«He did, Sis. Notarized, authorized, and recognized by the court.»
«He had to give something in return!»
«He did that, too. A million dollars to be divided by the five members of the Council, millions more to be given to the whole tribe within the six-month period.»
«Corruption!»
«Tell me something I don’t know.»
«We’ll fight it in the courts!»
«And, besides losing, make fools and heavy debtors out of our brothers and sisters?»
«What do you mean?»
«For starters, how about Uncle Eagle Eyes, who bought a communal estate for the tribe’s oldest in some desert in Arizona that won’t have plumbing for a hundred years, if ever? And Aunt Doe Nose, who invested in the name of our women in an oil rig on Forty-first Street and Lexington Avenue in New York City, or Cousin Antelope Feet, who took over controlling interest in a distillery in Saudi Arabia, where they not only don’t make booze, they don’t drink it!»
«They’re all over eighty years of age!»
«Certified as mentally competent, so covered by the scum-head attorney from Chicago and approved by the Omaha court.»
«I can’t believe this, Charlie. I’ve been with Hawkins most of the afternoon, and after a bumpy start he came around. Only a couple of hours ago he was so contrite, so genuine. He told me that our corporate trust was the right thing to do, that he’d go along with whatever the Council of Elders approved.»
«Why not? He is the Council of Elders.»
16
Jennifer did not walk out of the small office into the Alpine lobby, she burst into it, exploding the space in front of her. «Where is he?» she said, in her voice the anger of nearby thunder, her eyes shooting out bolts of lightning. «Where is that son of a bitch?»
«Obviously, you mean Sam,» answered Aaron Pinkus, leaning forward in the leather chair and pointing at the door leading to the kitchen. «He said he remembered where he had concealed a bottle of gin, a place where his shorter colleagues couldn’t reach it.»
«No, I’m not talking about that son of a bitch, I mean the other one! The velvet-tongued idiot buffalo who’s about to face the combined wrath of the Sioux and the Comanche, delivered by a furious daughter of the Wopotamis.»
«Our General?»
«You can bet your tuchis on it!»
«You speak Yiddish?»
«I’m a lawyer; it goes with the territory. Where is that bastard?»
«Well, I’m both apologetic, yet somewhat relieved, to tell you that he left for Boston with his two adjutants. He said something about meeting with a man named ‘Little Joseph,’ who apparently is the person who called him at the Ritz-Carlton. Our two stolen cars just raced down the drive only moments ago, thanks be to Abraham. With the blessings of God they will be returned without incident.»
«Mister Pinkus! Do you know what that horrible, horrible man has done?»
«Too many horrors to put into a medium-sized encyclopedia, I suspect. However, not the latest, which I gather you’re about to tell me.»
«He bought our tribe!»
«How extraordinary! How could he possibly do that?» Redwing told the Boston attorney everything she had learned from her brother Charlie. «May I ask you a question or two, perhaps three?»
«Of course,» said Jennifer, throwing herself into the leather armchair next to Pinkus. «We’re screwed,» she added quietly, discouragingly. «We’re really screwed!»
«Not necessarily, my dear. First, this Council of Elders. They may be wise and grand people, but have they been legally appointed as guardian ad litem for the Wopotami tribe?»
«Yes,» mumbled Red.
«I beg your pardon?»
«It was my idea,» said Jennifer, only slightly louder, her embarrassment showing. «It gave them pride, which they sorely needed, and I never—never—thought that they’d ever convene in any major decision without consulting me or, in the event of my demise, the others of our group.»
«I see. Were there any codicils to the ad litem guardianships, say in the nature of the death or deaths of any or all of the appointees? Replacements, perhaps?»
«Voted upon by the remaining members of the Council.»
«Have there been any such replacements … who might have been, shall we say, ‘reached’ by General Hawkins?»
«None. They’re all still alive. It’s the history of rare buffalo meat in their diets, I think.»
«I see. And is there anywhere in the ad litem designation that makes mention of the selected children of the tribe who actually execute the fiduciary decisions of your people?»
«No, that would have been demeaning. As with the Orientals, ‘face’ is terribly important to the Indians. We just knew—we assumed we knew—that should any problem arise, one of us would be called… Frankly, myself.»
«You’re speaking realistically, of course.»
«Of course.»
«But legally there’s no proviso in the papers of incorporation that illuminates and clarifies the function of your group?»
«No… Again pride, genuine pride. To include such a condition would mean there’s a council above the elders, and tribal tradition could not accept that. Now do you see what I mean? That horrible man controls my people. He can say and do whatever he wants in their name.»
«I suppose you could always challenge him in the courts under the articles of conspiracy and possible fraud. However, in doing so, you’d have to tell your whole story, and that could be extremely disadvantageous for obvious reasons. Also, your brother does have a point—you could lose.»
«Mr. Pinkus, of the Council’s five elders, three men and a woman are in their eighties, and the fifth is seventy-eight. None are equipped to deal with these legal complexities any more now than they were thirty years ago, which was zilch!»
«They don’t have to be ‘equipped,’ Miss Redwing, they merely have to be sufficiently competent to understand the transaction and its benefits and liabilities. I submit they did, perhaps enthusiastically, even to the exclusion of yourself.»
«And I submit that’s impossible!»
«Come now, my dear, a million dollars in solid cash with the promise of millions more to come within a short period of time? In exchange for what? The temporary holding of what they had to know was at best a ceremonial title? It must have been irresistible… ‘Let the crazy white man have his few months of fun, where’s the harm?’»
«There wasn’t full disclosure,» insisted Jennifer.
«There doesn’t have to be. If all business negotiations required full disclosure from all the parties involved, our economic system would collapse, you know that.»
«Not when it comes to fraud, Mr. Pinkus.»
«Indeed not, but how can you prove fraud? As I understand it, he promised millions on the basis of turning the tribe’s fortunes around, making them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, then proceeded to back up his offer with an initial compensation of one million dollars, no strings attached, as they say.»
«They didn’t understand! They didn’t realize that he intended to make them litigants in the most inflammatory lawsuit against the federal government in the nation’s history—my God, the Strategic Air Command!»