Ashes to Dust (Las Vegas Mystery)

on the phone these days. Darla and I were in the checkout line at Albertson’s once, and the woman behind us started yelling like crazy. I thought she was yelling at us, but we turned around and she was on the phone, yelling at somebody else.”
    “I think he might have been watching a baseball game,” Donnie said. “I’ve heard him yelling at the TV.”
    “Sometimes when it’s not even on,” Dennis added. “He’s crazier than all get out.”
    “I think it’s that house,” Darla said. “I think it’s possessed. Just like that Amityville house where that doctor lived.”
    Dennis gave her a scowl. “There wasn’t a doctor living there. You’re thinking of James Brolin, who played the guy in the movie. He was a doctor on Marcus Welby .”
    “I know that,” she snapped. “That’s what I meant. But I’ll tell you something about that house next door.” She raised her arm and pointed in the direction of it. “Since I’ve been living here, every person who has ever been in that house has done a lot of yelling and cursing—and screaming. They don’t even have to go in the house. They could be standing in front of an open doorway, and the spirit will enter their body.”
    Donnie nodded. “That’s true. I never heard anyone yelling out in the front yard, unless they came storming out of the house first.”
    Snow narrowed his eyes. To Darla, he said, “Before Tyson and his family moved in there, Laura and her former boyfriend, Kevin Miller, were living there. Is that right?”
    “That’s correct,” Darla replied. “He was living there with her for a couple of years—and they fought like cats and dogs the entire time. You know, when it’s pleasant outside like it’s been the last week or so, all the windows are open. Their voices carry so well, it sounds like they’re in the next room.”
    “Did Kevin Miller ever hit her? That you know of?”
    Darla shook her head. “I never saw a bruise on that girl. Or on him either.”
    “What did they fight about?” Snow asked.
    “Whatever wasn’t sitting well with her at the time, I imagine.”
    Snow stared at her, thinking for a moment. “You say that everyone who lived there was loud and verbally abusive?”
    Darla nodded. “That’s right. And before Laura and Kevin Miller, when it was Laura living there alone, she used to get into it with Crystal.”
    “Crystal Olson.”
    She nodded. “Crystal was over there a lot. She and Laura have been friends for years.”
    “What did she and Crystal argue about?” Snow asked.
    Darla raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “Like I say, that house is possessed by something evil.”
    “The only thing evil in that house,” Dennis mumbled, “was Laura Roberts.”
    Darla rolled her eyes and shook her head.
    Snow suddenly remembered the conversation with April Dole. She’d be coming by with her boyfriend pretty soon. He glanced at his watch. It was five thirty p.m. “Do you know if Tyson Dole is over there now—next door?”
    “No, he’s gone,” Donnie said. “He went tearing out of there about an hour ago.”
    Darla looked at the clock on the wall behind Snow. “Oh. Where’d the time go? I need to get started with dinner. Do you mind, Jim? Do you have any more questions? If you do—or even if you don’t—we’d like to have you stay for dinner if you don’t have plans.”
    Snow smiled. “Well, I don’t know if I can. My partner is working the other side…”
    “We’ve got plenty for both of you,” Darla insisted. “I always make way too much.”
    “And tonight,” Donnie said, “will be a real treat. You being from Minnesota. You’re gonna love it. Tell him what we’re having tonight, Darla.”
    She beamed. “My specialty: lutefisk.”

“What did you find out? Anything?” Snow accelerated away from the curb and glanced over at Alice.
    “The first doorbell I rang, the woman took one look at me and shut the door in my face.”
    “What was that all about?”
    “I have no idea. The house next to it, I was greeted cordially by the mother of a nine-year-old girl. Her daughter has been practicing since she was six to become a concert pianist. I was invited in immediately and entertained with fifteen minutes of classical music, accompanied by their dog singing along.”
    “Was she any good?”
    “The girl or the dog?”
    “Either one.”
    “The girl was pretty good,” Alice said. “The dog wasn’t intended to make it an ensemble. They couldn’t get her to shut up, so they