Chapter 98
"C-cold..."
Sophia shivered and opened her eyes, feeling the intense chill from the floor.
"...Ugh."
Why am I lying here?
Sophia couldn't grasp the situation for a moment.
But soon, as she raised her body...
Zing.
"Ack...!"
With the throbbing pain in her stomach, she could recall all of last night's memories.
"K-Kid...!"
Sophia immediately rushed into Kid's office.
But the office was already empty.
As if the owner had left home.
"Damn it...!"
Even the two horses in the stable were gone.
Realizing that Kid had escaped, Sophia startled and mounted her horse.
"...Let's go, Spike!"
"Neigh."
The place she rode to with her beloved horse Spike was the sheriff's office.
As the sun had risen quite a while ago, a deputy who had already come to work discovered her while sweeping snow in front of the office and asked in surprise, "Huh? What's this, Detective? What brings you here so early in the morning? And why do you look like you've been beaten up somewhere..."
"S-Sheriff...! Is the Sheriff inside?!"
"...Yes, he's in, but he's having a hard time with a hangover..."
Whoosh.
At the word that the sheriff was there, Sophia immediately went inside.
There was Sheriff Jett, slumped over the office desk, reeking of alcohol.
Sophia shook Jett's shoulder with her hand to wake him up.
"Sheriff! Sheriff...!!"
"Ugh... huh? Miss Sophia... What's the matter so early in the morning..."
"Kid... Kid has escaped."
"...What?"
At Sophia's sudden words, Jett had a blank face for a moment, then...
"I thought you were going to say something... Right. He came by last night saying he was leaving town," he nodded and answered nonchalantly.
Rather, it was the deputies who had come in from sweeping snow outside who were surprised by Jett's words.
"What? Kid left town?"
"Why didn't he say anything…?"
"Tsk... Such a heartless guy. He should have at least said goodbye to us."
Seeing their carefree attitudes, Sophia felt frustrated just like yesterday.
"I'm telling you, Kid didn't just leave town! He ran away, he ran away!!"
"Hm? What wrong did Kid do to run awa... oh my..."
At Sophia's shout, Jett tilted his head and then frowned seeing Sophia's condition.
As if she had been lying on the cold floor, her mouth was slightly askew... her clothes were a mess, and there were traces of being hit all over her body.
That Kid... I wondered why he suddenly left town...
At that moment, Jett could deduce why Kid suddenly left town... and why Sophia was so angry.
"Miss Sophia... Did Kid hit you by any chance?"
"..."
"...Oh dear. I thought that guy might cause trouble someday."
It seemed Kid must have beaten Sophia.
In fact, from the beginning, the relationship between Kid and Sophia didn't seem that good.
But still, how could he do that to a woman...
And the granddaughter of Pinkerton's founder at that...!
Kid was as good with his fists as he was with guns.
Sometimes he could catch outlaws with just his fists without a gun.
Having been hit by such a Kid, Sophia wouldn't let this incident slide.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Jett immediately got up from his seat and bowed his head to Sophia, pleading, "...As the sheriff, I apologize that a resident of our town did such an uncivilized thing. I'll give that son of a bitch a good thrashing if he ever returns to town. So please calm down..."
But despite Jett's apology, Sophia didn't soften her hardened face.
"...No, Kid will never return to this town."
"Hmm?"
"Haa... should I say this..."
Seeing the pure faces of Jett and the deputies, Sophia let out a deep sigh.
"Everyone... You don't know who Kid really is, do you?"
"...We don't know what Kid did before coming to town. But why...?"
"That Kid is actually..."
And then she revealed the truth to them with a most serious face.
"He's the founder and first leader of TKK, a wanted outlaw with a $150,000 bounty."
"...!!!"
As soon as Sophia finished speaking, silence fell in the office.
And soon...
"...Heh."
"...?"
"Hahahahaha!!"
It became a sea of laughter.
"Hahahahaha! Sheriff! Did you hear what the Detective just said, hahaha!"
"She says Kid is an outlaw! And the bounty is how much? $150,000? Wahahahahaha!!"
"Why not add a little more and make it $200,000? Kuhahaha!"
"Ahahahaha! She says Kid is the TKK leader! Hahahahat!"
As the deputies once again didn't believe Sophia's words, she couldn't help but feel extremely frustrated.
"...No, I'm not joking, it's true!"
