Chapter 34
Armand checked his phone again.
It had been too long since he’d heard from Isabelle or Shona. He had, though, had a call from Jean-Guy.
“We’re at Mirabel. It’s the wrong airport, patron,” Jean-Guy shouted into the phone. “Moretti’s here. We’ve got him, but there’re no bombs.”
But of course Gamache already knew that.
He tried to calm Jean-Guy, reassure him. “Not wrong. You got Moretti. You couldn’t have known that he was being used as a decoy.”
“So where are the planes? The bombs. What’s going to happen now? For God’s sake, patron. Where are they if not Mirabel? And where’s Isabelle?”
Where was Isabelle? Why hadn’t she checked in?
“Clean up there, then come home.”
Come home.
That had been an hour ago.
The sun was setting, Venus was rising, and Armand was standing on the porch of the church. Looking at the peaceful village below. And the three tall pines that signaled safety.
A car passed and he waved, but in the twilight, he wasn’t sure if they saw. Then he made his way into the church and took his place in the pew. And waited.
His phone vibrated and he glanced down at the message.
Still he waited.
Some malady is coming upon us. We wait. We wait.
Before long Marcus Lauzon slipped into the pew beside him. The last of the light through the bodies of the stained-glass boys bathed the men in warm amber and red and yellow.
“We went to the wrong airfield, Armand.”
“I know.”
In the silence Armand heard the drone of an aircraft in the distance. This time he wasn’t fooled.
“You have a remarkable daughter,” he said. “She saved the day, you know.”
“Really?” Lauzon turned to him. “How so?”
“In Parliament, she managed to find and smuggle out a file that outlines the entire plan.” Gamache placed it on the pew between them. “It was in the office of the Minister of Defense but was written by Jeanne Caron for her boss.”
“Her boss being Woodford.” He shook his head.
“I’ve known Jeanne since she was a child, you know.
I paid for her university. So bright. And yet even then…
” He looked down at the file. “That’s the whole plan?
But why would Giselle Trudel keep a hard copy of a document that damning?
Still, we’re lucky she did. Does it implicate Woodford? Is it the smoking gun?”
“I think you should read it, sir.” Armand pushed it a centimeter toward the former politician.
Lauzon picked it up, then paused. “Do you hear that?”
“You hear it too?” said Armand, rising.
“Something’s coming.”
The two men stepped out of the front door of the church. From the small porch they could see a light just above the horizon.
“It’s Venus,” said Lauzon.
“Venus doesn’t make a sound. Before it’s too late, I want you to know the other things your daughter did. She ordered Captain Pinsent released from custody, freeing her to help us escape with the file, but also with…”
Armand nodded down the hill, to a shadowy figure standing next to the three pines on the village green. Jean-Guy Beauvoir was on one side of him and Chief Inspector Tardiff on the other.
“My God,” whispered Lauzon. “It’s Woodford. You got him. Your Black Wolf.”
“Yes. We got him.”
Two others were approaching.
Lauzon squinted, peering into the darkness. “Is that you, Marie?”
His voice, hopeful, faded as the elongated light from the church door stretched toward and finally revealed who was approaching.
Not Marie Lauzon.
“I’m Reine-Marie Gamache,” said the voice out of the darkness.
“Oui. I know who you are.”
“But you don’t know me,” said the large man beside her. “I’m Daniel Gamache.”
Armand could sense a change in Lauzon. A stiffening. A sudden alertness.
“You’re under arrest.” Reine-Marie’s voice was strong and clear.
“What is this? I don’t understand.”
“It’s a citizen’s arrest, Monsieur Lauzon,” said Armand.
He looked beyond the man at his side, to Reine-Marie. To Daniel. Who had waited so long for justice. That he and his mother should be the ones to deal it out was more powerful than any arrest Armand had ever made. More poetic than anything Shakespeare, Auden, Atwood, and Zardo could ever capture.
If the head of homicide had his way, every murderer would be arrested by citizens whose loved ones had been stolen from them.
Now the three figures on the village green separated themselves from the pines and walked up the hill. Led by Prime Minister Woodford.
“What?” demanded Lauzon. “You’re arresting me?
You think I’m behind it?” He turned to Gamache, pleading.
“For God’s sake, man, it’s him.” He waved toward James Woodford, who was now standing between Reine-Marie and Daniel at the bottom of the stairs.
“He’s fooled you. Don’t you see what he’s done, what he’s capable of?
Circles within circles. Nothing left to chance.
For Chrissake, before it’s too late. Stop him! ”
Lauzon was wild now, with panic. With rage. The approaching aircraft stopped and hovered overhead, its floodlight catching his eyes. Here was not just a wild creature, but a rabid one.
Armand gripped his arm and held him fast. Then, while Beauvoir recorded it, Daniel read the former Deputy Prime Minister his rights.
The helicopter landed and Shona got out, falling to the ground with relief. Then she got up and helped Isabelle. Behind them came Captain Pinsent, gripping the arm of her prisoner, the Minister of Public Safety.
It was over.