Chapter 75
At first, Emma tried to escape the woman's pressure through force.
But...
Grip.
What strength...
Despite her slim figure and thin wrists, the woman's strength was beyond imagination.
"I have good intuition, you know. I'm looking for a certain man, and I have a feeling you might know him well. So please answer my questions..."
"..."
Though she didn't know the identity of the woman before her, it seemed clear that she knew about Noah and was looking for him.
Realizing she needed to quickly escape this situation, Emma...
Swish.
Pretended to be very flustered and turned her head to Jett.
Seeing Emma's expression and thinking she was frightened, Jett immediately took action.
"Hey! You! I'm Jett Gray, the sheriff of this town! What business do you have here? Who said you could come in here in the first place? If you don't prove your identity right now, I'll arrest you!"
"..."
Swish.
As Jett intervened, even putting his hand on his holster, the woman couldn't question Emma further.
So she clicked her tongue and made a sour expression, then...
Swish.
She took something out and showed it to him.
"This is..."
"I'm from Pinkerton. The deputies said it was okay to enter the office."
It was a badge symbolizing a Pinkerton agent.
But even seeing the Pinkerton badge, Jett didn't easily let his guard down.
"...I didn't hear anything about someone being dispatched from Pinkerton."
"It was suddenly decided."
"Not enough. Show more evidence that you're a Pinkerton agent, miss."
"Haa..."
At Jett's suspicion, the woman made a forced smile with an expression full of annoyance and...
Swish.
She took out an unforgeable certificate proving she was a Pinkerton agent and introduced herself.
"I'm sorry, Sheriff! I'm late with my greeting! I'm a 4th grade agent of Pinkerton..."
"4th grade? Just that?"
Excluding executives, Pinkerton agents were divided into 1st to 5th grade and trainees.
1st grade was the most veteran, and trainees could be promoted to 5th grade if they received recognition after working as a trainee.
4th grade honestly looked like a rookie to Jett, who had worked as a town sheriff for decades.
No matter if it was Pinkerton, for a mere low-ranking member to show such an arrogant attitude.
As Jett showed an unpleasant expression at this, the woman smiled again and continued her introduction.
And...
"...I'm Sophia Pinkerton, 4th grade agent of Pinkerton. Nice to meet you."
"...!"
Jett and Emma couldn't help but freeze upon hearing her full name.
That was because...
Sophia... Pinkerton...?
This world is unfair.
Some people could freely roam this world and act as they please just because of the surname they inherited at birth.
The woman before them was one of those types.
Jett slowly removed his hand from his holster and carefully asked Sophia, "...What's your relationship with the founder of Pinkerton?"
"He's my grandfather!"
"..."
...Thinking about her age, it must be so.
Pinkerton, which was rumored to have more combatants than the current U.S. Army, with such strong influence.
To be the granddaughter of the Pinkerton founder...
Jett's momentum clearly diminished at such a tremendous background.
"...Even if you're a Pinkerton agent, entering the sheriff's office as you please is..."
"Justice Town Sheriff Jett Gray! I wanted to meet you!"
"...You know me?"
"I heard a lot about you from Ash Gray, the Pinkerton San Francisco branch chief. He said you're his older brother!"
"...So you know my younger brother."
"Of course! The branch chief is my superior!"
Though she said superior, it was clear that Sophia's actual position was higher than her brother, the Pinkerton branch chief.
As it was directly related to his brother's job, Jett had no choice but to be careful in his attitude towards Sophia.
So the initiative completely shifted from Jett to Sophia.
Jett sighed deeply as if he had no choice and asked Sophia, "Haa... So what's the reason a Pinkerton agent came to this backwater?"
"While traveling east, I received orders from above to investigate the serial killings that have been happening in Utah for the past few months."
Sophia's tone as she said this sounded like a child on a picnic to the hills.
Seeing her as just a naive young lady, Jett spoke as if soothing a child, "You mean the cases committed by that outlaw called 'Zodiac'? Haha, then you seem to have come to the wrong place. The recent victim wasn't in our Justice Town but in Lincoln County, a day's distance from here."
But Sophia was adamant.
"No, Justice Town is located in the center of Utah, so it's perfect for setting up an investigation headquarters due to convenient transportation. Above all..."
And her adamant gaze turned towards Emma.
"...As I followed clues for the past few months, I saw the possibility that the person I'm looking for might be here in Justice Town."
"..."
"I'm planning to stay here in Justice Town for a while."
Sophia's first impression at a glance was like a baby bird with a soft down.
A baby bird that lived happily in its mother's nest without experiencing any hardships of this world.
But now Sophia's eyes looking at Emma...
Hiss—
Looked not like a baby bird but like a snake facing its prey.
And that snake...
Whoosh.
Slowly coiled its body and approached Emma again.
"...Your name?"
"Call me Emma."
"Yes, then Miss Emma. Where did you hear the name Jamie James, an outlaw, and why are you trying to find her?"
The cold triangular eyes gave Emma tremendous pressure.
But...
"The person I'm looking for isn't Jamie James, but Jenny James."
Having been with Noah for the past 3 years, Emma was already beyond the level of an ordinary girl.
At times like this, trying to deceive by making up words could easily be caught.
Emma smiled slightly and blocked Sophia's question at its source.
"And I have no intention of telling you why I'm looking for that person, as it's a personal reason."
"..."
Usually, when people revealed they were Pinkerton agents, ordinary people would get scared and tremble.
Moreover, Sophia even revealed that she was the granddaughter of the Pinkerton founder.
Nevertheless, Emma didn't cower before Sophia, but rather smiled and responded confidently.
Sophia didn't like such an Emma.
Above all, what she disliked most was...
...I can't tell what she's thinking.
Looking at Emma's calm eyes, nothing came to mind.
