Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

might faint, but she stood solid and gazed at her mother out of eyes huge with horror. She said nothing.
    “Phoebe, where is my little silver pistol that I keep in my chiffarobe?”
    Phoebe’s lips parted and a little squeaky sound emerged, but she said nothing intelligible.
    Oh, yes, you’re caught now, my dear, Alafair thought. “Did you give my gun to John Lee?” she persisted.
    “Mama,” Phoebe managed with a gigantic effort.
    “Girl, I’m not your enemy. I want to help you. I want to help John Lee if I can. I know John Lee is holed up in the soddie. I followed you out there the other night. Now, don’t panic,” she interjected quickly, grabbing Phoebe’s arm when it looked as though she might bolt out of sheer inability to think of any other response. “I haven’t told anybody, not even your daddy. Not yet. I talked to John Lee, and he told me his version of what happened. I want to believe him, honey, so I thought I’d see what was what before he turns himself in, and he has to turn himself in, Phoebe. You know it and he knows it, too. Of course, that was before I knew that my pistol is missing. Did you give it to him? And don’t you lie to me, child. I’ll know if you do, and it’ll go worse for you.”
    Her horror at being caught out had subsided enough for Phoebe to think, and she was doing just that with manic speed. She knew very well that her mother had some sort of supernatural ability to tell when her children were lying, but she also knew that that ability wasn’t 100 percent. What had John Lee told her? Knowing John Lee, he would have told Alafair as much of the truth as he could without involving Phoebe in it at all. But now her mother knew that Phoebe was involved, though not quite how. Phoebe’s assessment of the situation was done in the twinkling of an eye. To deny knowledge would be stupid, dangerous, and an insult. “Yes, Mama, I took your pistol.”
    Alafair said nothing, but Phoebe could feel the heightening of the tension in the atmosphere. “I know it was wrong,” Phoebe continued, “but I felt like I had to help John Lee. Things had got so bad that I was afraid his daddy was going to kill him, and I wanted him to have some protection.”
    “Don’t they have their own guns over to the Day place?” Alafair asked. Her voice was crisp to the point of being brittle.
    “Yes, but I figured that little gun would be easier to hide, and not make his daddy so mad if he saw it.”
    “When did you give him the gun?”
    There was the briefest of hesitations before Phoebe answered. A look of fear came into her eyes that made Alafair’s heart constrict. “I took it over there that evening that Mr. Day disappeared.”
    “What in heaven’s name were you doing sneaking over there to the Day place?”
    “Oh, Mama, I’ve been sneaking over there once a week to see John Lee for the last six months. I love him so much I couldn’t help it. His pa was a monster, Ma. He wouldn’t allow John Lee to court me proper, or come and speak to you and Daddy. He didn’t want him to have a life or any happiness at all.”
    “Why didn’t you tell us about this,” Alafair asked, aghast, “instead of going behind our backs? Do you know what people will say? Do you know what your daddy will say?”
    “I couldn’t tell you,” Phoebe protested, suddenly on the verge of tears. “John Lee couldn’t come over here, and I knew you wouldn’t let me see him on the sly, without his folks knowing.”
    “That’s certain!”
    “But, Ma, I have to see him! I love him. We never did anything wrong. Ma, please, don’t you remember what it’s like?”
    For a second, Alafair was struck dumb. She gripped Phoebe’s shoulders in an icy vice, trying to decide whether to comfort her or shake her within an inch of her life.
    Did she remember what it was like? Did she remember Shaw Tucker with his honey-colored eyes and his lopsided grin? She was seventeen, just the same age as Phoebe was now. She had known of Shaw and all the Tuckers. She had disdained him, and all boys, until that strange day that was burned in her memory like a brand. She had gone with her mother to the drug store in Lone Elm, and while her mother had been replenishing her store of patent medicines, Alafair had noticed a rangy youth watching her from behind the counter.
    Now, Alafair had seen boys before, and she had seen handsome boys before, and she had seen handsome boys ogling her before. But on that day, something about this