Chapter 35

“This is a first. I suspect he’s checking up on the situation with Steve.”

“So what did you do?”

“I invited him to spend the weekend, of course.”

“Good for you,” I said.

Julien d’Autremont arrived at the house about two minutes after I got home on Wednesday. In fact, I’d just gotten out of my car when I spotted a strange car coming up the driveway. It pulled up beside mine, and when the driver got out, I saw the family resemblance immediately because Julien was an older, slightly heavier version of Philip. I introduced myself, and he followed me into the house and upstairs to the study.

Philip got up from his chair when he saw us, and I said, “Guess who I found loitering around the driveway.”

“He’s certainly more welcome than our last loiterer,” Philip said.

“As you may have heard, Julien,” I said, “our security people caught Steve’s father prowling around the fence some time back.”

“Marie told me about that,” Julien said.