“Of course.”
Clara’s eyes widened. “And that would dislodge the asbestos. Like dust. It would float in the air.”
Julie was nodding. “And because you were handling it, you’d be close enough to breathe it in. But there’s another thing.”
“The brush strokes,” said Clara, seeing where the young teacher was going.
“Exactly. As you brush on the paint, you’d be brushing off the asbestos dust. It would be the perfect way to get it into the air.”
“And again,” said Gamache, “the artist would be close enough to inhale.”
“He’d be less than an arm’s length away,” Julie confirmed.
They considered that for a moment.
“But suppose the rolled-up canvas was already painted,” said Clara. “Could the asbestos be applied then?”
“Not as effectively, as I said. It would slide right off. It needs something to stick onto.”
“Like the back of the canvas,” said Myrna, and they looked at her. “If the front was painted, the back would still be just raw material, right? Something for the asbestos to”—Myrna turned to Julie—“in your words, ‘stick onto.’”
Julie nodded. “It would work. When the painting was unrolled, the asbestos would get into the air.”
“But it gets worse,” said Clara. “The painting wouldn’t just be unrolled. It would have to be tacked onto a frame. I’ve done it lots of times. Bought a cheap old oil painting at a flea market that wasn’t framed. Just rolled up. You have to staple it to a wooden frame.”
“And if the back was coated with asbestos dust?” asked Myrna.
“It would get everywhere,” said Julie. “On the hands, the clothing. In the air.”
“To be inhaled,” said Myrna.
Julie was looking at them, her exuberance muted by a dawning suspicion.
“How long would it take someone to get sick?” asked Myrna.
“Depends on the exposure. Like I said, it might never happen,” said Julie, guarded now. “But mostly it took years, decades, for asbestos to become lethal.”
She looked at their grim faces. “What’s all this about? You’re not planning to do it, are you?”
“And if we were?” asked Gamache.
“You’d be murderers.” She looked pale and Gamache hurried to reassure her.
They weren’t planning murder. Just the opposite.
“You’re trying to stop a murder?” she asked, incredulous. Looking from face to face and back to Gamache. “But if it’s asbestos, you’re probably too late. The person would’ve already been murdered. They just haven’t died yet.”
She left then.
Armand watched as she walked away, steadying herself in the increasing roll and pitch of the ship. She looked like a gull in trouble.
And Gamache knew that while she’d helped them, they had not helped her.
Julie wasn’t as cheery, not as bright as before she’d joined them. They’d tarnished her.
Now the four friends walked around the deck, mulling the young teacher’s information. As they circumnavigated the ship, the Loup de Mer made its way up the coast. Every now and then they needed to steady themselves as the ship plowed up and through and down a wave. The wind was stronger now, and the waves higher, splashing over the sides and turning the deck slick.
“Those tubes almost certainly contained paintings,” said Gamache. “No Man’s paintings.”
“But why would there be asbestos on them?” asked Clara. “Who put it there?”
“And why?” asked Myrna.
They walked in silence, each trying to work it out.
“Asbestos is deadly,” said Gamache. “There was no guarantee, but there was a pretty good chance that whoever handled his asbestos-infected paintings would inhale it and eventually die.”
“Was he like those maniacs who sent anthrax through the mail?” asked Beauvoir. “Are we dealing with a serial killer?”
“Do you think he sent those paintings to galleries all over Canada?” asked Clara.
Myrna, Clara, Beauvoir, and Gamache walked, and thought, and remembered the only picture they had of Professor Norman. A self-portrait. Of a madman.
A sin-sick soul, thought Gamache. Who smeared asbestos onto his own paintings. And shipped them off. Knowing whoever opened the container, unrolled the canvases, held them, admired them, was sealing their own fate.
The asbestos would be dislodged, would float into the air and hang there, little crystals, tiny fibers. To be inhaled, to nest in the person’s lungs. And from there to burrow. And burrow. Digging deep tunnels.
While outside, the lover of art would carry on with his or her life. Unaware they’d just inhaled the scent of Samarra. Their own death.
The deck was too difficult now, and they’d retreated to the shelter of the lounge when Gamache’s phone rang.
The Long Way Home
Louise Penny's books
- The Face of a Stranger
- The Silent Cry
- The Sins of the Wolf
- The Dark Assassin
- The Whitechapel Conspiracy
- The Sheen of the Silk
- The Twisted Root
- The Lost Symbol
- After the Funeral
- The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
- After the Darkness
- The Best Laid Plans
- The Doomsday Conspiracy
- The Naked Face
- The Other Side of Me
- The Sands of Time
- The Sky Is Falling
- The Stars Shine Down
- The Lying Game #6: Seven Minutes in Heaven
- The First Lie
- All the Things We Didn't Say
- The Good Girls
- The Heiresses
- The Perfectionists
- The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
- The Lies That Bind
- Ripped From the Pages
- The Book Stops Here
- The New Neighbor
- A Cry in the Night
- The Phoenix Encounter
- The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel
- The Perfect Victim
- Fear the Worst: A Thriller
- The Naturals, Book 2: Killer Instinct
- The Fixer
- The Good Girl
- Cut to the Bone: A Body Farm Novel
- The Devil's Bones
- The Bone Thief: A Body Farm Novel-5
- The Bone Yard
- The Breaking Point: A Body Farm Novel
- The Inquisitor's Key
- The Girl in the Woods
- The Dead Room
- The Death Dealer
- The Silenced
- The Hexed (Krewe of Hunters)
- The Night Is Alive
- The Night Is Forever
- The Night Is Watching
- In the Dark
- The Betrayed (Krewe of Hunters)
- The Cursed
- The Dead Play On
- The Forgotten (Krewe of Hunters)
- Under the Gun
- The Paris Architect: A Novel
- The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush
- Always the Vampire
- The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose
- The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree
- The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies
- The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star
- The Doll's House
- The Garden of Darkness
- The Creeping
- The Killing Hour
- Long Lost: A Kate Burkholder Short Story