Fontaine stopped and turned. “How do you know that?”
“You can see. The artwork alone is worth a fortune. The intruder took the time to take it off the walls, even tearing the framing paper, but didn’t then cut the paintings out.”
“He was looking for ready cash, jewelry,” said Fontaine. “The victim’s wallet is missing.”
“A little early to come to that conclusion, surely,” said Gamache. “With all this mess, it could be anywhere. It looks more like a search than a robbery, non?”
While annoyed at being contradicted by this stranger, Irena Fontaine couldn’t quite suppress a smile. The Québécois accent always amused her. It was like talking to a bumpkin.
“Non,” she said. “It looks to me like a robbery. Not everyone, monsieur, wants to wander the streets with oil paintings under their arms, trying to fence them.”
“There’s something I’ve failed to tell you, Irena,” said Dussault. “Monsieur Gamache isn’t here in his professional capacity, though that is helpful.” He gave her a stern look. Of reproach, Gamache wondered, or warning? “He knows the owner of this apartment. He and his wife found the body.”
Fontaine turned more interested eyes on Gamache. “You know the dead man. Why didn’t you say so?”
“Because the victim isn’t the owner of the apartment. I have no idea who the dead man is, but the owner of the apartment is my godfather. Stephen Horowitz.”
“And where is he?”
“In a coma at the Hôtel-Dieu. He was hit by a van last night in an attempt on his life.”
Fontaine’s eyes widened, and she looked at the Prefect. “That’s the case you passed along to me.”
“Yes.”
“And he owns this apartment?”
“Yes,” said Gamache.
“The two attacks have to be connected,” she said. “There can’t be any doubt now about the hit-and-run last night.”
So there had been doubt, thought Gamache. That might explain why the police hadn’t come to Stephen’s apartment themselves. It was one of the first things you’d expect in an attempted homicide investigation.
“I was with him when he was hit,” said Gamache. “It was deliberate.”
“And you’re here now. You found the body,” said Fontaine.
“I did.”
He knew full well what she was getting at. It was, in all honesty, not a surprise. He’d probably be wondering the same thing if the same person showed up at the scene of two separate, but linked, attacks.
Irena Fontaine turned and looked down the hall toward the living room, and the body.
“I wonder if he was murdered by mistake.”
“We were thinking the same thing,” agreed Dussault.
“Someone was obviously trying to kill this Horowitz,” Fontaine continued, speaking directly, and only, to the Prefect. “They came here first, found this man, and shot him, thinking he was Horowitz. When he discovered his mistake, the murderer went in search of his real target.”
“And how did he know where to find him?” asked Armand.
It was a question that was taking on increasing importance in his mind.
“Maybe someone told him,” she said, staring at Gamache. After a moment’s pause she said, “What do you think happened here?”
“First, let me tell you what we found earlier today.”
“No, I asked you a question. What do you think happened?”
He turned to look at her.
Fontaine expected to see a cold, angry glare. Instead, his gaze was calm, thoughtful. Curious even. She was acutely aware she was being assessed.
She assessed him in return.
Mid-fifties, the Prefect’s vintage. Good cut to his clothes. Well-groomed. Distinguished. What struck her were the lines of his face. Not wrinkles. These weren’t made by time, but by events.
There was the deep scar at his temple. And then there were his eyes. Bright, intelligent, thoughtful. Shrewd. And something else.
There was, she felt, a sympathy there. No, not that. Could it be kindness?
Surely not.
Still, there was something compelling about this man. An unmistakable warmth, like embers in a grate on a dreary day.
Irena Fontaine fought the urge to be drawn in. Recognizing that embers could erupt into flame at any moment.
“I think, Commander,” Gamache said, “I can best answer your question by first telling you what we found among Stephen’s things. If you don’t mind.”
“If you insist.”
“Merci. After Stephen was hit, my wife picked up his glasses and a key off the street. She put both in her purse and only remembered them this morning.”
