Sheriff Buster Hardgrove rarely came down from his office up north to the lowly town he’d been forced to give authority to Town Marshall Horace Fletcher, but today he was there. He had his deputies round up the people of the town and gather in the centre of town where he was to make an announcement about the recent disappearance of the Town Marshall. It didn’t take a learned man to notice the tension between the two on the rare occasion they were stuck in the same room. This would explain his almost religious avoidance of the town, and the scowl plastered on his face when he did visit.

But that expression didn’t line his face when he stepped onto the box to make his declaration. Instead he held a smug grin which made the townspeople worried, he wouldn’t have that expression unless something tragic had happened to Horace. His deputies were standing either side of him, hands resting on the grips of their pistols. He’s making sure that no one bursts out at this news, it can’t be good for the people.

‘People of Padderton, I am here to declare that your Town Marshall, Horace Fletcher, has engaged in treasonous activity and is now considered an outlaw,’ his vigor was frustrating to the crowd of people, whose shocked faces made the Sheriff’s day. ‘He has been charged with aiding and abetting a stage coach robbery, as well as the murder of Baville’s Town Marshall.’

If the town was doubting their Marshall’s innocence before, they certainly weren’t any longer. Everyone in the county had heard about Town Marshall Jonathon Price’s murder last week, and Horace just so happened to have not left Padderton for almost a month. Meaning his involvement in this crime to be feasibly impossible.

But the Sheriff had the power to do anything he so desired, so long as his higher ups approved. Which meant that he didn’t have to convince the townsfolk of Horace’s guilt, only his superiors. And after an entire week of zero suspects or leads connected to the murder, they’d accept anyone the Sheriff claimed as guilty.

‘I’ve been informed that he is trying to escape the county, and I can’t let an outlaw escape without justice being served. I’ve already spoken to most of the town’s in the area and I’ll tell you what I told them: hunt down the traitor, and bring them back to me alive.’

The Sheriff knew the victory he had taken; he could get a bigger search party from anyone who didn’t like Horace, and the entire town had been warned now, so if he suspected them of hiding their Town Marshall, he could take out the entire town and no one would question him. But no one in the town moved, all of them angered by the accusation, which was clearly false. Their lack of movement only made the Sheriff grin more and he held his arms out as if he were a great prophet, ‘Let the hunt begin!’

He turned away from the town and back to his horse. The hunt for Town Marshall Horace Fletcher’s life was truly on.