I went into the house and found Jack sitting in the wheelchair in his bedroom. There was a paperback book on his lap and he picked it up and opened it as I entered.

“Hi,” he said, not very enthusiastically.

“Hi,” I said. “Reading your own thrillers now? Where’s Stephanie?”

“Taking a walk, I guess.”

“How can you manage to get along without her?” No reaction. “Well, we did what we set out to do. We are now homeless for six months, except for this place. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

“You guess so!”

“Well, maybe this isn’t the best place for us . . .”

“What’s wrong? Is it Duff? Something Duff did?”

He stared at me. “Why do you ask that?”

“No reason. Tell me what happened.”

He closed the book, which was upside down anyway. “There was some trouble with Stephanie.”

“And Duff?”

He nodded. “Don’t get excited, Maggie. Stephanie’s not going to say anything.”

“He attacked her!”

“Not so loud—Franny might hear. What I’m trying to tell you is Stephanie may have invited it. Anyway, it’s all over now and Duff has promised it won’t happen again.”

“Tell me what happened!”

Jack paused and took a deep breath. “I don’t see why you need the details. He was trying to—or possibly did—make love to her, that’s all. It’s really not surprising in a boy his age. He’s almost seventeen and they say that’s the time of peak sexual power. I remember when I was his age—”

“Where did it happen?”

“In the front room, yesterday afternoon. After lunch Stephanie went to the kitchen to do the dishes. Duff was helping her, I thought. I was half asleep here when I heard a noise from the front—moaning and then screaming. I wheeled myself in there. Duff had her on the floor, holding her down . . .”

“My God, she’s twice his size!”

“Not quite that, but maybe a few pounds heavier. Anyway, Duff’s a lot stronger than you think.”

“He’d have to be. She’s an amazon.” She must have cooperated, I told myself. “What else?”

“What else could there be?”

“I can tell from looking at you that there’s more to it.”

“Maggie, I could understand it, if it was just a case of the family heir having a sly one with the hired help. No harm done and everybody happy. But Duff . . . well I think he was trying to hurt her. It seemed that way, anyway. And he was holding her down. She was trying hard to get loose and sobbing and yelling.” Jack paused and shook his head. “The worst thing was when he saw me, Maggie . . . and he didn’t stop. He turned his head and grinned at me . . . and kept right on with it . . .”

He began to weep.

“Don’t say any more,” I told him.