Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

family.
    “So we figured we’d just have to wait,” Phoebe was saying. “We expected that things would change, somehow, someday.”
    “You might have had to sneak around for years!”
    Phoebe’s bottom lip pooched out in determination. “We knew that. But what else was there, unless we both just gave up on our families and our responsibilities? John Lee’s sister Maggie Ellen did that, you know, ran away. He said it hurt his mother something awful. We just know that we are meant to be together, and that we’ll get our opportunity someday.” She took a breath. “I didn’t want it to be this way. John Lee shouldn’t have run away, I know it. But I saw what happened with my own eyes, and I offered to help him my own self, at least ’til we could figure out what to do. He was protecting me, Ma. If he hadn’t shot at his daddy, Mr. Day might have done me an injury.”
    Alafair pushed Phoebe away from her and clutched her chest in shock. “Oh, my Lord, when your daddy hears this story, he’ll have an apoplexy. I might have one myself right now. Let me sit down and tell me what happened, for pity’s sake.”
    “Mr. Day come upon us. We were reading and didn’t hear him in time to hide. He was drunk, of course. He called me a bad name, and him and John Lee got into it. They had already had one dust-up earlier that day. He caught John Lee one on the eye and knocked him silly for a minute, just long enough to reach over and grab me by the skirt. He’d dragged me over when John Lee came to himself and pulled out the little pistol I’d given him. He hollered at his pa to let me go, and when he didn’t, John Lee shot. I thought by the way Mr. Day staggered that he was hit, but I never saw any blood. Mr. Day just let me go and wandered off toward the barn. Me and John Lee ran and ran. We stopped for a while by the creek and got our breath and brushed ourselves off. I cleaned his cut eye as best I could. Then he walked me all the way up to the house. It was the first time he’d ever walked me up to the door, and I was so proud of him.”
    “Did John Lee only fire once?”
    “Yes, I think just once. Yes, just once.”
    “Now, think, honey. Are you absolutely sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Day walked away toward the barn under his own steam?”
    “Yes, ma’am, I know it for a fact.”
    “You said you thought at first that Mr. Day had been hit. Where did you think the bullet hit him?”
    “Why, in the right side. He staggered a bit to the left. Sure not in the head, Ma. He would have dropped dead right then and there, wouldn’t he?” Her cheeks flushed, and a look of excitement came into her eyes. “Ma, I can be his alibi, can’t I? I mean, I saw the whole thing. I saw that John Lee didn’t shoot Mr. Day in the head, that he was still alive when we ran away. That proves that John Lee didn’t kill his father, doesn’t it?”
    “What did John Lee do with the gun?”
    Phoebe drew up. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I didn’t pay no attention.”
    “That gun is a two-shot, Phoebe. Maybe John Lee came upon his dad passed out next to the house later that evening, after he left you, and finished him off. That fight Mrs. Day told us John Lee and his pa had, I don’t know if that was before this business with you or after.”
    “Oh, no, Ma,” Phoebe exclaimed. “It couldn’t be. No, he threw the gun away, I remember now.”
    “Mercy!” Alafair clapped her hands against her cheeks in dismay. “Oh, my girl, God smite me for letting you get mixed up in this ugly thing.”
    Phoebe was surprised. “You didn’t have anything to do with it, Mama. How can you know everything all the time?”
    “Because I’m your mother. Oh, why didn’t you tell me your problem? It’s a hard one, I know, but maybe Daddy and I could have helped you some way. Maybe we could have got that man locked up for something.”
    “Are you going to tell Daddy?” Phoebe asked anxiously.
    “Well, I’ve got to, darlin’, can’t you see?”
    “Please don’t, Mama,” Phoebe pleaded with a vehemence that startled Alafair. “Not yet, anyway. Not until we find some way to prove that John Lee couldn’t possibly have done this awful thing.”
    “Honey, you know your daddy and I don’t keep things from one another.” Not things of such monumental importance, anyway, she added to herself.
    “I’m just asking you to hold off telling him for a little while. If Daddy finds out now, before we can clear John