Ashes to Dust (Las Vegas Mystery)

your willingness to help us.”
    “Oh, it’s no problem,” Deanna said. “I wasn’t doing anything spectacular. The kids are with their grandparents, and my husband is still at the golf course. I’ve just been catching up on some reading.”
    “Your parents live there in Kansas City near you?” Alice said.
    “Yes, they’re only a few miles away, so it’s convenient for us. They come and pick them up a couple weekends a month and entertain them. It gives Clinton and me a chance to relax for a while and have some time to ourselves.”
    “You’re from Kansas City originally?” Snow asked.
    “Yes.”
    “And how about Kevin Miller?”
    “Yes,” she said. “Kevin and I grew up together. We went to the same schools. He was the first boy I ever dated, and we went steady all through high school and got married when we were nineteen.”
    “That’s fairly young,” Alice said. “I imagine it must have been difficult being married at that age.”
    “It was,” she agreed. “We weren’t making much money. Kevin was working at a grocery store, stocking shelves; I was a receptionist. We ended up living with my parents after my daughter was born, which was a year later. We didn’t move out on our own until we were twenty-two. Kevin was able to get on with the fire department here in Kansas City around that time, and I started making a little more money.”
    “I take it you moved to Las Vegas with Kevin?” Alice asked.
    “Yes, that was a few years later. We were twenty-five. We had both Emily and Megan.” She sighed. “I really didn’t want to leave Kansas City. All of my family is here. But Kevin was excited about it. It was all he talked about. I mean, I also had serious reservations about the move because Las Vegas is…well, it’s ‘Sin City.’ With all the gambling and prostitution—what kind of a place is that to raise kids?
    “But after we got there and got settled in and bought a house in Henderson, it wasn’t so bad. I mean, after you get away from the Strip, it’s like any other city. It has a lot of parks, and the schools were nice. I even got used to the heat.”
    “It’s really only hot for three or four months,” Snow said.
    “That’s true,” Alice chimed in. “Then it drops down to ninety-five.”
    Deanna giggled. “Yeah, that’s true. For sure.”
    “How long did you live here in Las Vegas?” Alice said.
    “A little over three years. Kevin and I started having problems shortly after we got there. But it wasn’t the move. I can’t blame it on that. Although, I was missing my family.”
    “What do you think caused it?” Alice asked.
    “Oh,” she sighed. “I don’t know. I started having doubts, I guess. I mean, I never dated anyone but Kevin. I started to wonder if I was married to the right guy. How can you know for sure, when you’ve only been involved with that one person your whole life?
    “Don’t get me wrong. Kevin is a really nice guy. He was a family man to the core. Cared about his kids and me. He always did the right thing and hardly ever complained about anything.”
    “He sounds like a great guy,” Alice said.
    “He is,” Deanna said. “But he’s kind of wimpy. He doesn’t have any backbone—kind of like a wet dishrag. He does whatever he’s expected to do, whether he likes it or not. He wouldn’t stand up for himself, or me, or the kids. Never.
    “I hate to say it, but Kevin is sort of a coward. And that was the biggest problem for me to deal with. I finally realized I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life married to a chicken. I needed a rooster.”
    “That’s too bad,” Alice said.
    “Well, not really. I mean, all in all, it worked out pretty well for us. There was no anger or fighting during the separation or the divorce. I realized later that Kevin probably wasn’t that happy being married to me either. I think we started dating out of convenience. We just somehow came together; we were in the same place at the same time.”
    “How did he react when you told him you wanted a divorce?”
    “He didn’t get mad or anything. He was pretty calm. He just said okay and asked if I wanted him to move out right away. I told him to take his time and find a place to live he would be happy with. But that I would be filing for the divorce the next day. He just said okay. And that he was sorry he hadn’t lived up to my expectations.”
    “He never tried to convince you to get back together with him?” Alice said.
    “No. He signed