by Bella Knight
Ana snorted. “You’re already taping it,” she said.
He opened one of them and laid out the autopsy photos of Bodaway, who had been beaten before being shot. “Recognize your work?” he asked.
“My client did not kill Bodaway. Why was Bodaway out of prison? He had charges against him for murdering his wife.”
“Look closely,” said Agent Harris. “This is your work.”
“One more time, since you apparently have a hearing problem. My client did not kill Bodaway. And, one more time, what was Bodaway doing out of jail? Did you lose him?” Ana smiled gently, as if she was doing it to a very young child.
“He was an informant,” said Harris.
Ana snorted. “Of what? I’m from the res. Bodaway was a drunk who sometimes used drugs. He wasn’t involved in anything except petty crime —and beating his wife and children. Did you knowingly engage the services of a dangerous felon, Agent Harris?”
“Special Agent Harris,” he said. “Why did you beat and shoot Bodaway, Mr. Nachos?”
“Nachas,” said Ana, once again speaking as if to a small child. “Date, time, and place of the murder?”
“We’re asking the questions here,” said Special Agent Harris.
“That’s funny,” said Ana. “You’ve only asked one, and it has been answered twice. Do you have difficulty with your hearing?”
Harris fumed, then pointed at a closeup of Bodaway’s beaten face. “When was the last time you saw Bodaway?” he asked.
“My client saw Bodaway at the same time Bodaway attempted to assault my client on his property, as well as a sixteen-year-old girl and a woman with a tiny baby; she’s still nursing. At that time, Bodaway’s wife was still alive, right after Bodaway hit her over the head with a baseball bat in front of their children. She died right after the attempted assault on my client. Once again, why wasn’t he in jail awaiting murder charges?”
“He was an informant,” said Harris.
“Is it the habit of the FBI to allow killers to walk away?” asked Ana.
“Did that make you angry, Mr. Nachas?” asked Agent Harris. “That he attempted assault?”
“Date and time of the murder of Bodaway Teton?” asked Ana.
“Your client killed a man in cold blood,” said Harris, “And, you’re letting him get away with it.”
“You can’t have it both ways,” said Ana Whitehorse. “You can’t have him fuming with rage and coldly murdering a man at the same time. And, we can prove he wasn’t there, if you would bother to give me the date and time of the man’s murder.” She smiled at Agent Harris, as if she had taken his soul.
“Saturday, between eight and nine fifteen pm,” said Agent Garik. Agent Harris glared at him.
“Why did you bother to bring in my client and charge him with anything before bothering to find out exactly? Where. He. Was. At. The. Time. Of. The. Murder.” She knocked her hand on the table each time. “He was in California on a trip with the Nighthawks, the Valkyries, and the Iron Knights. There is ATM footage of him at a bank just before the murder. Someone from law enforcement is there right now getting the footage.” She smiled. “So, don’t think you can erase it or cover it up. We also have cell phone pictures from multiple cell phones, stamped with geo-location, date, and time. He. Wasn’t. There.”
She stood. “Have a nice day, gentlemen. We are leaving. I will be filing a lawsuit for false arrest, immediately.”
“We wouldn’t cover up anything,” spluttered Agent Garik.
“He would,” said Ana Whitehorse, pointing at Harris. “In a heartbeat.”
“Sit down!” raged Agent Harris. “Your client paid someone to do it.”
“With what funds?” asked Ana, as Nantan stood. “He has a rechargeable credit card with about two hundred dollars in it for spending money. He occasionally uses an ATM to withdraw cash off of it. His salary from both the hydroponics farm and the work with the Wolfpacks goes into buying a stallion, and its room and board.”
“Stallion?” asked Agent Garik.
“A rescued stallion, with good bloodlines, who can also be used as a stud,” said Ana. “A very valuable horse. Not along the lines of a racehorse, but several years’ worth of room, board, and vet bills.” She whipped out her cell phone. “I have a scan of the agreement right here. Agent Garik, I’ll be happy to email it to you. This man, not so much.” Garik texted her his email and Ana sent it to him, while Special Agent Harris fumed.
