Apache Heart by Amy J Miller Page A

late when she got off, maybe two in the morning.  But there was a bad car wreck that night, and we had three people hit our little ER all at once, and Elan completely forgot about picking Maggie up.” 
                  Randi had a horrible feeling about where the story was going.
                  “Earlier in the night, there was a guy from Albuquerque playing blackjack at Maggie’s table and when he started losing badly, he accused her of cheating him, and called her all kinds of racist names.  There were witnesses who confirmed that, and the casino security footage shows him yelling and making a scene.  Security escorted him out, and an hour later, Maggie finished her shift and went outside to meet Elan.  Except Elan wasn’t there and this guy jumped her. He forced her at gunpoint to go around to a dark corner at the back of the casino and he raped her over the hood of his car.”
                  Randi covered her mouth, feeling sick at the thought of what that must have done to Maggie—and to Elan. 
                  Lozen poked at the rabbit with a fork, “So you can imagine how Elan felt.”
                  “And Lee blamed Elan for not being there to pick up Maggie.”
                  Lozen nodded,  “Elan was at the hospital when Lee brought Maggie in. She’d gone home and showered like a lot of rape victims, and to make bad matters worse, we didn’t have any rape kits.  I tried to collect evidence, we took pictures and all that, but it wasn’t enough to stand up in court.”
                  “And that’s when Lee decided to take matters into his own hands.”
                  “Yeah.”  Lozen rolled dough into balls for her fry bread.  “So in those days, Lee was like a lot of young men, he occasionally got liquored up on a Saturday night, but he wasn’t what I would call a problem drinker.  But Maggie was pretty shattered when the DA told her their wasn’t enough evidence to bring her rapist to trial, that it would be her word against a wealthy white guy.  He said the guy’s fancy lawyer was claiming that it was rough, consensual sex and didn’t she just want to get on with her life?  That’s when Lee started hitting the bottle hard. And about a month later, he tracked the rapist down in Albuquerque and beat the living crap out of him.”
                  “Oh my god, Lozen, he deserved that beating—he ruined three people’s lives with what he did.”
                  “Justice and being lawful are two different things.  Fortunately Lee’s judge knew about Maggie’s case and was sympathetic.  He said there were mitigating circumstances, extreme emotional disturbance, and he encouraged a plea bargain, and that’s why Lee only served a year.  He could have gotten five to fifteen—especially with a jury in Albuquerque.  All the same, he has a felony on his record.  A lot of the white people in Rio Blanco who don’t know him think he’s an animal, but here on the rez, he’s kind of a hero.  Especially since he stopped drinking.”
                  Now Lynette’s comment made sense, Randi thought.  “So where is Maggie in all this?  How did she end up with Joe?”
                  “Maggie dropped out of school.  She was really depressed and withdrawn, and Lee going to jail didn’t help.  Elan kind of fell apart, although I’ve never gotten the sense that Maggie blames him the way Lee does.  At any rate, their relationship disintegrated, and Elan buried himself in work.  After some time, Maggie did some afterschool babysitting for a white family in Rio Blanco that owns a construction company.  Joe worked for the husband as a roofer, and somehow she met him through them.  Joe was good looking and charming—like a lot of sociopaths—and he used her shame against her, convinced her that he was the only man in the world that