‘Good hard evidence.’
‘Of what?’
‘No problems hearing now, huh?’ Two-Hawks asked.
‘Evidence of what?’ Shep repeated.
‘I promise, you won’t be disappointed.’
‘No,’ Mike said. ‘I need to know what exactly we’d be turning over to you.’
‘That’s not your concern.’
‘If we’re getting it, it is. I won’t bring you something that’ll wreck someone else’s life.’
‘It’s nothing like that. That’s all you need to know right now.’
Mike thought back to sitting in that armchair facing Bill Garner, the governor’s chief of staff. The last time Mike’s judgment was on the line, he’d folded, because what the hell, it was just an award and a couple of photos.
He stood.
Two-Hawks said, ‘Think about your daughter.’
Mike was at the door now, Shep beside him.
‘Okay, wait.’ Two-Hawks was on his feet. ‘They’re just photograph negatives. But they’re essential for us to keep our status – and our casino. I didn’t want to explain them, because… in my business we see up close how greed affects people.’ He scratched the back of his neck, hedging. ‘Sometimes there’s what’s right, and then there’s what’s smart.’
‘I’m a slow learner,’ Mike said, ‘but even I figured out there’s really no difference.’
‘Turning over those negatives – if you get them – to a competing casino is against your future financial interests as the heir to Deer Creek.’
‘Do you have kids, Mr Two-Hawks?’ Mike said.
‘Five.’ Two-Hawks drew a deep breath, chastened. ‘Okay. Maybe I’ve been swimming in the shark tank too long.’ He gestured back to the couch. ‘Please stay, and I’ll explain.’
Mike and Shep returned to the couch and sat, Shep plunking his boots on the glass coffee table.
‘Unless I can pull off a miracle in the next few months before that formal review, we are going to lose our federal recognition,’ Two-Hawks said. ‘There’s a higher bar for tribal acknowledgment these days, more stringent requirements. So far we’ve failed to produce additional physical proof tying our ancestors to this land. We’ve always had an oral tradition, so there’s a paucity of evidence, especially from the first half of this century. Very little survives of our tribe.’
Mike found himself looking at those few humble relics adorning the office walls.
‘Some months ago it came to my attention that there are antique photo negatives taken by members of a botany expedition or some nonsense out of Stanford during the 1930s. Those pictures show our people living on this very plot of land. I was told that the peak of Lassen in the background as well as a distinctive river fork just beyond the settlements made the precise location clear.’ He crossed and threw the window curtains apart. There past the parking lot but still glittering under the outer lights was a narrow river, split into two streams around a massive, cracked boulder.
Gone was the down-home oilman. Indignation had heightened not just his language but his affect. Drawn erect, eyes ablaze, he seemed every bit the chief he was in title. He let the curtains flutter back into place. ‘Of course, I arranged immediately to buy the negatives from the dealer. But somewhere between my hanging up the phone and arriving to pick up the film, McAvoy had stepped in and tripled my offer. He has the negatives. I need them. If we produce them as evidence – irrefutable evidence – of our tie to this land, the Bureau of Acknowledgment and Research will be forced to uphold our tribal status.’
‘And you keep your casino,’ Shep added.
‘Hard as it may be for you to recognize, Mr White, this isn’t only about money. McAvoy’s aim is to dissolve our tribe and steal our land. And we’ve had enough of that in our time, thank you.’
Shep stared at the far wall. He seemed unimpressed.
Two-Hawks turned to Mike, a better audience.
Mike asked, ‘So when McAvoy bought those photo negatives out from under you, you decided to go after dirt on Deer Creek and look for me?’
‘I needed something to protect my tribe. McAvoy found out what I took from him, so he and I are at a standoff. For now. Next year’s tribal-acknowledgment review puts a deadline on our little stare-down, one way or another. But given what I have on him, I’m not dumb enough to think he’ll wait this out much longer.’ Two-Hawks kicked the trash can, rattling the pieces of his smashed cell phone. ‘They’re intensifying their efforts to get back what I’ve taken. I relocated my family out of state.’ His eyes found Mike. ‘My five kids.’
‘So why not make a move first?’ Mike asked.
‘McAvoy has made clear that he’ll burn the negatives if any of the evidence I’ve collected against him sees the light of day. That would destroy our tribe as we know it. Plus, the thought of those pictures burning…’ In the golden light of the office, his face took on shadow, and in his wrinkles Mike could see the faint etchings of his heritage. ‘All we are is what we came from-’
At this, Shep snorted.
Two-Hawks continued, undeterred. ‘Those are the only images of my early ancestors. I put this tribe back together one member at a time, driving around the state in a beat-to-shit Pontiac. Many were homeless. Most were destitute. But we built something for ourselves with our own hands. All of us living today, we’ve never seen the faces of our forebears. For us to be able to see where we came from, to validate our place on this earth…’ He shook his head. ‘You can’t put a price on that.’
Mike studied his hands.
Shep merely looked annoyed. ‘So what’s the play?’
Two-Hawks went on. ‘If McAvoy’s faced with losing his entire corporation to your… bloodline, maybe you and he could strike a deal. You get him to turn over those negatives in exchange for some financial arrangement. You give me the pictures. I give you what I have on him. And then you sink him with criminal charges.’
‘If he turns over the photos to me, he leaves himself unprotected against whatever you have,’ Mike said. ‘He won’t do that.’
A silent sigh lowered Two-Hawks’s shoulders. ‘So what do you propose?’
Mike and Shep were both leaning forward, elbows on knees. Their heads tilted slightly, their eyes meeting. Shep gave a little nod.
Mike said, ‘I think I know where your photo negatives are hidden. McAvoy has a safe where he keeps all his valuable dirt.’
‘A safe. So you’re planning on… what?’
Shep flared his hands. Ta-da.
Two-Hawks let out a guffaw. ‘Come on. A casino safe?’
Mike said, ‘It’s hidden in his office.’
‘In his office?’ Two-Hawks exclaimed. ‘Why not the vault?’
Mike said, ‘Think about it.’
Two-Hawks chuckled into a fist. ‘Of course. The vault is filthy with cameras. Not exactly a choice place to hide dubious materials.’ He stood, walked a tight circle, and leaned on the back of his chair. ‘It’s ballsy of McAvoy, I gotta say. But it makes sense, too. Keeping valuables in a secret safe in a locked room in a twenty-four-hour-surveilled casino on sovereign land – I suppose that’d make me arrogant, too.’
‘Arrogant’s good,’ Shep said.
‘But even then, you’ve got all the cameras on the casino floor.’ Two-Hawks was still winding up. ‘Plus, you can’t possibly crack that safe there. The time, the noise.’
‘No,’ Shep said. ‘I can’t. How’s your pull with the cops?’
‘In the event that you get caught?’ Two-Hawks asked. ‘Good. But relative to Deer Creek’s?’ He blew out a dismissive breath. ‘McAvoy has something we don’t.’ He jabbed a finger at his computer monitor, a reference to the footage Mike had shown him earlier. ‘Rick Graham.’