Original subtitles

Tonight, on Hunter, whoever killed Harris took the masks.

I didn't kill her. Four Ashani ceremonial masks.

Stolen from my people. They're absolutely magnificent, she said.

200 ,000 to pop.

Your people are being ripped off, and you're the one that's doing it. Do you

think there's a possibility that he's involved?

It wouldn't surprise me. Were you aware that she was having an affair with my

husband? I like her tie.

I told her to have nothing to do with those masks.

Go.

um

Thank you.

Thank you.

I hope.

It's okay, I see.

One cappella. One cappella.

Are you ready for this, Gina?

Four Ashani ceremonial masks, over 200 years old.

I mean, these things were being used back when George Washington was fighting

the British.

Would I kid you, dear?

They're sitting right in front of me, and they are absolutely magnificent.

Oh, you should see the provenance. Talk about a pedigree.

That's right.

That's right, I'm getting $200 ,000.

And my Japanese dealers are already buying three, so I suggest you pull out

checkbook, my dear.

For you, $199 ,999.

I'll save you. Okay,

great. Bye, sweetheart.

So, what do we got?

Well, the victim was a Janet Harris, the owner of the gallery. She was killed by

a blow to the back of the head with this ceremonial club.

Hey, Zach, do you have that?

Yeah, right here. Thank you.

That's an interesting choice of weapons. A weapon of opportunity, Charlie. This

place specializes in Indian art. Come here.

Apparently, the killer, Jimmy, the back door open, came in, snuck up on his

victim and clubbed her in the back of the head. We found her slumped right

on the floor in front of the photocopier machine.

Seems like a lousy time for a burglary.

Middle of the morning, people obviously working.

If it was a burglary.

Anything missing?

Well, this isn't the kind of place that's got a cash register sitting

Doesn't look like anything's been ripped off the wall.

So, we do have an inventory coming.

As soon as it's done, we'll be able to determine if anything is gone.

I just can't believe it.

I talked to Janet this morning.

Yeah, I know. We looked at the phone records from the gallery and saw that a

call was placed to this number at 1014.

Who killed her?

Well, that's what we're trying to find out.

I'd like to help you.

If I can.

Yes, you can, if you can answer some questions.

Of course.

Thank you.

Won't you sit down?

Thank you.

So how well did you know Janet Harris?

We were friends.

We've become friends over the past few years.

I bought most of the pieces I have here from Janet. I'm her most... I

was her most reliable client.

What did you talk about today?

Some masks that she had at the shop.

Four very rare Shani masks.

These masks have never been on the market before.

Very hot items.

It's funny, I don't recall seeing them at the gallery.

Well, she said she had them there.

I didn't see them on the inventory either.

She told me she was looking right at them as we talked.

They're absolutely magnificent, she said.

200 ,000 to pop.

And she had complete provenance for each of them as well.

She didn't typically handle items that expensive.

What's a provenance?

With most art, you get the title and bill of fix.

When you buy cultural artifacts, the dealer has to provide

provenance. That's a document that attests to the object's authenticity and

tells where it came from.

I won't buy anything without provenance now, and no legitimate dealer will sell

it without providing it.

Was Janet Harris considered a legitimate dealer?

Oh, absolutely.

She was as clean as they come.

Of course, she was having some financial difficulties.

You see, there's an enormous black market in Native American artifacts,

especially overseas in the Orient.

These people will pay a high price for authentic pieces.

Are you saying that you think she was involved in black market smuggling?

Oh, I doubt it.

Anything else?

Yes.

She was having an affair with one of her married artists.

Robert Whitecliffe.

He's a member of the Ashani tribe.

Oh, yeah, the Ashanis. Their reservation's up in the mountains there.

involved, do you think?

Well, I don't know. There's plenty of motive, along with whatever state their

relationship was in. Those masks were worth a total of 800 ,000 bucks.

Wow!

That's a lot of money for a couple of Indian curios.

Art, Captain, art.

Whatever. You got any pictures?

No, and there weren't any in the files either. I called Pacific who wrote the

store insurance.