Wraith came in the room. “Bye, Nantan. Ana, nice meeting you.” They shook hands across the table.
“Who the fuck are you? And, they can’t leave,” said Special Agent Harris.
“Yes, they can,” said Wraith. “They just proved to you that Nantan could neither have killed Bodaway, nor paid someone to do it. Unless you believe that the fictional transporter from Star Trek beamed him to Arizona to commit the murders?” Agent Garik smirked as Nantan and Ana left the room. “Ana’s going to have fun with the false arrest thing. In front of his kids, no less.”
She circled around the table until she was facing Special Agent Harris. “I am Special Agent Annika Jensen, DEA. We have our very own special prosecutor for the likes of you,” she said. “Planting evidence. We know you planted a bandanna with Nantan’s DNA near Bodaway’s body. How did you get it? Sneaking on the property? Steal it out of Nantan’s car?”
She stalked Special Agent Harris, stealing around the table towards him. “We know you paid Bodaway to beat up guys, especially in so-called barfights. Your very own enforcement racket. You paid him in drinks, guns, and the very baseball bat that killed his wife. We just found your fingerprints on it.”
Special Agent Harris went white. “I didn’t…”
“We have you on camera meeting the man.”
“He was an informant!” said Special Agent Harris.
“No, he was your personal bully-boy. And, you just tried to pin a murder on a Sioux and Apache national, and that makes it a hate crime. Thought Indians would be dumb and stupid? Or not have lawyers?”
“You can’t prove he was in California,” said Special Agent Harris. “With some biker gang called the Nighthawks. They’ll say anything to defend him.”
“He was also with the Valkyries and the Iron Knights. There are a lot of law enforcement in both groups. I have signed affidavits from seven law enforcement members who were with him in California near the time of the murder,” said Wraith. She dropped a fat file on the table. “Signed, sealed, delivered. Now, tell us about your little scheme.”
Four more people entered the room —Special Agent Harris’ boss, Special Agent in Charge (Havar Chastain), the Special Prosecutor for the State of Nevada (Thalissa Cayan), and the Assistant Director (Warner Oliver), FBI.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Wraith, standing right next to Special Agent Harris, “shall we begin?”
Nantan was greeted with a huge chicken and biscuit dinner, including almond-caramel ice cream. He ate and joked, and the Wolfpack put on music and danced. Vu danced with the Owl Pack, and David and Henry gave a modified powwow dance they taught to the Wolfpack members who wanted to learn. Henry instituted a game night, and they had lots of fun playing.
Wraith came by after the night was finished with. Tam and Nico were in their pods, and she gave Nantan, Henry, David, and Inola a rundown in the sorting center.
“We’ve uncovered a lot of malfeasance on the part of Special Agent Harris. He’s been using Bodaway as his special enforcer for years. Getting him to do things, including beating information out of people, taking out people that interfered with his business, planting evidence, getting people to ‘confess.’ I was so right to be called in; he was running drugs. And not through the res, but around it. He knew how to protect his mules. Turns out they’re young sociopaths from both on and off the res. He ordered them to kill Bodaway so Bodaway wouldn’t tell what he knew, in exchange for getting off on the murder charge.”
Henry narrowed his eyes. “That bastard.”
“We’re sti
ll getting the proof; FBI people know how to cover up crimes, but we’ve put a lot of the puzzle together. He’s got four burner phones, and a code we had my pet codebreaker crack.” She snorted. “My codebreaker now gets a consultant’s fee for working for government agencies. She’s good. She uses us to create pots she can use in poker.”
“The codebreaker found…” asked Inola, burping the baby. Ryder let loose with a resounding burp, making everyone laugh.
“The messages on his burner phones were coded, but he wasn’t working with genius. Mayyan broke it in ten minutes. She translated codes to kill, to maim, to run drugs, and where and how to pick them up and drop them off.” She smiled. “Ever since I started hanging out with the Nighthawks, I’ve busted quite a few negative individuals.”
“What’s going to happen to this ‘negative individual’ asshole,” asked David.