"Yeah~ Sure it is, hahahat!"
Of course, their reaction was somewhat understandable too.
The TKK leader with a bounty of $150,000 was a legendary figure, after all.
Some people even believed that the TKK first leader and South Brotherhood leader with $150,000 bounties were fictional characters deliberately created by the federal government.
Such an impossible outlaw was actually a gunslinger who worked as a bounty hunter in a rural backwater…? Of course it would be hard to believe.
But while Sophia understood them intellectually, she couldn't help but pound her chest in frustration.
The frustration was even greater because even Sheriff Jett didn't believe Sophia's words at all.
"Hahaha! Miss Sophia! If Kid is the TKK leader, then I'm John Wilkes Booth!" (TL Note: President Lincoln’s Assassin)
"Kuhahaha! If Kid is the TKK leader, then I'm George Washington! Ahaha!"
"You bastard... Even as a joke, how dare you compare yourself to the Father of the Country..."
"...I'm sorry."
Sophia let out a deep sigh seeing Jett and the deputies fighting while making jokes among themselves.
...This place is hopeless after all.
Originally, Sophia came to Justice Town to solve the Zodiac case and find traces of Kid.
Now that Kid had left, there was no more reason for her to stay in this town.
It's not too late yet, I have to chase Kid.
After finishing her thoughts, Sophia immediately bowed her head to Jett.
"...Thank you for everything until now."
"...Huh? Miss Sophia. Where are you going?"
"Now that the Zodiac case is solved, I should go back."
In fact, the Zodiac case couldn't be considered perfectly solved.
But Sophia realized one thing from yesterday's incident.
These people won't believe me no matter how much I talk now.
To properly correct the Zodiac case, she needed to catch Kid first.
After catching him and revealing to the townspeople that Kid was the TKK leader, only then would they believe the truth that Joe was actually Zodiac.
After all, Kid was the root cause and solution to everything.
"Well, it was a short time, but it was good to work together. Take care."
"...Yes, then I'll be going."
"Take care, Detective."
After saying somewhat cold goodbyes to Sheriff Jett and the deputies, Sophia got on her horse Spike.
Where could Kid have gone?
There was no way to know where he went.
But Sophia had surprisingly good intuition.
...West.
Right now, her intuition was telling her that Kid went west.
"Let's go, Spike."
"Neigh."
So she set her direction westward... and began another indefinite pursuit of one man.
At least this time she succeeded in discovering Kid's bare face...
I will definitely catch him...! Definitely...!
Sophia rode her horse madly westward with the sole determination to catch Kid.
***
Meanwhile, at that time.
Pelican Western Federal Penitentiary.
This place was called America's worst prison, where vicious criminals who had unavoidably postponed their sentences were gathered.
"Like a good child~"
A woman was leisurely singing in that worst prison.
"They told me to just listen well~ So I did as I was told~"
The woman's appearance was beautiful enough to make anyone turn their head if they passed by on the street.
Even the harsh prison life couldn't mar her beauty.
...No?
Maybe prison life wasn't that hard for her.
She had been occupying this spacious annex alone for several years now.
"They keep getting bored~"
The sight of the woman humming an incomprehensible song while lying on the floor reminded one of a rich, tomboyish young lady.
Who would think that beautiful woman was a crazy, vicious criminal?
But Marie, the veteran female guard at Pelican Penitentiary, approached the beautiful prisoner's singing voice with extreme caution.
"Hey...! Prisoner 8148! Who said you could sing?"
"Ah, Marie, you came?"
When Marie approached, the prisoner waved her hand as if greeting a friendly neighbor.
"I missed you all night. Heh."
"..."
Marie couldn't help but pause for a moment at the prisoner's painted-on smile.
Even though they were both women, the prisoner's seduction shook Marie's heart.
If she hadn't heard about the “incident” from before, Marie would have been captivated by her, too.
The reason that prisoner was isolated in the annex and confined alone in that spacious room was because she had massacred her cellmates on the first day using only her bare hands.
Marie came to her senses, recalling the sharp thorns hidden behind that beautiful prisoner.
Why don't they just kill that crazy bitch instead of keeping her alive?
The prisoner's name was Jamie James.
Her bounty before being imprisoned here was $98,000.
The so-called “Angel of San Francisco”...
She was the deputy leader of TKK, the worst organization in the West.