In the morning, Thielo returns from researching in the library to a somewhat confused Alexandra who doesn't remember the past day or so and has a note and a mechanical hat for him. It's all very Strauss-y. Later on that morning, everyone gets together and decides to head down to Roswell in three waves - first Gavin and Gwen, then Angelina and Esteban, and then the Strausses (Alexandra is very tired and napping).
In Roswell, various museums are inspected - there's a history museum and an alien museum - but little is determined about coyotes. Randall Bluefeather has been let out of jail, apparently, and the behest of the State police who decided that keeping him in jail was embarrassing the entire state.
Esteban and Angelina arrive and hit the gift shops. They find one that stands out - the Coyote gift shop - and going in discover a gangly red-haired man who turns out to be the very same Randall. Angelina flirts with him a bit and ends up with a date and a little bag of stones one can use to discover one's heart-animal.
Esteban, having bailed halfway through the flirting, heads over to a nearby bar and discovers three old codgers listening to a middle-aged man rant about Government Death Dogs. The man turns out to be names Clive Stubbins. He runs a website (and has his laptop, wrapped in blackened tinfoil, with him). Esteban hears about Deer Mutilation (people miss cattle, but no one misses deer), government implanted sub-personalities, and a few other things before his brain fills and he has to retreat.
Everyone regroups at the Roswell Inn. They spends a few hours at dusk wandering around looking for coyotes, and Esteban and Angelina find one. It's lying on its back on the sidewalk wagging its tail. They approach it but don't touch, and as they're absorbed Esteban feels a sharp nip at his backside. Another coyote has appeared and bitten off his back pocket, wallet included! Both coyotes run off into the night. Everyone agrees that this is pretty weird.
Angelina's date goes fairly quietly... Randall is smooth, but not that interesting. While he's occupied, the Strausses go to break into his house. It's a second-floor apartment with external stairs. The downstairs has windows covered in tinfoil and pressure-sensors in the yard. Everyone concludes that this house belongs to Stubbins. Thielo searches Randall's place and finds a handgun, some fake IDs (actually a lot of fake IDs), but little of mystic importance. As he's coming out, a coyote runs up to look in the window of the lower apartment and sets off the pressure system. The Strausses beat a dignified retreat as sirens and lights start up, but the neighbors seem uninterested. Angelina manages to keep from going anywhere too intimate with Randall, and returns to the hotel. Gwen is disappointed that she will be staying with Angelina, having gotten her hopes up.
That night, Gavin dreams of the circle of thrones, and discovers that not too many are empty - maybe as few as five, or as many as twenty. One of the empty thrones is lit by a flickering light - a flame, or a glowing plant, growing...
At breakfast everyone entertains themselves by finding their heart animal. Angelina is a badger, Thielo a buffalo, Esteban an Eagle, Gwen a rabbit. Alexandra gets a blank pebble - apparently this set is defective. Gavin declines.
Mostly that day they wait for some tracking devices to arrive (arranged through Darwin), with the exception of Esteban. He goes to the Police to report his missing wallet and the coyote attack and get some temporary ID. He gets along well enough with them to hear about the time the coyotes tried to steal a truck, and the time they rang a doorbell to get in and eat a widow's cat. The police have an incident map, which centers (roughly) on the house where Randall and Stubbins live.
He then goes to talk to Stubbins and after a few false starts lays some mojo on him and gets to talk to him (in his house, where the walls, floor, and ceiling have a tinfoil lining). It's mostly incoherent, and after a little while Esteban does something that makes the paranoid sure that he's from some Three Letter Agency. Stubbins locks himself in his bedroom and threatens to release tear gas, so Esteban leaves. On his way out, he claims to have ripped the foil, though he hasn't.
That night they once again go out trolling for coyotes, this time wearing some of the transmitters disguised as watches. They've just about given up when a coyote bites off Esteban's watch while he's on the phone. They fire up the tracker and give chase (while Esteban goes for a rabies shot).
They track the coyote to the house next to the infamous house, where it goes under a porch. Gavin crawls in after it, finding himself in a well-dug tunnel. After he crawls to what must be under the house in question, it widens out (apparently scratched) and is filled with bedding, small bones, and stolen wallets and keys and watches. Gavin retrieves Esteban's wallet. He also notes that the tunnel continues to a hatch in the ceiling which is lined with foil. Everyone concludes that this is Stubbin's escape tunnel. Unsure what to do about it, they return to the hotel.