A Rose for Emily

Tobe had been with Emily for a long time, could he not have buried her first before leaving

This question should probably be on the discussion board for a wide variety of opinions.

I believe Tobe left because he felt his duty was done. He had taken care of Emily and her family all their lives, and now he could leave. Remember that, although it spans many years, the story begins not long after the end of the Civil War. Tobe is no longer a slave, but he probably has nowhere else to go. As a house servant, he would have been cut off from the rest of the slaves, and he probably had very little family left. It's sad to think that the people who once owned him were the only "family" he may have known.

Of course, he could have just high-tailed it before anybody accused him of being Emily's accomplice!

Linda-Allen makes a good point here.  We do not know if Tobe was an accomplice.  He very well could have been.  He, in all likelihood, helped Miss Emily get the body upstairs in the attic, perhaps, or he might have been the one lacing Homer's food with the arsenic since he was the "jack of all trades" and I'm sure did the cooking.  Tobe is an extremely interesting character to me...he always will be a mysterious one!