“So?” said Fontaine. “Natural he’d have a key on him.”
“It was to a hotel room. A suite actually, at the George V. We went there and discovered that Stephen had been living at the hotel for the last ten days. He was planning to check out this coming Wednesday.”
Claude Dussault turned to him. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“I haven’t had the chance. And it looks like there was someone else staying there,” Armand continued, in the face of Dussault’s glare. “A man who’d just arrived. He hadn’t yet unpacked and wasn’t planning to stay long. He only had a carry-on.”
Fontaine cocked a thumb toward the living room. “That man?”
“I don’t know for sure, but it seems a pretty good bet.”
She was shaking her head. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would someone with a place like this, and even a second bedroom for a guest, stay at a hotel?”
“To make it even more puzzling,” said Gamache, “Stephen’s famously cheap. There’d have to be a very, very good reason for him to take a suite at the George V.”
“And what’s that reason?” she asked.
“I wish I knew.”
“Coming?” an agent called to them. “The coroner’s waiting.”
As they walked back down the hall, Dussault muttered to Gamache, “You should’ve told me about the key.”
“And you should’ve told me you didn’t actually believe that the attack was deliberate.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Fontaine herself just admitted there was doubt, and if there wasn’t, your people would have come here immediately. They’d have interrupted the intruder. Not Reine-Marie and me.”
Gamache stopped. It was his turn to glare at the Prefect.
“Your doubt could have cost her her life.”
“And you yours,” admitted Dussault. “It was a mistake on Fontaine’s part. I’ll speak to her.”
Armand almost pointed out that the error didn’t rest solely with Fontaine, but kept his mouth tightly shut.
CHAPTER 10
The coroner knelt beside the body.
“You’re here, good,” she said, her voice heavy with impatience and annoyance. “We can finally start.”
Reaching out gloved hands, she expertly turned the stiff body.
It was their first good look at the dead man.
Even in death, he had an air of success about him. Healthy. Wealthy. But was he wise? One thing was certain: Gamache had never seen him before.
The coroner described her observations.
“Male, Caucasian. Approximately seventy-five years of age. Shot in back and head. No apparent wounds to the front of the body. There’s rigor. Death was more than twelve hours ago, less than twenty-four. Nothing in his hands. Nails look clean. There doesn’t appear to have been a struggle. Slight bruising to the face, probably caused in the fall.” She looked up at the Prefect. “I’d say he was dead before he hit the ground.”
“Excuse me,” they heard. “Excusez-moi.” Everyone turned to see a younger man in jacket, jeans, and scarf tied around his neck trying to get through the wall of cops.
“Who are you?” demanded one of the gendarmes.
Instead of answering, he turned to Gamache. “Reine-Marie called me. I came right over.”
“This’
s Jean-Guy Beauvoir, my son-in-law,” explained Gamache.
“Well, he shouldn’t be here,” said Fontaine. “Please wait outside. This’s a crime scene.”
“Yes, I know,” said Jean-Guy. He had sympathy for this officer, who was obviously the agent in charge. But instead of leaving, he took a step forward and stood beside Gamache.
“Jean-Guy was my second-in-command,” Gamache explained to Dussault and Fontaine. “He ran homicide for more than a year before moving to Paris. He also knows Stephen. Do you mind?”
“If he stays?” Fontaine looked at Beauvoir as though he was something she’d scraped off the bottom of her shoe.
Then she appealed to the Prefect, who shrugged.
“Fine,” she said. “As long as I don’t have to deal with him.”
“Is there a wallet?” Dussault asked. “Any ID at all?”
“None,” she said, kneeling beside the coroner now. “All his pockets are turned out.”
“May I?” asked Gamache.
“Oh, what the fuck,” muttered Fontaine. Then gestured toward the body, inviting Gamache forward and watching as he pulled aside the dead man’s jacket and felt inside. He lifted a flap to reveal a hidden zipper and pocket.
