Dasher and Sheriff Daniels ran over to meet Gerald.
"My god, is she still alive?" Daniels asked.
"She is breathing. When I found her, she was crying. She passed out after I picked her up."
"Where did you find her?" Dasher asked.
Gerald nodded behind him to the chicken house. As he did, the building's supports gave out and collapsed.
Sheriff Daniels motioned and Gerald passed her over to him. The Sheriff rubbed the soot off her face.
"This is Maggie Adams. He father was a ranch hand here and her mother worked in the kitchen. The three would come to town every weekend."
"She said her father tried to protect her. How tall was he, what was his weight?"
"Why would that matter?" The Sheriff asked with a confused expression.
"I also found a pile of sticky goo behind the building. Well, that was before it collapsed, it is probably burning now."
"Damn it, your guy was here too."
"I don't know if that person was with them, or just taking advantage of the chaos. Do you know his height and weight?"
"Oh, umm, about six foot, a hundred and sixty pounds. He was lean but solid."
Gerald nodded. "That would fit with the pile of goo I saw."
"Let me see if I can wake her up. Maybe she saw the people who did this." Daniels said.
"Let her sleep for now. I was able to talk to her a little bit already."
"And? What did she say?"
"They came and killed everyone without hesitation. They took the cows, sheep and pigs but didn't care about the chickens. They chased them away. The dead bodies were thrown into the buildings and then set on fire. They took goods of value in wagons. A man in a suit appeared in a carriage, barked orders and then left."
"Once she wakes up, we will track down all these bastards. With any luck she will be able to identify them."
"I would avoid doing that if I were you Sheriff."
"Why the hell wouldn't I?" Daniels asked Gerald.
"Well, things didn't go exactly like we told them back when we dealt with escorting Mr. Hordan."
Gerald then told the Sheriff what actually happened.
"So you think that the Cult of Thomas bought Hordan's cows and then tried to take their money back?"
"Yeah and then we killed their people, threw them in a house and burnt it down." Gerald answered.
The Sheriff sighed. "Now we have a ranch that was robbed of its livestock and the people were thrown into buildings and then they were set on fire. I can't deny the links between them."
Dasher shook his head. "Could this have been avoided if we had let them have the money back?"
"Don't think about it like that." The Sheriff said. "If they got the money back, they may have done the same exact thing anyway. You can't count on the Cult of Thomas to be reasonable people. Besides, we don't bend to criminals, no matter who they are. At least this way, they don't have the money."
Gerald agreed. "If this is retaliation, that means they are panicking or at least worried. What we did to them wasn't easy to shrug us off. Their goal was most likely to intimidate us. Don't let them achieve their goal."
The Sheriff set the girl down on a blanket that a deputy rolled out. He then pulled out his radio and alerted the other ranches with livestock. He told them to be on their guard and stay armed. It was best to be warry of strangers.
The Sheriff put away his radio and the looked back to Gerald. "We will be quiet about our investigation, but we will find these sons of bitches."
By the time the sun rose, the fires had been put out or died out. People from the town had come out to the ranch to lend a hand. The dead were to be buried. Gerald and Dasher followed the trail of the cattle that led away from the ranch. But they had spent too much time dealing with the fire. The dusty, windswept hills had already been wiped clean of any viable trail.
Gerald and Dasher started to head back to town.
On the way, Gerald informed Dasher that they now had a lead on their target. They only had a short chance before the doppelganger changed identities again. It was time to hunt.
When Gerald and Dasher arrived back in town, their eyes were peeled. They looked for a brown-haired man in a black suit with gold rimmed glasses. Just from the description, they could imagine that the man had money.
After sitting at a café on main street for an hour while eating lunch and watching people Gerald turned to Dasher.
"Can you think of anyone we have met who could match that description?"
Dasher thought for a moment and then shook his head.
"Oh." Gerald said while getting up to pay the bill.
Dasher realized the Gerald had someone in mind. He quickly tried to rack his brain. He was still thinking when Gerald returned.
"You can't think of anyone who is a little suspicious?"
"Not anyone who could be our target." Dasher answered.
