Hangover forgotten, Annie sprinted her way through the Millpoint streets. Possibilities were racing through her mind. Mitch was involved in the Sheriff's smuggling business somehow, of that she was certain, and it had something to do with the radiation pills. The doctor had said radiation sickness was common in Millpoint, but Annie knew the town had a radiation shield, one that had continuous outages that let radiation leak through and made the residents sick. Then the sick residents went to Mitch for treatment and he sold them the radiation pills. That thread made sense to Annie.
Then there was the other thread. Sheriff Jed drains power from the wind turbine using a power bank that can fry electronics if used improperly, then he takes the power bank to Filch the smuggler who takes it out of town and over to Partee City. How did the two things connect? Did Jed intentionally short the radiation shielding so residents bought more pills from Mitch and then get rid of the evidence by smuggling it out of town? It was possible.
But there were still pieces missing. Who was the mage with the grey threads that killed Jen, Tulvir, and Mitch? And why? Whoever it was had a substantial amount of magical power to throw around, left no tracks, and could move about town unnoticed. If Annie was right, that same mage had used magic to carve out the tunnel Filch accessed the town with too, which meant they have some stake in Jed's smuggling. But why?
The Stranger was close, but there were still too many missing pieces for her liking. She stopped outside the Sheriff's office and took a moment to breathe. She'd been doing an awful lot of running for someone recovering from a stab wound, radiation poisoning, and a night of heavy drinking. She knew her body was going to crash at some point, she just prayed it wouldn't be until after she'd interrogated Jed. She pulled on the handle to the office.
Nothing. The door didn't budge. Well that took a bit of the wind from her sails.
Connor probably had a key, but Annie didn't have time to wait until he got there and she certainly wasn't running back to grab it from him. She should really learn how to pick locks, that would make doors much less of a problem. And handcuffs. In the meantime, she started looking for another way in.
The sheriff's office wasn't much to look at. It was a squat cement T-shaped building with a flat roof and a bland beige paintjob. Annie hadn't been impressed with it when she'd arrived at Millpoint and she remained unimpressed now. The Sheriff's office did have one thing going for it though, it had nice big windows to either side of the door.
Annie whipped out her sword and smashed it into the window, then shoved her arm through and slapped the wall a few times feeling her way towards the door. Then, once her fingers brushed the wood, she brushed them along the edge until she felt the cool metal of the lock. With a quick twist of her fingers and a jerk of her hand, the door to the Millpoint Sheriff's office popped right open. Clearly the Sheriff didn't care much for his building's security.
The glass crunched under Annie's boots as she walked into the office and made a beeline for the Sheriff's desk. She hadn't really taken the time to have a proper look at it before. Her first time in the office she'd ridden 30 hours across an irradiated wasteland and was half delirious, the second time she'd been skewered by a demonic aberration from another dimension and was half delirious. This time she was only hungover and about a quarter delirious, so she was already off to a better start.
It was an enormous desk made of a glossy varnished cherry wood and sported roughly a million and one drawers to search through. Annie usually saw these desks in the offices of men who wanted to appear powerful and thought some shiny pieces of wood were the best way to go about it. Normal things that normal people think, obviously.
Annie shoved the enormous padded chair to get it out of the way and very nearly threw out her shoulder and smashed her head into the desk when it barely moved. She stood up.
”What?” Annie asked no one in particular. She gave the chair an experimental push, it scooted a small distance and stopped again, “What?” she repeated. She began to inspect the chair, getting onto her knees to check the wheels, spinning it back and forth in half turns to try and feel out the weight of it, running her hand up along the back of it looking for an odd seam. Nothing felt off or out of place, so what gives? Annie turned the chair to inspect the front of it and found herself looking at the back again. She paused. Turned the chair to look at the front only to be greeted by the back again.
“What?” Annie said again.
She gave the chair a very forceful turn and felt something smack into her legs and nearly drop her to the floor, then was met with the back of the chair once more. Alright, enough was enough. Annie was going to conquer whatever was going on with the Sheriff’s weird chair. She tapped the little rune on the rim of her glasses and was greeted by a dense and tangled net of light. Grey light, to be exact.
”Motherfucker.” Annie muttered. Sheriff Dickhead had a magic chair. Well, it wouldn’t be magic for long if Annie had anything to say about it. She bit down hard on her thumb, pricking it with her incisor and drawing a tiny trickle of blood. She reached her bleeding thumb towards the grey threads and watched them wither and snap as her blood brushed against them. The grey mage’s spell slowly dissolved away, and Annie recoiled with a gasp..
Sat in the chair, was a corpse.
It was a man, a head or two shorter than Annie with a large grey felt cowboy hat and a crusty brown mustache that covered his upper lip with a short pointed goatee just below his lower. His maroon vest and white collared shirt were covered in dried blood and what remained of his desiccated skin had had begun to rot, making it a perfect breeding ground for the maggots that crawled from the slashes in his neck and wrists and poured from the small bullet hole in this forehead.
This was Sheriff Jed, and he had clearly been dead for several weeks. So who had she and Connor been talking to?
Annie turned away from the corpse and tried to clear her head. So the Sheriff was dead, and somebody was walking around wearing his face. That was bad. How much had Connor told them? This other person had also somehow killed three people with incredible strength and no signs of a struggle, but Jed had completely different wounds, so did they just change methods or was there another party involved? Annie knew at least one mage in town with two pistols and a willingness to use them.
And then Deputy Connor Kenton Junior walked through the door.
”Connor–!” Annie exclaimed.
“Annie? What’s… Oh gods.” Connor placed a hand over his mouth and ran back out the door, Annie heard him retch into the dirt just beyond the threshold. She looked at the Sheriff’s corpse, then followed him outside.
Connor was hunched against the wall, wiping his mouth and gasping between dry heaves. He looked up at Annie, then retched some more.
”I uh…” Annie wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say, “Were you two close?” That seemed like a good enough start.
He spat and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "Is that really him?" Connor glanced towards the doorway and forced down another wave of bile.
"It sure looks like it." Annie was feeling a bit green around the gills herself.
"What do we do now?" he asked her.
"Same as before, find Sheriff Not-Jed and ask him a few questions." Annie patted her pistol emphatically.
"Right... Okay, yeah, right." Connor's voice was hazy. Annie could hardly blame him, it seemed like the Paladin's whole world was falling out from under his feet the last few days.
"You should get some rest, Deputy." Annie said and closed the office door behind her, "I can handle myself."
Connor looked up at her, "No, you shouldn't go by yourself!"
Annie sighed and pulled off her glasses to lock eyes with the Paladin, "Connor, you look like you're about to pass out. I will be monumentally upset if I have to drag your unconscious ass around because you refused to take a damn nap, not to mention that I'll have add 'stubborn paladin hauling' to your bill."
Connor chuckled weakly, "Do I look that bad?"
Annie nodded solemnly, "Like three day old roadkill."
"Fuck." Connor cursed.
Annie put a theatrically aghast hand to her breast, "Deputy Kenton! Was that actual profanity I just heard? For fucking shame sir, for fucking shame!"
That got a smirk from the Deputy, "Turn me in if you'd like, though I hear this town's running low on lawmen these days."
Annie snorted gently punched Connor in the shoulder, "You gonna be alright?" she asked. Connor nodded, and she took a step back, "Good. I'll let you know when I know a bit more about our Not-Sheriff."
Connor watched her go with a sinking feeling in his stomach. He really hoped Annie had a plan of some kind because, for the first time in a long time, Deputy Connor Kenton Junior had no idea what to do.
