TWENTY-FOUR

Jean Guy Beauvoir found Gamache sitting in St Thomas’s. The chief and the witch were side by side, staring ahead. He might, he knew, be interrupting the interrogation, but he didn’t care. In his hand he held the newspaper, full of filth. Gamache turned and seeing Beauvoir he smiled and rose. Beauvoir hesitated then shoved the paper into his breast pocket.

‘Inspector Beauvoir, this is Jeanne Chauvet.’

‘Madame.’ Beauvoir took her hand and tried not to flinch. Had he known when he’d woken that morning he’d be shaking hands with a witch, well. Well, he wasn’t sure what he’d have done differently. It was, he had to admit, one of the things he loved about his job. It was unpredictable.

‘I was just leaving,’ said the witch, but for some reason she was holding on to Beauvoir’s hand. ‘Do you believe in spirits, Inspector?’

Beauvoir almost rolled his eyes. He could just imagine the interrogation dissolving into the chief and the witch discussing spirits and God.

‘No, madame, I don’t. I think it’s a hoax, a way to prey on weak minds and take advantage of grieving people. I think it’s worse than a hoax.’ He yanked his hand from her grip. He was getting himself worked up. His rage was rattling the cage and he knew it was in danger of breaking out. Not normal, healthy anger, but rage that rips and claws indiscriminately. Blind and powerful and without conscience or control.

In his coat pocket, folded next to his chest, sat the words that would at the very least wound Gamache. Maybe more. And he was the one who had to deliver the blow. Beauvoir spewed his rage on this tiny, gray, unnatural woman in front of him.

‘I think you prey on sad and lonely people. It’s disgusting. If I had my way I’d put you all in jail.’

‘Or string us up to an apple tree?’

‘Doesn’t have to be apple.’

‘Inspector Beauvoir!’ Armand Gamache rarely raised his voice, but he did now. And Beauvoir knew he’d crossed a line, crossed it and then some.

‘I’m sorry, madame,’ Beauvoir sneered, barely containing his anger. But the little woman in front of him, so insubstantial in many ways, hadn’t moved. She was calm and thoughtful in the face of Beauvoir’s onslaught.

‘It’s all right, Inspector.’ She walked toward the door. Opening it she turned back. Now she was a black outline against the golden day.

‘I was born with a caul,’ she said to Beauvoir. ‘And I think you were too.’

The door closed and the two men were left alone in the small chapel.

‘She meant you,’ said Beauvoir.

‘Your powers of observation are as keen as ever, Jean Guy.’ Gamache smiled. ‘What is it? Did you want to make certain she hadn’t messed with my mind?’

Now Beauvoir felt uneasy. The truth was, it looked as though the witch had behaved perfectly civilly. It was he who was about to mess with Gamache’s mind. Silently he took the newspaper from his breast pocket and handed it to Gamache. The Chief Inspector looked amused then meeting Beauvoir’s eyes his smile faded. He took the paper, put on his half-moon reading glasses and in the silence of St Thomas’s read.

Gamache grew very still. It was as though the world around him had dipped into slow motion. Everything became more intense. He could see a gray hair in Beauvoir’s dark head. He had the impression he could walk forward, pluck it and return to his place without Beauvoir’s even noticing.

Armand Gamache could suddenly see things he’d been blind to.

‘What does it mean?’ asked Beauvoir.

Gamache looked at the banner. La Journée. A rag from Montreal. One of the tabloids that had pilloried him during the Arnot case.

‘Old news, Jean Guy.’ Gamache folded the paper and laid it on his field coat.

‘But why bring up the Arnot case?’ asked Beauvoir, trying to keep his voice as calm and reasonable as the chief’s.

‘Quiet news day. Nothing to report. The paper’s a joke, une blague. Where did you get it?’

‘Gilles Sandon gave it to me.’

‘You found him? Good. Tell me what he said.’

Gamache picked up his coat and paper and Beauvoir reported on his morning’s interviews with Sandon and Odile as they walked into the sun and back to the old railway station. Beauvoir grateful for the normalcy of it. Grateful the chief had just shrugged off the comments in the paper. Now he too could pretend it meant nothing.

The two men walked in sync, heads down. To an observer they’d look like father and son, out for a casual walk this fine spring day and deep in conversation. But something had just changed.