Page 47

He waited.

“I think you can guess.”

“I think I don’t want to.”

She nodded, then reached for a drawer in her desk. “I can give you the booking request and receipt of payment for the gym right now. I don’t have to look it up.”

She brought a slip of paper from the drawer but didn’t yet hand it to him.

“Abby called just before Christmas.”

“You didn’t tell me this before.”

“No. But I’m telling you now. It wasn’t unusual. Like most people who don’t know each other well but want to stay in touch, we connected at Christmas. She’d sent me the paper she’d prepared for the Royal Commission and I’d been following the controversy. She said she’d like to come visit.”

“But they’re not staying with you. They’re at the Manoir Bellechasse, aren’t they? I have agents there in case there’s more trouble.”

“My place was already packed with houseguests, as you saw, so we couldn’t put them up. But . . .”

“Yes?”

“We spoke on the phone last night. She and Debbie were so shaken I invited them to come to us today. The kids can sleep on the sofas in the basement.”

Gamache’s mind moved quickly. This was probably a good thing. Easier to protect a private home than a hotel.

“When she called and said she wanted to visit, did she say why?”

Now Colette smiled. “I’d assumed she wanted my wisdom, my advice. But seems not. She hasn’t asked for it.”

“Did she mention doing an event while she was here?”

“No. None was planned.”

“So how did it come about?”

Now the Chancellor looked decidedly uncomfortable. “That was my doing, I’m afraid. I mentioned in passing, more as a joke than anything, that if she needed to write the trip off, she should give a lecture. Two days later she called back—”

“She called? None of this was done by email or text?”

“No. All calls.”

Armand took that in. It meant no paper trail. No way to confirm anything except that the calls happened. But not what was discussed.

“She asked if there was an arena or something she could book. I thought it was her turn to joke. An arena. But then I watched her last talk and saw the crowd.”

“So you booked the gym for her?”

The slip of paper in her hand had been a pretty good indication that the Chancellor was responsible, but it was still an unpleasant shock to have it confirmed.

“What was I supposed to do? It was my idea.”

“Say nothing was available. Decline. Refuse. Lie.” He was staring at her, trying to understand how a person he’d always thought of as intelligent could do something so stupid.

And then a thought occurred. “You didn’t want to turn her down. In fact, you made the suggestion knowing she’d jump at it. You wanted to make sure she came. Why?”

Chancellor Roberge pressed her lips together and placed the requisition slip on the messy desk.

“She was brilliant, such a dazzling intellect, like her father. But she’d gone so far off the rails, coming to conclusions that seemed not just abhorrent but actually wrong. Yes, I wanted her to come. It was the least I owed her father. I wanted to figure out what had happened. To try to get her back on course.”