Practice to Deceive

pageant in Las Vegas. Peggy entered the 2000 Ms. U.S. Continental Pageant. During the question-and-answer part of the pageant, Peggy Sue seemed self-assured as she described herself as a “trailblazer” who followed her own path.
    “Women have to know it’s okay to do things out of the norm,” she told the judges. “They should set an example for their children. [That is] the greatest ethical challenge facing women today with all the violence, sex, and drugs in the media.”
    Peggy looked beautiful in her pale purple formal and four-inch pumps, and she won the evening gown competition.
    But she didn’t take first place in the pageant held in Las Vegas.
    Peggy was anxious to get off Whidbey Island. She was skilled at many things, but she sought genuine affluence, not something that a beautician or a mechanic could earn. Peggy longed to be rich. It was nice to have her “Ms. Washington” title, but that would run out in a year.
    She had persuaded a tall, handsome male friend who had a solid position at Microsoft to loan her seventy-five thousand dollars. Peggy needed “seed money”—money for her next transformation. The glitter in Las Vegas seemed like real gold and actual diamonds and she set her sights on moving there as soon as possible.
    * * *
    V ICKIE BOYER MOVED TO Texas in 2002 to do some training for the company she worked for—the CVS pharmacy chain. Shortly thereafter, Peggy Sue and Jim Huden were in the Southwest, too. By the summer of 2003, the couple were living in a high-priced rental house.
    Peggy’s two daughters, who were now twelve and ten, were living with them, but spending time with Kelvin Thomas during vacations and holidays.
    Vickie still considered Peggy Sue to be her best friend, and she came to Las Vegas to visit Peggy and Jim in September 2003. While there she met another Whidbey Island expatriate.
    Scott Mickelsen appealed to her, and she saw him often during the visit. She seriously considered moving to the gambling city.
    When she came back in November, Vickie spent more time with Scott and she made plans to move to Las Vegas as soon as she could. Peggy said that Vickie was welcome to stay with her. Her house was big enough for a number of guests and her half sister, Brenda Gard, lived with her for a while, too.
    Peggy and Jim, who seemed to be doing very well, were actually living on credit cards and the money Peggy had borrowed. Their economic situation grew tighter every month. To their disappointment, Las Vegas streets were not paved with gold after all.
    Vickie Boyer moved into their large rental home on Christmas Day 2003. A few days later, Peggy Sue and Jim returned from their trip to Whidbey Island. They seemed exhausted from the drive, and didn’t say much about their Christmas trip to Washington State.
    Jim Huden didn’t stay in Las Vegas very long. He told the two women that he was going back to Florida.
    “They had run out of money, and Jim said he was going to go to Punta Gorda, but when he came back, he would have a lot of money with him,” Vickie said. “I figured he was going to liquidate his business or something.”
    Jim and Jean Huden had run a successful business in the computer industry, but it had long since fallen fallow due to Jim’s disinterest.
    Peggy had to find some way to make money, too, because she and Jim were dangerously close to maxing out their credit cards. Soon, with neither of them working, they wouldn’t even be able to pay the rent.
    As the months passed, it became obvious that Jim Huden probably wasn’t coming back at all and that he’d gone back to his wife, Jean. His once-thriving computer support company had perished from neglect, and he had no business left to liquidate.
    Before Huden fell in love with Peggy Sue, he was voted “Businessman of the Year” in Punta Gorda. But now his life had crumbled into ashes.
    He was a man filled with anxiety. He told his Florida friends that he longed to go back to Las Vegas and Peggy Sue—but he didn’t leave Punta Gorda.
    He and Peggy Sue had been “passionately” in love, according to most of their friends. Their mutual attraction was so intense that it had seemed they would give up whatever they had to just to be together. Peggy had divorced Kelvin, and Jim seemed ready to split from Jean.
    What could have happened to keep Jim from flying back to Las Vegas? He had told Bill Hill that he intended to fly back to the gambling city.
    Why had Peggy let their relationship end so