Louise Penny: A Fatal Grace

‘The mukluks. Inuit boots. You’re not saying there’s an Inuk involved somehow?’ Beauvoir wondered who that might be.

‘No.’ Gamache gave him a small smile.

‘Good. So there were only three of them. I was afraid the whole village was involved.’

A young doctor hurried down the corridor toward them, wiping his hands.

‘Chief Inspector Gamache? I’ve just come from Madame Mayer. It looks as though she’ll live. Looks soft, but she’s tough as nails. She has frostbite, of course, and moderate exposure. Interestingly enough, the snow might have saved them. It created a blanket when it fell and that helped insulate them. But the other woman? Émilie Longpré?’ Gamache closed his eyes for the briefest of moments. ‘I’m afraid she’s already gone.’

Gamache had known. When he’d lifted her up she’d been impossibly light. He’d felt he had to hold on to her otherwise she’d float out of his arms. As he held her he’d poured all his prayers into her. But the vessel was cracked too deeply.

Émilie Longpré was curled in Gus’s arms now, warm and safe and happy, listening to David play Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in D Major. Em was home.

‘Madame Mayer’s awake if you’d like to talk to her.’

‘Very much.’ Gamache started down the hall, following the doctor.

‘Just one more thing,’ said the doctor as they approached the door. ‘Madame Mayer keeps repeating something over and over and I wonder if you can help us.’

‘Namaste,’ said Beauvoir. ‘It means, the God in me greets the God in you.’ Gamache turned to him, surprised. ‘I looked it up.’

‘No, I know namaste,’ said the doctor, opening the door.

Gamache turned to Beauvoir. ‘The Inuit boots. Émilie Longpré didn’t mention them in her letter. She didn’t know about them until I told her, and even then she didn’t see the significance.’ Gamache disappeared into Beatrice Mayer’s room.

Beauvoir stood on the threshold of the room, alone. What was the chief saying?

And then it hit him. Like the Inuit, the Three Graces had tried to kill themselves to save someone else. To save the real murderer.

They hadn’t killed CC. Someone else had.

From inside the room he heard Beatrice Mayer’s voice.

‘Fuck the Pope!’

Beauvoir brought the car up to the house, yet again. It skidded as he applied the brakes, as though it too didn’t really want to stop there.

The old Hadley house was in near darkness, the path to the front door unshoveled and without footprints. No one had been in or out of the place all day.

‘Should I call for backup?’

‘No. I don’t think he’ll be surprised to see us. He might even be relieved.’

‘I still don’t understand why CC married him,’ mumbled Beauvoir, looking at the closed door.

‘His name,’ said Gamache. ‘Nichol gave me that answer.’

‘How’d she figure it out?’

‘Well, she didn’t really, but she told me that she went into the fire to save Saul Petrov because of his name. Saul. She had an Uncle Saul and there’s a collective guilt in her family about those who died in Czechoslovakia. Including Uncle Saul. It worked on a primal level. It wasn’t rational.’

‘Nothing she does makes sense.’

Gamache stopped, halfway up the path, and turned to Beauvoir. ‘Everything makes sense. Don’t underestimate her, Jean Guy.’ He held the younger man’s gaze a moment longer than necessary then continued his story. ‘This whole case has been about belief and the power of the word. CC de Poitiers married the only man she could. She married another royal. Eleanor of Aquitaine’s favorite son was Richard Coeur de Lion. Richard the Lionhearted. Richard Lyon.’

‘She was attracted to the name, not the man?’

‘Happens all the time. If you like someone named Roger, suddenly you feel kindly toward all Rogers.’

Beauvoir snorted. He couldn’t remember ever feeling kindly, period.

‘And the opposite is true,’ Gamache continued. ‘You hate a Georges, chances are you won’t like any Georges at first. I know I do that. Not proud of it, but it happens. One of my best friends is Superintendent Brébeuf. Every time I meet a Michel I think of him, and immediately like the person.’

‘You immediately like everyone. It doesn’t count. Give me a bad example.’

‘Okay. Suzanne. A Suzanne in junior school was mean to me.’

‘Oh, she was mean to you?’ Beauvoir’s face was writhing in laugh lines.

‘Very mean.’

‘What did she do? Knife you?’

‘She called me names. For four years. She followed me down the halls, through the arches of the years, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind.’

‘That last was a quote, wasn’t it?’ Beauvoir accused him.

‘Afraid so. “The Hound of Heaven”. And maybe she was. She taught me that words wound and sometimes they kill. And sometimes they heal.’

They were at the door and ringing the bell and it opened.

‘Monsieur Lyon,’ said Beauvoir, stepping across the threshold. ‘We need a word.’

Gamache knelt beside Crie. A purple bathing suit was strangling her arms and legs.

‘Who’ll look after her?’ Lyon asked. ‘Will she be all right without me?’

Beauvoir almost demanded why he should suddenly care. Look what life with him had brought her to. Surely this could only be an improvement. But seeing Lyon’s face, resigned, afraid, defeated, Beauvoir held his tongue.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Gamache, straightening up slowly. ‘She’ll be looked after.’

‘I should have stopped CC earlier. Never let it come to this. From the time Crie was born CC had it in for her. I tried a few times to speak to CC.’ Lyon looked at Gamache, pleading for understanding. ‘But I couldn’t.’

All three men looked down at Crie sitting on the side of her bed surrounded by candy and wrappers, as though a chocolate storm had hit. She’s the end of the line, thought Gamache, the final repository of all the fears and fantasies of her mother and grandmother. This was what they’d created. Like Frankenstein’s monster. A patchwork of their own horrors.

Chief Inspector Gamache took her hand and held it, staring into those blank eyes.

‘Crie, why did you kill your mother?’

Crie felt the hot sun tanning her face and her long, lithe body as she lay on the beach. Her boyfriend reached out and took her hands in his and held them as he looked with such kindness into her eyes. His young body gleamed and glistened as though enlightened and he drew her to him, kissing her gently and holding her.

‘I love you, Crie,’ he whispered. ‘You’re everything anyone could want. I don’t think you know how beautiful you are, and talented, and brilliant. You’re the most wonderful girl in the world. Would you sing for me?’

And Crie did. She raised her voice and the young man in her arms sighed and smiled with delight.

‘I’ll never leave you, Crie. And I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.’

And she believed him.

THIRTY-EIGHT

The door opened even before Gamache and Reine-Marie knocked.

‘We’ve been waiting for you,’ said Peter.

‘It’s a lie,’ shouted Ruth from inside the cozy cottage. ‘We started drinking and eating without you.’

‘Actually, she never stopped,’ whispered Peter.

‘I heard that,’ shouted Ruth. ‘Just because it’s the truth doesn’t make it less insulting.’

‘ Bonne année ,’ said Clara, kissing the Gamaches on both cheeks and taking their coats. This was her first time meeting Reine-Marie and she was exactly as Clara had imagined. Smiling and warm, kind and elegant in her tailored and comfortable skirt and shirt with camelhair sweater and silk scarf. Gamache wore a tweed jacket and tie and flannels. Beautifully cut and worn with easy elegance.