Beauvoir had stopped asking, and was now just listening.
“His clothes and linen were clean then,” said Peter. “But he hadn’t had a bath in days. He was too weak.” Peter took a deep breath. “So I bathed him. I poured a bath and put in rosewater and lavender and a little essence of lily. Anything I could find.” Peter smiled. “I might’ve overdone it.” He looked down at the man in the bed. “I picked him up and put him in the bath. And washed him. It smelled like our garden in Three Pines.”
By now he’d come all the way into the room and was looking at the dead man with such tenderness. Seeing past the blood and the gaping wound. To the man.
“I stayed on, to look after him.”
Beauvoir’s voice broke the spell. “Did you know what was wrong with him? Did he?”
“If he did, he didn’t tell me. It was something to do with his lungs. I wanted him to go to the hospital in Sept-?les, but he didn’t want to leave. I could understand that. He wanted to die at home.”
Peter looked at Beauvoir, then over to Gamache.
“Do you know what was wrong with him?” Peter asked.
“Do you know why Professor Massey came here?” Gamache countered.
“No.” Peter looked at Gamache closely. “But I get the feeling you do.”
“I think it might have been to confess,” said Gamache.
“Confess? To what?”
“You were right,” said Gamache. “Professor Norman was dying. Had been dying for a long time. Well before he realized it. Massey had killed him.”
“Massey? But that’s ridiculous. Why? How? Voodoo?”
“No. Asbestos.”
That stopped Peter.
“I think when Massey heard we were looking for you,” Gamache continued, “and that you were looking for Professor Norman, he realized we’d almost certainly find both of you. And learn everything.”
“But what’s there to learn?” Peter asked, lost.
“That Professor Massey had been sending him asbestos-infected canvases, for years.”
“Why?” Peter asked, astonished.
“Because Norman was a threat,” said Gamache. “Just like Clara was a threat to you. You loved Clara, but that didn’t stop you from trying to destroy her art, and actually destroying your marriage.”
Peter looked as though he’d been kicked in the gut. But Gamache didn’t let him off. He stood firm, staring at Peter until Peter nodded agreement.
“You loved her, and still you did that,” said Gamache. Drilling it home again. “Imagine what you might have done had the love not been there? Had there been hate instead? Love of Clara gave you some brakes, at least. A line beyond which you wouldn’t cross. But Massey had none. He felt he had everything to lose. And that Norman was about to take it away.”
“But he got Professor Norman fired,” said Peter. “Wasn’t that enough?”
“This wasn’t about revenge or vindictiveness,” said Gamache. “For Massey it was about survival. The art college was everything to him. It was his home, physically, emotionally, creatively. And the students were his children. He was the respected, revered professor. The brilliant one. The one they idolized and adored. But suppose a better painter, a more courageous artist, a truly avant-garde teacher appeared?”
Peter’s face had gone slack. And finally he conceded. He knew how that felt. To be usurped. Left behind. To see it all slipping away.
Massey was fighting for his survival. And getting Norman fired wasn’t enough. If Norman’s paintings started appearing in shows, then questions would be asked of the man who’d gotten rid of him.
Massey could not let that happen.
“When the asbestos was taken out of the walls of the college, he kept some, and sent asbestos-infected canvases to Norman,” said Beauvoir. “As a gift. One artist to another.”
“But how’d he do that, just logistically?” asked Peter. “Professor Norman lived in the middle of the woods, in Charlevoix.”
“He had help,” said Beauvoir. “Luc Vachon.”
Peter opened his mouth to protest, but paused, then closed it. And thought. And rethought all he knew.
“But if Professor Massey came to confess, then where is he?” Peter looked around. “And if he confessed, there’d be no need to kill Norman, would there? So who did that?”
He pointed to the bed.
Gamache turned to Jean-Guy. “Can you find Luc Vachon?”
“Oui, patron.”
“Arrest him. But be careful. He might still have the hunting knife.”
“Oui. And I’ll keep an eye out for Professor Massey.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that right now, Jean-Guy.”
“True.”
Beauvoir left, and Peter turned to Gamache.
“What was that about? Why shouldn’t he worry about Professor Massey?”
“Because he’s almost certainly dead,” said Gamache. “We’ll start a search once we’ve arrested Vachon.”
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