Southern Lights: A Novel

“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.