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“Why would you do that, Savannah? Just so I’ll represent you, or because you’re willing to give us a second chance?”
She opened and closed the clasp on her bracelet. Her emotions were in such a jumble she didn’t know how to answer. There was so much pain and complexity in what went wrong in their marriage. Could any relationship be saved after going through what she had with Hez? She’d always been a hopeful person, but losing Ella had stripped Savannah of her optimism. Sometimes things went horribly wrong, and like Humpty Dumpty, they could never be put back together again.
“Savannah?”
His patient tone cut her worse than a harsh retort. They’d both changed, but while he seemed to have become kinder, she’d morphed into a person who dashed in for a quick slash of the verbal blade without warning. Being served with divorce papers couldn’t have been easy on him when he’d come, hat in hand, to ask for a second chance. And she hadn’t even considered his plea. Not once.
She lifted her gaze to meet his again. “I don’t know, Hez. Reconciliation is a long, painful process. I’m under so much stress right now, I can’t think.” She swiped her palm across her forehead. “Can we postpone talking about starting over until I’m not under suspicion for murder? You’ll represent me if I pull back the divorce, won’t you?”
His steady gaze lingered on her face before he rose and picked up his coffee. “I don’t know, Savannah. I’ll have to think about it. If I decide I can’t do it, I’ll find another attorney for you.”
She watched him walk out the door. Was he really leaving her to face the police alone? She didn’t want some other attorney—she wanted Hez. And what did that say about how she felt about him? It took every bit of strength she had not to run after him.
Chapter 6
This would not go well. Her sister blamed Hez for Ella’s death and for Savannah’s pain. Savannah smoothed her skirt with damp fingers, pulled in a deep breath of the lingering scent of wax on the tile floors, then pushed open the door marked Jessica Legare. Jess didn’t notice her at first, and Savannah watched her a moment.
She was thirty-three, two years younger than Savannah, but she looked twenty-five. Her chin-length blonde hair was tucked behind her ears, and she wore a slim blue sheath that enhanced her creamy complexion. She was small with quick movements, and Savannah’s five-ten height towered over her. Savannah had always wondered why she’d never married, but Jess claimed to never want to be in the horrid position their mother had endured. Savannah thought it had more to do with her broken engagement a decade ago.
Savannah pinned a neutral expression in place and held up an iced caramel latte from University Grounds. “Good morning.”
Her sister looked up from behind her big desk. “What are you doing here so early? I suppose it’s about Abernathy’s death? I should have called when I heard you’d found the body, but I was out of town until last night.” She ran her hand through her hair. “And I’m nowhere near ready for the fall semester to start, so I have a ton of work to wrap up.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I have something important to discuss with you.”
Jess glanced at a paper on her desk. “And I have an invitation for you to speak to the Mobile Historical Society next month. It will look good on your vitae for tenure.”
The thought of tenure was a constantly looming weight, and Savannah hated this kind of request, but she gave a curt nod. “Text me the details. I need just a few minutes this morning.”
“Can’t it wait?” Jess’s slim hand gestured at the piles of paperwork on her desk. “I have exactly two hours to get this report done for the trustee meeting.”
As CFO of the university, Jess was always busy, and a warm flush worked its way up Savannah’s neck at the obvious brush-off. “I’m afraid not. I’ll try to only take a minute.” If only this could wait.
Jess held out her hand for the coffee. “Have a seat and read the numbers in the first column off to me. I’ll work while you talk.”
Savannah took the page in Jess’s hand and read the first line. “$10,213. I want you to give Hez a teaching position. He wants to start a law clinic here.”
Jess set the coffee on the desk with a careful motion. “Out of the question.”
“I need him, Jess,” Savannah said in a low voice. Admitting it made her chest ache. “The police think I had something to do with Abernathy’s death.”
Jess’s hazel eyes went wide, and she leaned back in her chair. “Start at the beginning.”
Though she hadn’t wanted to tell Jess about the provenance letters, the police knew, so it was time to tell her sister. She spilled out the events of the last few days. The color slipped from her sister’s cheeks when Savannah got to the part about the Ray Bradbury book the police saw on her bookcase.
“You know Hez is the best attorney I could get. And he won’t charge me.” Savannah omitted the part about Hez wanting a second chance. “Birmingham isn’t close enough, and he’ll need a job if he takes a leave of absence to help me.”
“Savannah, you are barely holding your head above water. The anniversary of Ella’s death is approaching. The last thing you need is to have that anchor back around your neck. He hurt you badly, and I don’t want to see it happen again. Think this through.”
Savannah barely managed to hold back a flinch. “I already did. Do you have another attorney as good as Hez? One who won’t charge me an arm and a leg?”
Jess sighed and rubbed her forehead. “You know I don’t.”
Savannah should have been elated at the note of resignation in her sister’s voice, but even now she wasn’t sure how she would handle being around Hez every day. She’d managed to steel herself before scheduled meetings, but running into him would be a constant occurrence. And the idea of a reconciliation would be dangled in front of her every second. It was a temptation she had to resist for her sanity.
She leaned forward with the paper still clutched in her hand. “Then you’ll arrange it?”
“I don’t have a choice. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
