The Cruellest Month (47 page)

All eyes turned to Jeanne Chauvet. Her own were hooded, sunken and dark.

‘You were all trying to get me to consider Jeanne a suspect. You told me you didn’t trust her, didn’t like her. Were frightened of her. I’d put it down to a kind of hysteria. The stranger among you. The witch. Who else would you want to be guilty?’

Clara stared at him. Gamache had put it so simply, so clearly. Had they really thrown this mousy woman to the inquisition? Turned her in? Lit the pyre and warmed themselves by it like smug Puritans, confident the beast wasn’t one of them. No thought for the truth, no thought for the woman.

‘I’d all but dismissed her as being too obvious. But dinner last night changed my mind.’

Clara thought she heard creaking again, as though the house had woken up, could sense a kill. Her heart thudded and the candle began flickering as though trembling itself. There was something about in the old Hadley house. Something had come to life. Gamache seemed to sense it too. He cocked his head to one side, a puzzled look on his face. Listening.

‘Ruth Zardo was talking about the burning times and called you Joan of Arc,’ he said to Jeanne. ‘And I remembered that Jeanne is French for Joan. Joan of Arc becomes Jeanne d’Arc. A woman burned for hearing voices and seeing visions. A witch.’

‘A saint,’ corrected Jeanne, her voice detached, far away.

‘If you prefer,’ said Gamache. ‘That first séance you thought was a joke, but the next one you took seriously. You made sure it was as atmospheric, as frightening, as possible.’

‘I’m not responsible for other people’s fears.’

‘You think not? If you jump out of the dark and say boo, you can’t blame the person for being frightened. And that’s what you did. Deliberately.’

‘No one forced Mad to come that night,’ said Jeanne, then stopped.

‘Mad,’ said Gamache quietly. ‘A nickname. Used by people who knew her well, not by someone who’d only just met her. You knew her, didn’t you?’

Jeanne was silent.

Gamache nodded. ‘You knew her. I’ll come back to that in a moment. The final element for murder was the séance. But no one here was going to lead one, and who’d expect a psychic to show up for Easter? It seemed far too fortuitous to be chance. And it wasn’t. Did you send this?’

Gamache handed Gabri the brochure for the B. & B.

‘I’ve never sent these out,’ said Gabri, barely looking at the brochure. ‘Only made them to satisfy Olivier who said we weren’t doing enough advertising.’

‘You’ve never mailed any out?’ Gamache persisted.

‘Why would I?’

‘You’re a B. & B.,’ suggested Myrna. ‘A business.’

‘That’s just what Olivier says, but we get enough people. Why would I want more work?’

‘Being Gabri is work enough,’ agreed Clara.

‘It’s exhausting,’ said Gabri.

‘So you didn’t write that across the top of the brochure.’ Gamache pointed to the glossy paper in Gabri’s large hand. Leaning into the candlelight Gabri strained to see.

‘Where lay lines meet – Easter Special,’ he read, guffawing. ‘As if. Is that what you meant when you said I wouldn’t get laid?’ he asked Jeanne, shifting his croissant.

‘I didn’t say that. I said ley lines don’t meet here.’

‘I thought you said they don’t work here,’ said Gabri, relieved. ‘But I never wrote that.’ He handed the brochure back to Gamache. ‘Don’t even know what it means.’

‘You didn’t type those words and you didn’t send it. So who did?’ It was clear he wasn’t expecting an answer. He was talking to himself. ‘Someone who wanted to lure Jeanne to Three Pines. Someone who knew her well enough to know talk of ley lines would pique her interest. But someone who doesn’t themselves know enough about ley lines to spell it correctly.’

‘I’d have to say that means all of us,’ said Clara. ‘Except one.’ She looked at Jeanne.

‘You’re thinking I wrote it myself? So that it only looks as though someone tried to trick me into coming? And even misspelled the word? I’m not that clever.’

‘Maybe,’ said Gamache.

