“Merci,” said Brault, clearly relieved.
“Bon.” The Chief Inspector signaled to Lacoste. It was time to leave. “If your team can complete the interviews and forensics, we’ll take over in the morning.”
They walked to the car. Some of the neighbors asked for information. Chief Inspector Brault was vague, but reassuring.
“We can’t keep her death quiet, of course,” he said to Gamache, his voice low. “But we won’t announce her real name. We’ll call her Constance Pineault, if the press asks.” Brault looked at the worried faces of the neighbors. “I wonder if they knew who she was?”
“I doubt it,” said Gamache. “She wouldn’t have erased all evidence of who she was, including her name, just to tell her neighborhood.”
“Maybe they guessed,” said Brault. But, like Gamache, he thought not. Who would guess that their elderly neighbor was once one of the most famous people not just in Québec, or Canada, or even North America, but in the world?
Lacoste had started the car and put the heat on to defrost the windshield. The two men stood outside the vehicle. Instead of walking away, Marc Brault lingered.
“Just say it,” said Gamache.
“Are you going to resign, Armand?”
“I’ve been on the case for two minutes and you’re already asking for my resignation?” Gamache laughed.
Brault smiled and continued to watch his colleague. Gamache took a deep breath and adjusted his gloves.
“Would you?” he finally asked.
“At my age? I have my pension in place, and so do you. If my bosses wanted me out that badly, I’d be gone like a shot.”
“If your bosses wanted you out that badly,” said Gamache, “don’t you think you’d wonder why?”
Behind Brault, Gamache could see the snowman across the street, its arms raised like the bones of an ill-formed creature. Beckoning.
“Take retirement, mon ami,” said Brault. “Go to Paris, enjoy the holidays, then retire. But first, solve this case.”
SIX
“Where to?” Isabelle Lacoste asked.
Gamache checked the dashboard clock. Almost seven.
“I need to get home for Henri, then back to headquarters for a few minutes.”
He knew he could ask his daughter Annie to feed and walk Henri, but she had other things on her mind.
“And Madame Landers?” Lacoste asked, as she turned the car toward the Chief’s home in Outremont.
Gamache had been wondering about that too.
“I’ll head down later tonight, and tell her in person.”
“I’ll come with you,” she said.
“Merci, Isabelle, but that isn’t necessary. I might stay over at the B and B. Chief Inspector Brault said he’d send over what files he has. I’d like you to download them tomorrow morning. I’ll find out what I can in Three Pines.”
They didn’t stay long at his home, only long enough for the Chief to pack an overnight bag for himself and Henri. Gamache beckoned the large German shepherd into the backseat of the car and Henri, his satellite ears forward, received this command with delight. He leapt in, then, fearing Gamache might change his mind, immediately curled into as tight a ball as he could manage.
You can’t see me. Yoooou can’t seeeee meeee.
But in his excitement, and having eaten too fast, Henri gave himself away in an all-too-familiar fashion.
In the front seat, both the Chief Inspector and Isabelle Lacoste cracked open their windows, preferring the bitter cold outside to what threatened to melt the upholstery inside.
“Does he do that often?” she gasped.
“It’s a sign of affection, I’m told,” said the Chief, not meeting her eyes. “A compliment.” Gamache paused, turning his head to the window. “A great compliment.”
Isabelle Lacoste smiled. She was used to similar “compliments” from her husband and now their young son. She wondered why the Y chromosome was so smelly.
At S?reté headquarters, Gamache clipped Henri on the leather leash and the three of them entered the building.
“Hold it, please!” Lacoste called as a man got into the elevator at the far end of the corridor. She walked rapidly toward it, Gamache and Henri a pace behind, then she suddenly slowed. And stopped.
The man in the elevator hit a button. And hit it again. And again.
Lacoste stopped a foot from the elevator. Willing the doors to close so they could take the next one.
But Chief Inspector Gamache didn’t hesitate. He and Henri walked past Lacoste and into the elevator, apparently oblivious to the man with his finger pressed hard against the close button. As the doors began to close Gamache put his arm out to stop them and looked at Lacoste.
“Coming?”
Lacoste stepped inside to join Armand Gamache and Henri. And Jean-Guy Beauvoir.
Gamache acknowledged his former second in command with a small nod.