"I was suspicious of this person before, but I think they became our target last night. Let's go pay them a visit."
The pair mounted their horses. While they headed up the street, Dasher continued to think. When he saw a building in the distance, he had an inkling of what Gerald was thinking.
"The bank manager?" Dasher asked.
"What kind of bank manager needs to be reminded to write a receipt for such a large deposit. I imagine that even the most basic employee at the bank could get fired for not writing one."
Dasher's eyes lit up. "And we were thinking that the Cult wanted their money back because they worked so hard to scarp it together, but what if it was never theirs to begin with? Plus he wears gold rimmed glasses."
"His height and build match the description."
"Yeah, people may change clothes often, but someone who is on his feet a lot like him will probably have a favorite pair of shoes."
Gerald and Dasher dismounted their horses and entered the bank.
An older woman who worked at the bank came up and greeted them. "Hello, what may I help you with today."
"We are here to see the manager, is he available?" Gerald asked.
"Oh, I am afraid not, he radioed in sick today. He was saying that he didn't feel well."
"That's to bad. Do you happen to know where he lives? This is official business." Gerald said while flashing his badge.
"Umm… well… I am not sure if I should say."
Gerald laughed. "Ha, ha, I think you misunderstood. The bank manager is helping us to track some phony bills that passed through not to long ago. I just want to deliver some chicken soup. My mother's recipe is known to work wonders. We are thinking some more bills will be coming through in the next few days. I just need to make sure he gets better as soon as possible."
"Oh my, that is so nice of you. If that is the case, he has a house on the south side of town. It's the two-story white one on maple street. Wish him well for me, will you? It is always hectic when he isn't here."
"We will pass on your regards." Dasher said with a smile as he tipped his hat and walked out of the bank with Gerald.
The two mounted their horses and threw each other knowing looks. Their lead suspect suddenly calls in sick. They weren't buying it.
The rode in a hurry to the south side of town.
It wasn't hard to find the two-story white house. They walked up to the front door.
*Knock* *Knock*
They waited, but there was no answer.
"What's the plan?" Dasher asked.
"Go around back." Gerald said.
He waited for Dasher to get into position.
*Bang*
The door splintered and swung open as he kicked next to the lock.
Gerald walked in and looked around. He made his way to the kitchen in the back of the house and unlocked the back door.
Then the two went up the stairs. They checked the rooms, and everything seemed to be in order until they arrived at the master bedroom. The closet and dresser were empty.
"Looks like he fled." Dasher said.
Gerald nodded. "But was that the managers plan or the doppelgangers?" He asked. "Split up, look for anything that could give us an idea of where he ran to."
Dasher started searching the first floor while Gerald took the second. Gerald couldn't find anything of use in the bedroom. He moved to the study across the hall.
There were a few remnants of burnt paper in the metal waste bin next to the desk, but they were far to damaged for him to learn anything.
He opened the desk and looked through its contents.
He found a blank note pad, half the pages were missing, and it looked will worn, but the pages that were left were entirely blank.
He looked at the books on the shelves behind him. They were a lot of books with worn spines, but most of those were about accounting and economics. A few were on management. It seemed that the bank manager had taken his job seriously, for a while at least.
Gerald sat at the desk and lit a smoke. He didn't see an ash tray, but he wasn't planning on using one. He tapped the ash onto the notebook. By the time his smoke was finished there was a smile pile of ash. He gently tapped it a few times until the ash turned into powder.
He carefully rubbed it across the top page of the notebook.
The ash went into the indentations from the pen where it was pressed heavily on the page that used to be above it.
He was even more sure that the manager was involved with the Cult of Thomas now. He found some sort of schematic, or diagram. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was definitely more technologically advanced than the people of this world preferred. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of it before destroying the page.
He searched the other rooms but didn't find anything of use.
As he was heading downstairs to the first floor, Dasher suddenly shouted out.
"Gerald! I found something I think you should see."
Gerald picked up his pace and ran to the cold storage room off of the kitchen. A few crates were pushed aside to reveal a trap door that was open. A ladder lead into the dark underground chamber.