Elizabeth thought about this. “We don’t react well to anything different, I’m afraid. Myself included. We’ve created a quiet, uneventful, but very happy life. One based on tradition. We know that every Tuesday there’ll be a bridge club, they’ll serve ginger snaps and orange pekoe tea. We know the cleaner comes on Thursdays, and we know where the paper towels are kept. In the same place my grandmother kept them, when she was secretary to the Lit and His. It’s not an exciting life but it’s deeply meaningful to us.”
She stopped then appealed to Chief Inspector Gamache.
“Augustin Renaud’s visit upset all that,” he said.
She nodded.
“How’d he react when told you wouldn’t see him?” Gamache asked.
“I went down to tell him. He wasn’t pleased but he accepted it, said he’d be back. I didn’t think he meant quite so soon.”
She remembered standing at the thick wooden door, opened a sliver as though she was cloistered and Renaud a sinner. His white hair sticking out from under his fur hat, frost and icicles and angry breath dripping from his black moustache. His blue eyes not just mad, but livid.
“You cannot stop me, madame,” he’d said.
“I have no desire to stop you, Monsieur Renaud,” she’d said in a voice that she hoped sounded reasonable. Friendly even.
But they both knew she was lying. She wanted to stop him almost as badly as he wanted in.
When all the interviews had been completed Gamache returned to the office. There he found them sitting over a pot of tea.
“Welcome to our little lifeboat,” said Elizabeth, getting to her feet and inviting him to join Winnie, Porter and herself. “And this is our fuel.” She indicated the teapot and smiled.
Henri rushed over to greet him.
“I hope he wasn’t too much trouble.” Gamache patted Henri’s flank and taking a seat he accepted a cup of strong tea.
“Never,” said Winnie. “What happens next?”
“In the investigation? They’ll get the coroner’s report and start looking into Augustin Renaud’s movements, friends, family. Who’d want him dead.”
They sat together around the table. Not exactly a huddled mass, but reminiscent of it.
“You said Monsieur Renaud asked to speak to the board,” Gamache turned to Elizabeth.
“You told them that?” Porter asked, his voice more clipped than usual. “Now you’ve done it.”
“She had no choice,” said Gamache. “You all should have told us. You must have known it was important.” He looked at them sternly. “You refused to see him, but would you have listened to him eventually?”
He spoke now to Porter Wilson but noticed everyone looked at Elizabeth, who remained silent.
“Eventually, maybe. But there was no advantage for us, and a whole lot of—” Porter searched for a word. “Inconvenience.”
“Monsieur Renaud could be very persuasive,” said Gamache, remembering the vitriolic campaigns the amateur archeologist had waged against anyone who denied him permission to dig.
“True,” admitted Porter. He seemed tired now, as the full import of what had happened weighed more and more heavily. As horrible as it would have been to have Augustin Renaud dig for Champlain beneath their Lit and His Society, the only thing worse was what had happened.
“May I see your minutes for the meeting?”
“I haven’t done them up yet,” said Elizabeth.
“Your notebook will do.”
He waited. Eventually she handed him her notebook and putting on his half-moon reading glasses he scanned the minutes, noting who was there for the meeting.
“I see Tom Hancock and Ken Haslam were there, but left early. Were they there when Augustin Renaud showed up?”
“Yes,” said Porter. “They left shortly after that. We were all there.”
Gamache continued to scan the minutes then over his glasses he looked at Elizabeth.
“There’s no mention of Monsieur Renaud’s visit.”
Elizabeth MacWhirter stared back. It seemed clear that when she’d asked for his help she hadn’t expected him to ask them quite so many questions, and uncomfortable ones at that.
“I decided not to mention it. He didn’t speak to us, after all. Nothing happened.”
“A great deal happened, madame,” said Gamache. But he’d also noticed that she’d said “I,” not “we.” Was she letting them off the hook? Taking the burden of responsibility herself? Or was it really a unilateral decision?
They might be in a lifeboat, but Gamache now had a clear idea who was captain.