Southern Lights

Chapter 10

When Alexa got to her office the next morning, she had a message from Joe McCarthy, the district attorney, to come and see him immediately. It sounded important. She went straight to his office, and his secretary waved her in. Joe was sitting at his desk, and Jack was with him. It looked like something had happened. Both men looked concerned. It didn’t look good to her.

“Something wrong?” she asked as she took the seat Joe waved her into. He cut to the chase.

“The FBI wants our case.” He looked unhappy about it.

“What case? Luke Quentin?” Alexa’s eyes widened, but she wasn’t totally surprised. They had been moving in that direction ever since his victims started turning up in other states. Once state lines were crossed, the FBI always got involved. They all knew that.

“They want the credit for the investigation and the conviction.” Joe McCarthy told her what he had just told Jack.

“They can’t have it. They can help us with the investigation if they want, and they have been. But there are other local law enforcement agencies involved. And a task force, which, I have to admit, they’ve been running lately. But we found the first four bodies in New York, and we arraigned him here. The case is ours.” She didn’t want the glory of it, or the press, but they had worked hard on it, Jack especially, and so had she, and she didn’t want to give it up now. And she was determined to put Quentin behind bars. “If they take it, it’ll be a mess, with states crawling all over each other, dragging him around to try him. We need to associate their cases to ours and we have been. It’s all nicely tied up. We’ve arraigned him on each charge here. I don’t see why the FBI can’t sit in on it with us. We’re not hiding anything from them, and we can use all the help we can get on the investigation, but he’s going to cost the taxpayers a fortune if we start shipping him around to eight other states, and the FBI doesn’t want to do that either. He’s ours.” She said it without hesitation, and Joe smiled at her.

“I like a woman who knows what she wants,” he said, looking less worried. “You’re not afraid of trying this case, Alexa? You’ve already got a cop at your apartment, and I hear you had to send your daughter away. You wouldn’t rather just give it up?”

“No, I wouldn’t,” she said calmly. “I want to finish what I started. Luke Quentin is a sociopath, and a cold-hearted killer, and I want to try him. I’m not afraid of him. And my daughter is fine where she is. I miss her, but I’ve got too much work to spend time with her anyway. Let’s do this, guys. We can’t let the FBI rip us off. They’re in it for the glory. We’re not. We’re working our asses off here. Let them help us with the investigation. We’ll do the trial. Legally we have the right since we found the first four bodies.” Technically, she was right, but the FBI had a lot of clout, and it could have gone either way.

“I’ll see what I can do. How’s the investigation going?” He hadn’t asked in a few days-he’d been too busy battling the FBI director about the case.

“We’ve got DNA matches on almost every victim. We’re missing two, and we’re waiting for the results from Illinois,” Jack filled him in.

“And he still won’t plead?” Joe looked surprised.

“No,” Alexa answered. “What does the PD say?”

“That he’s innocent and someone framed him,” she said with a contemptuous smile.

“With DNA matches and seventeen victims?

What’s she smoking?”

“Her shoes. He’s very seductive, and I think he cast a spell on her. She’s young, and he knows just how to do it. He’s a perfect sociopath.”

“Do we have a psych evaluation on him yet?”

“We have two. Sociopath right down the line.”

“Does she know that?”

“We’re in discovery now. She has everything we have. No surprises.”

“This is going to be ugly. A jury’s going to hang him, and the judge will sentence him to about a thousand years.”

“I agree,” Alexa said with a sigh. She was tired, but doing a good job on the case, and both men knew it. She always did. She was unbelievably thorough, and the DA liked everything he was hearing. He didn’t want to take the case away from her if he could help it. He was going to fight harder to keep it. She had convinced him. She was the right prosecutor for the case. No federal prosecutor could have done better. “Quentin wants his day in court. I think he likes the media coverage,” Alexa said wisely.

“I hate that,” the DA said angrily, but there was no way to stop it. Luke Quentin was national news now. And so was Alexa. She had been extremely discreet about it. She didn’t want to blow the case with anything she said in the press. She knew better, and the DA liked that too.

He reassured both of them then that he would fight to keep the case, and pull all the strings available to him. And after that they left his office. Both Jack and Alexa were still concerned.

“Shit, I hope we don’t lose the case,” Alexa said as they stopped at the coffee machine for two cups, black. She was living on it, and candy bars, at her desk till midnight every night.

