Calamity Crater: New Frontier

2005_devil's_rejects_005.jpgTime: 9:30 AM
Location: Livestock yard, west end of Calamity crater
Mood: Confused/determined

Castor opened one sleep heavy eye slowly. A slimy mist sprayed across his face.

"What the fuc…"

Again he was sprayed with a warm, wet slime that smelt like hay. He opened his other eye and was face to face with a black cow.

"The fuck? Not again."

Castor rewound the events from last night. His near conflict in the bar, meeting the black smith's daughter, drinking his ass off, trying to find a motel, being turned away from the hotel, stumbling to the livestock yard located on the west end of town, and passing out in the Cow pen. He was accustom to sleeping outside, but not with one ton beasts sneezing alfalfa juice on his face. He sat up, rubbing the back of his head. The cow stared him down. Castor swatted at it's nose with the back of a glove clad hand.

"YA!, get the fuck outta my way." He stood up, not at all concerned with the dirt and cow shit that was caked to his back. This streak of bad luck had to stop, one bad thing after another. TIme to hit the blacksmith and get the hell out of this dump.

You're covered in shit, get your ass cleaned up!

The voice of his father barked in his head.

"I will, you miserable fuck. I just gotta get my ride fixed first.

I am sure you will fail, just like you grew up to be a wandering degenerate, worthless excuses for a human being....

"Shut the fuck up."

Castor was having a conversation with himself when he heard the scream. His strained to hear where it was coming from so he could go the opposite direction. Then cringed as he realized it was right where he needed to be. If he remembered correctly, Downtown was the blacksmith.

Castor dusted himself off, and washed his face in a large water trough. He needed to get across town, hopefully, without getting involved with whatever was going on.

He made his way to the blacksmith. Walking past the Blue Belle bar, where he had been last night, and noticing a group of people and what appeared to be the Law.

Keep walking, keep walking, keep, walking. He told himself, knowing that with his luck, that if he stopped, he would get tied up in whatever the hell was going on. Luckily the blacksmith was close by, and most of the people were too caught up and didn't notice him walking down the other side of the street.

He got to the black smith, letting the door slam on it's metal hinges on his way in.
 
Time: 8:50-9:10 am
Location: Near the alley behind Blue Belle
Mood: Focused, tense

Reilan had slept well enough the night before, the pain in his feet was dull now and didn't effect him as much. He had come over to see what the commotion was, standing off from the crowd and smoking a self-rolled cigarette. Wasn't long before the crowd was dispersed enough for the sheriff to get a look at the body. The sheriff turned out to be a woman, Reilan had only ever knew of one other female sheriff. Leaning against a rail he watched as the law examined the corpse, hoping she wouldn't disturb any traces before he could take a look at it.

Several minutes passed, the sheriff had gone and questioned a couple people and now left down the road to the blacksmith's shop. Reilan had finished his cigarette by then and waited a bit longer before pushing himself off the rail toward the corpse only when no one seemed to be looking. He didn't want anyone thinking he was tampering with the corpse. Around the body there were many tracks, from the people who had come to ogle at it, the only thing Reilan could gather from them was how the kill went down, it was vivid in his mind's eye. He could see where they had had their fun, before things got ugly. He could imagine the frightened look in her eyes as she stared at the man, if she had screamed some one would have heard, the shock must have silenced her. He could see where she was snatched up from and how she kicked briefly as the maniac gutted her.

Reilan turned away from the scene to look at the tracks that were around him, although he knew it was futile to try, he couldn't find the trail of the killer because the ogling civilians had effectively obliterated the killers foot prints. Letting out a breath he turned back to look at the corpse and it's wounds. They weren't gashes like an animal's claw but lacerations from a knife. Judging from the angles, the man was right handed, brutal and precise. Reilan had an approximation of the man's height from the angle of the slashes and from the size of the footprints but it wasn't conclusive enough for him to just start going around and shooting people. That was all Reilan could decipher from the scene and he stood up and started away from the corpse. Despite Reilan's precaution people had noticed him examining the body, hopefully they wouldn't panic and think he was the killer and all band together to form their own raging mob out to inflict their own personal brand of improvised justice. Gods know it wouldn't be the first time.
 
