A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus folks! I've had a lot on, but I just wanted you to know I have not forgotten this story!

As morning broke, Levin went down into the main bar of the Blackwater saloon. He'd opted not to knock on Sadie's door, figuring that after arriving back late the previous night she'd most likely want to rest and she'd join him when she was ready. He could already smell the bread baking and the bacon sizzling. He was starting to really enjoy the hospitality of Blackwater, and in particular the saloon there. He was hopeful that Sadie would want to rest up for at least another day or so once she woke up. Perhaps he could convince her to spend a day spinning another yarn or two about the old days? Maybe she could even tell him about her latest escapade.

"Is that the morning edition?" Levin asked as the barman brought in a bundle of newspapers from the boy out the front. He just rolled one up and brought it over to the writer, putting it down in front of him. He opened it out, and just got to see the headline. "Massacre at Pike's Basin. Famed Bounty Hunter James Langton Dead."

"What would you like this morning?" He asked. Just then, Sadie barged in the front door, surprising both of them. Levin thought she was in her room, but given the fact she was still wearing the same clothes she was the previous night it looked like she had not returned from her trip handing in her fugitive.

"Beans, toast, bacon and coffee. Black as tar, strong enough to knock my head off and keep it comin'." She instructed the barman.

"I'll have the same." Levin responded as she flopped down into the seat opposite him. She did look very pale, and her eyes were slightly bloodshot, with darkened circles. It seemed she really hadn't had any sleep at all that night. "Are you alright?"

"Long night." She responded, pulling off her gloves and rubbing her hands. Her knuckles were red, and badly swollen. She just let out a long groan. "For a squirrely little shit, Finney had a hard head and a stubborn streak that surprised the hell out of even me."

She saw the way that Levin was looking at him, like he wanted to ask something, but at the same time was afraid of the answer he'd get. Blackwater was a modern city, that was moving away from the old ways. They didn't have a sheriff's office; they had a police station. They were meant to operate under the new laws that gave prisoners certain rights. She just smiled.

"Chief Dunbar stepped out for a cigarette and I agreed to watch Finney for him until he got back. He got a little frisky and I had to calm him down." She replied.

Levin didn't believe that story for a second, but he gave Sadie the courtesy of just going with it. He imagined that since she had brought him one of his more troublesome fugitives, Dunbar probably looked the other way if she believed he had information that might lead to another fugitive she was looking for. Dunbar looked to the newspaper. "So, your old friend Langton, apparently he was killed yesterday."

"He was? Well, ain't that somethin'." Sadie replied wearily as the barman came back with the first of their coffee. "Mmm…now that is just what I needed, keep 'em comin'."

"Wouldn't you rather rest?" Levin asked her. Sadie just shook her head.

"I can't just turn off and sleep just like that, I need to wind down a little first." She told him. "Not to mention I'm absolutely famished."

She just made a winding signal with her hand as she drank more coffee like it was the only thing keeping her alive.

"So, you read my letter?" She asked him.

"Yes, I had some time to…it's really riveting stuff, I had no idea how much went on in New Austin." He admitted. "I don't get many stories from that area."

"Thanks to the Cholera outbreak not many people do. Hell, most sensible folks avoided it even before the outbreak." She told him.

"I can't believe you met Landon Ricketts." Levin told her. "I didn't know he was even still alive."

"Believe me, a lot of folks think the same and that's the way the old timer likes it." She chuckled. "He spent most of his life between the ages of fifteen and fifty with every asshole with a six-shooter who wanted to make a name for themselves takin' a pot shot at him. After Blackwater he was only too happy to let folks think he wandered off and died somewhere. It gave him a bit of peace and quiet for once."

"So where did he go?" Levin asked her. Sadie just leaned back, crossing her feet on the table.

"Mr Levin, I thought it were my story you were tellin'." She teased him with a cheeky grin.

"Oh…well…I mean I just…"

"Don't worry about it." She assured him with a little bit of a laugh at his expense. "I owe him enough that I'll leave the details out if you don't mind, but all I'll say is he went down to Mexico."

"Mexico?" Levin asked her. She just nodded, finishing off her coffee as the barman arrived with another.

"Thanks. Yeah, he said it were more peaceful. Can you believe that? All the shit goin' on down there and he still found it more peaceful than up here. He only popped back up every now and then to stock up on bourbon and head back."

"So, you said in your notes he taught you how to shoot." Levin stated. She just laughed.

"Oh, he taught me a lot more than that." She replied. "I went with him back to Mexico. He taught me so much more than how to fight, how to shoot. It were like…he taught me there were a whole different world and if you could just shift your mind into that place, it were like…you could see where people were gonna go before they did. You could tell who were gonna shoot and who were gonna run."

She saw the way that Levin was staring at her and saw only confusion. She sighed.

