Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

yard, a large, fallow truck garden lay encircled by a white fence.
    As was polite, when they grew near, Mary called out, “Hello the house!”
    Zorah Millar came out on the porch to greet them. She looked pleasant enough as she came down the steps. Curious.
    “Morning, Miz Tucker,” she opened. “What brings you hereabouts on a chilly day like today?”
    Alafair was a little surprised that the woman remembered her name. But then it was hard to be incognito in Boynton.
    “Hello, Miz Millar,” Alafair responded. “This here is my daughter Mary. Forgive us for busting in on you all unannounced. I hope you’re not in the middle of something.”
    “Nothing I wouldn’t rather put off ’til later,” Zorah assured her. “Come on in out of the blow.”
    The small house was warm and smelled of bacon and bread. Zorah ensconced them on a cozy, quilt-covered settee. “I was just making myself some coffee,” she said, as she untied her apron. “Will y’all take a cup with me?”
    “We can’t stay but a tick,” Alafair told her. “Don’t want to put you out.”
    “Now, Miz Tucker,” Zorah chided, “it ain’t a bit of trouble. Besides, this girl looks froze.”
    Mary laughed. Her fair skin flushed easily, and at the moment, her cheeks were an alarming red from the brisk trot in the chilly wind. “I wouldn’t mind a cup, Miz Millar,” she admitted.
    Zorah scuttled into the kitchen, but was still in plain sight through the door as she poured the mugs full of hot coffee. “Y’all take cream? Sugar?”
    “Cream,” the two women said in unison, and Mary added, “two sugars.”
    Zorah brought out the coffee on a wooden tray and Alafair took a mug. She had to admit that the creamy hot liquid sliding down her throat was entirely welcome.
    “This is mighty good of you, Miz Millar,” Alafair said, “considering my bad manners dropping in like this. It’s just that I felt the need to commiserate with you about the investigation into the death of your brother….”
    She had intended to say more, but the sudden change of expression on Zorah’s face when she mentioned Harley gave her pause.
    Zorah noted her surprise and gave a cynical snort. “There ain’t no need to commiserate about Harley on my part, Miz Tucker,” Zorah stated. “I made my feelings about Harley clear enough, I think, when you and me first met. He may have been my own flesh and blood, but if there was any critter on earth that deserved to get shot and die, it was Harley. And I ain’t going to apologize for thinking so, neither.”
    Alafair and Mary exchanged a glance. “I’m not inclined to disagree with you,” Alafair resumed. “I just expected that you have been troubled of late that the sheriff threw both John Lee and his mother in jail on suspicion of killing the reprobate.”
    Zorah nodded and took a sip of her coffee. “That surely did fret me at the time, but I hear now that Sheriff Tucker has arrested Jim Leonard. I’m expecting he’ll let my sister-in-law go directly. I don’t know what she was thinking, confessing to killing Harley, when I know she didn’t do it. Stupid to ruin what’s left of her life for the likes of him.” Her sharp blue-green eyes examined Alafair’s bruises critically for a second before she continued. “My sister-in-law says y’all have been good to her through all this. I heard what happened to you over by Harley’s still,” she acknowledged. “I was sorry for it.”
    “Turned out to be nothing serious,” Alafair said. “I’m getting a long layabout while my girls take good care of me.” She patted Mary’s knee. “It was worth it, though, if it helps clear John Lee and Miz Day. We’ve taken quite a shine to the Days, especially John Lee.”
    “And you’re wondering if I know anything else that could prove beyond doubt that he’s innocent of the deed,” Zorah added, at last enlightened as to the reason for Alafair’s unexpected visit.
    “That’s the nail on the head,” Alafair confessed.
    Zorah put her mug down on the side table and leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms over her chest and regarded Alafair thoughtfully before she answered. “It’s kind of you to be concerned about John Lee,” she noted. “I don’t think he done it, and I don’t think his ma done it, but I can’t give you any facts to prove it either way. Sheriff Tucker already asked me about the morning John Lee showed up out here to ask me to get the kids, and I told him all I know.