The Road to Omaha (37 page)

“My dear, you may turn down a lucrative career with my firm, but you may not embarrass me with such a ploy as reversing charges. You’ll have quiet in what was the manager’s office behind the counter over there—he wasn’t much of a manager and it isn’t much of an office, but you’ll be alone and your privacy assured.”

“Thank you very much.” Jennifer turned and walked toward it as Hawkins got out of his chair.

“Have you seen my sergeants, Sam?” he asked.

“Would you believe they’re out back at the base of the hill about a hundred yards to the right trying to get that old rusted ski lift to work?”

“Very enterprising,” said Aaron.

“Very dumb,” said Devereaux. “That damn cable never
worked properly from the beginning. I once got stuck thirty feet in the air for almost an hour, my lady of the day twenty feet in front of me screaming her head off. We drove back to Boston the moment we were down and I never got to see the bedroom.”

“I suspect you’ve seen more than one since we assumed the mortgage.”

“Hey, come on, Aaron. You yourself once told me to get out of the office and come up here to cool off.”

“You were furious over losing a case you should have won,” said Pinkus, writing on his notepad, tearing off the page and handing it to the general. “Because the judge was an ignorant political hack who couldn’t follow your reasoning.… Also, if that was your method of cooling off, there was an inversion of temperatures.”

“This legal stuff is way beyond me,” announced the Hawk. “I’ll go find my adjutants myself. I’ve decided to go into Boston with them. Little Joseph said he wanted a meeting, so I believe I should surprise him prior to our formal conference.… This is the car rental place?” Aaron nodded, and the Hawk walked to the door. “I’ll get back on my own. I want you to have two vehicles here.”

“Fine, General. And when Miss Redwing is finished, I’ll reach Paddy Lafferty and set everything in motion.”

“Good thinking, Commander.”

“I’d get up and salute, General Hawkins, but I don’t think I can manage it.”

Redwing closed the door of the minuscule office behind the counter, sat down at the desk, and picked up the telephone. She dialed her apartment number in San Francisco, startled by the fact that before the first ring was over the excited voice of her brother was on the line.

“
Yes
?”

“Charlie, it’s me—”

“Where the
hell
have you
been
? I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!”

“It’s all too absurd, too incredible, and too insane to go into—”

“Try every
one
of those adjectives to what
I’ve
learned!” interrupted the younger brother. “That nut son of a bitch outmaneuvered me—
all
of us—we’re
screwed
!”

“Charlie, calm down,” said Jennifer, contrarily feeling her blood pressure rise to uncontrollable limits. “Calm down and speak slowly.”

“Both are impossible, Sis!”

“
Try
, Charlie.”

“All right, all right.” In San Francisco, the brother took several audible deep breaths and did his best to be lucid. “Without my knowing it, without anyone telling me, a number of weeks ago our Chief Thunder Head convened the Council of Elders with some scumhead sleaze of a lawyer from Chicago calling the legal shots, and had himself
legally
proclaimed temporary sole and absolute arbiter of the Wopotami tribe for a period of six months.”

“He can’t
do
that!”

“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.”

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
!”

“Apparently, neither did they pursue with any degree of intense curiosity how he intended to make them extraordinarily wealthy. Instead, they joyfully took the million and spent it—rather injudiciously, I gather.… And forgive me, Miss Redwing, but I believe your brother was very much aware of the general’s intentions. In fact, he was very much an accessory—”

“He thought it was all a big joke!” cried Redwing, lurching forward. “A harmless
joke
that gave the tribe a lot of money, an influx of tourists, and a great deal of fun!”

“The Supreme Court is fun …?”

“He didn’t think it would get to first base,” said Jennifer defensively. “Besides, he had no idea about the million dollars or the deal Hawkins cut with the Council. He was appalled!”

“Lack of communication between friendly parties is not grounds for fraud
or
conspiracy, except perhaps between the parties themselves, which would then put them on an adversarial basis.”

“You’re saying the Council
deliberately
withheld information from my brother.”

“I’m afraid I am. As he did from them to a large extent.”

“And if we, our group, suddenly insert ourselves—”

“Which you have no legal right to do,” interrupted Aaron gently.

“… and tell the whole story,” continued Redwing, her eyes growing wide in astonishment, “it will be interpreted as a self-serving action on our part to move into the money, stealing it from them if there ever is any!… My God, it’s all been turned around! It’s
crazy
!”

“Yes, my dear, crazy—like a hawk. The general would have made a superb corporate attorney.”

Suddenly, from the open balcony of the Alpine lobby’s second floor, a figure emerged from a door and walked to the railing. It was Eleanor Devereaux, her hair groomed and her posture regal, very much the grand dame. “I just had a horrible dream,” she announced, in full control of her voice and words. “I dreamt that mad General Custer and all those savage Indians at the battle of Little Big Horn joined together and attacked a packed convention of the American Bar Association. The lawyers were all scalped.”