Chapter 44

Jim took a swallow of cold coffee and shuddered. Even hot police coffee was nasty stuff. He'd read through the rest of the wendigo book; there wasn't much more to go on than they already had. Wendigo had appetites that expanded as they ate. They didn't plan on becoming monsters, it was a consequence of their hunger. The same with most criminals Jim had met. Few people planned on being bad.

"What am I missing?" he said.

"Sleep?" Marie sat on a desk. "You aren't any good to anyone if you're off your head with exhaustion."

"Leigh is out there, every hour that passes makes it less likely that she's alive."

"You don't know that."

"True, but how long would you want to be held captive by the children who killed those two men?"

"Right." Marie jumped to her feet. "We can sleep later."

"So what do we know for sure?"

"Someone is using children to commit murder. They seem to be especially interested in Leigh."

"What did Leigh say about this wendigo?"