"Sue Anne. Order!" the line cook shouted.

She turned away, dropping a napkin and a plastic cup of hot sauce in the paper bag on the counter. She slid my order under the metal tab and called out, "Virgil?"

An Indian man around sixty s.n.a.t.c.hed the bag. He didn't look me in the eye as he shuffled out. Not a snub. Typical behavior for a Lakota man when faced with an unknown white woman.

But you aren't white.

Ignoring my racial ident.i.ty crisis, I rested my shoulders against the back wall and waited for my order.

A large red wax cup appeared. Sue Anne bagged my food. "Mercy? Your order is ready."

The moment of truth.

"Can I get you anything else?"

I said softly, "Yes. I need to talk to you."

"I can't. I'm working."

"Please. This is important. It's about Levi. You name the place and I'll be there."

She squinted at the clock. "I'm off in thirty minutes. I'll meet you out back at the picnic table."

"Thank you."

Half an hour later Sue Anne slid across from me. I noticed she'd removed the ugly polyester hat and changed her clothes, yet she smelled of taco meat, fryer grease, and powdered sugar. She dumped out five tacos from a carryout bag. "I'm starving."

I purposely shifted my focus to the cars on the main drag. Seemed like only a minute pa.s.sed and she was crumpling spent wrappers.

Sue Anne sipped from a supersized cup. "I'm really sorry about Levi. He was... great."

"Thanks. I didn't see you at the funeral."

"I had to work."

Uncomfortable silence descended, broken by the hum of the air-conditioner compressors kicking on at the rear of the restaurant.

"Why do you wanna talk to me?"

"Because I'm trying to find out who killed my nephew."

"I don't know nothing."

"That's where I think you're wrong."

She finally looked at me.

"When was the last time you saw Levi?"

"The night before he... at the Custard Cupboard."

"Who was Levi with that night?"

"Me. Then Bucky showed up, and he and Levi got into a shouting match."

"About what?"

"Some stuff about Albert." Sue Anne slid the elastic band from her hair. "Levi was p.i.s.sed when Moser stepped in and wouldn't let Bucky talk to him anymore. After them guys left, Levi quit talking to me and called for a ride home."

"Who'd he call?"

"Pretty sure it was his mom. Looked like her car anyway. That was the last time I seen him."

I knew Hope hadn't picked him up. So who had?

"Is that it?" she asked tightly.

"No. Tell me about the group."

"What group?"

"The Warrior Society. Albert was in it. But Levi wasn't. He wanted to be a part of it so bad." I watched her closely. "Were you in it?"

"Yeah."

"So what is this group, Sue Anne?"

She twisted the hair band around her index finger. "Nothing big. Started as a way to celebrate our heritage. We're all like fifth- and sixth-generation rez kids. Ain't none of us jocks. Or druggies. Or none of them crusading no-s.e.x, no-alcohol religious freaks. We'd get together and talk about learning Lakota. We even built this sweat lodge in the gra.s.slands and had an inipi, which was way cool. We did a couple of ceremonies."

"Who's 'we'?"

"Moser. Little Bear. Albert. Bucky Two Feathers. Randall Meeks. Lanae Mesteth. Me."

Lanae was a new name. "Axel Rouillard?"

"At first. Then Axel didn't want any part of it."

"Why not?

"Moser and Little Bear decided we'd train to do the Seven Sacred Rites. Axel was a total d.i.c.khead and said we needed a Lakota holy man to teach us. When Moser and Little Bear found someone, Axel said a bunch of nasty s.h.i.t about them being stupid puppets because it was being done wrong."

"Who was the leader helping with the rituals?"

She shook her head.

I almost snapped, "Tell me." Instead, I switched tactics. "If I paid you, would it convince you to help me?"

"It ain't about money."

"Then what is it about? Honor? Levi told me how much he wanted to be in this group, and the next thing I know, he's dead. Please, Sue Anne, I need some answers."

She gnawed on her straw, avoiding my gaze as she debated. Finally, she sighed. "I'll tell you this much. It started out one leader, then another guy started coming around. The leader told us we had to pa.s.s a bunch of tests to prove our worthiness before we could do the actual rituals."

"What kind of tests?"

"Mental. Spiritual. Physical. Endurance."

"Endurance for what?"

"For pain."

It was pointless to berate her or judge her. I'd blindly followed military orders my whole life, even to the point of excruciating pain. "And did these tests hurt?"

"The first couple weren't so bad. Then we started the harder ones, like the Warrior's Challenge." She squirmed. "The leaders pa.s.sed around fire water to help us with the pain so I was sorta drunk when it was my turn."

"What do you remember?"

Her eyes lost focus. "Facing a pole in the center of a sacred circle with my hands tied above my head. Then my back was whipped with a willow branch while the other warrior candidates watched."