‘That first séance, Gabri,’ said Clara, ‘you put up posters saying Madame Blavatsky would be contacting the dead. You lied about her name –’

‘Artistic license,’ explained Gabri.

‘It must be exhausting being him,’ said Myrna.

‘– but you knew Jeanne was a psychic. How’d you know?’

‘She told me.’

After a moment Jeanne spoke. ‘It’s true. I keep telling myself not to say anything, and of course it’s the first thing out of my mouth. I wonder why?’

‘You want to be special,’ said Myrna, not unkindly. ‘We all do. You’re just more open about it.’

‘Well,’ said Gabri, in a voice uncharacteristically small, ‘I did kinda wheedle it out of her. I ask all my guests what they do. What passions they have. It’s interesting.’

‘And then you put them to work,’ said Sandon, still smarting from the time he lost two hundred dollars to Gabri’s poker champ guest.

‘A village gets quiet,’ Gabri explained to Gamache with dignity. ‘I bring culture to Three Pines.’

No one chose to mention the shrieking opera singer.

‘When Jeanne checked in she read my palm,’ Gabri continued. ‘In my past life I was the Keeper of the Light at the Acropolis, but don’t tell anyone.’

‘I promise,’ said Clara.

‘But before that I walked around the village,’ said Jeanne. ‘Sensing the energy of the place. The funny thing is, whoever wrote that,’ she pointed to the brochure in Gamache’s hand, ‘was almost right. There are ley lines here, but they run parallel to Three Pines. It’s quite unusual to have them so close together. But they don’t meet. You don’t actually want them to meet. Too much energy. Good for sacred places, but you notice no one actually lives in Stonehenge.’

‘Not that we can see anyway,’ said Gamache, to everyone’s surprise. ‘Whoever sent the brochure knew that Gabri would find out that his guest was a psychic, and from there it was a guarantee he’d put her to work. A séance was a sure thing.

‘At Peter and Clara’s last night you brought me a book, Myrna.
The Dictionary of Magical Places
. I looked at it and do you know what I found?’

No one spoke. He turned to Jeanne. ‘I think you know what I found. You looked upset when the book was produced, especially since it was the latest edition. Olivier asked if they were finding new magical places.
He was joking, of course, but it turned out to be quite true. They did find a new magical place in the last twenty years. In France. A series of caves named after the region they were found. The Chauvet caves.’

Another creak was heard and Gamache knew time was running out. Something dark and personal was approaching.

‘Jeanne Chauvet. A psychic and self-proclaimed Wicca with the name of a medieval woman burned for witchcraft and a magical cave. There was no way it was your real name. But something else happened last night. Inspector Beauvoir and I couldn’t sleep for the frogs. We were in the living room looking at yearbooks from Hazel and Madeleine’s high school when Jeanne showed up. This morning the books were gone. There was only one person who could have taken them. Why did you, Jeanne?’

Jeanne stared off into the darkness then after a moment she spoke.

‘Something’s coming.’

‘
Pardon?
’ Gamache asked.

She turned to him, her eyes finally catching the candlelight. They were glowing now. It was unnatural, unnerving.

‘You can feel it, I know. It’s the thing I warned you about that morning in the church. It’s arrived.’

‘Why did you take the yearbooks, Jeanne?’ Gamache needed to remain focused, to not let his mind wander to the other thing. But he knew time was short. He needed to finish this now.

She stared openly at the door and remained silent.

‘I stopped at the high school on my way back this afternoon and picked up two things. Another yearbook and an alumni list. I’d like to read something from Hazel and Madeleine’s grad book.’ He reached down and brought a book onto his lap. He opened it to a spot marked by a Post-it. ‘Joan Cummings. Cheerleader. Joan of Arc plans to set the world on fire.’

He softly closed it.

‘You’re Joan Cummings?’ said Hazel, rousing herself. ‘From school?’

‘Didn’t recognize me, did you? Mad didn’t either.’

