Southern Exposure - Softcover

Rooth, Anne Reed

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061013641 ISBN 13: 9780061013645

Publisher: HarperTorch, 1999

Synopsis

Turning Up The Heat

Being an attorney and single mother in a small Mississippi town isn't easy--especially with your rich, appearance-conscious family nearby. After years of struggling, Leona Bingham is finally beginning to redeem herself in her relatives' eyes. This newfound respect is shattered, though, when a death row inmate petitions her to save him.

On A Very Cold Trail

She's not a criminal lawyer, and Leona knows it's crazy to take the case, but her client swears she alone is the only one qualified to save his innocent hide. But someone doesn't want Leona to find the truth and will use her family as a terrifying pawn to stop her. As menace escalates into a murder that hits too close to home, a desperate Leona stumbles onto shocking answers that will change her life--dark truths that just might save her client, too.

About this title

About the Author

Anne Reed Rooth was born in Mississippi and is the author of four previous novels. She has three children and with her husband, Stephen, divides her time between Dallas, Texas, and Rancho Sante Fe, California.

From the Back Cover

Turning Up The Heat

Being an attorney and single mother in a small Mississippi town isn't easy--especially with your rich, appearance-conscious family nearby. After years of struggling, Leona Bingham is finally beginning to redeem herself in her relatives' eyes. This newfound respect is shattered, though, when a death row inmate petitions her to save him.

On A Very Cold Trail

She's not a criminal lawyer, and Leona knows it's crazy to take the case, but her client swears she alone is the only one qualified to save his innocent hide. But someone doesn't want Leona to find the truth and will use her family as a terrifying pawn to stop her. As menace escalates into a murder that hits too close to home, a desperate Leona stumbles onto shocking answers that will change her life--dark truths that just might save her client, too.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Southern Exposure

By Rooth, Anne Reed

HarperTorch

Copyright © 2004 Anne Reed Rooth
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0061013641

Chapter One

The letter mixed with junk mail catches my attention. Postmarked Parchman, the envelope is rumpled, the pencil print smudged, and postage is due. I don't know anyone in the Mississippi State Penitentiary and never expect to since I'm not a criminal lawyer. However, the sender's name in the upper left-hand comer does ring a vague bell.

I glance at my secretary, who is watching me fan through the afternoon delivery. She suddenly busies herself at the typewriter, maybe trying to fix it. This is a bad drawback to a one-room, storefront type of office. She's disappointed at the lack of checks in particular and my ability as a rainmaker in general. Fellow southerners would say, "She has a mouth on her,"--their euphemism for smart ass. That's one of the reasons I hired her. Another is because she's deserving, was unable to secure office work elsewhere in town, and is saving to go to law school.

A third reason I hired her is that lawyers are supposed to have secretaries. Lawyers are supposed to have many things. Clients. Money. I don't have many of the first or much of my own of the second. Maybe it's because I really haven't put my heart into being a lawyer. I've written a few wills, dosed two estates, handled two divorce cases, and sued several people. I won two cases and lost four. I've been in practice only a year and a half, if that's an excuse.

After I returned with a load of baggage, emotional and very, very real, from an extended stay in Europe, I entered law school with a twofold purpose: I wanted a way to earn my own living, however meager, and my father, a card-carrying member of the landed gentry in the rich Mississippi Delta country, thought I needed to redeem myself in the eyes of everyone. Other people's opinions have always been important to my parents, Lily and Byars, the Binghams, with a capital The. I had not only disappointed my father, I had horrified him. I knew better than to look to my mother for an ally, as she always deferred to him.

Feeling ancient and shouldering more personal responsibilities than other fresh-faced, eager students, I barely scraped through Ole Miss. "Leona Bingham, you're smart but don't apply yourself" was the professor babble I heard often enough, which incorrectly labeled me as lazy. It took me three times to pass the Mississippi bar exam. Some don't call that redeeming yourself, but I had fallen into a state of ennui from which I still haven't fully emerged.

I tap the envelope on the desk. "Tarsha, who is Robert Weldon?"

"You don't know?" Her perfect skin has the sheen of a melting Hershey bar, and her dreadlocks sway gracefully when she moves her head.

"If I did, would I ask?" Like Tarsha, I try to keep my tongue poised for a snappy rejoinder. Clever lines can mask a lot of feelings, I've learned.

She picks up a pencil and examines the point. "He's on death row. Has been for about six years. It's been awhile since the state has executed anybody, especially a white man, but after all kinds of state and federal appeals and rejections and lifted stays, Robert Weldon's execution date's been set for next month. It's election year, and the governor's plank is to come down hard on crime. He's a strong advocate of the death penalty and bucking for the black vote, so to show how fair he is, the governor is determined to execute a token white."

"Robert Weldon was convicted of?"

"Murdering April Brown, a black girl right here in Grenola, some years back, stabbed her to death. If it had been vice versa the case would have made more waves.

Her statement is right. The Deep South now turns a politically correct face to the world, but unfortunately the line in "Dixie," "Old times there are not forgotten," sums up our true racial attitude. Sometimes I think living here is like taking a step back in time.

"What's the scoop on Weldon's background?"

"I think he was about thirty-five at the time, poor, blue-collar worker. Hadn't lived in Grenola all his life. Guess you were still off in France at the time, or you'd have heard about it." Discarding the pencil, she taps a few typewriter keys, then looks at me. "Why are you curious about him?"

I hold up the envelope. "He wrote me a letter."

Her onyx eyes widen. "Wonder why?"

"Maybe he's looking for a pen pal." I slit open the letter, wondering why, too. How would a death row inmate know my name?

I read the letter, stick it back in the envelope, think about it, take it out again, and reread it, more slowly this time. I feel Tarsha's eyes boring into me and look up.

"Well?" she asks, a portrait of curiosity.

"Says he's currently without representation, fired his last set of lawyers. Claims he's innocent."

Tarsha looks incredulous, then amused. "And wants you to represent him?" She titters. "About the only way you could get him out is to stage a prison break."

"You do have a gift for words." I try not to take her statement so much as an insult to me but as it relates to Robert Weldon's own impossible situation. Weldon has to be bottom-fishing for a lawyer. I can't help him. Wouldn't know where to start, even if I considered such an undertaking, which I wouldn't. He is probably already doomed, but if I took up the gauntlet, his fate would surely be sealed. Anyway, we are all dying; Robert Weldon just knows when.

Continues...

Excerpted from Southern Exposureby Rooth, Anne Reed Copyright © 2004 by Anne Reed Rooth. Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: HarperTorch
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061013641
• ISBN 13: 9780061013645
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 384