The letters in the box are from a Quaker teacher who had been tasked by an Apache elder with finding Magpie and Coyote Runs’s corpses, making this the first time in which Brennan learns Coyote Runs’s name. The next letter is a response from the local colonel, telling the teacher that they were unable to recover the bodies of Magpie and Coyote Runs. Based on the letter, Brennan deduces that Coyote Runs had not been killed in battle, but rather executed at point-blank range by the soldiers.

Feeling upset by Coyote Runs’s fate, Brennan tells Homesley what he’s found. He goes on to tell Homesley that he needs to go into the canyons in order to find where to put Coyote Runs’s remains. Homesley offers to go with him, but Brennan understands that he needs to do this alone.

When Brennan gets home, Bill’s car is parked out front, and Brennan can sense tension in the air. Entering the kitchen, he sees his mother and Bill frozen before the skull on the table. Bill and his mother confront Brennan about the skull, and Brennan explains how he found it and what the boy’s name was.