Indian Killer

Wilson sees Reggie and Ty at Big Heart’s, and Reggie begins hassling him about his claim to Indian heritage. Wilson tells them that another body has been found and reveals that he is an ex-cop. Reggie tells him that they all already knew he was an ex-cop and a writer, declaring, “You white guys always think you’re fooling us poor, dumb Injuns” (369). Wilson begins to wonder if Reggie’s many insults over the years have really been as light-hearted as he supposed and slides his hand into his jacket before asking if anyone knows John Smith. Fawn steps up and says that she knows him and that he is strange but denies that he is dangerous.

When Wilson reaches further into his jacket, Reggie reaches into his own, advancing on the writer. The Indians at the bar stare at Wilson in anger and suspicion, and he knows that he has crossed a line. He tells Reggie that he can probably outdraw him, if Reggie is not simply bluffing about having a weapon. Reggie slowly pulls his hand out of his jacket and raises it, saying, “How, white man” in a “sternly cinematic Indian voice” (371). The Indians are still laughing as Wilson slinks out of the bar.

John keeps running, searching for homeless Indians, but he cannot find any and feels abandoned, falling to the floor in despair. Aaron and Barry pull up and begin kicking him, but Marie arrives with a group of homeless Indians who drive them off, taking several injuries in the process. Back in the van, the Indian men celebrate their victory while the Indian women look after one of their number who had her teeth knocked out. John is amazed by the Indians’ resilience and their sense of solidarity and community strength. He wants to tell them about his life, his fantasies of how his life could have been, and about Father Duncan, but he cannot find the language to do so. He especially wants to tell Marie everything and desperately wants to give her a gift.

As Boo and Marie try to talk to him, John imagines his birth again, the helicopter descending on the hospital, this time in pouring rain. He knows that this was when his life went wrong, that this severing opened a wound that never healed, and he holds the man in the jumpsuit responsible for all his pain. In that moment he knows that he “needed to be saved and […] exactly which white man had to die for him” (380). He gets out of the van without a word, and Marie wonders how killing a white man would feel.

Truck listens to a police radio scanner, learning of numerous cases of racially charged violence happening throughout the city. He feels “in awe of his own power” and goes to speak into his microphone (381), but Officer Randy Peone stops him, telling him he has nothing more to say.

When David Rogers awoke after being knocked unconscious in the casino parking lot, he was in the back of a car being driven by two white men, Spud and Lyle. They took him into the woods and, realizing that he had seen their faces, executed him. They took David’s winnings to Canada and got into debt gambling on an illegal poker game. Unable to pay, they were themselves executed. As a result, the police never found those responsible for David’s murder.   

The police interview Sean, who confesses that he, Aaron, and Barry are responsible for several attacks on Indians, saying that they were seeking vengeance for David’s murder. He says that he tried to stop the others and did not take part in the violence himself, although he also complains that white people are always blamed for everything and that they were acting in justified anger. The police are unimpressed by his arguments.

Wilson leaves Big Heart’s wondering how he will rebuild his relationships and thinking of the sacrifice he had made for his fellow Indians. The unanswered question “Isn’t that how it happened?” runs through his mind repeatedly as he drives to his apartment and gets into bed (390). He lies awake thinking of his novel, the Indian Killer, and John, and then falls asleep and dreams of John, seeing him commit murder. The dream changes, and he is the one committing murder, stabbing an endless stream of white bodies. The dream changes again: He is arriving at his apartment. A brown hand slams him against the steering wheel, knocking him unconscious, and then gets into the truck and drives away, with Wilson slumped beneath the dashboard.

Dr. Mather tells the police that Reggie Polatkin is the Indian Killer. Recognizing the surname, the police officer asks if he is related to Marie, “the Sandwich Lady,” and Mather is surprised at Marie’s volunteer work because she always seems “So individualistic. Not tribal at all” (393). He says that Marie threatened to eat his heart, but the police do not consider this to be a valid threat of violence. When he reports Reggie assaulting him, the officer jokes that he must have a problem with the family. Mather complains about the officer’s attitude and insists that Reggie is the killer because he had a violent white father and dreams of murder.

