A Trick of the Light cig-7

by Penny, Louise

  But this hand was large, and certain, and warm. And it invited him back.

  He’d opened his eyes to see Annie Gamache staring at him with such concern. Why would she be there, he’d wondered. And then he knew why.

  Because she had nowhere else to be. No other hospital bed to sit beside.

  Because her father was dead. Killed by a gunman in the abandoned factory. Beauvoir had seen it happen. Seen Gamache hit. Seen him lifted off his feet and fall to the concrete floor.

  And lie still.

  And now Annie Gamache was holding his hand in the hospital, because the hand she really wanted to be holding was gone.

  Jean Guy Beauvoir had pried his eyes open and seen Annie Gamache looking so sad. And his heart broke. Then he saw something else.

  Joy.

  No one had ever looked at him that way. With unconcealed and unbound joy.

  Annie had looked at him like that, when he’d opened his eyes.

  He’d tried to speak but couldn’t. But she’d rightly guessed what he was trying to say.

  She’d leaned in and whispered into his ear, and he could smell her fragrance. It was slightly citrony. Clean and fresh. Not Enid’s clinging, full-bodied perfume. Annie smelled like a lemon grove in summer.

  “Dad’s alive.”

  He’d embarrassed himself then. There were many humiliations waiting for him in the hospital. From bedpans and diapers to sponge baths. But none was more personal, more intimate, more of a betrayal than what his broken body did then.

  He cried.

  And Annie saw. And Annie never mentioned it from that day to this.

  To Henri’s bafflement, Jean Guy stopped rubbing the dog’s ears and placed one hand on the other, in a gesture that had become habitual now.

  That was how it had felt. Annie’s hand on his.

  This was all he’d ever have of her. His boss’s married daughter.

  “Your husband’s late,” said Jean Guy, and could hear the accusation. The shove.

  Very, very slowly Annie lowered her newspaper. And glared at him.

  “What’s your point?”

  What was his point?

  “We’re going to be late because of him.”

  “Then go. I don’t care.”

  He’d loaded the gun, pointed it at his head, and begged Annie to pull the trigger. And now he felt the words strike. Cut. Travel deep and explode.

  I don’t care.

  It was almost comforting, he realized. The pain. Perhaps if he forced her to hurt him enough he’d stop feeling anything.

  “Listen,” she said, leaning forward, her voice softening a bit. “I’m sorry about you and Enid. Your separation.”

  “Yeah, well, it happens. As a lawyer you should know that.”

  She looked at him with searching eyes, like her father’s. Then she nodded.

  “It happens.” She grew quiet, still. “Especially after what you’ve been through, I guess. It makes you think about your life. Would you like to talk about it?”

  Talk about Enid with Annie? All the petty sordid squabbles, the tiny slights, the scarring and scabbing. The thought revolted him and he must have shown it. Annie pulled back and reddened as though he’d slapped her.

  “Forget I said anything,” she snapped and lifted the paper to her face.

  He searched for something to say, some small bridge, a jetty back to her. The minutes stretched by, elongating.

  “The vernissage,” Beauvoir finally blurted out. It was the first thing that popped into his hollow head, like the Magic Eight Ball, that when it stopped being shaken produced a single word. “Vernissage,” in this case.

  The newspaper lowered and Annie’s stone face appeared.

  “The people from Three Pines will be there, you know.”

  Still her face was expressionless.

  “That village, in the Eastern Townships,” he waved vaguely out the window. “South of Montréal.”

  “I know where the townships are,” she said.

  “The show’s for Clara Morrow, but they’ll all be there I’m sure.”

  She raised the newspaper again. The Canadian dollar was strong, he read from across the room. Winter potholes still unfixed, he read. An investigation into government corruption, he read.

  Nothing new.

  “One of them hates your father.”

  The newspaper slowly dropped. “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” he realized by her expression he might have gone too far, “not enough to harm him or anything.”

  “Dad’s talked about Three Pines and the people, but he never mentioned this.”

