I. The high-desert town of Destiny, California, was a mighty lonesome place. Apart from the ever-rolling tumbleweed that waltzed lazily through the settlement, always encouraged on by the ever-present wind, there were few visitors. Despite their isolation, the few pilgrims that found solace and happiness in Destiny made do, though the winters were hard and the summers insufferably hot. But a disease soon ravaged the country, a plague of greed and hopes for a richer future. Dubbed the California Gold Rush, it struck the town particularly hard, and the conservative inhabitants of this town found themselves shocked at their small colonization being trespassed on by modern entrepreneurs and scraggly bearded miners. Destiny soon became a popular …show more content…
Striding off his train in New York, Raleigh Kendrel surveyed his surroundings, a leather valise clutched in his left hand and an air, unique to military officers, around him. A blue jacket hung loosely on his shoulders, stiff-starched around the neck, accompanied by gleaming brass buttons. His eyes, distant and weary with hidden toil, found their way to a sign marking the entrance to a bar, named 'The Gentleman's rest'. The rotting smell inside testified of what a place it was. Despite this, Raleigh made his way inside. Ordering a glass of whiskey and trying unsuccessfully to drown out the off-key piano, he strode across the room toward a drunken patron.
“Say, what can you tell me about Maude Burgoyne?” he asked, eyeballing the patron with a false sense of disinterest.
“Well, shay's dead,” came the man's slurred antiphon. “Her husband killed her someway or another, ah few days ago.”
“Dead?!” Raleigh's voice sounded strained. “How'd he do it?”
The drunk cackled, an unpleasant sound. “Neighbors heardum hollerin at each other, Amias Percy was'a threatening and all to shoot her if she ever left him. Then the next day she never showed up to lunch with the old girls. No one ain't seen eye or eye of her since that night, and Percy swears his innocence on the bible, that