A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #7)

A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #7) Page 110

Clara nodded.

“I’d like to represent both you and Peter. I’m young and we can all grow together. I’ll be around a long time to help guide your careers. I think that’s important. My thought is to build toward a solo show for each of you and then a combined exhibition. Take advantage of both your talents. It would be thrilling. The show of the year, of the decade. Please consider it, that’s all I ask.”

Clara nodded and watched Fortin leave.

*   *   *

Inspector Beauvoir joined the Chief Inspector on the bridge.

“Look at this.” Beauvoir gave him a printout.

Gamache noticed the heading then quickly read down the page. Stopping, as though hitting a wall, three quarters of the way down. He lifted his eyes and met Beauvoir’s, who was waiting. Smiling.

The Chief went back to the sheet, reading more slowly this time. Reading right to the end.

He didn’t want to miss anything, the way they almost had.

“Well done,” he said, handing the page back to Inspector Beauvoir. “How did you find that?”

“I was going over the interviews and realized we might not have talked to everyone at the party down here.”

Gamache was nodding. “Good. Excellent.”

He looked toward the B and B, his arm extended. “Shall we?”

A few moments later they stepped from the bright, warm sunshine onto the cooler verandah. Normand and Paulette had watched their progress across the village green. Indeed, Gamache suspected everyone in the village had.

It might look sleepy, but Three Pines was in fact keenly aware of everything.

The two artists looked up as they approached.

“I wonder if I might ask you a very great favor?” Gamache said, smiling.

“Of course,” said Paulette.

“Could you perhaps go for a walk around the village, or have a drink at the bistro? On me?”

They looked at him, uncomprehending at first, then it clicked with Paulette. Gathering up her book and a magazine she nodded. “I think a walk would be a great idea, don’t you, Normand?”

Normand looked like he’d just as soon stay where he was, in the comfortable swing on the cool porch, with an old Paris Match and a lemonade. Gamache couldn’t say he blamed him. But he did need them gone.

The two men waited until the artists were well out of ear-shot. Then they turned to the third occupant of the verandah.

Suzanne Coates sat in a rocking chair with a lemonade. But instead of a magazine she had her sketch pad on her lap.

“Hello,” she said, though she didn’t get up.

“Bonjour,” said Beauvoir. “Where’s the Chief Justice?”

“He went off to his home in Knowlton. I’ve checked in here for the night.”

“Why?” asked Beauvoir. He pulled up a seat, while Gamache sat in a nearby rocking chair, and crossed his legs.

“I plan to stay until you find out who killed Lillian. I figure that’s pretty big incentive for you to get the job done quickly.”

She smiled, as did Beauvoir.

“It would move a lot faster if you told us the truth.”

That wiped the smile off her face.

“About what?”

Beauvoir handed her the sheet of paper. Suzanne took it and read, then handed it back. Her considerable energy didn’t so much wane as contract, like an implosion. She looked from Beauvoir to his boss. Gamache was giving her nothing. He simply continued to watch with interest.

“You were here the night of the murder,” said Beauvoir.

Suzanne paused and Gamache was surprised to see that even at this late date, when there was no hope of escape, she still seemed to be considering a lie.

“I was,” she finally admitted, darting looks from one man to the other.

“Why didn’t you tell us that?”

“You asked if I was at the vernissage at the Musée, and I wasn’t. You didn’t actually ask about the party here.”

“Are you saying you didn’t lie?” demanded Beauvoir, glancing at Gamache as if to say, See? Another deer on the same old path. People don’t change.

“Look,” said Suzanne, squirming in her chair, “I go to lots of vernissages, but I’m mostly on the business end of a cocktail wiener. I told you that. It’s how I pick up extra cash. I don’t hide it. Well, I mean, I hide it from Revenue Canada. But I told you all about it.”

She implored Gamache, who nodded.

“You didn’t tell us all about it,” said Beauvoir. “You failed to mention you were here when your friend was murdered.”