Session 6: Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays

The agents continue examining the opened grave, but come to no conclusions regarding the manner of death other than the victim seems to have been drained of blood. They do not see any wound that could account for this. Agent Sangumbo chances to notice a quantity of disturbed dirt spilling from behind a copse of manzanita bushes, and here they find the body of the other missing camper, similarly exhumed. Coyote prints are evident here too. Agent Jones notices that there is but one set of prints leading to this hole and one set leading away, suggesting that this was the work of a single, industrious coyote. They follow the prints a few dozen feet away from the hole, where they suddenly and mysteriously cease.

Sheriff Colorados nods knowingly. Agent Jones asks him what he knows of coyotes, but he is reticent among the white agents. “It’s nothing you white men would believe,” he says. “If I told you, you would just come up with some rational, scientific explanation anyway.” Agent Jones presses him, and ultimately persuades Colorados to elaborate. “We have legends of the Coyote-Spirit, an ancient and unpredictable spirit who sometimes helps those who call on him.” Agent Jones asks Colorados if he knows how to summon this spirit, but the Sheriff has only seen parts of the ritual. “There are wise men in our tribe who could do it, but they area on a spiritual retreat in the mountains for a few more days. You can ask them when they return, but I don’t think they will show you.”

Jones calls O’Brian and asks him to look up “Coyote-Spirit”. He also requests a coroner’s van to come up and collect the bodies. Frank Garrett overhears this, and following a short argument over which agency should head up the autopsies, he relents to the FBI. “We believe there is a Satanic cult involved,” says Jones. “It would be better if we handled the autopsies.”

With only a few more hours until nightfall, the agents call on local volunteers and Garrett’s CHP officers to conduct a perimeter sweep of the campsite. After several hours they find no further bodies, and the return to San Diego.

Meanwhile, all O’Brian finds with respect to his “Coyote-Spirit” search is a heavy metal band of the same name that is active in Arizona. “I don’t think that’s what they were looking for,” he says to himself.

The next morning, Agent Jones finds a package on the front doorstep of his home. There is no postage on it, suggesting it was hand-delivered. He is suspicious and takes it to be analyzed by bomb specialists at the Bureau. They find no trace of dangerous chemical agents or explosives, nor are they able to extract any prints from the package. It is totally clean. Inside are several clippings from national scientific journals and local newspapers concerning a substantial meteor shower that occurred over Tecumseh and Lowery counties in West Virginia six months ago.

The results of the autopsies are in. The bodies were both drained of blood by several needle-like holes to the heart and lungs. The coroner found traces of what appeared to be a tranquilizer in the central nervous systems of the victims, but was not able to identify it. Agent Jones examines the sample, and determines that it is neither of natural origin, or consistent with any tranquilizer that is currently known to science, or at least, not publicly manufactured.

The agents get a call from Garrett, who had been surveying the reservation using a CHP helicopter this morning. Some distance up the highway from the area of the disappearances, and off to the side of the road, they spotted the white vinyl roof of an older sedan that had until recently been buried. Coyote tracks were once again evident. The agents get in the car and drive back to the reservation.

O’Brian follows up on the article clippings included in the unusual package. He finds that there was a rash of disappearances and cattle mutilations in Lowery County for about five weeks following the meteor shower. Most people believed they were the work of a serial killer or a devil-worshipping cult. A group called SaucerWatch believed the incidents abductions somehow related to the meteor shower. Finally, a dismembered body was found wrapped in garbage bags in a tree, and suspicion fell on a certain Mack Tooley, a friend of the victim who was last seen with him. When the police went to collect Tooley for questioning he shot himself in the head.

Further searching uncovers that the coroner who performed the autopsy on Tooley abruptly quit his job the next day and relocated to Nashville. O’Brian tried to contact this man, but found that he had killed himself shortly after arriving in his new city.

O’Brian looks again for “Coyote-Spirit” and this time has better results (“I knew I shouldn’t have Asked Jeeves,” he says). He finds a dissertation on this Native American legend written by a man called Scot Thompson, who researched the legends and the rituals, and claimed to have induced a vision of this spirit himself. Scot Thompson, as it turns out, lives in San Diego. O’Brian contacts the agents and relates this information.

Jones calls Thompson, who is enjoying his summer break. “I’ve told you everything I know about the Putkin/Brewer case!” he says. “It’s not about that,” says Jones. “It’s about your knowledge of the Coyote-Spirit.” Thompson is not interested, but following some coercion regarding Thompson’s role in the aforementioned unresolved Missing Persons cases, Thompson agrees to meet with them. “But I don’t have a car, so you’ll have to pick me up.” Jones calls O’Brian, and instructs him to deliver Thompson to the reservation. O’Brian’s feeble objections to this task are overruled by Hobbsman, and he is forced to comply.

Scot Thompson carefully places the Rupert-cylinder in a large backpack, in which he cuts a small hole for the cylinder's ocular organ to see through. (Tired of the Zach-cylinder's endless pleas to "kill me, kill me," Scot settled on hiding it in the girls' locker room at the high school. It was later discovered by a janitor who assumed it was some sort of wireless webcam and threw it into the school's dumpster. Its current whereabouts are unknown.)

Jones and Sangumbo find Garrett, Colorados and the CHP trying to extract the car from its hole. When they finally succeed, they see it has Texas plates, and that there is a body inside. It seems to have been there for several weeks, and the stench causes both agents to vomit. The corpse has a large hole in its abdomen, and the intestines are spilled out onto the front seat, but strangely there is not much blood elsewhere in the car. Jones notices that the victims lungs have been removed, but apparently after death. The driver’s license identifies the man as Kenneth Braverman of Houston, Texas. Bureau contacts reveal that this man was an ex-police officer in Houston who had been under suspicion for a series of prostitute killings. When the investigation began, he allegedly killed his two children (who were found partially cannibalized in their home), kidnapped his wife, and fled the city. He was last seen almost six weeks ago.

The agents drive down the street to investigate the Begay Ranch. They pull into the long driveway and begin to walk the grounds. Here they find no less than twenty-six exhumed graves. In each they find the desiccated body of a sheep, and in the last, a much larger hole, the bodies of the four family members. The turned earth is still damp in the hot sun, suggesting that this digging took place last night. Coyote prints are everywhere, and again vanish several hundred yards from the last grave. They contact headquarters to order a remote forensics lab be set up on the Reservation.

The agents meet O’Brian and ask Thompson about his “meeting” with the Coyote-Spirit. Thompson tells them that it told him what to do with his life. “To be a high school teacher?” they ask. “To give back,” he tells them. Though he has tried, he has never been able to recreate his vision from the New Mexico desert years ago. “And as far as I know, spirits don’t leave footprints. You’re looking for something else.”

O’Brian is visibly disturbed by the sight of Braverman’s corpse, so they send him to the Begay Ranch to keep an eye on things until the forensics crew arrives. He remains in the car, and heads back to headquarters as soon as he is allowed.

The other agents, with Thompson, head to the gas station. They speak with the attendant, who knew Felix Royos well. They find he had no known enemies. They decide to perform another search to see if another grave has been dug up, and with some additional Bureau resources they eventually find an unusual mound of dirt several hundred yards from the gas station. They produce some shovels and find Royos buried not far under the ground. Darkness falls, and they hear a coyote howl in the mountains.

“That could just be a coincidence,” says Thompson.

Agent Sangumbo drives to the Hot Springs Ranch in Warner Springs and gets himself a room for the night. Agent Jones tells him he will be along shortly himself.