  Now she was upset and he wished he hadn’t said anything, but it at least did the trick. She was talking to him again. Her father was the bridge.

  Annie dropped her paper onto the table and glanced beyond Beauvoir to her parents talking quietly on the balcony.

  She suddenly looked like that teenager he’d first met. She was never going to be the most beautiful woman in the room. That much was obvious even then. Annie was not fine-boned or delicate. She was more athletic than graceful. She cared about clothes, but she also cared about comfort.

  Opinionated, strong-willed, strong physically. He could beat her at arm-wrestling, he knew because they’d done it several times, but he actually had to try.

  With Enid he would never consider trying. And she would never offer.

  Annie Gamache had not only offered, but had fully expected to win.

  Then had laughed when she hadn’t.

  Where other women, including Enid, were lovely, Annie Gamache was alive.

  Late, too late, Jean Guy Beauvoir had come to appreciate how very important it was, how very attractive it was, how very rare it was, to be fully alive.

  Annie looked back at Beauvoir. “Why would one of them hate Dad?”

  Beauvoir lowered his voice. “OK, look. This’s what happened.”

  Annie leaned forward. They were a couple of feet apart and Beauvoir could just smell her scent. It was all he could do not to take her hands in his.

  “There was a murder in Clara’s village, Three Pines—”

  “Yes, Dad has mentioned that. Seems like a cottage industry there.”

  Despite himself, Beauvoir laughed. “There is strong shadow where there is much light.”

  Annie’s look of astonishment made Beauvoir laugh again.

  “Let me guess,” she said. “You didn’t make that up.”

  Beauvoir smiled and nodded. “Some German guy said it. And then your father said it.”

  “A few times?”

  “Often enough that I wake up screaming it in the middle of the night.”

  Annie smiled. “I know. I was the only kid in school who quoted Leigh Hunt.” Her voice changed slightly as she remembered, “But most he loved a happy human face.”

  * * *

  Gamache smiled as he heard the laughter from the living room.

  He cocked his head in their direction. “Are they finally making peace, do you think?”

  “Either that or it’s a sign of the apocalypse,” said Reine-Marie. “If four horsemen gallop out of the park you’re on your own, monsieur.”

  “It’s good to hear him laugh,” said Gamache.

  Since his separation from Enid, Jean Guy had seemed distant. Aloof. He’d never been exactly exuberant but Beauvoir was quieter than ever these days, as though his walls had grown and thickened. And his narrow drawbridge had been raised.

  Armand Gamache knew no good ever came from putting up walls. What people mistook for safety was in fact captivity. And few things thrived in captivity.

  “It’ll take time,” said Reine-Marie.

  “Avec le temps,” agreed Armand. But privately he wondered. He knew time could heal. But it could also do more damage. A forest fire, spread over time, would consume everything.

  Gamache, with one last look at the two younger people, continued his conversation with Reine-Marie.

  “Do you really think I don’t want to
go to the vernissage?” he asked.

  She considered for a moment. “I’m not sure. Let’s just say you don’t seem in a hurry to get there.”

  Gamache nodded and thought for a moment. “I know everyone will be there. I suppose it might be awkward.”

  “You arrested one of them for a murder he didn’t commit,” said Reine-Marie. It wasn’t an accusation. In fact, it was said quietly and gently. Trying to tease the truth of her husband’s feelings from him. Feelings he himself might not even be aware he had.

  “And you consider that a social faux pas?” he asked with a smile.

  “More than just a social faux pas, I’d say,” she laughed, relieved to see the genuine humor in his face. A face now clean-shaven. No more moustache. No more graying beard. Just Armand. He looked at her with his deep brown eyes. And as she held them she could almost forget the scar above his left temple.

  After a moment his smile faded and he nodded again, taking a deep breath.

  “It was a terrible thing to do to someone,” he said.

  “You didn’t do it on purpose, Armand.”

  “True, but his time in prison wasn’t more pleasant because of that.” Gamache thought for a moment, looking from the gentle face of his wife out into the trees of the park. A natural setting. He so yearned for that, since his days were filled with hunting the unnatural. Killers. People who took the lives of others. Often in gruesome and dreadful ways. Armand Gamache was the head of homicide for the famed Sûreté du Québec. He was very good at his job.