They've got appraisals and photos of all the stock except for the mask.

That's kind of strange. Why do you think that's so?

I don't know. Maybe bookkeeping. There's usually a week or two lag between

acquisitions and filings. Okay.

What else you got?

Well, unfortunately, not too much.

We didn't find any prints on the murder weapon. Nobody saw anybody at the store.

I did find a couple of names of artifact brokers in her Rolodex. So there was a

James Holloway out in Mountain Center, a Leonard Oakley in Palm Springs, and a

Bobby Peters over in Phoenix.

Harris didn't have any employees, but she had an awful lot of bills.

Big debts?

Yeah, she had a third mortgage out on her house. We're running the rest of it

down now.

But she also had not met his sale over $10 ,000 in weeks.

Maybe these masks were meant to bail her out then.

Did she have them on consignment or what?

Haven't found that out yet.

Got an address on White Cloud?

He lives out on the reservation, but he's also got an artist's loft here

downtown. A hunter's going to go over there just as soon as he's finished

running the background down on these masks.

Okay, good.

Professor Weller. Yes.

Sergeant Hunter, L .A. Homicide.

I'd like to ask you a couple questions.

Well, you'll find nothing but skeletons in my closets. So how can I help you,

Sergeant? Your signature was found on several provenance documents given to

Gina Way by Janet Harris.

Yes, I work with Ms. Harris quite often. I provide documentation free of charge.

It's tragic to see sacred Indian lands dug up and destroyed.

So when I authenticate a piece, I make damn sure it doesn't come from protected

lands.

It's not much, but it's my way of helping the honest dealers. Please, have

seat, sir.

So, Professor Weller, I don't know how to tell you this, but Janet Harris

was murdered this morning.

That's unbelievable.

I just spoke to her a few days ago.

How did it happen?

Well, we think it was robbery. You see, there was four Ashani masks missing.

Ashani?

I told her to have nothing to do with those masks.

She sent me a letter and these photographs a few days ago.

She said she had a line on the masks.

I took one look and I told her that they were stolen.

You see, the Ashani keep them in a secret underground kiva. They dig them

a special ceremony every ten years.

Last month, when the Ashani elders went to the kiva, they discovered the mask of

God. How did you know that? It was all over the archaeological community.

The Ashani were devastated.

See, it would be as if somebody broke into the Vatican and stole the Pope's

chalice.

I told her to report it to the federal agent assigned to the area, a Ken Myers.

Well, obviously, she never made the phone call.

Had I known that, I would have made the call myself.

Too bad about her death.

And it's too bad she felt she had to sell out the very people whose work she

supported.

Yes, it is, isn't it?

Thanks.

Who's there?

Sergeant Hunter, LA Homicide.

I'd like to have a couple of words with the Robert White class.

Well, I guess that makes Robert Whitecloud our number one suspect. Why

off?

Whitecloud's affair with Janet Harris was no secret. She was the reason his

paintings were getting shot.

I interviewed some other artists in the building, and they gave me a list of his

hangouts. I'll go run them down.

That's good.

He may be looking for friends to give him a hand.

You know, it occurs to me that Whitecloud and Janet Harris may be in

ways than one.

What do you mean?

Well, the masks were a shawnee.

That's White Cloud's tribe.

Maybe he helped to steal them.

Well, I think it's a possibility, but it's kind of hard to believe that a

American would steal from his own people.

Especially sacred objects.

Wait a minute. $200 ,000 a pop?

That's plenty of good reason to start with.

And maybe the deal he cut with her wasn't good enough. Maybe he wanted the

thing for himself.

Don't rule it out.

Excuse me.

I was told that Mary Whitecloud worked here.

Hi, Mary.

I'm Sergeant McCall, Homicide.

Mrs. Roberts, is he all right?

Well, as far as we know, he's fine.

Could we sit down and talk for a little while?

What's wrong? What's happened?

Janet Harris has been killed.

Did you know her?

I knew who she was.

Were you aware that she was having an affair with my husband?