Time: 9:50 am
Location: Stonewall Blacksmith Shoppe
Mood: Working

~~~

Jolene was focused solely on her work when the door to the blacksmith shoppe was suddenly hurled open. The bang was enough to jolt her from her thoughts as she turned to see who had walked in, "I'll be with you in one moment sir!" she called over the roar of fire as she continued to shape the material she was working on. After a few more strokes she set the materials aside carefully before wiping her hands off on her apron and lifting her goggles. Walking toward the entrance she came face to face with the white haired man from the previous night.

A grin spread across her soot stained face as she brushed some hair from her face, "Ah so you remembered. Good morning" she chuckled some, "So tell me, what can we do for you today, sir?"

It was simply formality. She already knew that he'd come to get his ride fixed. Now what was it exactly about his ride he needed? Her mind was a little fuzzy at that. "Did you bring your ride along?" it was much easier to have the actual material to work with than go off someone's description. It wasn't impossible but she preferred to make things fit perfectly. Soon after she'd finished speaking her father had arrived through the door to start helping with work. He glanced at Castor curiously and then looked toward Jolene, "Jolene, we have some orders to deliver" he said calmly. He kept glancing toward Castor untrustingly, but perhaps it was just the way the man looked. He was...rough. Jolene was his daughter, he had his priorities.
 
2005_devil's_rejects_005.jpgTime: 9:51 AM
Location: Stonewell blacksmith
Mood: slightly aggitated


Castor recognized, but couldn't immediately recall the name of the girl. She had been at the bar last night, the one talking with the 'lawdog', the lawdog Castor presumed to be a hardened bounty hunter, but later turned out to be a pushover. Somehow her soot covered face made him feel more at ease. He coughed, twice and hard, spittle spraying across the air in front of him.

"Yeah, my ride. It's about a mile or so out of town. Can't drive it. You gotta way to tow the sucker?" He flinched inwardly at the voice of a man saying they had some orders to deliver, were the order so important that he felt the need to barge in and interrupt a paying customer? he grabbed wad of cash from his back pocket.

"I got money. I can show you where it is"

Castor ripped his eyes away from the girl, and to the man, who's untrusting eyes were penetrating.

"You got a fucking problem asshole?"

He slammed some money on the counter, turning back to the girl.

"I just want to get towed and get the fuck outta here. That's it."
 
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: Outside of Blue Belle
Mood: Nervous

-----

Darshanna trekked over to the vicinity of the crime, her face displaying no emotion. She carried herself with confidence, as if staring fear itself in the face. In one of her hands, she had a little instrument that made a quiet shaking noise with each fluid motion her hand made. Nobody was likely to know what she was doing exactly. Aside from the bit of music comforting her as it reminded the Native of her home, she was using it to guide her towards the disaster. The spirits responded to her music with the same sounds she made. Sometimes, she wished people could sense what she sensed.

Wordlessly, she stood near the front door of the bar. There was a sheriff investigating the scene, so she didn't want to interfere. This town had its rules and ways of dealing with issues. Darshanna was nothing but an inhabitant and a lonely store owner. If the people wanted her help, they would ask. In the meantime, she made herself available. As well, learning all she could about the murder would assure peace in the future. For as long as she felt disturbed, she'd never be able to sleep or eat. Being a shaman came with many hardships.

The instrument was given a few final shakes before she stored it back into the pouch slung over her shoulder. While she stood by, listening in on what she could from where she was, she distracted herself with her walking stick. A few of her lithe fingers stroked along the feathers dangling from the skull, memories instantly playing in her mind. There were memories of her childhood, but also flashbacks of experiences the shamans before her had. Sometimes, looking to those helped her find her way. Although she was good at what she did, she was still fairly new at this. Darshanna didn't expect to be quite as wise or as powerful for many, many years from now.

With a sigh, she lowered the staff and looked out at the town.
 
Time: 9:52 am
Location: Stonewall Blacksmith
Mood: Determined

<img src="http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/088/7/6/jane_rizzoli_by_russianet-d4ub3f7.jpg" align="left" height="180" width="140" />Before she could walk over to any of the shops, Ray had to finish some of the interviews inside the Belle. It took a little longer than she wanted, since she had to deal with the other women that worked there being distraught over the murder.

Once she could leave, she went towards the blacksmith shop. Stepping inside she caught the tail end of the customer's irate sentence and cleared her throat.

"I'm afraid you can't leave just yet, sir," she told him with a slight grin. "Y'see, there's been a murder and nobody's leaving town until it's been solved. So, you can either stay in town voluntarily, or I'll make sure you stay here at the station."
 
Time: 10:02 am
Location: Discreet porch
Mood: Observant

The next place to investigate was the Saloon where the girl worked. Reilan had planned on asking the girls and other folk that worked there about the girl and who she had been with the night before, much like the sheriff was doing as he walked in. Instead, with the sheriff asking the question, took a seat and ordered a drink for himself and focused on listening to the questions asked and the answers given. There wasn't much to be found out. Having done her job the sheriff left the saloon. Reilan ordered another drink before heading out of the saloon himself, he was going to watch the scene of the crime for a while, perhaps the criminal would return to the scene if he hadn't already.

He found a discreet porch and sat himself down with a decent view of where the girl had been killed and lit another cigarette as he waited. Reilan saw the shaman woman doing her shaman thing, he was reluctant to consider her a suspect. The facts hinted toward male, but he had been wrong before. For the duration of his cigarette and then some he sat and watched.
 
~~~

Jolene's father gave the sheriff a look of surprise, "A murder. You sure about that? I mean we may be an outside city but still. Calamity hasn't had any murders within the walls before" her father exclaimed. Jolene listened to this all with a minor fascination. A murder within Calamity Crater! Well that was the shock of the year! Yet somehow exciting. Who was the killer? Why were they killing? Also--

"Who died?" she spoke out. Eyes glanced toward her as she quickly covered her mouth, "Er. well you know, it might be good to know. I mean we are a close community and all and I would hate to think someone important was gone or a friend of mine--" she trailed off. Her father gave her a dry look that quickly made her quiet and glanced toward her feet.

"Er well either way, we can fix yer ride, but it seems you might be stuck here for a while sir." She gave a polite nod at Castor. Poor guy. Seemed he just wanted to bail on town as fast as he could. Then again, maybe it was because HE was the killer. Her heart started to race at that thought. An uncomfortable silence befell the place.
 
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