  But he wasn’t perfect.

  He’d arrested Olivier Brulé for a murder he didn’t commit.

  * * *

  “So what happened?” Annie asked.

  “Well, you know most of it, don’t you? It was in all the papers.”

  “Of course I read the reports, and talked to Dad about it. But he never mentioned that someone involved might still hate him.”

  “Well, as you know, it was almost a year ago,” said Jean Guy. “A man was found dead in the bistro in Three Pines. We investigated and the evidence seemed overwhelming. We found fingerprints, the murder weapon, stuff stolen from the dead man’s cabin in the woods. All of it hidden in the bistro. We arrested Olivier. He was tried and convicted.”

  “Did you think he’d done it?”

  Beauvoir nodded. “I was sure of it. It wasn’t just your father.”

  “So how come you changed your mind? Did someone else confess?”

  “No. You remember a few months ago, after that raid on the factory? When your father was recovering in Quebec City?”

  Annie nodded.

  “Well, he began to have his doubts, so he asked me to go back to Three Pines to investigate.”

  “And you did.”

  Jean Guy nodded. Of course he’d gone back. He’d do anything the Chief Inspector asked of him. Though he himself had no such doubts. He believed the right man was in prison. But he’d investigated, and discovered something that had truly shocked him.

  The real murderer. And the real reason for the killing.

  * * *

  “But you’ve been back to Three Pines since you arrested Olivier,” said Reine-Marie. “This won’t be the first time you’ll have seen them.”

  She too had visited Three Pines and become friends with Clara and Peter and the others, though she hadn’t seen them in quite a while. Not since all this had happened.

  “That’s true,” said Armand. “Jean Guy and I took Olivier back after his release.”

  “I can’t even imagine how that felt for him.”

  Gamache was quiet. Seeing the sun gleaming off snowbanks. Through the frosted panes of glass he could see the villagers gathered in the bistro. Warm and safe. The cheery fires lit. The mugs of beer and bowls of café au lait. The laughter.

  And Olivier, stalled. Two feet from the closed door. Staring at it.

  Jean Guy had gone to open it, but Gamache had lain a gloved hand on his arm. And together in the bitter cold they’d waited. Waited. For Olivier to make the move.

  After what seemed an age, but was probably only a few heartbeats, Olivier reached out, paused for one more moment, then opened the door.

  “I wish I could’ve seen Gabri’s face,” said Reine-Marie, imagining the large, expressive man seeing his partner returned.

  Gamache had described it all to Reine-Marie, when he’d returned home. But he knew that no matter how much ecstasy Reine-Marie imagined, the reality was even greater. At least on Gabri’s part. The rest of the villagers were elated to see Olivier too. But—

  “What is it?” Reine-Marie asked.

  “Well, Olivier didn’t kill the man, but as you know a lot of unpleasant things about him came out in the trial. Olivier had certainly stolen from the Hermit, taken advantage of their friendship and the man’s frail state of mind. And it turned out that Olivier had used the stolen money to secretly buy up a lot of property in Three Pines. Gabri didn’t even know about that.”

  Reine-Marie was quiet, considering what she’d just heard.

  “I wonder how his friends feel about that,” said Reine-Marie at last.

  So did Gamache.

  * * *

  “Olivier is the one who hates my father?” asked Annie. “But how could that be? Dad got him out of prison. He took him back to Three Pines.”

  “Yes, but the way Olivier sees it, I got him out of prison. Your father put him in.”

  Annie stared at Beauvoir, then shook her head.

  Beauvoir went on. “Your father apologized, you know. In front of everyone in the bistro. He told Olivier he was sorry for what he did.”

  “And what did Olivier say?”

  “That he couldn’t forgive him. Not yet.”

  Annie thought about that. “How did Dad react?”

