It was early the next morning before we got back, the sun barely peeking over the horizon. We were all exhausted, especially Tammy thanks to her new prescription of pain medication. Once we had hobbled Tammy into bed and the men left, I collapsed onto the couch and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The pain in my legs woke me up sometime around noon, they were sore and quivered with every movement I tried to make. It felt like I had spent hours in the gym, which made sense considering the workout they had been put through the night before. On jelly legs, I carefully stood, feeling like my knees would buckle at any moment. I wouldn't have bothered getting up at all if I hadn't been able to smell myself. A thick layer of sweat had dried and crusted to my skin, along with all sorts of foreign plant material and other unidentifiable debris from the jungle.

I made the mistake of thinking it would be a good idea to let myself sit down in the shower and the water had long ran cold, though the cold water felt even more restorative, it felt like the core of my body was still hot and the chilly water running over my skin felt crisp and refreshing. While the water pelted me, my mind was running over everything that had happened the day prior. The more I thought, the more I began to buy into Tammy's idea that there was a real conspiracy that we had stumbled into. It was both a terrifying and exciting idea, maybe we could actually inform the world that a real cryptid had been found, but with someone trying to hide the information, following the clues might only lead into more danger.

When I returned to the room, feeling slightly more recharged, Tammy was semi-conscious and pulling herself very slowly into a sitting position. She gave me a wane smile and rested her back against the wall, breathing in deeply like the movement had been physically taxing.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Like I've been run over by a truck," she sighed. "Whatever pills they gave me knocked me for a loop, but I can't really complain, the pain is much more manageable." She shifted her hips slightly with a wince. "How are you doing?"

"My legs may one day recover," I reported. "I guess we're grounded for a little bit while you heal up."

"Unfortunately," she said, "but we can still research and I can always send you out to investigate."

"Alone?" My heart skipped a beat and my stomach became uneasy. "If you're right and people are willing to hurt others to hide the truth, I'm not sure I'm comfortably going out on my own."

"If they wanted to really hurt us, they wouldn't have used such basic traps," she argued. "Last night sent a message, but that message wasn't that we should fear for our lives."

"We only found one of the traps," I countered, "who knows what else was out there."

Tammy nodded, then leaned her head back sleepily on the wall. "Only do what you're comfortable with, but eventually we need to take risks. Discovering new science is often about taking a risk and sticking your neck out, especially with the field we're interested in. We have to accept that we risk our safety and reputation in order to uncover the truth."

"I just don't want to do anything too risky on my own." I knew she was right, that cryptid chasing was never going to be always safe, but I wanted someone more experienced with me as a guide. Before this trip, the greatest trouble I had ever found myself in was when I was six and managed to get myself lost in the mall. I was pretty sure the skill I had of finding the nearest adult and bawling wasn't going to transfer well to this circumstance

"First thing I'm going to ask you to do is help me up so I can get a shower and something to eat, then your job will be to start researching the construction company building the house." She scooted carefully to the end of the bed and stretched out her hands for help. "I was thinking about it last night while waiting on the doctor and if the foreman and others are in on it, there has to be something going on at the company level or at least someone higher up then them is calling the shots."

I took her hands and helped pull her to her feet, she clenched her teeth and let out a deep grunt of pain. As the sheet fell away, it revealed a large, black and purple bruise that extended from the very top of her hip down to just above her knee.

"Thanks," she said through gritted teeth, 'I'll take it from here. Get checking on that company."

By the time she returned, I had located which construction company it was, their website, and their current owner. Nothing stood out as suspicious with any of the information, though I wasn't exactly sure what I should have been searching for.

"The company is named H&B Construction and it's owned by someone named Claude Arsenau," I said, "but it doesn't look like he has much to do with the day to day operations. I tried looking up social media on him, but it's such a common name that it's been pretty difficult."

"Did you search using a picture of him?" she suggested.

