Cruelest Month

‘It was Good Friday, Inspector. Le Vendredi saint.’

‘So?’

‘Think about it. Why is Easter the most important Christian holy day?’

‘Because that’s when Christ was crucified.’

‘No. Because that’s when Christ rose.’

   TWENTY-SEVEN

As Lacoste snapped pictures in the bedroom of the old Hadley house and Lemieux bagged the tape Gamache opened and closed drawers in the cabinets, bedside table and vanity. Then he walked over to the bookcase.

What had someone wanted in here so much they’d been desperate enough to break the Sûreté cordon?

Gamache smiled as he saw Parkman’s Works, that odious history of Canada, taught in schoolhouses more than a century ago to kids willing to believe natives were shifty savages and Europeans actually brought civilization to these shores.

Gamache opened one of the volumes at random.

In the form of beasts or other shapes abominable and unutterably hideous, the brood of hell, howling in baffled fury, tore at the branches of the sylvan dwelling.

Gamache closed the book and looked again at the cover, astonished. Was this really Parkman’s Works? Parched and dry and guaranteed to kill of ennui? The brood of hell? It was Parkman’s Works, he confirmed. And the section he’d opened was about Quebec.

‘Agent Lacoste, could you come here?’

When she did he handed her the book. ‘Could you open it, please?’

‘Just open it?’

‘S’il vous plaît.’

Isabelle Lacoste held the cracked leather volume between her hands then slowly splayed the cover. The frail pages fanned then after a stunned moment they fell, until the book was open. Gamache leaned over and read, In the form of beasts or other shapes abominable and unutterably hideous …

The book opened itself to that page.

Gamache stared then finally replaced it on the bookcase and took down the one next to it. A Bible. He wondered if it was coincidence, or whether the hand that placed the books together knew the one needed the other. But which needed which? He glanced at the Bible and slipped it into his pocket. He knew what he still needed to do, and every little bit helped. The dark slit in the bookcase, where the Bible had sat, revealed the cover of the next book. A book that was blank on its spine.

Lacoste was back at work and didn’t see Gamache slip the second book into his pocket too. But Lemieux did.

Gamache knew he was wasting time. The sun would soon set and he sure didn’t want to do it in the twilight.

‘I’m going to search the house. Are you all right here?’

Lacoste and Lemieux looked at him as his children Daniel and Annie had when he’d told them it was time they tried to swim across the bay without life jackets.

‘You’re strong enough swimmers.’

But still they couldn’t believe he’d ask this of them.

‘And I’ll be right beside you in the rowboat.’

He could still see the hesitation in Daniel’s eyes. But Annie dived right in. There was no way Daniel was going to be left behind so in he went too.

Daniel, sturdy and athletic, had swum the bay easily. Annie had barely made it. She was small and scrawny, as Reine-Marie had been at her age. But unlike Daniel, she lost no energy to fear. Still, she was so young and the bay so wide, she’d barely made it, sputtering the last few meters, her father encouraging her and practically dragging her to shore with his words, like ropes attached to the beloved little body. Twice he’d almost reached in and plucked her from the waters, but had waited and she’d found the strength to carry on.

Sun-warmed towels were wrapped around small excited bodies and Armand Gamache, holding and rubbing his children in his big, strong arms, had wondered if he’d made a mistake, having Annie try at the same time as Daniel. Not because Annie almost didn’t make it, but because she had. In his arms he could feel Daniel pull away at first, then finally subside and agree to be held and comforted and congratulated.

Daniel, for all his bulk and strength, was the fragile one. The needy one. And still was.

Looking at Lacoste and Lemieux he had the same impression. But which was strong and which was needy? And did it matter? As with his children, he believed in them both.

‘Would you like some help?’ Lacoste asked, resolved to the terrible task, if he wished it.

‘You have enough to do, thank you. When you’re finished go back to the Incident Room. I’m hoping the coroner will have something.’

Isabelle Lacoste watched him disappear into the darkness as though swallowed by the house.