  “He didn’t seem surprised, or upset. In fact, I think he’d have been surprised had Olivier suddenly decided all was forgiven. He wouldn’t have really meant it.”

  Beauvoir knew the only thing worse than no apology was an insincere one.

  Jean Guy had to give Olivier that. Instead of appearing to accept the apology, Olivier had finally told the truth. The hurt went too deep. He wasn’t ready to forgive.

  “And now?” asked Annie.

  “I guess we’ll see.”

  TWO

  “Remarkable, don’t you think?”

  Armand Gamache turned to the distinguished older man beside him.

  “I do,” nodded the Chief Inspector. Both men were silent for a moment, contemplating the painting in front of them. All around was the hubbub of the party in full swing, talking, laughing, friends getting caught up, strangers being introduced.

  But the two men seemed to have formed a separate peace, a quiet little quartier.

  In front of them on the wall was, either intentionally or naturally, the centerpiece of Clara Morrow’s solo show. Her works, mostly portraits, hung all around the white walls of the main gallery of the Musée d’Art Contemporain. Some were clustered close together, like a gathering. Some hung alone, isolated. Like this one.

  The most modest of the portraits, on the largest of the walls.

  Without competition, or company. An island nation. A sovereign portrait.

  Alone.

  “How do you feel when you look at it?” the man asked and turned his keen gaze on Gamache.

  The Chief Inspector smiled. “Well, it isn’t the first time I’ve seen it. We’re friends of the Morrows. I was there when she first brought it out of her studio.”

  “Lucky man.”

  Gamache took a sip of the very good red wine and agreed. Lucky man.

  “François Marois.” The older man put out his hand.

  “Armand Gamache.”

  Now his companion looked more closely at the Chief and nodded.

  “Désolé. I should have recognized you, Chief Inspector.”

  “Not at all. I’m always happier when people don’t,” smiled Gamache. “Are you an artist?”

  He looked, in
fact, more like a banker. A collector, perhaps? The other end of the artistic chain. He’d be in his early seventies, Gamache guessed. Prosperous, in a tailored suit and silk tie. There was a hint of expensive cologne about the man. Very subtle. He was balding, with hair immaculately and newly cut, clean-shaven, with intelligent blue eyes. All this Chief Inspector Gamache took in quickly and instinctively. François Marois seemed both vibrant and contained. At home in this rarified, and quite artificial, setting.

  Gamache glanced into the body of the room, packed with men and women milling about and chatting, juggling hors d’oeuvres and wine. A couple of stylized, uncomfortable benches were installed in the middle of the cavernous space. More form than function. He saw Reine-Marie chatting with a woman across the room. He found Annie. David had arrived and was taking off his coat, then he went to join her. Gamache’s eyes swept the room until he found Gabri and Olivier, side-by-side. He wondered if he should go and speak with Olivier.

  And do what? Apologize again?

  Had Reine-Marie been right? Did he want forgiveness? Atonement? Did he want his mistake purged from his personal record? The one he kept deep inside, and wrote in each day.

  The ledger.

  Did he want that mistake stricken?

  The fact was, he could live just fine without Olivier’s forgiveness. But now that he saw Olivier again he felt a slight frisson and wondered if he wanted that forgiveness. And he wondered if Olivier was ready to give it.

  His eyes swept back to his companion.

  It interested Gamache that while the best art reflected humanity and nature, human or otherwise, galleries themselves were often cold and austere. Neither inviting nor natural.

  And yet, Monsieur Marois was comfortable. Marble and sharp edges appeared to be his natural habitat.

  “No,” said Marois to Gamache’s question. “I’m not an artist.” He gave a little laugh. “Sadly, I’m not creative. Like most of my colleagues I dabbled in art as a callow youth and immediately discovered a profound, almost mystical lack of talent. Quite shocking, really.”

  Gamache laughed. “So what brings you here?”

  It was, as the Chief knew, a private cocktail party the night before the public opening of Clara’s big show. Only the select were invited to a vernissage, especially at the famous Musée in Montréal. The monied, the influential, the artist’s friends and family. And the artist. In that order.