shot and survived after acting heroically in a gun battle sometime back. And he agreed that McVay needed to print a warning not just to the women of Kalispell, as the irrational woman demanded, but to everyone about the threat that was real. There was a killer among them, an indiscriminate killer who might well have attacked him instead of Sally Adams.
The idea of McVay not following up with a blazing headline about the murders was preposterous! "The idea that a murderer is running loose on the streets of Kalispell cannot, will not, be tolerated, I assure you. I know that Marshal Guyer has been working on the other two murders, and with this one, he will increase his efforts, but with no clues to go on, it makes it very hard to build a case or even consider anyone as a suspect."
It was not Charlie Wentworth who saw it, hardly; it was none other than Ezra Klienfeld who saw something where Sally's body had been lying. He got his bearings, spraddled his legs wide, and stooped down, scooping up a button with a piece of what could be plaid wool material.
"Deputy? Ya might wanna have a look at this. Betcha ol' Sally tore this loose as she was dyin'." He surmised, holding the button and cloth in the palm of his outstretched hand as Amos steadied the inebriated so he didn't fall over.
