Ashes to Dust (Las Vegas Mystery)

the card on the counter. “ Goddammit! ” he yelled, loudly enough to make Snow’s ears ring. “ I am sick and tired of this shit! ” He threw his beer at the sink. The can bounced out and rolled across the vinyl counter, spilling a small river of beer across it.
    His eyes wide, his upper lip pulled up exposing yellow teeth, he growled, “I want you two out of my house. Right now!” He jabbed a finger at Snow and then at the front door.
    Snow studied the man’s face for a few seconds and then let his shoulders drop. “Alright, we’ll go.”
    He turned and walked toward the front door. Alice had risen from her seat on the couch and met him at the door. Without saying another word, they opened it and stepped outside. Walking briskly along the sidewalk, Dole yelled after them, “And don’t you two assholes ever come back! You hear me? I know you think I’m guilty! But that doesn’t bother me! You know why?”
    At the curb, next to Snow’s Sonata, they turned to take one last look at Tyson Dole, just in time to see him raise his tortured expression to the sky and bellow, “ Because I don’t give a shit! ”
    To Alice, Snow murmured, “Jesus. How do we defuse this situation?”
    “I think we can only aggravate it further,” she said. “Let’s get the hell out of here before somebody calls the police.”

It was noon when Alice James and Jim Snow arrived at the Boulder Nugget Hotel and Casino. The parking lot was more than half full, an encouraging indicator in a city struggling to join the nation’s tepid recovery—with unemployment nearing fifteen percent, and home prices low enough to allow an old Chevy to qualify as a down payment.
    They left the Sonata parked on the second floor of the parking garage and took the stairs down to ground level. Inside the casino, the coolness of fresh oxygen pumping through the ductwork greeted them.
    All around them, like nesting pigeons, Las Vegas locals sat in front of the machines. With a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other, they stared bleary-eyed at the colorful displays, their expressions showing no more excitement than you would find in a Laundromat.
    They approached the cashier’s cage and asked a young Asian woman if April Dole was back there somewhere.
    The cashier turned to a shapely brunette, wearing the standard white shirt and black trousers. “April!” she called to her.
    April’s back was facing them as she stood at the rear table, facing the wall, scribbling on a form. Hearing her name, she turned her head toward the Asian cashier.
    “These people want to talk to you,” the cashier told her.
    April turned completely around, offered a smile to Alice and Snow, and walked toward them.
    Alice offered her business card. “Is there a chance we might take a few minutes of your time?”
    “Let me check,” she said, and then she crossed briskly to an open doorway that led to a back room. She came back through the doorway a minute later, holding Alice’s card with both hands, and forced a smile. “I’ll meet you over at the Starbucks,” she said. “Do you know where that is?”
    They nodded and left.
    A few minutes later, sitting at one of the small tables, Alice and Snow saw her striding purposefully toward them, holding onto the purse strap that was draped over her shoulder as though someone might suddenly lunge at it from behind a slot machine. They stood and introduced themselves, shook hands, and sat back down.
    “We don’t want to take up too much of your time,” Alice began. “So we’ll get through this as quickly as we can.”
    April nodded and smiled. “It’s not a problem,” she said.
    “We understand you and your husband have had some problems with your landlady Laura Roberts.”
    She straightened in her chair. “More like she had problems with us. My husband and I had to stop paying the rent. He’s been out of work. We’re more than three months behind. She told us she would be starting the eviction process.” She shrugged. “That’s to be expected.”
    “You never argued with her about it?”
    “I didn’t,” she said. “But Tyson got pretty worked up with her a few times. She was always coming over to the house trying to get money out of us—money we just didn’t have.”
    “How did she come across?”
    “Rude, inconsiderate, belligerent—hostile.”
    “Did she make you angry?”
    April’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah!”
    “How did you react toward her?”
    She shrugged. “I just walked away