Ashes to Dust (Las Vegas Mystery)

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    “Speaking of time off,” Alice said, “Jim and I were wondering what caused you to suddenly cancel all of your appointments last Tuesday afternoon?”
    “Oh.” Tully lowered his gaze to the sidewalk in front of him. “Last Tuesday. That was…” He paused. “I wasn’t feeling well.”
    “Your receptionist told me you had personal business to take care of,” Snow said.
    “Yes, personal business,” Tully said. “Going home sick is personal business.”
    “She said you were practically doing the soft-shoe out the door when you left. It didn’t sound to me like you were sick.”
    “She said that? Well, I always try to maintain an upbeat attitude while I’m at the office. I think it’s good for business and morale.”
    “Andrew,” Alice said, “are you hiding something?”
    “ Hiding something? No, of course not. What would I be hiding?”
    “We noticed that Laura made a call to your cell phone twenty minutes before you decided to cancel the rest of your appointments,” Alice said. “Was there something she said that made you ill?”
    “Something she said? No—of course not.” He let out a short laugh that sounded more like he was choking.
    “Why did Laura call you, Andrew?”
    “Why? I don’t remember specifically. Actually, I think she just called to talk. You know how women are. They don’t always need a reason to call someone. Every woman I’ve ever dated has been that way.” His face began to redden. “I heard about a study that determined the average phone call a man makes amounts to only a few minutes, whereas for women it’s much longer. Half an hour or longer—I forgot…”
    “You’re terrible at lying, Andrew,” Alice observed. “Sooner or later, we’ll find out about it. Why don’t you just tell us the truth? We’ll respect your privacy, unless we find it has something to do with Laura’s murder.”
    Tully clenched his teeth, looked straight ahead for a moment, and shook his head forcefully like a horse with ear mites. “Shit,” he said. Lowering his gaze back to the sidewalk, he sighed. “Alright, you’re bound to find out anyway. I don’t know what came over me, but I will confess I’ve experienced a few episodes of indiscretion recently. I don’t know what brought it on—possibly premarital jitters. But I have to admit to being weak. And Laura Roberts was very seductive. I couldn’t control myself around her.”
    The threesome stopped at the corner, waiting for the light to change.
    “How long had this been going on?” Alice said.
    His shoulders slouching, Tully stared across the street at a picnic table in the park. “Not long. A few weeks. Laura was always friendly toward me in her own way—kindness and caring intermingled with occasional insults and bouts of meanness. But gradually, she started becoming more and more forward, until it reached the point…” He sighed. “It started the day she asked me to give her a ride to the dealership to pick up her car. We were on the way there, stopped at an intersection, waiting for the light to change. She was sitting extremely close. We ended up kissing, somehow. And at every stoplight after that. We eventually found ourselves at my place. Didn’t even pick up her car that day.”
    “So, last Tuesday,” Snow said, “you left at noon. And you went directly over to Laura’s place?”
    “Laura’s place?” Tully said. “No. She…uh…she came to my house.”
    The light changed, and they began to cross the street.
    “What time did she leave your home?”
    “What time?” He shrugged and raised his hands in front of him. “Oh, I guess it was around two thirty.”
    “She left by herself?”
    He lowered his hands and nodded. “Yes…yes, by herself.”
    “And where was she going? Did she say?”
    He shook his head. “Where? Home. She said she was going home. Of course, I can’t be sure that she actually went directly home.”
    “Might have stopped to pick up some milk?” Snow said.
    Tully squeaked out a laugh.
    In the park, they walked across the grass to the nearest picnic table and sat down, Alice and Snow on one side, Tully across the table from them. He was trying to smile, but he looked as though he might cry.
    “After Laura left your house,” Snow said, “what did you do, Dr. Tully?”
    “Well,” he said, “as soon as she drove off, I got in my car and went down to the Strip. My favorite hangout is the Royal Palace Casino. Have you ever been there?”
    Snow nodded.