The Old Buzzard Had It Coming
by Donis Casey
Summary
One winter evening in 1912, in the woods outside of Boynton, Oklahoma, abusive and drunken Harley Day surprises his son John Lee and the neighbor girl Phoebe Tucker in a lovers’ tryst. An hour later, when John Lee walks his beloved home, Phoebe’s mother, Alafair Tucker, suspects that something is amiss. How could she know her daughter has been involved in a violent confrontation that will make Phoebe and her beau murder suspects? But…well, the old buzzard had it coming!
This Best Unpublished Mystery of 2004 (The Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc.) is the first in a new series.
Excerpt
It was just after dinner on that January day in 1912, and very cold with a threat of snow, when Harley Day began the journey to his eternal reward.
He made it to the outhouse, though he didn’t remember if he actually managed to do his business inside or not. He did remember that there was a good-sized stash of moonshine in the barn, and he navigated that fifty or so yards with only a couple of stops to rest and regroup. He got somewhat turned around in the barn and after he had retrieved a jar, he realized that he had gone out the back and was headed for the woods instead of the house.
This face in itself put him in a bad mood, for he couldn’t quite get his feet headed back in the right direction. But as he drew near the trees, he could hear voices murmuring. Having to think about this quite put him out.
When he drew near enough to recognize the voice of his nineteen-year-old son, John Lee, Harley’s irritation turned to anger. Something about that boy made Harley mad, especially since the boy had become so contrary. John Lee was supposed to be slopping the hogs now, and it occurred to Harley that he hadn’t seen the boy in the barn. Indignant, he staggered toward the voices, then stopped, swaying in his tracks, when he realized who John Lee was talking to.
It was that Tucker girl.
It seemed like there were hundreds of Tuckers in Muskogee County, and Okmulgee County, and they were married to everybody and held every third office and owned every other business in the area. Harley hated the Tuckers, with their highfaluting ways, and he hated the fact that John Lee was talking with Phoebe Tucker, whose father’s large property nearly wrapped around Harley’s tatty little eighty-acre farm.
Harley’s anger turned to rage. He could see them through the trees, sitting with their heads together on a little hillock, so engrossed in their conversation that a mule could have sat on them and they wouldn’t have known it. Harley dropped his jar and lunged at the pair, feeling murderous.
The young people saw him at the last minute and scrambled apart, he with a help and she with a shriek of terror. Harley took a swipe at John Lee with his right hand and missed, but he managed to grab Phoebe’s arm with his left.
Phoebe was a small girl, but her alarm gave her strength, and she almost twisted away. Harley managed to hold on and jerked her toward him, and she tumbled and fell to her knees. Harley was aware that John Lee was yelling at him. John Lee often yelled at him, lately. But there was something new in the tone of John Lee’s voice that penetrated the fog of Harley’s thinking.
John Lee sounded angry. Not afraid, like he usually did, or desperate, but angry.
Reviews
“Donis Casey's gifted hand has produced a sharp and suspenseful first novel”-- Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune
“The appealingly homey world Casey creates rings true…readers will be right pleased to see a sequel”-- Publishers Weekly
"Should please the most demanding fans of historicals…authentic situations, fully drawn characters, clever plotting.”--Library J
Author's Biography
Donis Casey was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She earned a Master’s degree in Library Science from Oklahoma University. For the past twenty years Donis has lived in Tempe, Arizona, with her husband. The Old Buzzard Had It Coming is her debut novel.