Barlowe Station

The window is definitely large enough to go through.

"I'm going in. See what I can see."

Victor pokes his head in through the window to listen for any noise. Laying his Sharps Big 50 to the side of the overturned nightstand, he steps over the sill and around the nightstand. Once he's fully inside, he grabs his gun and inspects the interior.

Kneeling on his haunches he touches the stain to see if it is still wet. "Looks like blood," he shouts to the outside. Taking the Colt, he loads it with the scattered rounds and shoves it into his belt. Then he rights the upturned nightstand and checks any drawers it might have and then he examines the rest of the interior.

Inspecting the place from the window, Dillon takes a gander around the inside of the shed as well. "Any of them claw marks in there? Can you unbar the front?"

"Now I was gettin' to that after I secured the premises."

Thinking that nothin' or no one was lying in wait, he attempts to unlock the door from the inside, looking for scratch marks around the door or the walls.

Kane finds 4 expended rounds in the Colt, which he removes to reload with the fresh ones. Inside the nightstand, he finds the station master's lockbox (locked but easily smashed open).

A Survival or Healing roll might tell you more about the blood.

The front room serves as a kitchen, dining room, and living room, and is undisturbed. The sturdy door is easily unlocked from inside, allowing the others easier entrance.

"Ms Reyes and I are going to go and check on the stable! See if there’s a horse left in there!" Dirt calls to the other two, as they bust their way into the building.

Stands to reason that anyone leaving in some haste would go by horse, as a train may not be an option, depending on the hour.

Delilah nods at Dirt and Ruby as she walks from the back of the shed to the front, arriving just in time for Victor to open the door and let her in. She joins him inside, continuing to try and make sense of what might have happened here, of where the manager might have gotten to.

"Looks like we got ourselves a lockbox, Delilah," he says when he sees her come in.

"And this here dried blood."

Dillon nods as she looks around -- for more signs of blood (in case someone or something tracked in it), for bullet holes, scratches, or other signs of wrongdoing or violence.

"Gun fired?" she asks idly as she turns to look at the lock and the door, wondering if it's the kind of mechanism one can only lock from the inside. If it is... that means whoever fled in here went out the window, or...

Crouching down, DD examines the floor, looking for a trap door -- including under the bed.

Looking around, DD sees the bullets holes on the edge of the window frame, from inside. Whatever happened, it's clear to her that something crashed through the window, into a hail of gunfire, but the shooter likely was taken.

Kane spends more time with the blood and comes to the conclusion that the blood is somewhat fresh, probably no older than 24 hours.

Is Briggs going to the barn all by his lonesome?

"If we hurry, we could chase 'em, but then we'd miss the train. This blood here, ain't much older than a day. We could catch 'em, seein' as they're on foot. Maybe a kidnapper carrying the kidnapee. We could send Dirt after 'em on his fine steed."

Prompted by Delilah's question, he pulls the gun back out from behind his gunbelt and opens the chamber again, looking for powder residue, feeling very foolish for not thinking of that hisself.

Wiping his blood stained finger on his pants he goes to the window to see where the others are.

"I think we seen what we can here. Might as well take a gander at what the others are up to." Kane heads back out the door.

Powder and the four spent cartridges in the loader tell Kane that the worker had likely fired it yesterday, and probably fired (at least) four shots. There are three bullet holes on the inside of the window frame, telling you three of those shots hit nuttin.

Delilah rises up from where she's been looking under the bed, inspecting the floor, and checking the broken glass. "Yup, nothing good happened here. Someone or something came in through the window and nabbed the station manager, I'd say." Once last quick look around, then the would-be Marshal climbs back out through the window to rejoin the others as well.

"Most call me Briggs. There’s a few that call me Dirt. If you’re worried about being proper, I suppose you could call me Mr. Billy Briggs." he says, with a derisive snort that lets her know he isn’t the sort for that.

Then he approaches the barn door, putting one gun away to free up his hand to open it.

"Well now Delilah, I'm curious. Why didn't you go out the easy way, through the door?" Kane asks with a chuckle once he is outside again and joined up with the others.

"What have the rest of you found?" he ask the others. "We seen a recently fired gun which I now have on my person. A Colt Navy .36 revolver. Four shots were fired about a day ago. Three bullet holes are in the window frame and there was an upside-down nightstand. Now one might ask where the fourth shot landed and I'd wager it landed in whoever was took and left the blood on the floor, be it the station master or some other poor fella or lady. But the bare feet? The claw marks. I can't rightly figgur any of that out. And I got this here lock box. Probably got the fares in it and it wasn't took, so it ain't the money they were after."

At this juncture, Kane removes his hat, wipes his brow, and replaces his hat. Withdrawing another hank of tobacco, he stuffs it in his cheek, glancing at Ruby, a smirk playing across his face.

Brushing any bits of glass and dirt off her hands, legs and arms, DD’s eyes are looking northward as she responds to Kane. "Just figure that whatever came in that way… went out that way as well. Might be a trail out here… where they went might be visible out here."

As she talks, the woman checks the immediate vicinity for blood, tracks, trampled grass and such, but also looks to the horizon for other structures or trails — anything that might be a destination or a further signpost to what might have happened.

Delilah will notice the trampled vegetable garden as well when she goes out the back windder. A tracker might be able to figger something out of that mess.

Survival roll to learn something about the many tracks in the garden.

Dirt heads toward the barn. The unpainted, one-story barn contains two horse stalls and room for feed. The pen outside has a feed trough to the east and a gate beside the barn door.

A tired mare stomps nervously inside one of the stalls, and a couple of pigs remain in the pen. There are remains of food in the pig pen—corn cobs, some grain, etc..

Common knowledge roll please from Dirt.

"There’s still a horse in here." Dirt calls from inside. "And recently fed, too…" he shouts again, looking for signs of commotion around the animals.