“Hopefully, he’ll use his influence to keep it,” Jack said as he followed her back to her office. He hardly saw her anymore, he was too busy working. He had just come back from Pittsburgh the day before, where he had gone to help with the investigation there, and trade information. “I must say, this sonofabitch is keeping us busy.”

“That’s our job,” Alexa said as she smiled at him and sat down at her desk. She felt as though she lived there.

“Do you ever get tired of it?” he asked with a worn-out look, and sipped his coffee.

“Sometimes. Not this one. It’s the shoplifters and the piddly stuff that gets me. At least with a case like this, I feel useful. I’m protecting society and young women. With the shoplifters, I’m torturing them for stealing panty hose in Macy’s basement. Who cares?” Some of the cases were bigger than that, she knew, but most weren’t.

“How’s Savannah, by the way?” Alexa sighed when he asked her.

“She’s okay. She’s with her father, in Charleston. She’s not loving it, but she’s a good sport about it. I miss her.” It was lonely without her, and Jack knew it.

“If the FBI gets the case, you could bring her back,” he said, but Alexa shook her head.

“I don’t want her back here till this case is over, no matter who tries it. The guy is a maniac. He could still torture her for what I’ve done so far, and I think he would. I think he’ll give it up when he’s convicted and goes back to prison. Then it’s all over, and he knows it. Now he’s King of the Hill.” Jack didn’t disagree with her. Quentin was thriving on the attention. Jack had seen him several times recently, and Quentin got bolder every time. He was drunk with excitement. And his defense lawyer’s blind innocence and admiration just added to it. He thought he had the whole world fooled, but he didn’t. He just thought so. He was suffering from grandiosity in the extreme. Nothing could touch him, or so he thought. Until he was convicted.

“I think you’re smart to keep her there,” Jack said honestly.

“I hope so,” Alexa sighed again. “To be honest, I worry about her falling in love with it, the way I did. The South is very seductive, particularly a city as pretty as Charleston. People are friendly and charming. Everything is beautiful. It’s a different world, a different life. It’s true when they say the South is gracious. I loved it when I lived there. And then it turned on me, and all that warmth and kindness turned out to be bullshit. They stick with their own. They’d rather have a bad Confederate than a good Yankee in their midst. I got screwed over by everyone I knew there.” And she was still bitter about it. Maybe she always would be.

“They can’t all be like that,” Jack suggested.

“Maybe not. But that’s how it shook out for me. Savannah is still in the honeymoon phase. She’s discovering all the beauty of it. The bad stuff comes later.”

“Sounds like marriage to me.” Jack chuckled as he looked at her. “I’m not so sure things are any different here.”

“The South is a special place. It’s from another century. It was a great place to live when I was there. I don’t want Savannah to stay there, or want to. I’m hoping I get her back here before she gets hooked. Hopefully her evil stepmother will take care of that for me. Her father is married to a real bitch.”

“Sounds like he deserved it.” Alexa nodded in agreement, and with that, she picked up her voluminous files on the Quentin case and they got back to work. They sat there till three, and ate sandwiches at her desk. And then Jack went back to his own office. Alexa was in hers until midnight yet again.

Savannah didn’t tell her mother she was going to see her paternal grandmother that weekend. She didn’t want to upset her. She knew Alexa had enough on her mind with the case. And Tom didn’t tell Luisa. It was none of her business.

He drove Savannah there on Sunday afternoon. And he was surprised to see his mother sitting in her drawing room, instead of on the porch. There was a tea tray on the table. Savannah walked in behind him, and was startled by how shabby the room looked. She only vaguely remembered it. The house had been beautiful at one time, but there was an air of decrepitude about it. Like her grandmother, it had seen better days, and was fading.

Tom’s mother was sitting in a large chair, waiting. Her hair was perfectly smoothed into the bun she wore, and her sharp eyes observed them both. She could see instantly that her son was protective of Savannah, and attached to her, and his mother didn’t like it. As far as she was concerned, Savannah didn’t deserve it. She had tried to erase Savannah and Alexa from their lives. And she felt that his feelings for Savannah were a betrayal of Luisa. But she hadn’t told Luisa about the meeting either. They were all in collusion and felt guilty. And his mother resented that too.

“Hello, Grandmother,” Savannah said politely, extending a hand to her, and the old woman didn’t take it.

