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.
Chapter 11
The week after Savannah’s visit to her grandmother was another crazy one for Alexa. The FBI had backed down about taking the case, after a lot of pressure from Joe McCarthy, but they were still waiting to pounce and grab it if anything went wrong. So far nothing had. But Alexa felt she had to be constantly on her toes. And they had just gotten word of a link between Quentin and another murder, this one in a state where they didn’t think he’d been. As it turned out, he hadn’t, and the forensic evidence didn’t match. She wanted to be particularly careful they weren’t just throwing things at him to see what would stick. She had to be absolutely sure that the murders he was accused of were in fact crimes he had committed, and all the evidence matched up, beyond a reasonable doubt. She didn’t want to lose this case, or try to convict him for crimes he didn’t commit. She wanted to be absolutely, totally, completely sure that she was on the right track in each case, and she believed she was. Without solid conclusive evidence from other law enforcement agencies in other states, she would not add their cases to her own. It was her cautious thoroughness so far that had convinced the FBI director to let her keep the case. He didn’t think anyone could have done a better job, and Joe assured him that was true. All of which put additional pressure on Alexa to not make one minute slip or mistake. She looked and felt worn out. The trial was ten weeks away. And Quentin was continuing to hold court with a hungry press. Alexa refused to make further comment, which the FBI liked too, and at every opportunity she thanked them for their help, gave them credit where it was due, and was grateful for their enormous investigative machine that she was benefiting from to build her case.
Pennsylvania had found another victim, and the body had been exhumed, although her family had been reluctant to do it and had to be convinced. Jack flew out to see them, and begged them to cooperate, which they finally did, in tears. And it was a match with Quentin. That brought his number of victims to eighteen, and Alexa had a gut instinct that they had found them all. She wasn’t sure why, but they had combed every state he had been in since leaving prison and checked him against every murder, rape, and missing person. There were no loose ends anymore. The twenty-two-year-old medical student in Pennsylvania was the last one. Eighteen beautiful young women, all dead because of him. It was unthinkable, especially to the girls’ parents, but it happened every day. Alexa was grateful daily that she had sent Savannah away. There had been no letters since she left. She had decided to take Savannah to Europe in the summer, with the vacation time she had, and after that Savannah was leaving for college, and would be even harder to find. Quentin had robbed her of her last months with her daughter, but she was safe, and he had done worse to others, and robbed them of their lives. Talking to the parents of the victims had nearly broken Alexa’s heart.
And throughout, his public defender was insisting they were wrong, in the face of evidence, victims, DNA matches, and three psych reports now that confirmed he was a sociopath. Alexa almost felt sorry for her, she was completely under his spell, and could have been yet another victim if they met when he was outside. He was a textbook sociopath, and every time he saw Alexa, which wasn’t often, and too frequently for her, he undressed her with his eyes, just to let her know he could, and to let her know that she had no power and he did. He was a terrifying man, and smooth as silk. This was a case Alexa wanted to win, more than any case she’d had before.
They were interrogating him again that afternoon, about the latest Pennsylvania victim, and as always he strutted into the room. He had been working out, for lack of anything better to do, and his heavily developed muscles rippled in his jail-issue jumpsuit, and he observed everyone in the room with his now-familiar glacial eyes. This time Alexa decided not to hide behind the two-way mirror in the observation room. She sat among the cops across the table from him in the small stuffy room. The smell of male sweat hung heavy in the air. It wasn’t pleasant, but Alexa didn’t care, and Judy Dunning was there too, and gave him a sympathetic smile. With a half smile, Luke looked at the others as though to show them what h
e could do. He had completely turned her around, on her head, and upside down. There were also two special FBI agents in the room, Sam Lawrence and a new one she hadn’t met, and Jack’s original investigation team, Charlie McAvoy and Bill Neeley. The room was jammed, and the questioning began.
