Gamache looked up into the face of Inspector Langlois.
“Are you all right?”
Gamache smiled. “Just fine. My apologies.”
“What can I do for you?”
“It’s about the Renaud case. Have you found any boxes of books that might have belonged to Renaud that weren’t in his apartment?”
“His ex-wife has some. He’d taken them over to her basement a few weeks ago. What is it?”
Gamache sat forward and brought out his notebook. “May I have her address please?”
“Certainly.” He wrote the address down and handed it to the Chief Inspector. “Anything else?”
“No, this is perfect. Merci.” Gamache folded the note, put on his coat, thanked the Inspector and left, his boots echoing with purpose down the long corridor and out the door.
Hopping into a cab he called émile then had the cab swing by his home and together they drove out the old gates, along Grande-Allée with its merrily lit bars and restaurants. The cab turned right onto Avenue Cartier then right again onto a small side street. Rue Aberdeen.
From the taxi Gamache had called Madame Renaud to make sure she was home. A moment later she opened the door and the two men entered. It was a main-floor flat in the gracious old row houses, each with wrought-iron stairs outside, leading to the apartments above.
Inside, the floors were dark wood and the rooms were generous and beautifully proportioned. Wide original crown molding swept around where the walls met the high ceiling. Each chandelier had a plaster rosette. These were genteel homes in a much sought-after quartier of Québec. Not everyone wanted to live within the walls, where life tended to be cramped and dictated by planners long dead. Here the streets were wider, planted with soaring old trees and each home had a modest front garden, when not buried under feet of snow.
Madame Renaud was short and cheerful. She took their coats and offered them a cup of coffee which both men declined.
“We’re sorry for your loss, madame,” said Gamache, taking a seat in the inviting living room.
“Merci. He was unbearable, of course. A pig-headed man, totally self absorbed. And yet—”
Gamache and émile waited while she composed herself.
“And yet now that he’s gone life feels emptier, less vibrant. I envied him his passion. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that strongly about anything. And he wasn’t a fool, you know, he knew the price he paid, but he was willing to pay it.”
“And what was that price?” émile asked.
“He was mocked and ridiculed, but more than that, no one liked him.”
“Except you,” said Gamache.
She said nothing. “He was lonely, you know, in the end. But still he couldn’t stop, couldn’t trade a dead explorer for living friends.”
“When did he bring these books to you?” Gamache asked.
“About three weeks ago. There’re four boxes. He said his apartment was too crowded.”
émile and Gamache exchanged a quick glance. Renaud’s apartment was certainly cramped, but it was already a disaster, four more boxes would have made no difference.
No. He’d brought them to his wife for another reason. For safekeeping.
“Did he bring you anything else?” émile asked.
She shook her head. “He was secretive by nature, some might say paranoid,” she smiled. She was a woman of good cheer and Gamache wondered at Augustin Renaud, who’d chosen her as his wife. For a few bright years had he known happiness? Had that been his one shining attempt to change course? And find a place on the shore with this jovial, kind woman? But he couldn’t, of course.
Gamache watched Madame Renaud chat with émile. She still loved him, despite all that, thought Gamache. Was that a blessing or a curse?
And he wondered if that would go away, with time. Would the voice fade, the features blur? Would the memories recede and take their place with other pleasant, but neutral events from the past?
Avec le temps. Do we love less?
“Do you mind if we go through the boxes?” Gamache asked.
“Not at all. The other officers took a look but didn’t seem very interested. What are you looking for exactly?”
“Two books,” said Gamache. They’d walked to the back of the apartment, into the large, old-fashioned kitchen. “Unfortunately we don’t know what they are.”
“Well, I hope you find them here.” She opened a door and turned on a light.
Gamache and émile saw wooden steps going straight down into a dark cellar with a dirt floor. A slight musky aroma met them, and as they headed down the stairs it felt a bit like wading into water. Gamache could feel the cool air creep up his legs until it was at his chest, his head and he was submerged in the dank and the chill.
“Watch your heads,” she called but both men were familiar with these old homes and had already ducked. “The boxes are over by the far wall.”
It took a moment for Gamache’s eyes to adjust, but finally they did and he saw the four cardboard boxes. Walking over he knelt at one while émile took another.
Gamache’s box contained a variety of books in different sizes. First he checked their catalog numbers. All were from the Literary and Historical Society, a few even had the name Charles Chiniquy written in but none matched the numbers in the diary. He moved to another box.
That box was filled with bound sermons, reference books and old family bibles, some Catholic, some Presbyterian. He opened the first book and checked the number. 9-8495. His heart quickened. This was the box. Opening the next book and the next, the numbers mounted. 9-8496, 8497, 8498. Gamache brought out the next book, a black leather collection of sermons and opened it. 9-8500.
He stared at it, willing the numbers to change, then he carefully, slowly opened again and replaced each of the twenty books in the box. One was indeed missing.
9-8499.
It had sat between that book of sermons and Chiniquy’s confirmation bible.
“Maudits,” Gamache swore under his breath. Why wasn’t it there?
“Any luck?” He turned to émile.
“Nothing. The damned book should be right here,” émile shoved a finger between two volumes. “But it’s gone. 9-8572. Do you think someone got here first?”
“Madame Renaud said only Langlois’s team has been.”