But he didn’t undo it, preferring to let Fontaine do that.
A moment later she pulled out a thin wallet.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“It’s something seasoned travelers often do. Have hidden pockets in their clothes.”
He chose not to explain that Stephen also had one. Nor did he tell them that he and Reine-Marie had found Stephen’s agenda and passport there.
Fontaine handed the wallet to the Prefect, who walked away from the activity around the body. Gamache and Beauvoir joined him by the window.
“His name’s Alexander Francis Plessner,” said Dussault. “Mean anything to you?”
Armand thought. “Non. Stephen never mentioned him. You?”
Jean-Guy shook his head.
“Driver’s license is from Ontario,” said Dussault.
Irena Fontaine joined them and gave Dussault a passport. “We found it under that dresser. But no phone yet, and no keys.”
“If they found his passport,” said Gamache, “they must’ve realized they hadn’t killed Stephen Horowitz.”
“They killed the wrong man,” said Dussault.
“Or not,” said Gamache, and the Prefect nodded. Or not.
“Canadian,” said Jean-Guy, looking at the passport. “Issued a year ago.”
Claude Dussault flipped through it and sighed. “With kiosks at most customs now, passports aren’t stamped anymore. We’ll have to be in touch with Interpol.”
“I’ll scan the bar code over later today,” said Irena Fontaine.
“Best to do it as soon as possible,” said Gamache. “In my dealings with Interpol, it can take a little while for them to get the information. Even days.”
“This’s the brigade criminelle, monsieur,” she said. “In Paris. Not the Sûreté du Québec. Interpol responds quickly to us. They know if we ask, it must be serious.”
Beauvoir opened his mouth, but at a small glance from Gamache remained quiet.
This Fontaine obviously didn’t know that Gamache had been approached in just the last six months to move to Lyon and take over Interpol. He’d refused, preferring to hunt murderers in Québec.
If Gamache wasn’t going to tell her, he sure wouldn’t. Though he was longing to.
“Thank you for explaining that, Commander,” said Gamache. “Does the passport have any stamps at all?”
“Only one,” said Dussault. “A trip to Peru a year ago.”
“Peru?” asked Beauvoir.
“Big tourist spot,” said Dussault. “Machu Picchu. The Nazca Lines.”
“The what?” asked Fontaine, and Beauvoir was glad she was the one who showed ignorance. Normally that was his job.
He’d actually thought the Prefect had said “Nascar,” and was about to ask about that.
“Look them up,” said Dussault. “One of the great mysteries of the world.”
“Two hundred and fifty dollars Canadian,” Fontaine reported as she went through the wallet. “Seventy euros. Two Visa cards and”— she held up a white business card—“this.”
She handed it to Dussault.
He read the name on the card. “Stephen Horowitz. That confirms it. The dead man knew Horowitz. But how? Friend? Business associate? Must be more than an acquaintance to be in his apartment.”
“May I?” asked Armand, and held out his hand for the card. “Monsieur Plessner was much more than an acquaintance, to have this.”
He handed it back to Fontaine.
“Why?” she asked. “It’s just a simple business card.”
“But without an address?” said Beauvoir. “Not even a phone number or email? What business card has just a name?”
“Not just that,” Dussault pointed out. “Someone’s written JSPS after his name. What does that mean, Armand? ‘Justice of the Peace’? Is it an honorific?”
Gamache was smiling. “Not exactly.”
Bringing out his own wallet, he removed a dog-eared, slightly scruffy business card. The paper was thin and worn, but the printing was exactly the same.
Stephen Horowitz. And after the name exactly the same four letters. Written longhand.
JSPS.
“It’s something my grandmother Zora always called him,” Armand explained.
“But what does it mean?” asked Dussault.
“‘JSPS’ stands for ‘Just Some Poor Schmuck.’”
Dussault laughed. “Really? But ‘schmuck,’ that’s an insult, isn’t it? Why did your grandmother call him that? Was it a private joke, a term of endearment?”