They asked him about the victim, about whom he claimed to know nothing, and showed him a photograph of her. She had apparently been approached on a dark street near her apartment, coming home late from the library of the medical school. Like the others, she had been raped and “snuffed” out, strangled during sex. Her body had been found in a shallow grave in a park. She hadn’t been found for four months, and the body had deteriorated badly by then. And Luke had been in town when it happened. Luke shrugged when he looked at the picture of the girl when she was alive, and tossed it back on the desk. His eyes hooked Alexa’s, and he paused for a long moment when he looked at her. She could have been wrong, but she had the feeling this time that he was silently saying “Watch out, that could be you…or your kid.” Her eyes didn’t waver, nor did his. This was becoming a personal vendetta between them now. She was not going to be bested by him, or fooled.
“Where do you guys keep coming up with these women? My dick would have fallen off by now if I’d screwed them all.” The senior detective conducting the interrogation didn’t comment, and Alexa noticed Charlie McAvoy shift in his seat. He was still on the case and doing good work. He had handled his sister’s case and several others and was working hours of overtime. He looked as tired as everyone else. Only the defendant looked rested, in top form, good spirits, and great shape. He was the center of attention and a star. He cast several glances at his attorney, who smiled at him encouragingly as the interrogation wore on.
Alexa had recently demanded that he have a further medical exam to see if his body ejaculated sperm, or if it remained trapped elsewhere, as happened sometimes with men who had severe kidney problems and had been on medication for years. There was no evidence that he was, and he had refused the exams, which he had the right to do, and had offered to come in their eyes.
Everyone was tired of it, and him, as the interrogation wore down. He was so completely without remorse or concern, claiming he’d had nothing to do with any victim, and had neither raped nor killed them, that if anything, he looked bored. And in passing he made a comment that all the women he’d met in Iowa had been dogs, sluts, or cheap whores. Alexa saw Charlie tense as he made the comment, and sat there willing him not to react. For some reason then, maybe knowing that one of the victims was Charlie’s sister and wanting to goad him, he said that he wouldn’t have stuck his dick into any girl in Iowa, or most of the states where he’d been.
Charlie was tired and had been up all night, after meeting with the parents of several victims, and trying to get more information from them. His sister had been dead for a year that week, and his own parents were still devastated and so was he. But Quentin wouldn’t give it up. He kept talking about “dogs” and “sluts” and “cheap whores” and what he would and wouldn’t do to them if he had the chance. And before any of them could grab him, Charlie was out of his seat like lightning, had literally flown across the table and had Quentin by the throat, and he was in even better shape than Luke. Charlie had a choke hold on him, and Quentin responded in kind. The two men were literally strangling each other, as every cop in the room and even Alexa dove toward them to break it up.
Someone hit an alarm, and there was chaos in the room as people shouted, grabbed, scuffled, it was nearly impossible to drag Charlie off him, but two of the men finally did. Jack was standing there sweating profusely, his own shirt torn from his attempts to break up the two men. He said not a word to Luke but shouted in his detective’s face, who was choking and spitting on the floor. Luke was back in cuffs and being dragged away, spluttering too.
“What the fuck were you thinking? Are you out of your mind? You’re off the case. Now!”
“I’m bringing charges!” Luke shouted through the door as it closed, with no time to cast smoldering looks at his attorney, or menacing looks at Alexa or anyone else. It had been an incredibly dumb thing for Charlie to do, and would probably win him a year’s suspension for attacking a suspect, but he clearly needed the time off, and Jack was furious with himself for not taking him off the case before. He was quietly talking to Sam Lawrence and the other special FBI agent, who had actually been the ones to pull Charlie away from Luke. Jack explained again about his sister, and they nodded, and finally one of them laughed.
“Look, relax. I would have liked to do it myself. I just didn’t have the balls. I have three sisters, and this guy is a piece of shit.” But they also had a responsibility to protect him, and not kill him themselves. “I’m not going to file a report,” Sam said. “He had it coming. You guys can do what you want.” Jack knew he had to file one anyway. He told Charlie in his office half an hour later that he was suspending him for a year and sent him home. He had done a great job until then, but the stress had been too much for him. Quentin had killed his twin. Charlie had apologized profusely to Jack before he left, and said he would fly back to Iowa that night, but he and his family were planning to attend the trial.