“He’s going into a very deep hole and not coming out,” said Wraith. “We’re picking up all the little sociopaths he used and we’re nailing them. We should have a full case in six to ten days. The special prosecutor is wriggling with excitement. She loves this case and says she’s going to have fun “cleaning up the FBI.” No one else has been implicated, and his partner has been on sick leave for a long time —his wife has cancer, but she’s expected to make a full recovery. So, he didn’t see the signs, and was distracted with worry over his wife. The FBI is happy that the bastard’s going down and that no one else was involved; taking down a bad agent is a good thing for them, because it shows they’re policing themselves.”
“They didn’t,” said Nantan. “You did.”
She smiled an evil smile. “I let them take credit if they did me a solid,” she said. She held up two fingers. “I get two future favors. And, I get permanent assignment in Vegas because I was willing to work and play well with others.” She snorted. “Not my usual style.”
“You rock,” said Inola, hugging her with one arm. The other was full of baby.
“I rock,” said Wraith. “Always have, always will.”
On that note, they broke up the party so the exhausted Wraith, Nantan, and Inola could sleep. Everyone hugged Wraith, and Henry pulled her aside.
“Once again, if the Nighthawks can do you a favor…”
“Henry,” said Wraith, “another one of your little cases netted me my main man. I can’t pay you back for that. But, if I ever need the Nighthawks, I’ll call.”
“Good,” said Henry, and he hugged her again. She pushed him away, laughing. She headed to her Harley, and rode out into the night.
The next day, he was the celebrity. Everyone came to “help” —with pointed questions about what happened and how he was doing. He answered as best he could, mainly stating that he had been really, really bored. Nantan was finally able to draw some of them off to the point where he could speak to Tam and Nico privately, in their bedroom, with the door wide open.
“Your dad is passed on,” he said. “He was murdered. The guy who had him killed was the one who had me arrested. I did not kill your father. We were all in California at the time he was murdered.” Nico looked angry. Tam looked terrified. “My attorney is Sioux,” Nantan continued, “she has spoken to the Sioux Nation and they know what really happened. They want you to stay here.”
Nico still looked angry, but Tam visibly relaxed. “We don’t have to go?” he asked in a small voice.
“Of course not,” said Nantan. “None of us did anything wrong. And you are Sioux and you belong with Sioux. I am Sioux, so you belong with me.”
Nico’s eyes flashed. “I hate Sioux! They did nothing to help my mother!” He kicked the bed.
Nantan nodded. “That is true and not true. The women offered many times to take you and your brother into a safe home, but she refused. You all lived just off the res, and that’s county territory, so the law didn’t help much, either.” He sighed deeply. “They know they have done wrong by you, and they knew you would not be comfortable on the res. They knew this was a safe and happy place, so they sent you here.”
Nico kicked the bed again. “Why couldn’t I have had a normal dad?”
“Because,” said Nantan. “I would not have had such wonderful boys. And, the ponies would not have boys their size to ride them. And, the plants need our songs, our time, our care. And, the Wolfpack are your brothers and sisters. Some will stay nearby and some will go, but they will always be with us in our hearts.” He gently touched Nico’s arm. “And, you have the ability to help women like her someday; to love them, protect them, and keep them safe. To work with people like Bodaway and tell them of another way. To be a father and brother to boys just like you.”
Nico threw himself into Nantan’s arms, alternately hitting his chest and bumping his head into him. Nantan stood, like a rock, letting the boy get out his rage. He decided it was better that he be bruised than the boy breaking his foot on the bed. Eventually, Nico howled, and the tears finally came. Nantan held onto his son, and felt his heart break and heal at the same time.
“Howl, Little Wolf,” said Nantan. “Howl.” Tam attached himself to Nantan’s hip and he cried as well.
He held them both, until Ajai came in to see if they needed a snack, and she immediately stepped forward to hold Tam. Tam cried like the little boy he was, and Ajai rocked and rocked him, and texted Henry.
Henry came on his horse, and led the stallion and both ponies on a picket line. He stood outside, and hollered, “Ride time!” The boys wiped their eyes and noses, and ran full pelt down the stairs.
“Thank you, Ajai,” said Nantan.
