Practice to Deceive

correlated with his and Peggy’s travels on December 26. They were in Washington all day, traveling up and down I-5. By the twenty-seventh, a credit card slip showed that they bought gas at a Chevron station in Fresno, California. This would have been on their way back to Las Vegas.
    Jim Huden was no longer living with his wife, Jean, in Punta Gorda. When he left the first time in September, it wasn’t for good; he had simply taken a weekend trip, and soon neighbors saw his red car back in the Hudens’ driveway.
    But he was definitely gone a month or so later. No one in Florida recalled seeing him for weeks. Nor had he been seen in the Las Vegas area.
    Jean Huden claimed to have no knowledge of where he was, although she evinced concern that he might have been depressed enough to commit suicide.
    If he was alive, she was one of the most likely people who might have heard from him. Detectives wondered if it was possible that Peggy Sue had, too.
    Gerald Werksman, Peggy’s attorney, was present on August 30, 2004, when Shawn Warwick, Ed Wallace, Sue Quandt, and Mike Beech went to Henderson, Nevada, for yet another interview with Peggy.
    Peggy told them she was sure that Russ Douglas and Jim had never met each other until December 23, 2003, when they took the gift to him for Brenna.
    Warwick asked Peggy about the gun that they had shown her photos of the day before. “I did not know about the gun,” she said.
    He asked Peggy if she saw the gun go from Jim’s hands to “another person” who then gave the gun to the New Mexico sheriff.
    “I did not. I did not see a gun,” she said firmly. “I may have seen a pouch with a gun in it in February of this year.”
    * * *
    O N SEPTEMBER 15, 2004, Brenna Douglas came into the Island County Sheriff’s office in Langley carrying a huge wicker basket trimmed with ribbons, and filled with an assortment of fancy soaps, oils, and brushes. She explained that this was the gift she had received from Peggy Thomas. She said she thought she got it on Christmas Day from Peggy Sue herself, but she wasn’t sure.
    During September 2004, Mark Plumberg was able to get a temporary felony warrant and a BOLO (be on the lookout) alert as Jim Huden had seemingly vanished.
    And then the holiday season was once again approaching. On December 13, Mark Plumberg filed a follow-up report, saying, “I believe there is probable cause for the arrest of James E. Huden (b. 8/26/53) for the First Degree Murder—RCW 9A.32.030—of Russel A. Douglas (b. 9/09/71).”
    Soon it would be the first anniversary of Russ Douglas’s murder. Christmas lights in the small towns on Whidbey Island seemed to mock Plumberg, reminding him that his “persons of interest” were still walking free, and that one of them had disappeared completely.

C HAPTER T WENTY-SIX
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    A LWAYS RESOURCEFUL, PEGGY SUE Thomas had landed on her feet just as she found herself really broke in Las Vegas.
    Vickie’s Boyer’s boyfriend, Scott Mickelsen, recommended Peggy Sue to a company that operated an upscale limousine service. And she proved to be a natural. She drove wealthy clients and celebrities, and after one ride, most of her customers asked for her the next time they were in town. It didn’t hurt that her business cards were very seductive. Wearing a blouse cut down to her waist, Peggy Sue posed for her cards, draping herself over one of the limos.
    Before long she had a file full of prospective clients. They weren’t just men. Several couples always asked for her when they came to Las Vegas.
    It wasn’t particularly unusual for Peggy to get a thousand-dollar tip. She kept track of the restaurants, hotels, and extras that her repeat clients enjoyed. She provided expensive liquor, snacks, and other sought-after items in the limo she drove.
    Vickie Boyer looked after Peggy Sue’s daughters, since Peggy was often working until six in the morning. Taylor and Mariah were used to their mother’s involvement in other matters, but they also knew she loved them devotedly.
    Her half sister Brenda had watched her nieces when she lived with Peggy in Las Vegas, and after she left, Peggy hired a series of women to watch over her daughters. Unfortunately, none of the sitters and housekeepers lasted more than a month before they quit.
    Vickie was shocked when she saw what was probably Peggy’s biggest tip or perhaps a gambling win: eighty-five hundred dollars in one-hundred dollar bills was stacked neatly on Peggy’s