Jack looked even more exhausted when he showed up in Alexa’s office after Charlie left.
“Shit. That’s all we needed. Thank God the FBI guys were nice about it. McCarthy is going to kill me when he hears it. I should have taken Charlie off the case as soon as we knew his sister was one of the victims. I don’t know what I was thinking. I must have shit for brains.”
“You’re human, like anyone else,” she reassured him, but it had been a tense moment, and a very stupid mistake on Charlie’s part. He had totally lost control. “This case is getting to all of us.” It had impacted everyone’s life, including hers.
They sat and ate Power Bars together for an hour, and to distract her, he asked about Savannah, and once again she admitted her concerns, and shared them with him.
“She went to see her grandmother there. She’s settling in, and it worries me a lot. I don’t want her falling in love with Charleston and deciding that’s where she wants to live.” It was a major concern for her, but the alternative, of bringing her back to New York, was worse, and out of the question until after the trial.
“I don’t have any, but it seems to me, kids do what they want, and usually just the opposite of what their parents want for them. I don’t think you’ll have much control over what she decides. But even if Charleston is pretty, it’s not New York. She’s used to a bigger world, and she’s going to college.” He had a point and what he said reassured her, and they went back to talking about the case. She was going down to Charleston herself that weekend. She could hardly wait to see Savannah, but was dreading all the bitter memories it would revive for her, some of them even bittersweet.
In the end, there was no major fallout from Charlie’s outburst in the interrogation room. Both the DA and the FBI were satisfied with Jack’s suggestion of a year’s suspension, and with the fact that Charlie was already gone and had left that day. There were extenuating circumstances, since his twin sister was one of the victims. And with him off the case, it wouldn’t happen again, but it had been a close call. No one knew what could have happened if the other men hadn’t been able to stop Charlie. It would certainly have solved the problem, but created others far worse for him. No one would have been sorry to see Luke Quentin dead, except Judy Dunning, whom Alexa now referred to as “the fool.”
By five o’clock on Friday afternoon, when she had to leave for the airport, Alexa was flying around her office stuffing files into a bag. She wanted to do some reading on the flights down and back. The rest of the time would be dedicated to Savannah and whatever she had planned. She barely made it to the airport on time, and talked to her mother from the cab. She looked and felt a mess, and totally unprepared to face her old world. She had told her mother about Charlie McAvoy earlier in the week. Emotions were running high on the Quentin case, and Muriel c
ommented that it would do her good to get away. Alexa wasn’t as sure, except for seeing Savannah. She was terrified of the rest.
“What are you afraid of?” Muriel asked her from her chambers. She had just finished work for the day. It had been a good day for her. Her life wasn’t fraught with the drama of her daughter’s. She couldn’t have lived that way, or worked as hard, although she had in her youth. Those days were over now. She was busy, but her life was not going at breakneck speed. Alexa’s was. Muriel hated this case for her, and all the stress she had.
“I don’t know, Mom,” Alexa said honestly. “I guess I’m afraid she’ll stay, that Tom will be so nice suddenly, and Charleston will be so seductive, all that beauty and southern charm. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Why wouldn’t she? What if she never wants to come home, or live in New York again?”
“She may love what she sees there, and want to go back for a visit, but I’ll be very surprised if she wants to live that far from you, for now anyway. And her sights are set on college, not on moving to the South, or discovering her roots. She should know about it, and I think it’s good for her to see. I always thought that, it’ll take care of any curiosity or magical beliefs she might have had about it. But Savannah is heading for college, that’s all she cares about now. You were out of college and in love with a man older than you. That’s a life Savannah can’t even imagine and doesn’t want. Not for a long, long time. If you ask, I think she’ll tell you the same thing. She was curious about it, but no more than that. And being there for three months will put all those questions to rest.”
“I wish I felt as sure.” Alexa was only slightly comforted by her mother’s words, although she made sense.
Southern Lights Page 14