The ride was chilly —Nantan put his leathers on, and brought the boys’ jackets out to them.
“Nantan’s going to be our dad because he’s Sioux,” said Tam, proudly. Nantan, on his other side, wondered at the boy that used to be terrified of horses now sitting on a pony’s back, chatting away.
“Not just because he is Sioux,” said Henry. “He is also a very good man.”
Nico nodded. “Not like our old dad.” He thought a minute. “Our dad is dead, so’s our mom. So, we’re orphans.”
Henry laughed. “Of course not! You have Nantan, and me, and David, Inola, Bella, Ajai, Wraith, Alo…”
Nico nodded. “Does that make Ryder my sister?”
“Cousin,” said Henry.
“Cousin,” said Nantan. “And, like a big brother or cousin, you must protect her.”
Nico nodded. “I will.”
Ajai, who brought up the rear, laughed merrily. “Just until she’s old enough to fight for herself,” she said.
“Woman has a point,” said Nantan.
“She does,” said Henry.
“Women don’t have any power,” said Nico.
“Oh, Creator,” said Henry.
“Don’t kill him, he’s just a boy,” said Nantan.
Ajai laughed. “No, Nico. Women have plenty of power. Who has the babies? Raises the crops? Fights in wars? Ever seen a mama bear fight?”
“I have,” said Henry. “Never piss off a mama bear.”
“Your mom was a special case,” said Henry. “She had the spirit in her to fight, but it got knocked right out of her. Her father or brothers or neighbors probably hurt her, and she did not know the Way of the Warrior.”
“We need a program,” said Ajai. “For res women.”
“Good,” said Henry. “Make one.”
“Don’t say you need something,” Nico stage-whispered to Ajai. “He’ll make you figure out how to do it yourself.” All of them laughed.
They came back from the ride, to see Wraith and Ana Whitehorse outside the Wolfpack house, talking with Alo. Henry and Nantan slipped off their horses to helped the boys down, but they were already down. They led off their horses, and Henry got back on his mare to lead the stallion.
“So, this is the famous stallion?” asked Ana. “He’s wonderful.”
“His name is Kuchu. He’s a smart horse. I can ride him bareback with just a halter. Haven’t tried with no halter yet,” said
Nantan, petting his horse’s nose before Henry led him away.
“I get now why you’re willing to give up years of your life to buy him,” said Ana. “It felt like indentured servitude to me, but now I get it.”
“How is it all going?” Nantan asked Wraith. He hugged her.
“Great!” she said. “Ana wanted to give you the good news.”
“They settled so fast it gave me whiplash. The sum of fifty thousand dollars, after my cut, will go into a trust for the boys,” said Ana.
Nantan relaxed. “College,” he said. “Was wondering how I was going to swing that.”
“Won’t have to,” said Wraith. “Gotcha covered.”
“Then something good did come out of this horrible mess.” Nantan touched his eyes.
“I am so sorry this happened to you,” said Ana. “Man left so many breadcrumbs to his guilt that he’s already starting to confess.”
“I got him in the box,” said Wraith. “Man didn’t see how we could crack his code. I said, ‘We have experts for that.’ Eventually got him talking. Didn’t want to admit to ordering the hit on Bodaway, but I walked him right into it. Just like walking a horse into a paddock.”
“You rock,” said Ajai, coming up on Nantan’s side. “Man seems to have wound up Bodaway like a toy and set him out into the world for him to do harm.”
“He’s responsible, in part, for Bodaway being allowed to harm his wife and children,” said Wraith. “If he didn’t have all the other counts on his nasty, Special Agent of Doom head, I’d prove that one, too. But, the boys don’t need to testify to that. Better to let them heal.”
“Absolutely,” said Ana. “I also wanted to tell you that the Sioux are very happy with you. Wraith showed me where the boys sleep, and what they do. I talked with some of the other Wolfpack, too. I’ll be writing quite the glowing report for your file, as an officer of the court.”
“Thank you,” said Nantan.
A bell rang, clanging out across the yard. “Want to stay for dinner?” asked Nantan. The Wolfpack streamed out of the house, racing each other across in front of the paddock.