Sophia had surprisingly good intuition.
Others didn't believe it, but Sophia had solved cases with intuition alone...
She could tell whether someone she just met was an outlaw or a civilian just by intuition.
But no matter how much she looked at Emma, no intuition came to her.
The outlaw this woman Emma is looking for is Jenny James... The name of the TKK deputy leader is Jamie James. The names overlap strangely. Is this a coincidence?
…
The conclusion came quickly.
There were no coincidences in this world.
Sophia decided to dig into Emma and asked with a grin, "Then Miss Emma. As a Pinkerton agent and investigator of the recent Utah murders, let me ask you. What's your age, occupation, family relations, and acquaintances?"
"...Are you suspecting me as a murder suspect now?"
"Inquiries usually start with trivial things. Please cooperate for the sake of the town's and all of Utah's security and peace."
"..."
The town's peace and security were just excuses.
Emma could tell that all Sophia wanted was information about Noah.
What's the relationship between this Pinkerton lady and the boss?
Though she didn't know what their relationship was, today's incident was clearly her mistake.
Noah was a man with many secrets, and she had openly talked about him outside.
Emma didn't want to answer Sophia's questions now, but she had no excuse not to.
So she thought of an answer that removed as much information about Noah as possible and slowly opened her mouth.
And...
"I..."
"Sheriff-!!"
"...!"
Before Emma could speak, a deputy rushed in calling for the sheriff.
"Sheriff!! Something terrible has happened!"
"...What? What happened?"
Jett, who had been watching the battle of nerves between Emma and Sophia with bated breath, sighed and asked at his subordinate's urgent call, "Did something happen in the town again?"
"...Yes! It's a murder case!"
"Haa.... Did some outlaw cause trouble again?"
Jett was indifferent even to his subordinate's words about a murder case.
That was because Justice Town, with many outsiders and outlaws, was always a place where many incidents occurred.
Even though Noah caught outlaws like crazy, there was a limit to that.
But the deputy waved his hands and shouted as if it wasn't that kind of problem, "N-no, it's not that! Sheriff!"
"If it's not that, then what?"
"You know that crazy outlaw who appeared in Lincoln County a few days ago!"
"...Don't tell me?"
"W-what was his name again? Ah, Zodiac! It seems that guy has appeared in the town!"
"...!"
At the words that Zodiac had appeared, the indifferent Jett was surprised and his eyes blazed.
And that was...
"...Zodiac in this town?"
The same for Sophia, who had been trying to dig into Emma while having a battle of nerves with her.
***
Blink.
I soon got up from the bed after falling asleep for a moment.
Did I sleep for an hour? Or maybe 30 minutes?
I fell into a very light sleep and woke up very quickly.
— ...If it's with you, Boss, I'm okay with doing even more.
This was all because of Emma.
I couldn't easily fall asleep because my body had heated up due to the stimulation from just before.
"...Tsk."
With my body getting hot and tingling all over, it felt real like being burned.
Displeased by this, I clicked my tongue and went to the kitchen to drink water.
Growl.
Maybe because I slept a little, the drunkenness subsided and I felt hungry.
But Emma didn't ride a horse, so it would take quite a while for her to come back.
Should I go to the Deaf Man's Bar again?
Feeling like I wouldn't be able to sleep even if I laid down in bed again, I left the office.
"Let's go, No Name."
"Neigh."
The Deaf Man's Bar provided snacks when one was hungry, not just alcohol.
I was planning to roughly have breakfast at the Deaf Man's Bar.
Bob will get angry asking why I came again when it's closing time.
I smiled and rode through the wilderness with No Name.
Clop clop, clop clop.
Facing the wind with No Name's swift gallop, I sobered up more and felt better.
As I was riding excitedly like that and arrived at the town center, that's when it happened.
Murmur murmur.
"...Hmm?"
Finding it strange that people were gathered in one corner, I got off No Name and approached the people and...
"What's that?"
Soon I could see a corpse bleeding in the middle of the people.
"Come on, everyone. Don't just stand around watching, go about your business... Oh, Kid."
"What happened? Did an outlaw rampage again?"
"Well..."
I was on relatively good terms not only with Sheriff Jett but also with other deputies.
As I approached the fallen corpse, the deputy seemed to think it was okay for me and stepped aside to let me see the corpse freely.
The face of the corpse was someone I knew.
"It's Uncle Hector from the fabric shop."
Ah, this person makes all my clothes and bedding, I'll have to change shops.
I clicked my tongue and examined the corpse.
He died from being stabbed in the neck, and judging by how the stab was precisely at a vital point and quite clean, the culprit's skills seemed quite excellent.
I focused on examining around the stabbed neck area.
But...
"Kid, that's not it, look at this."
"This? Hmm?"
The deputy pointed to the corpse's fingertips as if that was the important thing.
I hadn't noticed because I was focused on the neck, but there was a letter held in the corpse's fingertips.
What letter?
I tilted my head, picked up the letter, and couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
The problematic letter started like this:
[This is the Zodiac speaking.]
One good thing about coming to this damn Western game was that I became fluent in English.
As soon as I entered this world, I became able to use English like a native speaker.
And since I didn't forget Korean either, I transformed into a perfect bilingual speaker.
This was the Zodiac speaking.
If one translated this directly, it became “Zodiac-nim speaks”, or “Thus sayeth Zodiac”.
I frowned at the quite narcissistic opening and read the rest of the letter.
[I like it here because there are many people. I'll stay here for a while.]
[I just killed a drunk middle-aged man. Killing this man was too easy.]
[So it wasn't fun. I need another stimulus.]
[Next time I'll kill a young girl.]
"...Oh fuck."
As soon as I finished reading the short letter, I sighed.
Chapter 8 [Zodiac Serial Killings] had officially begun.