“I have arthritis,” she said, which was true, but not to that extent. She always shook hands with her minister when he came to visit. And she would have preferred it if Savannah had called her Mrs. Beaumont now, but she didn’t say it. “I understand you’re here until June,” she said directly to Savannah, as her ancient maid came in to pour them tea.

“I might be,” Savannah said quietly, sitting down carefully on a narrow chair near her grandmother. Everything in the room seemed fragile and dusty. Savannah hoped she wouldn’t sneeze. “It might be May, if my mother’s case goes more quickly. But it’s a big case, it could take a while to try.”

“Your mother wasn’t a lawyer when I knew her,” her grandmother said with an air of disapproval, and Savannah nodded. It was hard not to be daunted by this ancient, sharp-featured woman. She was old, but tough as nails.

“She went to law school after the”-she started to say “divorce” and then stopped herself instinctively-“after we went back to New York. My other grandmother is a lawyer too.”

“I know.” Eugenie Beaumont nodded. “I met her. She was a very nice woman.” She was willing to concede that, but nothing about Alexa, out of loyalty to Luisa.

“Thank you,” Savannah said politely, still holding the cup of tea. She had worn a gray skirt and a white sweater, and she looked neat, clean, and demure. Tom was proud of her, for wanting to come here, and being brave enough to do it. His mother wasn’t easy.

“Do you want to be a lawyer too?” Her grandmother scowled at her. She was looking to find fault with her, Tom could see, but had found none so far. She was clearly a northern girl, and lacked the softness of the South, but she was polite and well bred, and Eugenie liked that.

“No. I think I’d like to be a journalist, but I’m not sure yet. I just applied to college, and I don’t have to declare my major for two years.” Her grandmother asked what colleges she had applied to, and was impressed by the list. They were all first-rate schools, including Duke.

“You must be a good student,” Eugenie conceded, “to apply to schools like that. In my day, young women didn’t go to college. They got married and had babies. It’s different now, though. One of my grandsons went to the University of Virginia, like his father. The other one went to Duke.” She said it as though Savannah didn’t know them.

“UVA is a very good school,” Savannah said easily, but she hadn’t applied there. Her mother had discouraged her and said she’d be an outcast if she wasn’t southern. Savannah knew it was her mother’s prejudice about the South but had decided not to apply anyway. She smiled kindly at her grandmother, and took her empty teacup from her and set it down, and then offered her the plate of cookies. The maid had gone back to the kitchen. Eugenie took one of the cookies and nibbled it as she looked at her grandchild. “You look just like your mother.” It was hard to tell if it was a compliment or an insult the way she said it. A complaint maybe. She didn’t want to be reminded of Alexa, or how much she had liked her in the beginning. Until Luisa came home for good, and her allegiance had shifted back to her first daughter-in-law, not the second. Savannah thought it wisest not to answer. “Do you know what the United Daughters of the Confederacy is?” she asked her, and Savannah nodded. She remembered hearing about it, although it sounded a little silly to her, but she didn’t say that. “I’m the president general. They gave me that title because my grandfather was a general in the Confederate Army.” She said it with such pride that Savannah smiled at her. For all her toughness, there was a fragility and vulnerability that touched her. She was just a very old woman, and life had passed her by. She was alone in a dusty old house now, proud of an army that had lost a war nearly a hundred and fifty years before, like the Japanese soldiers who had hidden in caves and didn’t know the war was over for years.

Eugenie looked at her son then and nodded. He understood the signal. She was tired. It was time for them to leave. He stood up and told Savannah they should be going.

“Thank you for letting me come to visit you, Grandmother,” she said politely as she stood up too.

“Are you in school here?” Eugenie was curious about her. She was a bright girl, and on closer inspection, she looked like her father too, not just Alexa. She had southern genes in her, after all.

“Yes, I am. I started this week.”

“Do you like it?”

“So far. Everyone’s been very nice. And Charleston is beautiful. Dad showed me around on Monday before I started school.”

“I hope you enjoy your stay here,” Eugenie said politely, letting her know that she would not be seeing her again. It was hello and goodbye in one meeting.

“Thank you.” Savannah smiled at her warmly, and then they left.

Savannah was quiet on the drive home, thinking about her. She was so small and old and not the dragon she had expected at all. It hadn’t been hard, it was easy.

