finally let you in. You wouldn't believe some of the excuses they were throwing at me. Now, I was talking about the Highwayman last time, right? Anyways the first trip I made in that baby was to Modoc. It was a dusty little place, far too quiet for my tastes. The only reason that I went to Modoc was to learn how to drive the Highwayman. Thank Rob that it was an automatic, otherwise I would have spent the rest of my life looking for another gearbox for the thing.
Once I took a job from a rancher to defend some cattle from a pack of wild dogs for about a thousand dollars. Fusion cells are expensive, and that was the best job I could find. The ranches were all old and cooperative, so Brahmin rustling was out of the question. Anyways the mutts managed to kill two of the Brahmin, so the cheap bastard docked me two hundred for them. I rightfully complained about it, since that wasn't part of the deal, but the bastard just sneered at me. I'd have shot him if I'd thought that it'd be worth the bullet. I had heard from someone that his children were fairly attractive, so I'd figured that I could get my revenge some other way. Or at least that's what I hoped. Hearing about the son's... exploits with the Brahmin from his sister kills the mood immensely. I'm not talking about ranching here.
'Miria and Davin, the rancher's kids. Judging by the angle of the shots, T.A. was hoping to capture more than just their names -J.P.'
The rest of my stay in Modoc was rather... brief. The town was experiencing a drought at the time, so everybody was tightening their belts, which meant no work for me. Except for one man. He was the co-owner of the bed and breakfast in town. Or at least I think so. He was a bit of a loony, so his wife ran the place by herself while he whiled his time away in the backrooms. He'd had lost his watch sometime before I arrived and, being the paranoid man he was, thought that one of his friends had taken it. I'd thought that I'd spent about five minutes searching his room before finding the watch, but I had no such luck. Lacking any other leads, I went over to the friend's house. He protested loudly that he didn't have the watch, but didn't stop me and the boys from searching his house. Or at least until we found the safe. It was hidden behind a pile of boxes, and the man looked visibly shaken when Cassidy uncovered it. He refused to unlock it, and one thing led to another. At the end of it all he ended lying it a pool of his own blood and I was one shell shorter.
As it turns out, the safe was completely empty when I finally managed to open it. The idiot killed himself over nothing. And, of course, the entire town of Modoc heard the gunshots. So they organized a posse and attempted to drive me out of town. I say attempted, since they ran after a couple of their number died, which gave me enough time to run to the Highwayman and get the hell out of the place. Heh. Good times.
'Still holds true today - J.P.'