Tammy looked much better after a long shower, the layer of dirt and sweat on her had really made her look pallid and sickly.

"Yes, that's how I found a couple of his accounts. It looks like he resides mostly in France. Most of his accounts have pretty good privacy settings, so the few pictures I could look through don't show him having much to do with any sort of construction work."

"Let me see." Tammy beckoned me to her with her hands.

I stiffly stood and joined her on the bed, placing my laptop between us. I opened up the tab for the construction website, then the social media accounts I had found. She took control and began skimming the pages, searching around for any information she could glean.

"He certainly doesn't look like he has much to do with the company," she commented, pointing to one of his albums of pictures. "It looks like he mostly parties and lives like a wealthy person, I doubt he does much other than in name. I don't think he would be fully aware of what was going on daily with his company."

"You can figure that out by just a few pictures? Maybe he's just someone who strictly separates their private and public life."

Tammy thought about my suggestion for a moment before shaking her head. "No, if you're the head of a company, you typically can't separate yourself that well. I believe the fact that he doesn't mention it at all is very telling about his level of involvement. He's pretty much a dead end." She closed out the tabs that were open on the social media and instead focused back on the company website. "Here, on the contact page, there are several locations they list in the country, let's find the nearest one to here and give them a call."

She pulled out her phone as she scrolled through the different addresses, until she found one close enough to be a match for the local group doing the actual on ground work. Typing in the number, she cleared her throat and adopted a look of seriousness.

"Good afternoon, my name is Dr. Tammy Phillips and I have been contacted by a group of concerned citizens about your newest project."

Tammy paused a moment to listen to their response, then looked to me and pulled the phone away from her face and hit the "speak" button.

"Yes, that would be the one, the private home," she said. "There has been some concern that an endangered species has been sighted in the area and is being disrupted by the construction."

"Oh? What kind of animal?" the woman on the other end asked. Her voice sounded like there was a little bit of concern in it.

"We're not exactly sure," Tammy explained, "but we're thinking it may be an undiscovered species of tapir or perhaps deer. Regardless, we think it would be in everyone's best interests to have me take a look around and verify what is actually going on. I'm sure you're aware how people, and the media, can get about the destruction of wildlife in the rainforest."

"You are right about that, Doctor. When can I tell them to expect you?"

"How does tomorrow at noon sound?"

"I will let them know," she said accompanied by the sound of typing. "Thank you for contacting us directly instead of going through other channels."

"Of course, good bye." Tammy hung up and looked to me. "There, done."

"Are you sure you'll be able to walk?" If we got into any real trouble, she would be a sitting duck.

"The hospital gave me crutches," she said with a shrug, "besides, the company will know we were there. If they're trying to be secretive they're not going to do anything to us tomorrow, but if it will make you feel better, we can get someone like Victor to go with us.

"That would make me feel better. I wouldn't be able to get you out of there on my own."

"Nothing will happen," she said with a wave of her hand, "but it doesn't hurt to have extra insurance. People do tend to get very weird when you inch closer to discovering what they're trying to keep hidden."

Tammy and I spent the rest of the day lounging, researching as much as she could about the sighting, though there wasn't much information we didn't already know. The details were so fuzzy or had been scrubbed from where they had been posted before that we couldn't exactly pinpoint where the likely point of contact was. I swore that I remembered someone talking about it having been discovered right on the edge of the jungle, but I couldn't find that piece of information anywhere. I sorely wished that I had taken the situation as true science and copied everything down in the event it was deleted.

That night I could barely sleep, despite being exhausted. I had been able to keep my fears at bay during the day by staying busy and focusing on the frustration of not being able to find what I knew I had read, but once night fell, all I could think about was how we could be walking right into the lions' den the next day. Tammy had confidence that I envied, she seemed to be able to convince herself that these people would not want to dirty their hands any further, but I could not be so trusting. There had been someone in the eye of the foreman who demanded us to leave that I did not like, he did not look like someone who cared much about other people.