Gilles considered the question. “Probably a white pine. They can get to ninety feet or more. About eight stories high.”
“Can they be climbed?” Thérèse asked.
Gilles stared at her as though she’d suggested something disgusting. “Why these questions?”
“Just curious.”
“Don’t treat me like a fool, madame. You’re more than just curious.” He looked from the Brunels to Gamache.
“We’d never ask you to cut down a tree, or even hurt one,” said the Chief. “We just want to know if the tallest trees up there can be climbed.”
“Not by me they can’t,” Gilles snapped.
Thérèse and Jér?me turned away from the former forester and looked at Gamache, perplexed by Gilles’s reaction. The Chief Inspector touched Gilles’s arm and drew him aside.
“I’m sorry, I should have spoken with you privately about this. We need to bring a satellite signal down into Three Pines—”
He held up his hand to ward off Gilles’s protests, yet again, that it couldn’t be done.
“—and we wondered if a dish could be attached to one of the tall trees, and a cable strung down to the village.”
Gilles opened his mouth to protest again, but closed it. His expression went from aggressive to thoughtful.
“You’re thinking someone could climb ninety feet up a pine tree, a frozen pine tree, hauling a satellite dish with him, then not only attach it up there, but adjust it to find a signal? You must love television, monsieur.”
Gamache laughed. “It’s not for television.” He lowered his voice. “It’s for the Internet. We need to get online, and we need to do it as … umm … quietly as possible.”
“Steal a signal?” asked Gilles. “Frankly, you’d be far from the first to try it.”
“Then it’s possible?”
Gilles sighed and gnawed on his knuckles, deep in thought. “You’re talking about turning a ninety-foot tree into a transmission tower, finding a signal, then laying cable back down.”
“You make it sound difficult,” said the Chief, with a smile.
But Gilles wasn’t smiling. “I’m sorry, patron. I’d do anything to help you, but what you’re describing I don’t think can be done. Let’s just say I could climb to the top of the tree with the dish and attach it—there’s too much wind. The dish would blow around up there.”
He looked at Gamache and saw the fact sink in. And it was a fact. There was no way around it.
“The signal would never hold,” Gilles said. “That’s why transmission towers are made of steel, and are stable. That’s absolutely key. It’s a good idea, in theory, but it just won’t work.”
Chief Inspector Gamache broke eye contact and looked at the floor for a moment, absorbing the blow. This wasn’t just a plan, it was the plan. There was no Plan B.
“Can you think of another way to connect to high-speed Internet?” he asked, and Gilles shook his head.
“Why don’t you just go into Cowansville or Saint-Rémi? They have high-speed.”
“We need to stay here,” said Gamache. “Where we can’t be traced.”
Gilles nodded, thinking. Gamache watched him, willing an answer to appear. Finally Gilles shook his head. “People have been trying to get it for years. Legal or bootleg. It just can’t be done. Désolé.”
And that’s how Gamache felt, as he thanked Gilles and walked away.
Desolated.
“Well?” asked Thérèse.
“He says it can’t be done.”
“He just doesn’t want to do it,” said Superintendent Brunel. “We can find someone else.”
Gamache explained about the wind, and saw her slowly accept the truth. Gilles wasn’t being willful, he was being realistic. But Gamache saw something else. While Thérèse Brunel looked disappointed, her husband did not.
Gamache wandered into the kitchen where Clara and Gabri were preparing dinner.
“Smells good,” he said.
“Hungry?” Gabri asked, handing him a platter with paté de campagne and crackers.
“I am, as a matter of fact,” said the Chief, as he spread a cracker. He could smell the yeasty scent of baking bread. It mingled with the rosemary chicken and he realized he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. “I have a favor to ask. I’ve transferred some old film onto a disk and I’d like to watch it, but Emilie’s home doesn’t have a DVD player.”
“You want to use mine?”
When he nodded she waved a piece of cutlery like a wand in the direction of the living room. “It’s in the room off the living room.”
“Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” she said. “I’ll set you up. Dinner won’t be for at least half an hour.”
Gamache followed her through to a small room with a sofa and armchair. An old box television sat on a table, with a DVD player beside it. He watched while Clara pressed some buttons.
“What’s on the DVD?” asked Gabri. He stood at the door holding the platter of crackers and paté. “Let me guess. Your audition for Canada’s Got Talent?”
“It would be very short if it was,” said Gamache.
“What’s going on?” Ruth demanded, pushing through, holding Rosa in one arm and a vase of Scotch in the other.
“The Chief Inspector’s auditioning for Canadian Idol,” Gabri explained. “This’s his audition tape.”
“Well, not—” Gamache began, then gave up. Why bother?
“Did someone say you’re auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance?” asked Myrna, squeezing onto the small sofa between the Chief and Ruth.
Gamache looked plaintively over at Clara. Olivier had arrived and was standing next to his partner. The Chief sighed and pressed the play button.
A familiar black and white graphic swirled toward them on the small screen, accompanied by music and an authoritative voice.
“In a small Canadian hamlet a tiny miracle has occurred,” said the grim newsreel announcer. The first grainy images appeared, and everyone in Clara’s small television room leaned forward.