"I know, it sounds like I've been hittin' the peyote don't it?" She responded. "But I swear, he showed me stuff I never thought were possible. At Hanging Dog Ranch, I must've killed two, three dozen people. But he taught me if I could move, think, breathe like him? I could take on a hundred and walk away and he weren't bullshittin'."

"I've read many stories of his. Are you saying they're true?" Levin asked her.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that one about the three armed man is just a story but most of them? I wouldn't doubt so much." Sadie told him. "There were some tough lessons, but one of the first was the fact I jumped the gun. I was so desperate to nail Micah that I let him slip through my fingers. I'd waited this long to get him, so I figured I could wait a little longer."

She took her feet off the table as the barman arrived with their food. She took her cutlery gleefully and started to eat.

"So, how long were you in Mexico?" He asked her. She just shrugged.

"Probably about six months." Sadie said, trying to remember it. "But Micah was always like this itch in the back of my skull that just wouldn't go away. No matter how long I was there, no matter how long I wasn't lookin', I just couldn't get him out of my mind. I know I can't rest until he's paid for what he did to Arthur, what he did to all of us. After a while, once I was strong enough, I came back and went right back to bounty huntin'."

"You went back to it knowing it was the best way to hear about him?" Levin asked. She just nodded.

"And as much as I don't believe in braggin', I like to think I was gettin' pretty damn good at it too." Sadie responded. "I spent the next few years buildin' up my reputation. Takin' names, bringin' in every lowlife that the local sheriffs couldn't bring in by themselves. I swear, I was bringin' in rapists, murderers, train robbers left and right, and somehow none of 'em seemed to know Micah. But that was when I finally learned one of Landon's final lessons."

"What's that?" He asked her.

"If your huntin' a wolf, and it ain't actin' like a wolf, try huntin' it like a coyote." She told him. Levin just furrowed his brows. "Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too. Let me tell you what I mean…"

Back in the past, many years beforehand, Sadie strode into the sheriff's office in Valentine. When she got there, she found Langton and some of his men crowding out the sheriff's desk. They all turned to look at her, Langton clearly furious as he saw her with an unconscious victim draped over her shoulders. He pointed at her accusingly.

"You see? You see what I said? There she is with MY bounty!" He roared.

"Now James, what in the world are you talkin' about?" Sadie asked him. "I found this here gentleman at the side of the road."

"You found him in our camp trussed up like a chicken!" He roared angrily. "We had him, we brought him all the way from Roanoake, we stopped to rest up for the night and when we woke up, he was gone!"

"You didn't leave a guard?" Sadie asked. "Now James, with all the guys you employ that just sounds careless!"

"I left a guard!" Langton told her. "But you know as well as I do, he passed out drunk like the rest of us!"

"And how exactly is that my fault?" Sadie asked. "I mean, if he just happens to escape and I just happen to pick him up then that just sounds to me like you're careless."

She headed for the cells, dropping the prisoner inside. She knew damn fine Langton and his guys had gotten loaded and passed out. She'd been tailing them for two days to find that opportunity. She'd ridden with Langton long enough to know he and his men liked the high life enough to enjoy a little celebration before turning in a bounty. She didn't have to wait too long before she could sneak into the camp and take the fugitive while they slept. Hell, they were so shit-faced she could have snuck in with a herd of buffalo and none of them would have noticed! She'd taken care to take the long route to Valentine so that she could avoid a confrontation with them on the road before she turned him in. The fact that Langton had gotten to Valentine first and got to see her snake the bounty out from under him was just a bonus. Langton got into her face as she came back.

"That is MY bounty!" He growled.

"Well, you know what they say Mr Langton, possession is nine tenths of the law." She responded.

"That is true, he came in under her custody." The Sheriff stated as he handed Sadie the money. "I don't give a good God damn who brings in these degenerates, all I care about is getting them behind bars or on the end of a rope."

"You'll get yours Adler." Langton warned her. She didn't bother to react to his threat as he left. Once they were gone, the Sheriff just looked to her.

"So, did you steal his bounty?" He asked her, lighting up a cigar. He offered one to Sadie but she declined it politely.

"Too damn right I did. He just left him lyin' in the camp. It was too easy." Sadie replied in an off-hand way.

"You really shouldn't piss him off like that." The Sheriff told her. "In here he can't do anything, out there if he and his boys see you in their camp, I can't do anything about that!"