Yes.

Where were you yesterday morning?

Here at the center.

You can check with the women I work with.

I've only been to Los Angeles a few trips in my life.

Even when Robert started living there most of the time.

And when was that?

Three years ago.

You say that he called you last week.

How often did you see him?

Twice a month he comes home.

Tells me it's for good.

I do what I can to make him happy.

And he tries his best to be happy.

A couple of days later, and he's gone.

Back to the city.

What do you know about these masks?

I know they've been stolen from my people.

They were used in an ancient ceremony.

They're very sacred.

Some of our younger people don't care about these things.

There is so much drugs and alcohol.

So many are lost between two worlds.

It is sometimes very difficult to keep alive the way of the pipe.

To walk the truth.

Except the old way.

Some people don't understand.

Some people don't care.

Your husband, did he care?

You mean, did he take the mass?

He knew where they were hidden.

But did he take them?

I don't know.

Did he care?

He did what?

Hello. Hi, Ken Myers?

Yeah. Sergeant McCall? Yes.

Thanks for coming out to meet me. It's no problem.

The office said you phoned, wanted to meet somebody from the Forest Service

here.

Well, this is my turf.

It's all my turf.

What do you mean?

There are nine of us federal agents assigned to cover the entire Southwest.

Now, me personally, I just cover Southern California, a little chunk of

It's a large vein.

No kidding.

It's a battle just keeping up with the looters.

Losing battle.

You heard about Janet Harris?

Yeah, it doesn't surprise me.

There's a lot of money to be made in the illegal trafficking of Indian

artifacts.

Violence is just part of the equation.

Burglary in the gallery, though.

Not really common. Most of the crime takes place out here.

Do you have a typical profile on these looters?

Well, we're not talking about your vacationing family finding an arrowhead

the campfire.

Here, look at that.

It's the Four Corners area.

It's a disgrace.

They'll tear up the ground looking for pottery and ceremonial objects, even

bones of the dead.

These guys use trucks, bulldozers, helicopters, even armed guards.

And we catch the usual hard case creeps with copies of the treasure hunters

digest in their back pocket.

We also bust our share of well -to -do people who ought to know better.

But hey, I guess when you're talking 15 grand for a five -pound rock scraper or

a quarter of a million for a death mask, it's just too much money for these

people to resist.

Personally, I think they ought to be shot.

Look, I'm sorry.

It's just frustrating, you know?

We not only have to prove that an artifact came from federally protected

we've got to prove the looter knew it was on federally protected land.

It's the only legal situation I know of where ignorance of the law is an excuse.

Does the name Jim Holloway mean anything to you?

Yeah.

He's an artifacts broker about 30 minutes from here in Mountain Center.

But I think you already knew that.

Yeah. We found his name in Janet Harris's office on some papers.

Do you think there's a possibility that he's involved with these stolen

artifacts? He is the closest broker to the crime scene, you know. This guy is

responsible for most of the looting in Southern California.

But the laws are so damn gutless, he can just get away with anything.

Even murder?

You up from the city?

Palm Springs?

Or maybe heaven?

Try the police department.

I'll try anything once, kiddo.

What do you need?

I need some information about the masks that were stolen from the Ashani people.

Oh, well, you're a little bit too late. The FBI was in here last month.

And I'll tell you, same thing I told them.

I don't know nothing about no masks.

I ain't never seen one, don't rightly think I ever even heard of one.

If you ask me, I think Deshaun had faked the whole thing for a sympathy vote.

You know, trying to coerce them Beverly Hills whiners into donating to their

poor, downtrodden tribe.

You got a big heart, don't you?

That ain't all, sweetheart.

When's the last time you heard from Janet Harris?

I don't know no Janet Harris.

Really?

That's interesting considering the fact we found your name back at her gallery

in L .A. So?

After she was murdered.

That's life in a big city.

That's why I moved out here.

Folks are a lot friendlier.

Yeah, I'll bet.

Whoever killed Harith took the map.

I've got a search warrant to look through your shop.

