To say going from being Chief Inspector Beauvoir in the Sûreté du Québec to running a department in a multinational engineering firm in Paris was an adjustment would have been a vast understatement.
Having to do it without a gun was even more difficult.
“Daniel and Roslyn being here has helped a lot.” As Armand spoke, he examined his godfather, to see his reaction to those words.
As a senior officer in the Sûreté du Québec, and Jean-Guy’s boss for many years, Gamache was used to reading faces.
Less a hunter than an explorer, Armand Gamache delved into what people thought, but mostly how they felt. Because that was where actions were conceived.
Noble acts. And acts of the greatest cruelty.
But try as he might, Armand had difficulty reading his godfather.
For a time, he’d thought he was in a position of privilege, and had unique insight into this remarkable man. But as the years went by, he began to wonder if maybe the opposite was true. Maybe he was too close. Maybe others saw Stephen more clearly, more completely, than he could.
He still saw the man who had taken his hand and kept him safe.
Others, like his grandmother Zora, saw something else.
“How’s Annie?” asked Stephen. “Are they ready for the baby?”
“As ready as anyone can be, I think.”
“It was a big decision.”
“Oui.” No use denying that. “She’s due any day now. You’ll see them tonight at dinner. I’ve made reservations for all of us at Juveniles. Eight o’clock.”
“Terrific.” Stephen unzipped his inner pocket and showed Armand the note in his slender agenda. “I assumed.”
Already written there was family, then Juveniles.
“Reine-Marie and I will swing by and pick you up.”
“Non, non. I’m having drinks with someone first. I’ll meet you there.” Stephen looked ahead of him. Staring at The Thinker.
“What’re you thinking?” Armand asked.
“That I’m not afraid to die. I am a little afraid of going to Hell.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Armand, shaken by the words.
“Just the natural fear of a ninety-three-year-old reviewing his life.”
“What do you see?”
“I see far too much ice cream.”
“Impossible.” Armand paused for a moment, before speaking. “I see a good man. A brave man. This’s a better world because you’re in it.”
Stephen smiled. “That’s kind of you to say, but you don’t know everything.”
“Are you trying to tell me something?”
“Non, not at all.” He reached out and gripped Armand’s wrist. His laser-blue eyes holding Armand’s. “I’ve always told the truth.”
“I know you have.” Armand placed his warm hand over Stephen’s cool one and squeezed gently. “When we first sat down, you said that Hell is empty and all the devils are here. What did you mean?”
“It’s one of my favorite quotes, you know that,” said Stephen.
And Armand did. Stephen loved to use the lines from The Tempest to unnerve business rivals, colleagues. Friends. Strangers on planes.
But this time was different. This time Stephen had added something. Something Armand had never heard from him before.
A specificity.
“You said the devils aren’t here, here.” Armand lifted his hands in imitation of Stephen’s gesture. “Why did you say that?”
“Who the hell knows? I’m an old man. Stop badgering me.”
“If they aren’t here, then where are they?”
The shadows had reached them now, and it was growing chilly in the shade.
“You should know.” Stephen turned to him. But not on him. It was a slow, considered movement. “You’ve met them often enough. You hunt devils for a living.” His blue eyes held Armand’s brown. “I’m very proud of you, son.”
Son.
Stephen had never called him that. Not once in fifty years.
Garçon, yes. Boy. It was said with great affection. But it wasn’t the same. As son.
Armand knew Stephen had been careful never to use that word. To not step on his late father’s memory and place in Armand’s life.
But now he had. Was it a slip? An indication of age and frailty? The defenses worn down, allowing his true feelings to escape? On that one, small, word.
“Don’t you worry about the devils, Armand. It’s a beautiful September afternoon, we’re in Paris, and your granddaughter is about to be born. Life is good.” Stephen patted Armand’s knee, then used it to push himself upright. “Come along, garçon. You can take me home.”
They paused, as they always did, at The Burghers. To look into those grim, determined faces.
“Just remember.” Stephen turned to look at his godson.
Armand held his eyes and nodded.
Then the two men walked slowly down rue de Varenne. Armand took Stephen’s arm as they crossed the streets. They ambled past antique shops and stopped at a patisserie, where Armand bought a pain aux raisins escargot for Reine-Marie, her favorite. And a croissant for Stephen to have with his breakfast.
At the large red-lacquered double door into Stephen’s building, the elderly man said, “Leave me here. I might just go across to the Hôtel Lutetia for an aperitif.”
“And by ‘aperitif’ you mean ice cream?”
It was only when Armand was crossing the Pont d’Arcole, on his way to their apartment in the Marais, that he realized he hadn’t pursued the question with Stephen. Or maybe Stephen had managed to divert his attention.
Away from the devils. That were somewhere here, here. In Paris.
CHAPTER 2
Jean-Guy Beauvoir could almost feel the chill enter the room, despite the sun streaming through his office window.
He looked up from his screen, but already knew who he’d see. Along with the lowered temperature, a slight aroma always accompanied his deputy department head. And while Beauvoir knew the chill was his imagination, the smell was not.
Sure enough, Séverine Arbour was at his door. She wore her usual delicately condescending smile. It seemed to complement, like a silk scarf, her designer outfit. Beauvoir wasn’t aware enough of fashion to say if Madame Arbour was wearing Chanel, or Yves Saint Laurent, or maybe Givenchy. But since arriving in Paris he’d come to at least know the names. And to recognize haute couture when he saw it.
And he saw it now.
In her forties, elegant and polished, Madame Arbour was the definition of soignée. A Parisienne through and through.
The only thing she wore that he could name was her scent.
Sauvage by Dior. A man’s cologne.
He wondered if it was a message and considered changing his cologne from Brut to Boss. But decided against it. Things were complex enough between them without entering into a war of fragrances with his number two.
“Lots of women wear men’s cologne,” Annie explained when he told her about it. “And men wear women’s scents. It’s all just marketing. If you like the smell, why not?”
She’d then dared him ten euros to wear her eau de toilette into work the next day. A dare he took up. As fate would have it, his own boss, Carole Gossette, chose that very day to invite him out for lunch. For the first time.