The Cruelest Month

‘I applied to his division but was turned down.’ It was the first time he’d told anyone that, except Gamache. ‘I was working in the Trois-Rivières detachment at the time. Anyway, as you’ve probably heard, Arnot commanded a near mythic loyalty among his people.’



‘But?’



‘He was a bully. Demanded absolute conformity. Eventually the really good agents dropped out of his division. Leaving him with the dregs.’



‘Bullies themselves or agents too scared to stand up to a bully,’ said Lacoste.



‘Thought you said you didn’t know the inside story.’



‘I don’t, but I know school yards. Same everywhere.’



‘This was no school yard. It started quietly at first. Violence on native reserves unchecked. Murders unreported. Arnot had decided if the natives wanted to kill themselves and each other then it should be considered an internal issue and not interfered with.’



‘But it was his jurisdiction,’ said Lacoste.



‘That’s right. He ordered his officers on the reserves to do nothing.’



Isabelle Lacoste knew what that meant. Kids and sniff. Glue and gasoline-soaked rags inhaled until their young brains froze. Numb to the violence, abuse, despair. They didn’t care any more. About anything, or anyone. Boys shot each other and themselves. Girls were raped and beaten to death. Perhaps calling the Sûreté post desperate for help and getting no answer. And the officers, almost always a kid on his or her first assignment, were they staring at the phone with a smile knowing they’d satisfied their boss? One less savage. Or were they scared to death themselves? Knowing that more than a young native was being killed. They too were dying.



‘What happened then?’



TWENTY-NINE



Everything creaks when you’re afraid. Armand Gamache remembered the words of Erasmus and wondered whether the creak he’d just heard was real or just his fear. He swung his flashlight to the stairs behind him. Nothing.



He could see the floor was dirt, hardpacked from years of weight. It smelled of spiders and wood rot and mold. It smelled of all the crypts he’d ever been in, exhuming bodies of people taken before their time.



What lay buried down here? He knew something was. He could feel it. The house seemed to claw at him, to cloy and smother, as though it had a secret, something wicked and malicious and cruel it was dying to say.



There it was again. A creak.



Gamache spun around and the puny circle of light from his flashlight threw itself against the rough stone walls, the beams and posts, the open wooden doors.



His cell phone began vibrating.



Taking it out he recognized the number.



‘Allô.’



‘C’est moi,’ said Reine-Marie, smiling at her colleague and walking into one of the aisles of books at the Bibliothèque Nationale. ‘I’m at work. Where are you?’



‘The old Hadley house.’



‘Alone?’



‘Hope so.’ He laughed. ‘Armand, did you see the newspaper?’



‘I did.’



‘I’m so sorry. But we’ve known it was coming. It’s almost a relief.’



Armand Gamache was never more glad he’d married this woman, who made his battles theirs. She stood steadfast beside him, even when he tried to step in front. Especially then.



‘I’ve tried to get Daniel but there’s been no answer. Left a message though.’



Gamache had never questioned Reine-Marie’s judgment. It made for a very relaxing relationship. But he wasn’t sure why she’d call their son in Paris about some scurrilous article.



‘Annie called just now. She saw it too and said to pass on her love. She also said if there’s anyone you’d like her to kill, she’ll do it.’



‘How sweet.’



‘What are you going to do about it?’ she asked.



‘Franchement, I thought I’d ignore it. Not give it any legitimacy.’



There was a pause.



‘I wonder if maybe you should speak to Michel.’



‘Brébeuf? Why?’



‘Well, after the first one, I felt the same way, but I wonder whether it’s gone too far.’



‘The first? What do you mean?’ His flashlight flickered. He jostled it and the light burned bright again.



‘Tonight’s paper. The early edition of Le Journal de Nous. Armand, haven’t you seen it?’



His flashlight flickered off, then after a long moment came back on, but the light was dim and frail. Once again he heard the creak. This time behind him. He spun round and pointed the dull light toward the stairway, but it was empty.