by Louise Penny
Including, he suspected, the body.
There was a purpose to this murder. His job was to find it.
A curved stone bench sat under the maple in the center of the garden. Most of the tree’s autumn leaves had fallen. Most had been raked up, but some were scattered on the grass. And a few, like forlorn hope, clung to the mother tree.
In summer, in full leaf, there would be a magnificent canopy, throwing dappled light over the garden. Not much of this garden would be in full sun. Not much in complete shade.
The abbot’s garden had achieved a balance between light and dark.
But now, in autumn, it seemed to be dying.
But that too was the natural cycle. It would be deviant, abnormal, if all was in perpetual flower.
The walls were, Gamache guessed, at least ten feet high. No one climbed out of the garden. And the only way in was through the abbot’s bedroom. Through the secret door.
Gamache looked back at the monastery. No one inside the monastery could come into, or even see into, the abbot’s garden.
Did they even know it was here? Gamache wondered. Was that possible?
Was this not only a private garden, but a secret one?
* * *
Dom Philippe repeated the rosary.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.…”
His head was bowed but his eyes were open, just a slit. He watched the police officers in the garden. Bending over Mathieu. Taking his picture. Prodding him. How Mathieu, always so fastidious, so precise, would have hated this.
To die in the dirt.
“Holy Mary, mother of God…”
How could Mathieu be dead? Dom Philippe mouthed the rosary, trying to concentrate on the simple prayer. He said the words, and heard his brother monks beside him. Heard their familiar voices. Felt their shoulders against his.
Felt the sunshine on his head, and smelled the musky autumn garden.
But now nothing seemed familiar anymore. The words, the prayer, even the sunshine felt foreign.
Mathieu was dead.
How could I not have known?
“… pray for us sinners…”
How could I not have known?
The words became his new rosary.
How could I not have known that it would all end in murder?
* * *
Gamache had come full circle and stopped in front of the praying monks.
He had the impression as he approached that the abbot had been watching.
One thing was obvious. In the few minutes Gamache had been in the garden, the abbot’s energy had diminished even further.
If the Hail Marys were meant to comfort, it wasn’t working. Or perhaps, without the prayers Dom Philippe would be in worse shape. He seemed like a man on the verge of collapse.
“Pardon,” said Gamache.
The two monks stopped their prayers, but Dom Philippe continued, to the end.
“… now and at the hour of our death.”
And together they intoned, “Amen.”
Dom Philippe opened his eyes.
“Yes, my son?”
It was the traditional greeting of a priest to a parishioner. Or an abbot to his monks. Gamache, though, was neither. And he wondered why Dom Philippe would use that term with him.
Was it habit? An offer of affection? Or was it something else? A claim to authority. A father’s over a child.
“I have some questions.”
“Of course,” said the abbot while the other two remained silent.
“I understand one of you found Frère Mathieu.”
The monk to the right of the abbot shot Dom Philippe a look, and the abbot gave a very small nod.
“I did.” The monk was shorter than Dom Philippe and slightly younger. His eyes were wary.
“And you are?”
“Simon.”
“Perhaps, mon frère, you can describe what happened this morning.”
Frère Simon turned to the abbot, who nodded again.
“I came in here after Lauds to tidy up the garden. Then I saw him.”
“What did you see?”
“Frère Mathieu.”
“Oui, but did you know it was him?”
“No.”
“Who did you think it might be?”
Frère Simon lapsed into silence.
“It’s all right, Simon. We need to speak the truth,” said the abbot.
“Oui, Père Abbé.” The monk didn’t look happy or convinced. But he did obey. “I thought it was the abbot.”
“Why?”
“Because no one else comes in here. Only him and me now.”
Gamache considered that for a moment. “What did you do?”
“I went to see.”
Gamache glanced over at the wicker basket, on its side, the contents tumbling out onto the autumn leaves. The rake thrown down.
“Did you walk, or run?”
Again that hesitation. “I ran.”
Gamache could imagine the scene. The middle-aged monk with his basket. Preparing to garden, to rake up the dead leaves. Entering this peaceful garden to do what he’d done so many times before. Then seeing the unthinkable. A man collapsed at the base of the wall.
Without doubt, the abbot.
And what had Frère Simon done? He’d dropped his tools and run. As fast as his robed legs would take him.
“And when you got to him, what did you do?”
“I saw that it wasn’t Père Abbé at all.”
“Describe for me please everything that you did.”
“I knelt down.” Every word seemed to cause him pain. Either because of the memory, or just their existence. The very act of speaking. “And I moved his hood. It’d fallen across his face. That’s when I saw it wasn’t the abbot.”
It wasn’t the abbot. That was what seemed to matter to this man. Not who it was, but who it wasn’t. Gamache listened closely. To the words. The tone. The space between the words.
And what he heard now was relief.
“Did you touch the body? Move him?”
“I touched his hood and his shoulders. Shook him. Then I went to get the doctor.”
Frère Simon looked at the other monk.
