Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

“These ashes are warm,” he said.
    Alafair thought about this briefly. “You mean somebody’s made a fire within the last few hours,” she observed.
    He looked up at her. “Had to have. Looks like somebody’s got himself a still.” He looked back down. “I wouldn’t care if one of Daddy’s ne’er-do-well friends dismantled this thing and hauled it off, but I don’t like the idea of somebody doing this on our property.”
    “If I was a thief and a bootlegger,” Alafair told him, “I might think there was advantages to doing my business where somebody else besides me could get blamed if it was found out.”
    John Lee made a “humph” sound, then fell silent for a time, pondering the implications of this discovery.
    “What do you think?” Alafair asked him, at length.
    “I think I’d better come out here a few nights with the shotgun and catch this fellow,” John Lee stated.
    Alafair put her hand on his shoulder. “John Lee, don’t you think you’d do better to turn this information over to the sheriff and let him pursue it?”
    John Lee stood up. “No, ma’am, with all due respect, I don’t. The sheriff has got his killer, or so he thinks. If I don’t present him with the answer writ in stone, I don’t see why he’d think it worth his time to mess with it.”
    Alafair glanced up at the light spot in the clouds that indicated the position of the sun. “I’ve got to get home and start dinner for Shaw,” she said nervously, “but I really want to talk about this some more before you do something rash. What if this person is the killer? What does he have to lose by shooting you? Or maybe worse, what if you end up having to shoot him and then end up being the killer you’re trying to prove you’re not? Please don’t do anything until we can get together again and plan this out. Maybe tomorrow….”
    “Miz Tucker,” John Lee interrupted. “I’ve got to move fast. The sheriff is taking my ma into Muskogee today to charge her with murder.”
    “Please, son,” she pleaded. “We’ll get it figured out. Please promise me you won’t try to take this all on yourself.”
    John Lee eyed her doubtfully. “I’ll think on it, Miz Tucker,” he finally said. “Now let me take you out of here and get you headed for home.”
    Alafair opened her mouth to argue with him, but suddenly realized that this was the best she was going to get. She nodded, and followed him as he led her back through the brush to the path by the creek, all the while anxiously wondering what she was going to do next.
    ***
    Alafair had set a stew on slow heat early that morning, and it had cooked to soupy perfection by the time Shaw got back to the house at about 12:30. Alafair baked a short batch of biscuits and fried a few slabs of bacon, creamed a quart of corn from her pantry, fried some potatoes in drippings with onion and a bit of her dried sage, sliced some onions into thick chunks, and poured a couple of glasses of buttermilk. They discussed the homely business of the day as they ate, sitting companionably at the table for a little longer than necessary when they finished, lingering over mugs of strong bitter coffee, a bit of warm apple cake with butter, and a slice or two of homemade cheese. It was close to two when Shaw went back to work, leaving Alafair to clear the table and store the leftovers for supper. She took her time over the dishes, staring out the window over the dish pan, pondering the mysteries she found herself involved with.
    Things had become too complicated. She was desperately trying to protect her daughter from—well, from anything that might hurt her. In the process, she was afraid that she was keeping things from Shaw and Scott that perhaps she shouldn’t. Alafair was beginning to fear that there was no way that she could continue to keep the law from finding out that Phoebe was involved in the events that may have led to the murder of Harley Day. That little gun. Somebody was going to find out where that little gun had come from. She really hoped that Mrs. Day or whoever had used the derringer had indeed flung it into the creek, never to be seen again, because if it were found, and Shaw saw it, he would recognize it immediately. Alafair felt some dread of what Shaw would think of her if he found out she had been keeping things from him, but that was only of peripheral importance to her compared to sparing Phoebe. Also, Alafair was not fool enough to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt