“Always.”
I shucked my jacket and made myself a vodka tonic. I needed it, and not because my workday had been hard. Sipping my drink, I walked over to Riva, put an arm around her shoulder, gave her a kiss on the cheek. Nora watched, smiling like a dear old friend.
“Your son’s adorable,” she said. “Anytime you need a babysitter…”
The middle-aged childless woman’s promise, and desire.
“Not that there’s much to do around here at night. But you know, a movie or something.” Nora smiled. “Bowling’s popular.”
“I’m sure we’ll take you up on that.” I was playing it casual, but my nerves were jingling inside. “So you invited Nora over,” I said to Riva. “That was…nice.”
“Actually, I invited myself.” Nora turned her smile on Riva. “I wanted to meet the lucky woman who snared Luke Garrison.”
“It’s the other way around,” I told her. “I’m the lucky one.”
“We’re both lucky,” Riva said, “so let’s drop it, okay? We don’t need to prattle on in front of Nora, she’ll think we’re stuck-in-the-mud fogies.”
“I wouldn’t think that,” Nora said brightly. “I think you are lucky—both of you.”
Riva clutched my hand, hearing that. She was remembering what I’d told her about Nora’s life with Dennis. I knew that wasn’t what Nora was thinking about, but I kept that opinion to myself.
Nora turned to me. “So—how goes the battle?” To Riva: “I only know what he deigns to tell me. Talk about your independent counselor.” She was preternaturally chipper.
“Nothing new to report. Nobody knows anything, the party line. But I’m rattling them. Someone might break, if they think I’m going to bring a blanket indictment and take a bunch of them to trial.”
“Except you’re not going to do that. We’re not chasing wild geese. Your words.”
“I know that, and you know that. But they don’t.”
“Well, let’s hope we catch a break. And soon. I’m getting awfully nervous about this. There’s a ton of pressure coming down from Washington. Bill Fishell calls every other day, asking what’s going on.”
“Tell him to hold the fort.”
“I do.” Nora turned to Riva. “Can I help you with dinner? I don’t want to talk shop anymore, it’s boring. And I never get to cook for anyone, besides myself,” she said straight-faced, not looking at me.
“I’ve got the kid covered,” I said quickly, scooping him up and swinging him to the ceiling, which brought the usual shrieks of laughter. “We’re going to play with the horsies. Right, Buckaroo?”
“Right, Daddy! “he screamed joyfully.
While the women went about getting dinner ready, I cored and sliced an apple, tucked the pieces into my pocket, and carried my son outside on my shoulders, horsy-back style. The condo development had been built on the edge of a working ranch—the ranch fence came up to the edge of where we were living. Real horses grazing in the field on the other side would amble over to us and let Bucky rub their noses and give them sugar and the apple slices. Riva was taking riding lessons over there, western-style. She was getting good at it. I figured the other shoe would drop when we got home—she’d want a horse. And all the expensive crap that goes with it.
If that’s what she wanted, she could have it. She can have anything she wants. A faithful husband, for openers.
I did have new information about the investigation, but I wasn’t about to share it with Nora; not yet, anyway. Kate Blanchard had called and delivered the jolt about the girl named Jerome. That a girl in Juarez’s class at Stanford, more than twenty years ago, had the same uncommon last name as the leader of the group I was investigating didn’t mean anything in and of itself—there might be no connection. But the coincidence was intriguing. Kate was going to follow it up and get back to me, if there was anything to it.
Buck and I stood at the fence and fed the apple to the horses, an old mare and an old gelding, the one Riva rides. Maude and Big Red, two good horse names. Buck giggled as they slobbered over his tiny hand, their big horse lips sucking up the fruit.
“Pretty soon you’ll be riding, Buck, like Mommy,” I told him, hoisting him closer to the horse’s face.
He smiled and nodded at that. With a name like Buck, you ought to be able to ride a horse, not that he knows that yet.
All those things he’s going to be learning to do over the years. I’ll be there, cheering him on, watching, helping, being a part of it. I’m old for a new dad, it means more when you’ve been waiting this long. I want to make sure I’m always there for him. One guaranteed way to do that is to keep my cock and the rest of myself out of single ladies’ hot tubs. And everything else of theirs as well.
