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“They’re in the air, Chief,” said Chernin.
“Excellent. The warrant?”
“I’ll check.”
Gamache could wait no longer. He walked over to Agent Beauvoir, who was guarding the door to Dagenais’s office. “Unlock it, please.”
When Beauvoir did, the Chief Inspector stepped inside and, without preamble, said, “You three are staying here. You three”—he pointed to the most aggressive, including the one who’d almost killed him—“can leave.”
Beauvoir looked at the agents, then at Gamache. Had the man lost his mind? Was his brain oxygen-starved?
“Chief—” he began.
“You have their Sûreté ID?” Gamache said. Beauvoir nodded. “You’ve searched their vehicles?”
“Oui. We found assault rifles.” Illegal, Gamache knew, for ordinary Sûreté agents.
“We’re sure they’re now unarmed?”
“Absolutely, but in their homes there might—”
“Good.” Gamache waved at the agents. “Leave. Now. Just you three. Before I change my mind.”
Beauvoir looked around for Chernin. Surely the Inspector could stop this madness. But she was busy on the phone.
The three agents looked at each other in disbelief, then hurried out the door and into the darkness.
CHAPTER 10
“Are you insane?” Beauvoir seethed. “You’ll get us all killed.” He turned to Chernin, who was now off the phone. “He let them go.”
Chernin looked at the Chief Inspector with surprise but didn’t challenge him. Instead, she said, “The warrant for Dagenais’s property has come through.”
“Did you hear what I said?” Beauvoir demanded, looking from one to the other.
“Good,” said Gamache, ignoring him and replying to Chernin. “You’re in charge. Good luck, Linda.”
“And you, patron.” She watched as Gamache picked up one of the Glocks and loaded it.
“Agent Beauvoir,” said Gamache, fixing the gun to his belt, “do you know where Dagenais lives?”
“I don’t know the address, but I know how to get there.”
“Well, I know the address, but not how to get there. Come with me.”
At the door, Beauvoir looked back at Chernin. He needed reassurance that he wasn’t about to get into a car with a crazy man. An armed crazy man. But Inspector Chernin had already turned away.
As he drove, Jean-Guy was tempted to pepper the Chief Inspector with questions, but did not. He was afraid of the answers.
As they turned off the main road, Gamache asked, “Does Dagenais live alone?”
“Yes.”
“Let me know when we’re almost there.”
A few minutes later, Beauvoir said, “It’s down here a couple hundred meters.”
“Shut off your lights, please, and turn the car around in that cul-de-sac.”
