A retired FBI Agent, shot at Wounded Knee, helps the Agua Caliente Indians of Palm Springs uncover the cause of their holy man's sudden, and mysterious, death.

SYNOPSIS:

FBI Special Agent Samuel Bottom took the fall for his partner, Aaron Rivers, at Wounded Knee. Then he took the blame for Mary Hawthorne's suicide—Bottom's lover and Rivers' fiancée.

Soon after they bury Mary and Rivers disappears, Bottom gets a call from Tiger Kurosawa, his old college roommate and fellow private eye, asking for help in solving a toxics case involving the Agua Caliente Indians of Palm Springs.

According to Tiger, the tribal shaman died after drinking water from a sacred well. The shaman's brother, Francisco Belardo—the tribal chief—wants to know why, but he doesn't want any white men involved. So he calls his daughter, Ramona. She calls her old friend, Tiger. And Tiger calls his old buddy, Bottom.

This is serious business. For desert tribes, anyone caught poisoning the water was executed immediately.

Ramona tries hard not to like Bottom because he's from a world she'll never know; the elitist world of invisible walls … rich, old white men … and vaults full of dead presidents. But, she can't help herself. There's just something about his smile.

As Bottom and Tiger begin their investigation, Juan Antonio Patencio—chief-in-waiting and Ramona's childhood betrothed—conducts his own inquiry. And tries to force Bottom to return to his own world, because he's muddying the waters and he's getting too friendly with Ramona. And because a Sioux warrior died that day at Wounded Knee.

Clues and ruses lead Bottom and Tiger to the usual suspects looking for quiet cash in a hurry, the mob, the head of a group helping the Agua Calientes build a gambling casino, Juan Antonio, other members of the tribe, pro beach volleyball players, desert rats, and a whole host of creatures—rich and poor, great and small—who call "The Village" home.

As Bottom gets closer to the truth and Ramona, Tiger is ambushed; Ramona and her father Francisco disappear.

While Tiger recovers in the hospital, Bottom chases down leads hidden inside cryptic riddles told by a phantom, a prophet, and a pilgrim—all people he's met on this journey. The clues lead him to a cave, below a rock with two faces, hidden high in one of the local canyons.

Inside the cave, Bottom finds Francisco lying beside a pit of quicksand and Ramona dangling above it—the cheese in the mousetrap. Bottom takes the bait. And comes face-to-face with the evil spirit who masterminded it all. Staring into the scarred—though familiar—face, a thought crosses Bottom's mind: "All animals kill. But only one kills for fun. Only man kills for revenge."

It's payback time. Aaron Rivers throws down the gauntlet and Bottom is forced to fight for his life. When the dust finally settles, Samuel Bottom realizes that nothing is more expensive than regret.

Resigned to the fact that he cannot live in two worlds, Bottom bids farewell to Ramona and hers and returns to his.

TAG LINE:

A clear conscience is just bad memory.

HOOK:

Man is the only animal that understands the concept of payback.