Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

expression. Frances shoved the bundle into Alafair’s hand and took off running, disappearing around the front.
    “Naomi,” Josie called, “come here, honey.”
    Naomi walked over to them, unhurried. Her hands were in the coat pockets, and only her black eyes were visible above the collar.
    “Did you know about this cache?” Josie asked her gently.
    “Yes, ma’am,” Naomi answered. “I should have known I couldn’t keep it hid from them kids.”
    “It’s yours?” Josie wondered, surprised.
    “It is now,” Naomi told her.
    “Where did you get the derringer?” Alafair wondered.
    Naomi gazed at the bundle thoughtfully for a second before she answered. “It was Maggie Ellen’s. She told me she had hid it under the house.”
    Alafair gave Josie a meaningful glance. She looked back at Naomi. “Where is Maggie Ellen, honey? You’ve just been pretending that you don’t know where she went, haven’t you?”
    Naomi looked surprised at the question, but didn’t answer.
    “It’s all right,” Alafair assured her. “I don’t blame you for keeping your sister’s secret. But it’s time to tell someone, now. Do you know where Maggie Ellen is?”
    “Did y’all have a plan for Maggie Ellen to come back and rescue you?” Josie asked.
    The girl’s black eyes were unreadable. She looked from Alafair to Josie, and back again. Alafair squatted down in front of Naomi and took her shoulders. “Sweetheart, did your sister shoot your daddy? Don’t be afraid. Nobody’s going to hurt Maggie Ellen. Nobody blames her for running away.”
    Naomi shrugged. There was quite a long pause before she replied this time. “Maggie Ellen didn’t run away,” she finally said.
    Alafair blinked. “Well, where did she go, then?”
    “She got killed,” Naomi replied calmly. “Daddy killed her.”
    When she looked back on it later, Alafair was unable to recall how long the three of them stood there, turned to stone.
    “Your daddy killed Maggie Ellen,” Josie managed at length.
    “He did.”
    “When? How did your daddy kill Maggie Ellen?” Josie fumbled.
    Naomi looked up at her, still composed. “Summer before last,” she said. “During harvest. Me and Maggie Ellen were in the corn crib stacking corn, and Maggie Ellen saw that there was this hole dug in the floor in the corner with a piece of board over it. She pried it up with a stick, and there was a saddle bag all full of money hid in it. Maggie Ellen figured how it was Daddy’s money from selling his liquor. She decided we was going to take it and run off. She said she was going to go to her beau, Dan, and the three of us was going to move to some town far away from here and Dan was going to start his own mechanic business and we was going to be rich. We was still making plans when Daddy came in.” Naomi paused. Her gaze wandered out over the yard, then back to the women. She continued, matter-of-fact.
    “Daddy was mostly sober, but he got mighty angry when he saw Maggie Ellen had his money. He said she was a thief and started whipping on her. He didn’t act like he knowed I was there, but when Maggie Ellen went to crying it got me scared and I hit at him. Didn’t hardly faze him none and he smacked me out of the way. That’s when Maggie Ellen got all riled and fought him. She called him a sot and an awful misery and a bunch of other words I didn’t even know. She said he owed her that money for ruining her life. He got all red in the face and grabbed her by the neck and whomped her head against the wall a couple of times. I heard her neck snap. It was an accident that he killed her, I guess. But he shouldn’t have done it.”
    Alafair’s throat felt like a hand was strangling her, too. “Why didn’t you tell anybody?” she breathed.
    “He told me he’d kill me, too, and some of the other kids for good measure,” Naomi informed her. “He took her and buried her out in the woods. Told Mama and the rest that she had probably run off. Everybody believed Daddy when he said that.”
    Josie reached out and placed her hand on the girl’s head. “You must have hated him for what he did,” she said.
    “I reckon,” Naomi agreed.
    “Naomi,” Alafair asked, “did you shoot your daddy with this little gun as he lay there by the house?”
    “Yes, ma’am, I did. I did it for Maggie Ellen. When Daddy went after her, I should have either fought him harder or let him be, one or the other. I just made him madder. I figured it was the only thing I could