“Just the opposite,” said Armand. “She loathed him. Did from the moment they met in the late 1940s. He was an easy man to dislike.”
Jean-Guy smiled. It was true. Stephen Horowitz could be a real piece of merde. And it wasn’t an act. It was genuinely who he was. But Beauvoir knew that was just one side of a complex man.
“How did she know him?” asked Fontaine. “Come to think of it, how did you?”
“My father hired him to do odd jobs. Stephen had nothing when he came to Québec after the war, but my father quickly saw his potential. They were roughly the same age, and only fate decided that one would lose his home and family, and the other would have both. My father had huge admiration for Stephen, but Zora hated him from the get-go. She called him—”
“Just some poor schmuck?” said Dussault.
“C’est ça. And that was when she was being polite.” Armand smiled, remembering her muttering “Alte kaker” whenever Stephen showed up.
“Why did she hate him so much?” asked Fontaine. “What did he do to her?”
“Nothing, except to be born German. I think it was asking a bit too much of her, at that time, to like or trust anyone who was German.”
“But you told me he fought for the Resistance,” said Dussault.
“I don’t think my grandmother ever believed it.”
Armand glanced out the window, at the Hôtel Lutetia. That was another reason Zora distrusted Stephen.
Because he chose to live right next door to the Lutetia.
It had taken Armand many years to understand her hatred of the beautiful hotel.
He knew he’d have to explain the complex relationships in his family, eventually. Now seemed as good a time as any.
“My father met Zora in Poland, in the final days of the war. She and her family had been deported from Paris and sent to Auschwitz. There were more than a thousand people in that transport. Three survived the war. Zora was one of them.”
He looked at Claude Dussault, who dropped his eyes.
Paris might have a lot of light, but there were also strong shadows.
“She never called it the Holocaust. It was, for her, ‘the Great Murders.’”
He’d been raised to consider Zora his grandmoth
er, which he did to this day. She’d impressed on him that murderers had to be stopped. No matter the cost. That was, Armand knew, the reason he’d joined the Sûreté.
To stop them. No matter the cost.
“My father was with the Canadian Red Cross and was helping with the ‘displaced persons,’ as they were called. Those liberated from the death camps but with nowhere to go. No home left. He sponsored Zora to come to Montréal. She lived with us and raised me after they were killed.”
“They?” asked Fontaine. “Killed?”
“My parents. Car accident. I was nine years old. Stephen was my godfather and helped raise me. He brought me to Paris once a year. I practically grew up in this apartment.”
He looked around, trying to recapture that sense of security.
But it eluded him amid the wreckage. And the murder.
“So, wait a minute,” said Commander Fontaine, nodding toward the card. “Go back. If it was an insult, why would Horowitz write JSPS on his business card?”
“It was an inside joke. He actually liked Zora, and I think as he got more successful, it was a way for him to keep his considerable ego in check. It was also a code.”
“For what?” asked Fontaine.
“For his senior management, his bankers, his security. Most importantly, it was code to his secretary, Mrs. McGillicuddy. Whoever had that card was to be given all access. All help. No matter what was asked.”
“But what would stop anyone from writing JSPS on a card and getting that access?” asked Fontaine.
“Stephen made it known that anyone who tried would be dealt with severely. It wouldn’t be worth it.”
Fontaine looked over at the body of Alexander Plessner.
“Not that severely,” said Gamache.
“Do you know how many of these he gave out?” Fontaine asked.
“I actually thought I had the only one,” said Gamache, returning his thin card to his wallet. For safekeeping.
Stephen had given it to him after the funeral of his parents. He’d taken Armand aside and, under the watchful, wrathful eye of Zora, had brought out a business card and written, JSPS.
“Do you know what that stands for?”
Armand had shaken his head. He didn’t know, and he didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore.
All the Devils Are Here Page 9