Dinner was casual and unstressful, given the circumstances. Nora left shortly after, citing fatigue. After putting our son to bed, Riva and I lounged around in the living room. It was great, having them there, although the digs weren’t up to our usual. No porch to sit on at night, no view of the ocean. But we were together, that was the important thing.
“She seems like a nice lady,” Riva commented. “Not as uptight as I’d imagined.”
“She’s in control of herself,” I said. “Most of the time. She has to be, she’s highly visible; in her job being in control or looking like you are is half the battle.”
“It must be frustrating for her, having to stand outside and look in the window in her own jurisdiction,” Riva said. “Can’t you confide in her more?”
“Did she say something to you about that?” I asked, irritated.
“Not in so many words. But I could tell. You wouldn’t like it, if you were in her position.”
“I wouldn’t let myself be.”
“She didn’t have a choice, Luke.”
“You always have a choice.” I didn’t want to get into this with her; and I didn’t like Nora trying to use Riva to get to me.
“I’m doing the best I can for the case. It isn’t about personalities. She has to remember that. We all do.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” Riva got up. “I’m tired. Let’s go to bed. That’s why we came up here, isn’t it?”
“One of the main reasons.”
As we were falling asleep, she said one last thing about Nora.
“She’s lonely. It’s so apparent, the way she was with Bucky. I don’t even know the woman and my heart went out to her, all the heartbreak she’s had. She needs a man in her life. You ought to help her out.”
The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. “Like how?”
“Find somebody for her. We could have her down to S.B. for a weekend. You must know some nice eligible men, don’t you?”
“I’ll think on it,” I said, feeling my body quivering. “When this is done. Can we not talk about Nora anymore tonight? I’m with you. I don’t want anyone else in our space.”
“No one is.”
She fell asleep on her side. No one is, I thought, except Nora’s shadow.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Sylvan Furness said. “Which do you want to hear first?”
“The good news, I guess,” Louisa Bearpaw answered with unease. Was this going to be yet another screwing-over by the BIA?
“The Justice Department has agreed to turn jurisdiction of that compound over to Interior, and Interior is witling to sell it to you.”
She smiled—that was a surprise. “Great. How much?”
He hesitated, then timidly told her, “Two million.”
She stared at him, her jaw dropping. “Are you shitting me?”
He shook his head. “No. That’s what they want.”
“Jesus Christ, Sylvan, that’s outrageous. It isn’t worth half that.”
“We have all the construction bills. It cost almost that much to build.”
“It didn’t cost the government one thin dime,” she replied hotly. “No one ever pays full price for a government seizure. You’ll be lucky to get fifty cents on the dollar.”
“Not this time.” He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I told them it was going to be too much money, but they don’t care.”
“They’d rather just sit on it.”
He nodded. “For the time being.”
“Jesus, what morons.” She sipped her take-out coffee, which tasted like metal in her mouth. “Okay, so that’s the good news. Some good news. What’s the bad news? You’re going to nuke the reservation?”
“The department’s turning down your loan request.”
Louisa Bearpaw shrugged her shoulders. “Why not?” It was a rhetorical question. “When have they ever done anything for us?”
“It’s because you want to use the property for gambling,” he explained nervously. “They don’t want to be in the gaming business.”
“They wouldn’t be, Sylvan, we would, but obviously the great-white-father attitude is still alive after all.”
“Come on, Louisa, you know it’s not like that.”
“No, I don’t,” she said, “but I don’t care. I can’t worry about what I can’t do anything about. Changing two hundred years of screwing the Indian is something I can’t do anything about, so I’m not going to try.”
He threw up his hands. “Sorry.”
“No big deal. We expected it.”
Louisa was again in Furness’s office in Sacramento. Just her this time. The others who had come down with her from the reservation, Mary Redfeather and one of the men who had been at the previous meeting were nervously waiting for her over coffee in an IHOP down the street. She’d wanted this to be a one-on-one meeting, her and the BIA man. She figured she could work him better if it was just the two of them alone.
“I’m sorry you drove all the way down here to hear that,” he said apologetically. “I could have told you over the phone. I told you that.”
She shook her head. “I know. That’s not why we came.”
