Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

as him. I don’t think that boy has a mean bone in his body.”
    “Is there anybody you suspect?” Alafair asked Mrs. Day.
    “Lord Almighty, Miz Tucker, it could have been anybody,” the woman declared. “Harley had more enemies than you could shake a stick at. He was always getting into beefs with them lowlife scum he sold his home-brew to. Why, just a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Lang that we just mentioned was out here complaining that Harley hadn’t paid him for that last fifty bushels of corn that he bought. I never seen him so mad. He said Harley wasn’t getting another ear of corn from him if he didn’t pay for the last batch that was delivered. John Lee made a deal to meet with him and arrange a way to pay.”
    “Harley bought the corn for his brew?”
    A tiny smile, shy but defiant, appeared. “Didn’t used to. Used to use the corn we growed ourselves. But three years ago John Lee wouldn’t let him have none, and sold every bit of it before Harley could get his hands on it. He has done that ever since, and now Harley has to use the money from his moonshining to buy his corn.”
    “I expect he had plenty,” J.D. commented. “I hear bootlegging is a going concern.”
    Mrs. Day shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “We always figured that Harley has a cache of money hid around here somewhere, but none of us ever could find it, if he does.”
    Alafair noticed that Mrs. Day was still using the present tense when referring to her husband, but didn’t correct her. “So John Lee really ran things around here.”
    “He did and he does,” Zorah assured her. “Harley never bothered with the farm. So you see there wasn’t no reason for John Lee to kill him.”
    No reason but rage, Alafair thought.
    ***
    When Alafair was ready to leave, she realized that Phoebe had been gone for quite a while. She stood on the porch with Mrs. Day and the Millars, saying her good-byes in a vague quandary, when Phoebe came around the house with Naomi. Naomi walked up the porch steps to stand beside her mother, and Phoebe climbed into the shay. The girls did not take their leave of one another. They didn’t even look at one another. Naomi wished Alafair a solemn good day, and that was all.
    Alafair didn’t speak to Phoebe until they were out the gate and back on the road toward home. “Where did you and Naomi get yourselves off to?” she finally asked.
    Phoebe skewed her a glance. “She was showing me around the farm,” she said.
    “That little old girl must be five years younger than you,” Alafair observed. “I wouldn’t think you’d have much to say to one another.”
    Phoebe shrugged. “I wanted to ask her what she thought about John Lee,” she told Alafair. “Besides, Ma, you may have noticed that Naomi is older than her age.”
    “I did notice that,” Alafair admitted. “Sometimes that happens, when the parents aren’t very mature. The kids become older than their folks. Fortunately, you kids don’t have to worry about that,” she added dryly.
    Phoebe’s mouth twisted up in the corner with the little ironic quirk of a smile that all of Shaw Tucker’s children had inherited. “I reckon not,” she replied in a toneless voice that implied that maybe she reckoned so.
    Alafair stifled a chuckle. “Have you ever met John Lee’s aunt and uncle before?”
    “No, I never met them, but John Lee did tell me not long ago that his uncle had come over and took his dad to task in an awful way for something Mr. Day did over at their farm. I guess Mr. Millar is the uncle he was talking about.”
    “Really? Do you know what Harley did to the Millars that called for such a dressing down?”
    “John Lee didn’t tell me. Maybe he didn’t know himself.”
    “When did this happen?”
    There was a pause while Phoebe figured. “Well, John Lee told me about it a couple of weeks ago.”
    “It’s interesting that Mr. Millar didn’t get home when he was supposed to,” Alafair mused. She glanced at Phoebe, who was staring thoughtfully at the road. “So what did Naomi think about John Lee?”
    “She thinks he didn’t do it,” Phoebe said, without looking at her.
    “Does she have any thoughts on who did do it?”
    “Not that she told me. And I certainly asked.”
    They were practically home already. Alafair pulled up in front of their outer gate and Phoebe jumped down to pull it open. Alafair drove through, then stopped while Phoebe closed the gate. She climbed back up beside Alafair and they