‘You’ve changed,’ said Hazel, sputtering a little in embarrassment.

‘But Mad hadn’t,’ said Jeanne.

Gamache turned the yearbook round and showed them the picture of the cheerleaders. In the uncertain light they saw a young woman, toned arms straining to the skies, a huge smile on her pretty face.

‘This was almost thirty years ago. But for all the make-up and smiles they still called you Joan of Arc, and talked about burning.’

Jeanne’s eyes flicked to the door then back again.

‘I knew Madeleine from the cheerleading squad. You were right
about the sun, you know. She was all that and more. She was genuinely nice and that made it worse. After years of being teased and tormented for being different all I wanted was to fit in. I wore make-up, did my hair, learned to talk nonsense, and finally made the cheerleading squad. I wanted to be her friend, but she was oblivious. Not cruel, really, but dismissive.’

‘You hated her?’ asked Clara.

‘You’ve probably always been popular,’ snapped Jeanne. ‘Pretty, talented, lively.’ Clara heard the words but didn’t recognize herself in them. Jeanne continued, ‘I was none of those things. I just wanted a friend. One single friend. Do you have any idea how horrible it is to be on the outside, all the time? And finally I made the squad. The place where all the cool girls were. And do you know how I did it?’

Jeanne was almost hissing now.

‘I betrayed everything I was. I made myself silly and superficial. There’s a reason they call it “make-up”. I literally made up myself every day. I locked all the things I cared about inside and turned my back on people who might’ve been my friends. All in the pursuit of the one, perfect girl.’

‘Madeleine,’ said Gamache.

‘And she was perfect. The worst moment of my life was when I realized I’d betrayed everything I cared about, for nothing.’

‘So you changed your name to Chauvet. You made up yourself yet again.’

‘No, I finally accepted myself. Changing my name to Chauvet was a celebration, a declaration. For once I wasn’t hiding who I am.’

‘She’s a witch,’ whispered Gabri to Myrna. ‘We know,
mon beau
. So am I.’

‘I knew who I was, but not where I belonged. I felt a stranger everywhere. Until I came here. As soon as I drove down that road into Three Pines I knew I’d found home.’

‘But you also found Madeleine,’ said Gamache.

Jeanne nodded. ‘At the séance that Friday night. And I knew she’d steal my light again. Not because she was greedy, but because I’d hand it to her. I could feel it. I’d found myself, I’d found a home and the only thing missing was finding a friend. And as soon as I saw Mad I knew I’d do it all over again. Try to be her friend, and be rebuffed.’

‘But why kill her?’ asked Clara.

‘I didn’t kill her.’

There were murmurs of disbelief around the circle.

‘She’s telling the truth,’ said Gamache.

‘She didn’t kill Madeleine.’

‘Then who did?’ asked Gabri.

Jeanne stood up, staring into the darkness at the door.

‘Sir?’ The voice at the door was young, tentative, but that made it more frightening somehow, like discovering the devil was a family friend.

Gamache rose too and turned to the door. He could see nothing but black, then eventually an outline appeared. He’d run out of time. He turned back to the circle. All eyes were on him, their faces round and open like searchlights, probing for reassurance.

‘I’ll be back in a few minutes.’

‘You’re not leaving us?’ said Clara.

‘I’m sorry. I have to, but nothing bad will happen to you.’

Gamache turned and walked away from the flickering light, disappearing over the edge of the world.

   FORTY-TWO   

A
gent Lemieux led him to the very end of the corridor and into a dim room where someone sat cross-legged, a flashlight cradled in his lap.

‘Hello, Armand.’

The voice was so familiar. The body, even in the struggling light, immediately recognizable. Beloved over the decades. Sneaking into bars underage, double-dating, cramming for exams, long walks as young men picking apart the world’s problems. And putting it together again, perfect. Smoking together. Quitting together. They’d been each other’s best man. Stood for each other, chosen each other to be godparent to a precious and beloved child.