He was perplexed. “Why did you?”
“Remember how I told you if you couldn’t get us the loan, we’d come up with the money some other way?”
“Yes,” he said slowly.
“Well, we’ve got it,” she said, flashing him a smile. “We want to get started negotiating right away.”
“Oh.” He was taken aback; he hadn’t expected this. “Where’d you get it?”
“What does the BIA care, as long as it’s legitimate?”
He was on the defensive, she had him on the run. “It doesn’t…I guess.”
“Good.” She leaned forward. “Let’s get down to business. Are you authorized to negotiate for the department? Can you make a deal on your own?”
He pursed his lips. “I can negotiate…”
She bored in on him. “Can you say yes or no?”
He hated feeling weak in front of this woman. “No,” he admitted. “I have to get department approval on any deal we’d make.”
She nodded. “Okay. Now I know the lay of the land.” She reached into her purse and took out a pad and pencil. “Two million’s bullshit, it’s way too high, you know that and I know that and the dweebs in Washington know that. It’s no reflection on you, Sylvan,” she said, smiling at him, “I know you’re there for me, as much as you can be. And I appreciate it, believe me. I know you’ll do as right by me as you can. Won’t you?”
He swallowed, nodded. “Yes, Louisa. I will.”
“That’s what I want to hear. So let’s start talking turkey for real, okay?”
“What did you offer?” a nervous Mary Redfeather asked Louisa.
They were in the IHOP, working on their second big carafe of coffee. With the laws in California now they couldn’t smoke at the table, they had to go outside. Mary had been outside half a dozen times already this morning, waiting for Louisa to come back from the meeting.
“Eight hundred and fifty grand.”
“Did he take it?”
“He’s getting back to me. You know how that works.” She opened three sugars into her coffee, to give it some flavor. “It’ll take months, but we’ll hear from them.”
“Two million’s way too much,” the man, whose name was John, said with sour pessimism. “We can’t pay that.”
“We could if we had to,” Louisa corrected him, looking over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t being eavesdropped on, “but we’re not going to have to. They’ll come around.”
“How much do you think they’ll settle for?” Mary asked.
Louisa sipped her coffee. Not very good. She needed to remember to make a pit stop before they started the drive home, all this bad coffee she’d been drinking.
“About a million. Maybe a million one. They can’t do anything with it, they can’t get more than that. No other drug dealer’s going to buy it, that’s for sure. So who else would want it, except us?”
“That’s still a lot of money,” John fretted. “We don’t have that kind of money.”
“We’ll get it,” Louisa said confidently. She signaled for the waitress. She needed to put something solid in her stomach, to soak up the coffee bile.
“Where?” Mary asked dubiously.
“I’ve been talking with a group of investors,” Louisa said. “People who can see the possibilities.”
“I didn’t know you were talking to anyone,” Mary said slowly. “How come you haven’t come to the council with it?”
“Because I didn’t want to waste everyone else’s time,” Louisa explained impatiently. “I wanted to wait until we knew Interior would sell us the property. I’m going to come to the council, believe me.”
“Are these investors of yours Vegas people?” John asked. “Can we trust them? They’re opposed to Indian gambling. They’d try to take it out from under us.”
She shook her head. “No, these aren’t established gambling interests.” She turned to the waitress. “A bran muffin, please, butter on the side.” To her friends: “You going to eat anything?”
They weren’t; they’d eaten while she was meeting with Furness.
“Trust me,” she assured John and Mary after the waitress left to get her order. “The money’s there.” She smiled. “And this time it’s the Indian who’s going to win, instead of the white man.”
Kate flew into O’Hare on United, picked up her rental Saturn at Avis, then headed south on I-94, which took her to I-90 east, into northern Indiana. Once she got through the snarl of Chicago and Gary, it was easy driving, mostly farmland, dotted with small towns along the way.
By the time she reached the outskirts of South Bend, twilight was coming on, an especially brilliant meltdown of burnished oranges, silvers, vermilions, purples. Detouring by Notre Dame, she witnessed the reflection of the dying sun as it shimmered off the Golden Dome. She’d seen the famous landmark on television, watching football games, but she had never been in the heartland of the country before. She’d lived her entire life in California.