Wilson wakes tied to a wall on a construction site. His head hurts, and his mouth tastes of blood. He realizes John is there with him. Hoping to win him over, he tells John that he met his mother, and John thinks of his Indian birth mother and then of seeing Olivia in her underwear and white skin. He tries to get John to talk to him “Indian to Indian. Real Indians. I’ll understand” and claims that there “are a million white men I’d kill if they let me” (397). He tells John about Beautiful Mary and discovering her body. John ignores him and holds Wilson’s own pistol to the writer’s head. Wilson begs him not to kill a fellow Indian.

The police interview Ty, who, assuming that they have already arrested Reggie and Harley, admits that they beat the white man on the playing field. He says that Reggie was the one who really hurt the man and also says that Reggie left Big Heart’s after almost fighting Wilson. When they start asking him about whether Reggie has a knife, Ty suddenly realizes that they are investigating the Indian Killer. He insists that neither he nor Reggie ever killed anyone.

As Wilson claims to be an Indian, John wonders if the man knows how easily dream and reality merge and combine. He drops the pistol, thinking of his birth and the different ways his life may have gone. However, deciding that Wilson is the white man who is “responsible for all that had gone wrong,” he takes out “a thin blade” (404), unsure whether it will actually be able to cut him. He thinks of Wilson bleeding out a few drops of Indian blood and then great gouts of white blood and holds the knife to the writer’s throat.

Reggie is miles away from Seattle on a country highway when an old white man gives him a ride. He tells the man that he is on the run and recounts the story of Captain Jack, a Modoc Indian fighter who ran from the Cavalry, hiding in lava beds, before eventually giving up and surrendering. On his surrender, Captain Jack was hanged and beheaded, his head being sent to the Smithsonian Museum. Reggie says that Captain Jack “should’ve kept fighting. He should’ve kept running and hiding” before admitting that this is precisely what he is doing (408). When the man asks where he is running, Reggie points “north or south east or west, pointed toward a new city, though he knew that every city was full of white men” (409).

When Wilson asks him what he wants, John whispers, “Let me, let us have our own pain” (407). He then slices Wilson’s face, telling him that other people will recognize his guilt from the disfigurement. He drops the knife and steps off the skyscraper. He falls in slow motion, finally free of the noises and the voices that have plagued him. He hits the sidewalk and then pulls himself up from the body that is sunken into the pavement. He realizes he is naked and looks down at his brown skin before stepping over the clothed body on the floor and walking into the desert, hoping to find an Indian father and an Indian mother who will know his real name.

The police interview Marie Polatkin. She insists that John is not the Indian Killer, but the officer says the case is closed thanks to Wilson’s testimony and the discovery of the knife. The officer asks if she has read Wilson’s book, recommending its portrayal of John and its argument that Indian children should not be adopted by white parents because it too often leads to suicide. Marie says that Wilson know nothing about Indians.

The officer also asks if she has read Mather’s book, which argues that Reggie is the killer and presents an unpleasant portrait of Marie. The police question her on the murders, Reggie’s assault on the white man, and her contact with John Smith. She presents her innocence concisely and again insists that John was an innocent man in a great deal of pain, asking for him to finally be left alone. She says that if there really is an Indian killing white people, then “it’s a credit to us that it took over five hundred years for it to happen,” and she warns that “Indians are dancing now, and I don’t think it’s going to stop” (418).

In a cemetery on “this reservation or that reservation. Any reservation, a particular reservation” (419), the killer sits on a grave, wearing a mask made of unknown wood. The killer sings, and owls come and sit in the trees. The killer has a pack containing clothes, books, owl feathers, and two scalps and wears the knife with the turquoise gems under their jacket. For days, the killer dances and sings, and hundreds of other Indians come to learn the song and the dance, a dance that has existed for more than five hundred years. The killer screeches at the sky and knows that “with this mask, with this mystery, the killer can dance forever” (420). Owls fill the trees as the killer dances on.