“Except his family,” I said softly. I had to consider that Kanesha was prejudiced in her cousin’s favor, but if he was truly uncoordinated and afraid of guns, I could see him dropping the thing and not bothering to pick it up again.

Kanesha nodded. “I knew my cousin, Mr. Harris, and I believed him. I knew what a klutz he was and how scared he would have been. If he said he dropped the gun and only stumbled into Vera Cassity, then that’s what happened.”

“Where does murder come into it, then?”

“Two and a half years after Johnny went to the state pen, he was killed by a couple of the other inmates.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, knowing the words were completely inadequate.

“Aunt Lily was devastated, and so was my mother. They blamed Vera Cassity—mainly because she was so nasty in the courtroom. He would have gone to prison regardless, but the way Vera talked him down, well, they just couldn’t forgive her.” She threw up her hands. “The whole thing was so freakin’ stupid, from beginning to end.”

I waited a moment before I spoke, trying to marshal my thoughts. I could understand why Azalea and her sister Lily had taken against Vera so harshly, but I honestly couldn’t see that their feelings translated into an active motive for murder.

I voiced that to Kanesha, and she nodded. “I agree with you. Mama and Aunt Lily hated Vera like you wouldn’t believe, but neither one of them would ever have laid a hand on her.”

“But the sheriff obviously disagrees,” I said.

“Up to a point.” Kanesha shook her head. “Once he thinks he’s done me enough damage, he’ll ease off my mother.”

“What are you going to do about it in the meantime?”

“Do my best to figure out who really killed Vera,” Kanesha said. “But it can’t look like I’m doing it. That’s where you come in.”

I wasn’t completely flabbergasted. I had helped her on previous cases, pretty sub rosa as well, but her words sounded more like an order than a request. “I’ll do what I can to help, naturally.”

“Good. The first thing I want you to do is to talk to my mother. She won’t talk to me about it, no matter what I say to her.” I could hear the frustration in her voice.

“What makes you think she’ll talk to me?” I quailed at the thought of cornering Azalea and persuading her to talk to me.

“I’m not sure she will,” Kanesha admitted. “But you’ve got to try. I know she likes and respects you.”

“Really?” With Azalea I had never been able to tell what she thought of me. Most of the time I felt like an inept schoolboy when she was around.

Kanesha nodded. “Oh, I know what she’s like, believe me. Makes you feel like you can’t even tie your own shoes without someone helping you. But that’s just her way. She doesn’t tolerate fools, and to her a lot of the world is filled with fools. But she doesn’t think you’re one of them.” She graced me with a brief smile.