A Trick of the Light

Two assistants stood by a stretcher, waiting to lift the woman onto it and take her to the waiting van. The photographer also waited. All looking at Chief Inspector Gamache. Waiting for him to give the order.

“Do you know how long she’s been dead?” Beauvoir asked the coroner, who’d just stood up and was moving her stiff legs.

“Between twelve and fifteen hours,” said Dr. Harris.

Gamache checked his watch and did the math. It was now eleven thirty on Sunday morning. That meant she was alive at eight thirty last night and dead by midnight. She never saw Sunday.

“No apparent sexual assault. No assault at all, except the broken neck,” said Dr. Harris. “Death would’ve been immediate. There was no struggle. I suspect he stood behind her and twisted her neck.”

“As simple as that, Dr. Harris?” asked the Chief Inspector.

“I’m afraid so. Especially if the victim wasn’t tensing. If she was relaxed and caught off guard there’d be no resistance. Just a quick twist. A snap.”

“But do most people know how to break someone’s neck?” asked Agent Lacoste, brushing off her slacks. Like most Québécoise she was petite and managed a casual elegance even while dressed for the country.

“It doesn’t take much, you know,” said Dr. Harris. “A twist. But it’s possible the killer had a fall-back plan. To throttle her, if the twist didn’t work.”

“You make it sound like a business plan,” said Lacoste.

“It might have been,” said the coroner. “Cold, rational. It might not be physically hard to snap someone’s neck, but believe me, it would be very difficult emotionally. That’s why most people are killed with guns or a club to the head. Or even a knife. Let something else do the actual killing. But to do it with your own hands? Not in a fight but in a cold and calculated act? No.” Dr. Harris turned back to the dead woman. “It would take a very special person to do that.”

“And by ‘very special’ you mean?” Gamache asked.

“You know what I mean, Chief Inspector.”

“But I want you to be clear.”

“Someone who either didn’t care at all, was psychotic. Or someone who cared very, very deeply. Who wanted to do it with his bare hands. To literally take the life, himself.”

Dr. Harris stared at Gamache, who nodded.

“Merci.”

He glanced at the coroner’s assistants and at a signal they lifted the body onto a stretcher. A sheet was placed over the dead woman and she was carried away, never to be in the sun again.

The photographer started snapping pictures and the forensics team moved in. Collecting evidence from beneath the body. Including the clutch purse. The contents were carefully cataloged, tested, photographed, printed then brought to Beauvoir.

Lipstick, foundation, Kleenex, car keys, house keys and a wallet.

Beauvoir opened it and read the driver’s license then handed it to the Chief Inspector.

“We have a name, Chief. And an address.”

Gamache glanced at the driver’s license, then at the four villagers, watching him. He walked back across the lawn to join them.

“We know who the dead woman is.” Gamache consulted the driver’s license. “Lillian Dyson.”

“What?” exclaimed Clara. “Lillian Dyson?”

Gamache turned to her. “You know her?”

Clara stared at Gamache in disbelief then looked beyond her garden, across the meandering Rivière Bella Bella, and into the woods.

“Surely not,” she whispered.

“Who was she?” Gabri asked but Clara seemed to have fallen into a stupor, staring bewildered into the forest.

“Can I see her picture?” she finally asked.

Gamache handed her the driver’s license. It wasn’t the best photo, but certainly better than the one taken that morning. Clara examined it, then took a long, deep breath, and held it for a moment before exhaling.

“It could be her. The hair’s different. Blond. And she’s a lot older. Heavier. But it might be her.”

“Who?” demanded Gabri again.

“Lillian Dyson, of course,” said Olivier.

“Well I know that,” Gabri turned to, and on, his partner. “But who’s she?”

“Lillian was—”

Peter stopped as Gamache raised his hand. Not in a threat, but an instruction. To stop talking. And Peter did.

“I need to hear it from Clara first,” said the Chief Inspector. “Would you like to speak in private?”

Clara thought for a moment, then nodded.

“What? Without us?” asked Gabri.

“I’m sorry, mon beau Gabri,” said Clara. “But I’d rather speak to them quietly.”

Gabri looked hurt, but accepted. The two men left, walking around the corner of the home.

Gamache caught Agent Lacoste’s eye and nodded then he looked at the two Adirondack chairs in front of them. “Could we find two more chairs?”

With Peter’s help two more Adirondack chairs were brought over and the four of them sat in a circle. Had there been a campfire in the center it might have felt like a ghost story.

And in a way, it was.

FOUR

Gabri and Olivier returned to the bistro in time for the lunch hour rush. The place was packed, but all conversation, all activity stopped when the two men entered.

“Well,” demanded Ruth into the silence. “Who kakked?”

That broke the dam and a flood of questions followed.

“Was it someone we know?”