A Trick of the Light

“We figure she was just sucking up,” said Paulette. “When she left we were nobodies but now we’re pretty well established.”

“Now, she needs us,” said Normand. “Needed us.”

“For what?” asked Clara.

“She said she’d gone back to doing some art. Wanted to show us her portfolio,” said Normand.

“And what did you say?”

They looked at each other. “We told her we didn’t have time. We weren’t rude, but we didn’t want anything to do with her.”

Clara nodded. She’d have done the same thing, she hoped. Been polite, but distant. It was one thing to forgive, it was another to climb back into the cage with that bear, even if it was wearing a tutu and smiling. Or, what was the analogy Myrna had used?

The frying pan.

“Maybe she crashed the party. Lots of people did,” said Normand. “Like Denis Fortin.”

Normand said the gallery owner’s name lightly, slipping it into the conversation, like a sharp word thrust between bones. A word meant to wound. He watched Clara. And Myrna watched him.

She sat forward, curious to see how Clara would handle this attack. Because that was what it was. Civil and subtle and said with a smile. A sort of social neutron bomb. Meant to keep the structures of polite conversation standing, while slaying the person.

Having listened to this couple for half an hour now, Myrna could say she wasn’t exactly stunned by this attack. And neither was Clara.

“But he was invited,” Clara said, matching Normand’s light tone. “I personally asked Denis to come.”

Myrna almost smiled. Clara’s coup de grâce was calling Fortin by his first name, as though she and the prominent gallery owner were buddies. And, yes, yes, there it was.

Both Normand and Paulette were stunned.

Still, two very troubling questions remained unanswered.

Who did invite Lillian to Clara’s party?

And why did she accept?

ELEVEN

“Honestly, you’re the worst investigator in history,” said Dominique.

“At least I was asking questions,” snapped Ruth.

“Only because I couldn’t get a word in.”

Myrna and Clara had joined the other two women in the bistro and were now sitting in front of a fire, lit more for effect than necessity.

“She asked André Castonguay how big his dick was.”

“I did not. I asked how big a dick he was. There’s a difference.”

Ruth brought up her thumb and forefinger to indicate about two inches.

Despite herself, Clara smirked. She’d often wanted to ask gallery owners the same question.

Dominique shook her head. “Then she asked the other one—”

“François Marois?” asked Clara. She’d been tempted to give the artists to Dominique and Ruth and take the dealers for herself, but she didn’t feel like seeing Castonguay just yet. Not after his phone call, and her conversation with Peter.

“Yes, François Marois. She asked what his favorite color was.”

“I thought it might be helpful,” said Ruth.

“And was it?” Dominique demanded.

“Not as much as you’d think,” admitted Ruth.

“So despite this grilling neither confessed to killing Lillian Dyson?” asked Myrna.

“They held up surprisingly well,” said Dominique. “Though Castonguay did let it slip that his first car was a Gremlin.”

“Tell me that’s not psychotic,” said Ruth.

“How’d you two do?” asked Dominique, reaching for her lemonade.

“I’m not sure how we did,” said Myrna, almost emptying the bowl of cashews with one handful. “I liked the way you disarmed that Normand fellow when he brought up Denis Fortin.”

“What do you mean?” Clara asked.

“Well, when you told him you’d invited Fortin yourself. Actually, that’s another mystery, now that I think of it. What was Denis Fortin doing here?”

“I hate to break it to you,” said Clara, “but I really did invite him.”

“Why in the world would you do that, child?” asked Myrna. “After what he did?”

“Well, if I kept out every gallery owner and dealer who turned me down, the place would’ve been empty.”

Not for the first time Myrna marveled at her friend, who could forgive so much. And who had so much to forgive. She considered herself fairly stable, but Myrna doubted she’d last long in the wine and cheese and cutthroat world of art.

She also wondered who else had been forgiven and invited who shouldn’t have been.

*   *   *

Gamache had called ahead and now he pulled into the parking spot at the back of the gallery on rue St-Denis in Montréal. The lot was reserved for staff, but it was five thirty on a Sunday and most had gone home.

Getting out of his car he looked around. St-Denis was a cosmopolitan Montréal street. But the alley that ran behind it was squalid, with used condoms and empty needles littering the ground.

The glorious front hid what was foul.

And which was the real St-Denis? he wondered as he locked the car and walked toward the vibrant street.

The glass front door of the Galerie Fortin was locked. Gamache looked for a doorbell, but Denis Fortin appeared, all smiles, and unlocked it for him.

“Monsieur Gamache,” he said, holding out his hand and shaking the Chief Inspector’s. “A pleasure to see you again.”