Capítulo 9: Chapter 10

"I'm making more coffee," Sam Brody announced.

The former investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was the acknowledged king of coffee consumption, a habit he developed after his father was killed by the Chupacabra on a hunting trip. Everyone had agreeably given him the responsibility of keeping the pot full. With the hours Night Seekers kept at their Desolation Ranch headquarters that had become an important job. The tall, heavily muscled man, a former football player, deftly filled the reservoir and shook grounds into the coffee filter.

"If this falls apart, you could always get a job in a restaurant," Chelsea Roland teased.

Like Sam-and several others of the team-the petite brunette was a shapeshifter. But unlike the others they both preferred to run in early morning rather than at night. The five hundred acres of ranch property provided that opportunity and they often ran together.

"Any word from Jonah?" Sam wanted to know.

Chelsea had been taking her turn monitoring incoming communications. Craig Stafford, the money behind Night Seekers, checked in frequently. Additionally, while Jonah was out in the field, the others were running down any source they could find. Whoever was on comm took all returned calls and logged them in.

Now she shook her head. "Not since earlier today. He called after seeing the man whose dogs were killed, said he had a lead he was following, but nothing since then."

"He's a loner," Ric Garza reminded them as he brought his mug to the sink and rinsed it out. "He's pretty much used to being on his own and running his own game."

"Craig said no loners on this project," Chelsea pointed out. "We're supposed to be a team effort all the way."

"He'll call," Sam assured them. "He's not stupid. He knows what he's supposed to do."

"Text coming in," someone called.

Stafford had brought in a team of highly trained technicians to set up their electronics and train the team to use them. One of the things he'd done was to set up a cell phone for texts only and connect it to a large screen so everyone could see both incoming and outgoing messages. The three people in the kitchen hurried into what had once been a massive living room but now served as the nerve center of Night Seekers.

Sophia Black, the former detective with the Maine Highway Patrol, was pointing to the screen.

"New contact. New lead. More later. J."

"Not big on long messages is he," Sophia joked.

"He doesn't have to be," Sam told her. "He's checked in and he'll get back to us. Meanwhile I'm going to pour myself some fresh coffee and go back to my research project."

Sam, an iinternet junkie, had volunteered to find everything ever written on the Chupacabra, sift out what they didn't need or what was patently off-center, and compile it into one mammoth working document.

"I hope he knows we're probably going to be looking at two more killings before the animal leaves the area," Chelsea pointed out. "If it follows the pattern, that is."

"Jonah knows," Sam told her as he sat down with his coffee.

"And I guess I should get back to my research on Maverick County," Chelsea sighed. "Do you know there's a Kickapoo reservation not far from Eagle Pass?"

Sophia frowned. "You think they have anything to do with this devil beast?"

"No." Sam shook his head. "But they might know more about it than anyone else around there."

"But the Chupacabra's not Indian in origin," Ric pointed out.

"They still have a mystical understanding of legends. Maybe someone can tell Jonah something others down there don't know."

"It is to be hoped." Chelsea went to refill her mug and everyone else settled back down to their assignments.

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