Do you really think I'd be that stupid?

Search away!

Seriously, though, kiddo, I didn't take that mess. And I sure didn't kill

anybody.

But you know what?

I'm sure you're going to tell me.

You ought to quit worrying about them Indians.

Start respecting my tradition.

Because I'm the last of the outlaws.

Yeah, well, maybe out here you are.

But not where I come from.

Here you go.

Don't want you feeling neglected.

Poor baby.

Hi.

Can I help you?

I'm looking for Robert Whitecloud.

He's not here right now.

Can I take a message?

I'm Mary Whitecloud.

I am his wife.

Oh, my God.

Hi.

I'm Kathleen.

I live next door with my boyfriend.

We're both friends with Robert.

When Robert got chased out of here by the cops, I got worried about Mac, his

cat.

He's around here somewhere.

You haven't been here before, have you?

No, I haven't.

He's really great, isn't he?

It's different from what I used to see.

But I like him.

Can you tell me where I can find him?

I can tell you the same thing I told the police.

I know a couple of places he hangs out at sometimes, but I couldn't tell you

where he is right now.

You know...

Robert talks about you all the time.

If that means anything.

Thank you.

It does.

Hunter, Homicide.

Hey, Hunter.

Hey, what's up? Well, no sign of the masks or white cloud.

Well, that's because the guy was in town all day. He made a tour of three

different bars in the entire day. I just missed him twice.

Great. So what's next?

Well, according to the bartender, all I got to do is follow the order of

tequila.

Anything more specific?

Yeah, I'm waiting around here to go to the opening of an art gallery in about

hour. Okay, great.

Well, I'm on my way in, so I guess I'll see you in the morning.

Oh, and Hunter?

Yeah? Tonight, when you go to this opening?

Uh -huh.

Wear something black.

Okay.

I was wondering where you were going.

Energy.

Ha!

His work has such energy.

What is that?

Could there possibly be a more fatuous word to describe this than that?

Energy. A chocolate briquette has energy.

A Snickers bar has energy. This art piece doesn't have

energy.

Hi, Shannon.

Energy.

I don't know if it's worth it to be with her.

I don't know if it's worth it to be with her.

Hey!

Hey!

Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know where I can find Robert Whitecloud and

all this, would you?

He was just here.

Good line.

No, that's not a line. I'm really looking for him. Where can I find him?

Hmm.

Try the sculpture room. And where is that?

Up there. Thank you very much. Enjoy.

Hey, I like your tie.

And I like your jewelry very much.

I'm a drunken Indian.

What a cliche.

Janet Harris and I were having an affair.

It just happened.

But I didn't kill her.

Why would I kill her?

I don't know. Why did you run from me when I went to your apartment?

It's the government. Open up.

My people have been getting that knock for 300 years.

Look what happened to us.

Your people?

White Cloud, your people are being ripped off, and you're the one that's

it. How else would Janet Harris know where to get the masks?

Now, look, if you want to clear your name, you better start cooperating with

right now.

Now, start with the masks.

Janet told me that the gallery was in trouble.

She needed a big deal to save it.

She knew everything there was to know about the masks except where we hid

I owed her my career, what there is of it.

So I tried to convince myself that they were just carved pieces of wood

used in some jive religious ceremony that nobody cares about anymore.

And it worked.

I convinced myself.

Just long enough to tell her where they were.

Who was she working with?

I don't know.

I asked. She wouldn't tell me.

Said it was for my own protection.

Four weeks later, she had the math. That's all I know.

I didn't kill Janet Harris.

That's not my problem. My problem is I got $250 ,000 coming plus change, my

friend. Now that's turned into your problem.

Oh, she was going to ruin your reputation.

Just how much do you think your reputation is going to be worth, friend,

get you sent up on a murder charge?

You listen to me, you little yellow belly.

All I did was rob a grave.

I've beaten that rap a dozen times and I'll do it again.

But you, my friend, you got a one -way ticket to the gas chamber if I don't get

my money first thing in the morning.

What are you doing here? The police told me you were missing yesterday.

