Page 34 of One Last Night

“So you think he’d try to kill us?”

Julian rolls his eyes. “No, I don’t think he’d try tomurderus, Mom, but Idothink he’d sabotage us. I do think he’d do everything he can to make our lives harder. He can’t handle the fact that he’s number two, and instead of finding a way to beat us fair and square—which he can’t do—he’s looking for a way to chop us down at the knees.”

Victoria sighs and rubs her eyes. “Look, I don’t like him any more than you do, but we can’t get caught up in this fantasy like this is the War of the Roses.”

“Then who else, Mom? Who else?”

She lifts her hands and lets them drop. “It could be an employee.”

“You think one of the servants did this?”

“Not one of the household staff, no. Most of them have been here since your father was alive, and they’d never dishonor his memory. But I think that one of the employees could have been paid.”

“Exactly! Paid bywho?”

“Paid by whom,” she corrects.

“Now you’re just being petty.”

Sean clears his throat, and the two of them look at us. Julian reddens and looks away, a dark frown on his face. Victoria chuckles ruefully. “Hello, you two. Sorry that you once again caught us jawing away.”

“I’m afraid we have some rather sobering news,” Sean said.

Both of them turn back to us. “What news?” Julian asks.

“Tell them, Mary.”

I wish wholeheartedly I could make Sean tell them, but itismy place, not his. I take a deep breath and say, “Luann spoke with Kevin Cartwright yesterday.”

Julian blinks. “What? When?”

“I assume after we went to bed,” I reply. “The children were with me all day, so that’s the only time she would have had a chance.”

“What did she say, Mary?” Victoria says curtly.

“She says that Kevin told her that he overheard an argument between his father and Julian.”

Victoria’s head snaps around to Julian. A guilty look flashes across his face. It seems Victoria wasn’t aware of his late-night phone calls to the Cartwright patriarch.

“When they finished speaking, he—Kevin—told Luann that he heard his father say that they needed to take more drastic steps.”

Victoria gasps. Julian pales. We’re silent for a minute, then Julian asks, “Was that all?”

“That’s all,” I confirm.

“When did she tell you this?”

“Just now before she went to sleep.”

Julian nods and runs his hand over his face. “Well, that’s it, then. I guess we know for sure.”

Victoria sits ramrod straight. Red flecks have formed in her pale face. She stares ahead at the fire and doesn’t respond when Julian challenged, “Still think he’s innocent, Mom?”

He turns to Sean and me. “Have you told the police?”

“Not yet. I only just found out a few minutes ago.”

“Right. Well, we have to tell the police.”

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