Practice to Deceive

to Russel Douglas’s murder.
    “Why would Peggy be angry with you?”
    “I guess because I hurt her and wasn’t truthful with her. Early this year, I led her to believe I was coming back to her but I never did. You know, I helped her move from Whidbey Island to Las Vegas in August 2003 and I stayed in Vegas with her until January of this year.”
    It was not easy for Plumberg to see where this was going or how the relationship troubles that Jim Huden and Peggy Sue were entangled in might possibly have any connection to the homicide probe.
    He tried another tack.
    “Have either Peggy or Brenna Douglas ever talked to you about Brenna’s having financial difficulties?”
    Jim shrugged. “I know Brenna was late with the rent for the house a few times. Peggy owns the place where Brenna and her kids live, and she really doesn’t like being a landlord.”
    “Brenna have any reason to be mad at you?”
    “Maybe she might be mad because I hurt Peggy.”
    Huden appeared to be fishing for what Peggy Sue and/or Brenna Douglas might have told investigators about him.
    Plumberg didn’t really answer him directly.
    The sheriff’s detective returned to more intense questioning about how Jim and Peggy Sue had spent their days on Whidbey Island around the previous Christmas. That chill wintertime seemed so far away now as the Washington detective sat in the oppressive Florida heat.
    “Did you two get together with Brenna Douglas while you were there?”
    “We meant to—and we tried, but it never happened.”
    “How did you pay for the hotel by the airport in Seattle?”
    “We put it on Peggy’s credit card.”
    Plumberg pulled out photos of Russ Douglas and of his yellow Chevy Tracker.
    Huden shook his head. “I don’t recognize him or the car.”
    “Did you by any chance interact with Russel Douglas while you were in Washington?”
    “On the night that Peggy and I left the island to go to the airport hotel—that’d be Monday or Tuesday before Christmas—I took a present for Brenna over to Russel’s apartment in Renton.”
    Although Plumberg’s expression didn’t change, a bell went off in Mark Plumberg’s head. Peggy Sue Thomas had given him a different scenario having to do with a present for Brenna. She had told him during one of their phone conversations that she was the one who took a present for Brenna to Russ’s apartment. Why would the couple tell him two different stories?
    “Where was Peggy at that time—when you took the present for Brenna to Russ?”
    “She was back at the hotel. She saw a lot of clients that day, and she was pretty tired from being on her feet all day at the salon.”
    “Why didn’t Peggy just give Brenna her present when they were both at Just B’s that day?”
    “Well, the two of them made a pact that they weren’t going to give each other anything for Christmas—but Peggy wanted to buy a present for Brenna. She just had to make sure all the stores were closed for the day so Brenna couldn’t run out and buy her something in return.”
    Huden said he hadn’t talked to Russ himself before he took the present to him; Russ had given the directions to his apartment to Peggy to pass on to him.
    (This was another small flaw in their scenario. Peggy later told the sheriff’s detectives that Jim had spoken directly to Russ to get directions.)
    “I parked directly in front of Russ’s building—but out in the street because there weren’t any parking spots left inside. I ran up the stairs and knocked on his door. When he opened it, I asked him if he was Brenna’s husband, gave him the present, said it was for Brenna—and then I left.”
    “That would have been on December 23?”
    “Yes.”
    “Had you ever met Russel before?”
    “No.”
    “Did Peggy tell him that you would be bringing a present?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Did he know who you were—that you were Peggy’s boyfriend?”
    “I suppose he did because Brenna and Peggy talked about everything.”
    That answer made it seem even stranger that Peggy claimed she only learned of Russ’s murder belatedly— days after it happened. Why wouldn’t she have been one of the first people Brenna Douglas called when she learned that Russ was dead? But Peggy had been emphatic that it was Doris Matz, her mother, who notified her. And this was well after she and Jim were back in Las Vegas.
    “Did Peggy call Brenna when she heard?”
    “No, I don’t think so,” Jim Huden said. “I told Peggy that it would