So I decided to try to find you.

I'm sorry.

I'm really glad to see you.

They let

you go.

There wasn't enough evidence to charge me.

Mary.

I'm sorry about what happened with her.

And I'm sorry about getting you dragged into this.

Nobody dragged me into anything.

You're my husband.

Shall we go?

I need a little time to sort out everything.

Why don't you go back home?

What? I just noticed.

You don't call it hope.

Yeah.

I noticed that, too.

Jim, you all right?

Yeah, I'm fine.

Sergeant McCall, you've got a visitor.

Hello. Good morning.

What brings the federales down to my neck of the woods?

Some interesting news, I think.

Well, good.

Sit back down.

Tell me what's going on.

Jim Holloway got what was coming to him last night. He got gunned down and

picked up after an argument inside.

Really?

Last of the outlaws.

He gave you that routine, too, huh?

Yeah.

Any suspects?

Three pedestrians saw a male take off with Holloway shooting at him, but

apparently it happened so fast they couldn't get a good description.

That's interesting.

White Cloud was released yesterday morning.

I'd give him plenty of time to drive out to Mountain Center.

Yeah, I would have.

Look, I just thought you'd want to know.

Yeah, I do appreciate you coming down and letting us know. Thank you for your

time and your energy.

Anytime, Sarge. We'll be in touch.

Hey, how you doing?

I was just going to call you. Yeah, I was going to call you, too. Guess what?

What? I just spoke with Harris' loan officer at her bank, right?

He told me they were getting ready to foreclose on her gallery.

But she called him and told him that she was going to have to check for him that

week for $800 ,000.

No kidding.

So maybe she stiffed some partners to save her gallery.

Precisely. And maybe one of those partners decided to take the masks. Who

that guy I just left you?

Well, that was Ken Myers. That's what I wanted to call you about. Remember the

Forest Service agent I told you about? Well, he came down here to tell us that

Jim Holloway was shot to death last night at Mountain Center.

Maybe it was the same killer.

Well, if so, then that means that...

Harris and Holloway were partners.

You know what's been bothering me this whole time? It's a photocopy machine at

Harris' art gallery.

Copying machine at the art gallery? Why? There was nothing in it. Perhaps she

was at the copying machine using it when she was killed.

We're in luck.

Ordinarily, the electrostatic dry ink image on the photoreceptor belt is

immediately after copying to get rid of the mixed image.

But the victim jammed the machine on her way down.

Now, the killer made sure he got all the copies plus the page that was stuck

inside, but we still have the image on the photo of Dr. Bell.

It's Professor Weller's signature.

He faked the Providence documents, killed Harris because she held him up

cut. Had to knock off Holloway to shut him up.

White Cloud could be next.

Well, but Janet never told him who was involved. It doesn't make any

Weller didn't know that. Thanks very much. Come on.

It's a good copy.

Professor Weller?

Mr. Whitecloud, you made it.

First we could get lost in here and nobody would ever miss us.

Well, I'm very happy to finally meet you.

Janet told me about you.

I'm sure she did.

So what's this about? You said on the phone it was important.

Well, like you said, Janet told you about me.

We can't let it go any further than that, can we?

What are you talking about? She said she'd worked with you, that's all.

I don't think so.

Come on.

Hold her right in there, Professor.

It's in the blood.

You moved!

My nose itches.

Sorry, but I'm not finished with your nose yet.

But you can scratch your chin. I'm done with your chin.

How are you, Robert?

Okay. Terrific.

Hey.

Guess we ought to take a break.

How are you, Mary?

Hi, great.

How are you?

I'm good. This looks wonderful.

Thanks for rescuing me. No problem.

I just wanted to come by to let you both know that we found those masks at

Weller's house.

After his trial, they'll definitely go back to your people.

That's fantastic. It sure is.

I have to say, it's also very nice to see you both together.

It's hard to believe it took a situation as extreme as this one to get me to

wake up.

My strength, my creativity is from the earth.

From my people.

It's time I got back in touch with those things.

He's coming home.