I must've made a noise; her answering look was defiant.

"Everyone partic.i.p.ated. It was a spiritual cleansing. My Indian blood mixed with my tears on sacred ground as I cried a lament to the Great Spirit. Then the leader cut me from the pole and gave me the willow branch as a symbol of my bravery. Afterward we sat in a circle, chanting, drumming, and finishing the ritual by smoking the peace pipe."

My stomach roiled. Bet there was wacky tobaccy in that peace pipe. Bet they pa.s.sed the bottle around again.

"And before you ask, I used the whip on my friends. The whipping may sound cruel, but we thought it was a celebrated part of our heritage. Toughening us up to honor our warrior ancestors."

"How else were they toughening you up?"

"By cutting us."

Holy s.h.i.t.

Sue Anne fell silent. When she finally spoke, I strained to hear her muted voice. "We believed the cutting prepared us for the piercing rituals of the Sun Dance."

A pickup load of young kids drove by. Sue Anne ducked her head from view. "Look. I said enough. I gotta go."

"No. Please stay. Please finish. I'm not judging you. I'm just trying to understand."

Angrily, she said, "I don't know how any of this will help you. Levi didn't even know what we were doing. Moser and Little Eagle were using him, making him do things, then laughing behind his back, knowing they'd never let him in. After the sick s.h.i.t that happened with the last so-called ritual, I don't know why he or anyone would want to join such a f.u.c.ked-up group anyway. I realized they was even using me. I was so stupid-" She made a move to leave.

My hand circled her wrist before she could run. "What happened?"

Sue Anne twisted out of my grip. "Of the Seven Sacred Rites, the Ishna Ta Awi Cha Lowan is supposed to be about purifying a girl after she gets her first period. It's meant to be a time where her mother and sisters and aunts prepare her for womanhood. But these advisers, and the guys, they f.u.c.king twisted it...."

Dread expanded in my chest. "Into what?"

"Into a gang rape. They called it a 'mating ritual.' During the spring equinox they tied Lanae up and took turns raping her. I wasn't there, but Lanae came to me and told me afterward." She swallowed. "That's when I knew Axel was right and the stuff these 'leaders' were making us do was bulls.h.i.t. There ain't nothing like that in our Lakota traditions."

"But you stuck it out up until that point?"

"Yeah. We were so... crazy for a group to call our own, to belong to something that was ours, that we did anything they told us to. Stupid, huh? Lanae went to live with her sister in North Dakota. Most of them guys think she's just spending the summer there, but I know the truth. She's never coming back here."

"Couldn't you tell an adult or a tribal elder what happened?"

"Yeah, right."

"Someone has to know about it. Especially since these leaders are adults. Not only is it morally wrong, it is against the law."

Sue Anne laughed. "Everyone looks the other way. Or they're part of the ceremony stuff. Or they're making up their own ceremonies to rip off stupid white tourists for money. Or they like s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g young girls. Plenty of that s.h.i.t around here."

Briefly, I thought of Rollie and his young paramour, Verline. I pressed her for more answers. "Were you the only girl after Lanae left?"

"Yes. That's when I knew I wanted out because I'd be next. I knew that's the only reason they ever invited me was to rape me." She shook her head violently. "I stopped going to the meetings and started hanging out with Molly. But I didn't tell her all of it. I just wanted to be normal. I just wanted out."

"Who else wanted out? Albert?"

No response.

"Could a member of the group have killed Albert because he tried to get out? And Levi was helping him?"

She fixed her gaze on the mangled straw in her cup.

"Mercy?" A male voice called out behind me.

I turned around.

Theo was behind the wheel of an old white Honda Accord in the drive-through lane. He poked his head out the window. "I thought that was you. What're you doing here?"

"Having lunch. Why are you here?" Why wasn't he taking care of Hope, like she'd told me? d.a.m.n him. Was she sitting in the trailer alone?

"Just finished a staff meeting and needed a bite to eat." He focused his dumb-a.s.s smile on Sue Anne. "I haven't seen you in a while. You coming to cla.s.s tonight?"

"Umm. No. Sorry. I'm working a split shift."

He was teaching cla.s.s tonight? Then who was staying with my sister?

"You know this is a graded cla.s.s, Sue Anne. So if you want the credit to count toward graduation, you have to pa.s.s-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I know, all right?"

"Good."

The pickup ahead of him inched up. "Catch you both later." His engine made a clicking rattle as he shot forward and yelled his order into the speaker.

When I looked back, Sue Anne had made it halfway across the parking lot. I raced to catch up with her. "You need a ride so we can finish what we were talking about?"

"No. Forget it. Forget everything. I said too much."