He was younger than the other two, but not by much. The stubble on his close-cropped head was also graying. He was shorter and slightly rounder than the other two. And his eyes, while somber, held none of the anxiety of his companions.
“Are you the doctor?” Gamache asked and the monk nodded. He seemed almost amused.
But Gamache wasn’t fooled. One of Reine-Marie’s brothers laughed in funerals and wept at weddings. A friend of theirs always laughed when someone yelled at him. Not from amusement, but an overflow of strong emotion.
Sometimes the two got mixed up. Especially in people unused to showing emotion.
The medical monk, while appearing amused, might in fact be the most devastated.
“Charles,” the monk offered. “I’m the médecin.”
“Tell me how you found out about the death of the prior.”
“I was with the animals when Frère Simon came to get me. He took me aside and said there’d been an accident—”
“Were you alone?”
“No, there were other brothers there, but Frère Simon was careful to keep his voice low. I don’t think they heard.”
Gamache turned back to Frère Simon. “Did you really think it was an accident?”
“I wasn’t sure and I didn’t know what else to say.”
“I’m sorry.” Gamache turned back to the doctor. “I interrupted you.”
“I ran to the infirmary, grabbed my medical bag and we came here.”
Gamache could imagine the two black-robed monks running through the sparkling halls. “Did you meet anyone on the way?”
“Not a soul,” said Frère Charles. “It was our work period. Everyone was at their chores.”
“What did you do when you arrived in the garden?”
“I looked for a pu
lse, of course, but his eyes were enough to tell me he was dead, even if I hadn’t seen the wound.”
“And what did you think when you did?”
“At first I wondered if he’d fallen off the wall, but I could see that was impossible.”
“And then what did you think?”
Frère Charles looked at the abbot.
“Go on,” said Dom Philippe.
“I thought someone had done this to him.”
“Who?”
“I honestly hadn’t a clue.”
Gamache paused to scrutinize the doctor. In his experience when someone said “honestly” it was often a prelude to a lie. He tucked that impression away and turned to the abbot.
“I wonder, sir, if you and I might talk some more.”
The abbot didn’t look surprised. He looked as though nothing could shock him anymore.
“Of course.”
Dom Philippe bowed to the other two monks, catching their eyes, and the Chief wondered what message had just passed between them. Did monks who lived silently together develop a form of telepathy? An ability to read each other’s thoughts?
If so, that gift had sorely failed the prior.
Dom Philippe led Gamache to the bench under the tree. Away from the activity.
From there they couldn’t see the body. They couldn’t see the monastery. Instead the view was to the wall, and the medicinal herbs and the tops of the trees beyond.
“I’m finding it hard to believe this has happened,” said the abbot. “You must hear that all the time. Does everyone say that?”
“Most do. It would be a terrible thing if murder wasn’t a shock.”
The abbot sighed and stared into the distance. Then he closed his eyes, and brought his slender hands to his face.
There was no sobbing. No weeping. Not even praying.
Just silence. His long elegant hands like a mask over his face. Another wall between himself and the outside world.
Finally he dropped his hands into his lap. They rested there, limp.
“He was my best friend, you know. We’re not supposed to have best friends in a monastery. We’re all supposed to be equal. All friends, but none too much. But of course that’s the ideal. Like Julian of Norwich, we aspire to an all-consuming love of God. But we’re flawed and human, and sometimes we also love our fellow man. There are no rules for the heart.”
Gamache listened and waited, and tried not to overinterpret what he was being told.
“I can’t tell you how often Mathieu and I sat here. He’d sit where you are now. Sometimes we’d discuss the business of the monastery, sometimes we’d just read. He’d bring his scores for the chants. I’d be gardening, or sitting quietly and hear him humming under his breath. I don’t think he even knew he was doing it or that I could hear. But I could.”
The abbot’s gaze drifted to the wall and the tips of the forest, like dark steeples, beyond. He sat quietly for a moment, lost in what was now and forever the past. The scene he described would never be repeated. That overheard sound would never be heard again.
“Murder?” he finally whispered. “Here?” He returned to Gamache. “And you’ve come to find out which of us did it. The Chief Inspector, you said. So we get the boss?”
Gamache smiled. “Not the big boss, I’m afraid. I also have bosses.”
“Don’t we all,” said Dom Philippe. “At least yours can’t see everything you do.”
“And know everything I think and feel,” said Gamache. “I’m grateful for that every day.”
“Though neither can they bring you peace and salvation.”
Gamache nodded. “That much is certain.”
“Patron?” Beauvoir was standing a few feet away.
Excusing himself, Gamache walked over to his Inspector.
“We’re ready to move the body. But where should we take him?”
Gamache thought about that for a moment, then looked at the two praying monks. “That man over there,” Gamache pointed to Frère Charles, “is the médecin. Go with him to get a stretcher and take Frère Mathieu back to the infirmary.” Gamache paused for a moment, and Beauvoir knew him well enough to wait. “He was the choir director here, you know.” Gamache looked once again at the balled-up body of Frère Mathieu.
To Beauvoir this was just another fact. A piece of information. But he could see it meant more to the Chief.