"Aw, it's sweet that you worry." Sadie said sarcastically. "The asshole deserved it. Besides, after what he pulled in New Austin, he's lucky that's all I do. By all rights I should have slit his throat while I were at it."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." The Sheriff told her. Sadie was only too happy to let him plead ignorance. Langton was one of her chief competitors, and they'd been competing over bounties now for a couple of years. When she'd first returned, Langton had reached out to her and offered to let her work for him again, but after Mercer, she had no desire to trust her life to him again and she'd told him where he could stick his job. Bounty hunting wasn't exactly like being a sheriff or a marshal, there was virtually no regulations involved in it. It gave them freedom to act pretty much anywhere, without worrying about things like jurisdiction but it also meant a lot less protections, and to say that competition could get out of hand was an understatement. Sometimes as many bounty hunters were shot by other bounty hunters as were killed by the people they were looking for. "So, since Langton ran out, you want first crack at a new one on the books? Just got the wire yesterday."

"You know me." She commented. "So, what'd he do?"

"Embezzlement." He told her as he pulled out the poster. Sadie just looked to him in complete bewilderment.

"Embezzlement?" She asked as she took the poster from him. "What in the hell is that?"

"Think of it as kind of like bank robbery." He told her. "He took a couple of thousand dollars."

"This guy?" She asked, looking at the poster and reading the description. "He looks like he'd fall down dead in a stiff wind. How in the hell did he rob a bank? Did he hire guns?"

"Nope, he did it all by himself." The Sheriff told him.

"You're shittin' me!" She exclaimed. "How in the hell does someone like this even carry a couple of thousand dollars, never mind walk out of a bank with it without being so full of lead he could be used as a pencil?"

"With a pen and paper." The Sheriff told her. "Bonds, he just filled out some paperwork and transferred it to his name instead of the rightful owners. What would probably end up in a shootout like the massacre we saw all them years back he managed to do and walk out without anyone knowing about it for weeks."

"Embezzlement huh?" She asked him. "That's really a thing?"

"Look it up if you don't believe me." He told her. "The world's changing Mrs Adler. The days of sticking up a train are long over."

"Somehow a good old fashioned stick up seems more honest somehow if this bastard can steal more money than I'm ever likely to see without so much as a single bullet." She commented as she put the poster away. "I'll take the job. Even if I still have no idea if I'll ever understand what the hell it is."

"I knew I could count on you Mrs Adler." He replied.

Sadie went to the town records office, not really sure of what to look for. Valentine was a small town, but being a livestock town, it did keep pretty extensive records of financial transactions. A startling amount of money ran through the town on a regular basis, and Dutch had taught her long ago that when large sums of money were involved, people liked to write it all down so they knew where it came from and where it went.

She did begin with doing exactly what the sheriff suggested and looking up embezzlement. Sure enough, there it was in black and white. People now were robbing each other without a single dollar bill or gold nugget being passed. She had no idea that now deals were being done between businesses, between towns and cities that were so large that they were done entirely on paper. Thinking about it, she could see some logic to it. Some of the values involved would involve literal trains full of money if actual currency was involved, and she'd seen how that could end first-hand with the army train job. What it did mean however was someone could squirrel away a significant amount of money just by making a few changes on the paperwork.

"Well, I'll be God damned." She said with a little bit of a laugh. "I swear, the day's gonna come where some asshole ain't even gonna have to leave his house to rob you blind."

She started looking around for records directly relating to the fugitive, Nathan Kirk, to see if there was somewhere, he might go. It was a bit of a long shot since with thousands of dollars he could easily buy himself somewh ere new and never have to go to anywhere he had frequented before. Looking through his records though, she saw no record of him ever owning land or a home.

"No wonder this bastard robbed the place." She snorted. "It ain't like he had a lot to lose."

She started to look through some old newspapers to see if there as any mention of him. Anything at all, relatives or friends he might visit. She was starting to get the impression though that after arriving in Valentine he hadn't really left the area all that much. He didn't seem to turn up in any of the pictures at the harvest festivals or celebrations. She took a few notes from the few times he was mentioned, things to ask around about to see if anyone knew about him, but as she was about to put one paper aside, she noticed an article that took her interest.

"Man killed in Roanoake." She read aloud. "Witness claims the man was a dark-haired man, with distinctive facial scars…travelling with a woman and a young boy. Last seen heading west."

She furrowed her brows as she thought of something. She looked for another newspaper, remembering another article she'd only just glanced at.

"Gunfight at Hanging Dog Ranch." Sadie read aloud. "Laramie Gang found dead in scene eerily reminiscent of the massacre of the O'Driscolls. Owner of nearby Pronghorn Ranch David Geddes claims no knowledge but locals say that there had been numerous violent incidents between the Laramie Boys and the ranchers at Pronghorn Ranch in the preceding weeks. One said that the feud had been escalating for weeks but that it all came to an end when a new ranch hand, Jim Milton, moved to the area. Milton is described as being quiet, never having much to do with anyone in town and having facial scars."

She just got a smile on her face reading this.

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me!" She said with excitement in her voice as she abandoned her research, heading for the telegraph office.