If they were in the Amberson residence—and Jennifer would know the moment she came anywhere near the house if they were in the Amberson’s possession—she hoped she would be able to persuade the couple to let her have them. Granted, they had a certain value as artifacts, but their value to the Lakotah went far beyond that. These would probably not even rate very highly as artworks; at that point in their history, the Lakotah were not spending a great deal of energy on making things of power “pretty”; instead, they were purposeful and often unornamented, the better to focus their intent.

Unless someone knew their history, they would not be valued according to their true worth. With luck and the will of Wah-K’on-Tah, no one would know that history. She would send the relics to the Lakotah elders if she could get her hands on them. If she couldn’t—

Well, she had the paper trail leading to this house, this family. That was enough to get a restraining order, and to start a lawsuit. Legally, the situation was the same as if Gail Gentry had inherited a stolen painting. Before the Amber-sons could sell any of relics, they would have to admit they had them—and at that point, there would be lawyers ready to take them to court over their right to possession. It would be a long and drawn-out court battle, and even if the Ambersons won it, they would lose far more than they could ever realize in the sale of the relics simply defending their “right” to have them at all. Only a major museum could afford to fight a legal battle like that. Most of the people Jennifer had turned in capitulated when it became obvious that a court case would involve far more than they wanted to commit. Often when the first suit was filed, they capitulated—especially if the Lakotah could offer them some token payment in return for the relics. Usually they did not offer the payment first, even though that would seem to be the easiest route. Experience had shown that offering payment generally led to a bidding war, and legitimized the claim of the possessor. It was better to file the suit first, to establish exactly what the situation was.

She hoped, as she steered her battered little Subaru Brat through the winding streets and past the manicured lawns of yet another middle-class suburb, that this would be one of the “easy ones.” A couple of cases had ended nastily; in one instance of “dog in the manger,” the person who had the relics had destroyed them rather than give them up. She still felt rotten about that one, even though it had been out of her hands by then.