“Is that important?” asked Beauvoir.
“It could be.”
“It’s important to you, isn’t it,” said Beauvoir.
“It’s a shame,” said the Chief. “A great loss. He was a genius, you know. I was listening to his music on the way in.”
“I thought maybe you were.”
“Have you ever heard it?”
“Hard not to. It was everywhere a couple years ago. Couldn’t turn on a damned station without hearing it.”
Gamache smiled. “Not a fan?”
“Are you kidding? Of Gregorian chants? A bunch of men singing without instruments, practically in a monotone, in Latin? What’s not to love?”
The Chief smiled at Beauvoir and returned to the abbot.
“Who could have done such a thing?” Dom Philippe asked under his breath when Gamache resumed his seat. “I’ve been asking myself that all morning.” The abbot turned to his companion. “And why didn’t I see it coming?”
Gamache was silent, knowing the question wasn’t directed at him. But the answer would come from him, eventually. And he realized something else.
Dom Philippe had not tried to imply that an outsider had somehow done this. He’d not even tried to convince Gamache, or himself, that it was an accident. An unlikely fall.
There was none of the usual squirming away from the awful truth.
Frère Mathieu had been murdered. And one of the other monks had done it.
On the one hand Gamache admired Dom Philippe’s ability to face reality, no matter how terrible. But Gamache was also puzzled that this man so easily accepted it.
The abbot claimed to be astonished that murder should happen here. And yet he didn’t do what would be most human. He didn’t look for another explanation, no matter how ludicrous.
And Chief Inspector Gamache began to wonder just how shocked Dom Philippe really was.
“Frère Mathieu was killed between eight fifteen, when your service ended, and twenty to nine, when he was found by your secretary,” said the Chief. “Where were you at that time?”
“Right after Lauds I went to the basement to discuss the geothermal system with Frère Raymond. He looks after the physical plant. The engineering of the monastery.”
“You have geothermal here?”
“That’s right. Geothermal heats the monastery and solar panels power it. With winter coming I had to make sure it was working. I was down there when Brother Simon found me and told me the news.”
“What time was that?”
“Close to nine, I think.”
“What did Frère Simon say?”
“Only that it appeared Frère Mathieu had had some sort of accident in my garden.”
“Did he tell you that Frère Mathieu was dead?”
“Eventually. As I rushed back he came out with it. He’d gone to get the doctor first and then me. By then they knew it was fatal.”
“But did he tell you any more?”
“That Mathieu had been killed?”
“That he’d been murdered.”
“The doctor did. When I arrived here the doctor was standing at the door waiting. He tried to stop me from going closer, and said Mathieu wasn’t just dead, but that it looked as though someone had killed him.”
“And what did you say?”
“I can’t remember what I said, but I suspect it was something not taught at the seminary.”
Dom Philippe cast his mind back. He’d shoved by the doctor and run, stumbling, to the far end. To what looked like a mound of dark earth. But wasn’t. As he saw it in his memory he described it to the large, quiet Sûret
é officer beside him.
“And then I dropped to my knees beside him,” said Dom Philippe.
“Did you touch him?”
“Yes. I touched his face, and his robe. I think I straightened it. I don’t know why. Who would do such a thing?”
Again, Gamache ignored the question. Time enough for the answer.
“What was Frère Mathieu doing here? In your garden?”
“I have no idea. It wasn’t to see me. I’m always out at that time. It’s when I do my rounds.”
“And he’d know that?”
“He was my prior. He knew it better than most.”
“What did you do after you’d seen his body?” Gamache asked.
The abbot thought about that. “We prayed first. And then I called the police. We have only one phone. It’s a satellite thing. Doesn’t always work, but it did this morning.”
“Did you consider not calling?”
The question surprised the abbot and he studied this quiet stranger with new appreciation. “I’m ashamed to admit it was my first thought. To keep it to ourselves. We’re used to being self-sufficient.”
“Then why did you call?”
“Not for Mathieu, I’m afraid, but for the others.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mathieu is gone now. He’s with God.”
Gamache hoped that was true. For Frère Mathieu there were no more mysteries. He knew who took his life. And he now knew if there was a God. And a Heaven. And angels. And even a celestial choir.
It didn’t bear thinking about what happened to the celestial choir when yet another director showed up.
“But the rest of us are here,” Dom Philippe continued. “I didn’t call you in for vengeance or to punish whoever did this. The deed is done. Mathieu is safe. We, on the other hand, are not.”
It was, Gamache knew, the simple truth. It was also the reaction of a father. To protect. Or a shepherd, to keep the flock safe from a predator.
Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups. Saint Gilbert among the wolves. It was a curious name for a monastery.
The abbot knew there was a wolf in the fold. In a black robe, and shaved head, and whispering soft prayers. Dom Philippe had called in hunters to find him.
Beauvoir and the doctor had returned with the stretcher and had placed it beside Frère Mathieu. Gamache stood and gave a silent signal. The body was lifted onto the stretcher and Frère Mathieu left the garden for the last time.