Luisa was waiting for them when they got home. As usual, she ignored Savannah, and looked straight at her husband.

“I understand you just went to see your mother, and just took her with you.” She always referred to Savannah as “her” and “she” and never by name.

“That’s right. I did. I thought Savannah should see her. She’s her grandmother, after all. Did she call you?” It surprised him, but maybe his mother had felt a need to confess to Luisa.

“Someone saw you turning into the driveway.” Luisa had spies everywhere, and knew everything he did. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to upset you,” he said honestly, as Savannah left them quietly and went to her room.

“It’s a slap in my face to take her there, and you know it,” she accused him.

“Savannah had a right to see her.”

“She has no rights here,” Luisa reminded him. “This is my home, and these are our children. She’s not one of us, and she never will be. It’s bad enough that you brought her here. You don’t have to humiliate me further by showing her off, or taking her to your mother for tea.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way. She’s not the enemy, Luisa. She’s a child. My child. Her being here is not going to hurt you or weaken your position.” She didn’t answer him, but gave him a quelling look and left the room.

Nothing further was said about it, until he visited his mother again two days later. He decided not to mention Savannah again, unless she did, and at the end of his visit, his mother brought it up. She amazed him by saying Luisa had called her, and was very upset about Savannah’s visit. That didn’t surprise him.

“She said she’d prefer it if I don’t see her again,” his mother said calmly. “I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided I’d like to anyway. She seems like a very nice young lady. And it was kind of her to come to see me.” He was floored by his mother’s decision, and assessment of Savannah. She liked her. “I told your wife not to meddle in my business.” It was the first time in years she had taken someone else’s position, and not Luisa’s. “There’s no reason I can’t see her again if I want to. No one is going to tell me what to do.” Tom smiled at her as she said it.

“No one ever has, Mother. I have complete faith in you to stand up to anyone who would try. And I’m glad you liked Savannah.”

“She’s intelligent and polite, and a lot like you.” He didn’t challenge it, but the truth was that she was a great deal more like her mother, and they both knew it. She was far more courageous than he was. He had sold his soul to the devil years before, and had allowed his mother and Luisa to influence him into betraying someone he loved, and even abandoning his own child. He had nothing to be proud of, and he wasn’t. “You did what you had to do, and you did the right thing,” she said, reading his mind, as she so often did. She did it better than anyone, and sometimes she used it against him, but not this time.

“No, I didn’t,” he said quietly.

“It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.” He wondered if she regretted it too, but he didn’t ask her.

“They both suffered for my stupidity and weakness,” he said honestly. “There’s nothing right about it.” And Luisa was the winner and didn’t deserve to be. Everyone else involved had been losers, including him. And he had allowed it to happen.

“Maybe it will do you good to have her here now.” And then she added with a wicked grin, “If Luisa doesn’t make life too miserable for you. She’s not happy to have the girl here.” Tom laughed at what she said.

“No, she isn’t. And she’s making life miserable for Savannah too.”

“She looks as though she can handle it. How is she with Daisy?” She was curious about her. Seeing her had whetted her appetite for more information.

“Very sweet. Daisy loves her.” His mother nodded.

“Bring her to see me again. She ought to learn more about her own history. There’s more to her life than those two women lawyers in New York. She should know about our family too.” It was a huge sign of acceptance that she wanted to share that with Savannah, and Tom was stunned as he thought about it when he drove away. He told Savannah that night that her grandmother wanted to see her again. Savannah looked pleased.

“I liked her too. Maybe she can tell me all about the United Daughters of the Confederacy next time, and the generals in her family.”

“That’s just what she wants to do,” he said, as he gave Savannah a hug and left the room.

He moved back into his bedroom that night, with Luisa. She was still furious with him, but it was his bedroom too, and his house. He had no intention of sleeping on the couch in his study forever, because his daughter had come to visit. He took Daisy and Savannah to a movie that night, and invited Luisa. She didn’t want to come, but he had asked her. He had a great time with both his daughters.

When he got into bed when they returned, Luisa turned her back on him, but she hadn’t moved into one of the guest bedrooms, which he had thought she might do. She wasn’t speaking to him, but he had reclaimed his territory, and his life. He felt like a man again, for the first time in ten years. Luisa no longer had him on the run, and she no longer owned him. He wanted to let out a shout of victory, but instead he just turned over and went to sleep.