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Forget that fact, and you’ll be dead before you started.

“Patron?”

Gamache looked around and saw that Lacoste was standing at a rare unguarded door. It was immediately obvious why no one was on guard. It was a utility closet, with a bucket and mop, a broom and rolls of paper towel.

The three of them squeezed in.

“What—” Gamache began to ask, but Shona was already talking.

“Did you see?”

“See what? The attempt on the President’s life? Yes.”

“No, before that. When the guards told us there’d been shots fired. Everyone reacted as though the attack was here, in Parliament.”

“Oui.”

“Except one person. I happened to be looking at the Prime Minister when that happened.”

“He wasn’t surprised?” asked Lacoste.

“Oh, no, he was like the rest of us. Shocked and afraid. It was that Payette woman, his Chief of Staff. She was looking at him as though she knew something. Something bad.”

“We all thought it was bad,” said Lacoste.

“No, this was different. She wasn’t afraid, at least not in that way. She seemed to know there was no danger. Not here.”

At that moment the door was yanked open and an armed special forces officer stood there, her rifle pointed at them.

“Out, get out. Now!”

“But—” Shona began to step forward.

A gun was cocked.

“Shona!” Gamache stepped in front of her and spread his arms wide in obvious submission. As he did, he gave her a look that was impossible to misinterpret.

Her hands went up, as did Lacoste’s.

Once out of what must’ve looked like a hiding place, they were frisked and their IDs taken.

The commando handed Gamache back his Sûreté ID. “What were you doing in there, sir?”

“We needed a private place to talk about what just happened.”

“A closet?”

“Well, we didn’t know,” said Gamache, replacing his ID.

He knew how ridiculous they must’ve looked, all crammed in there like clowns in a circus.

The guard, no fan of clowns, smiled tightly. The atmosphere still tense. “Come with me.”

There was no “please.”

She led them to a large, comfortable lounge. Those in Parliament at that early hour were being held in different rooms. Gamache recognized a few members of Parliament and civil servants, as well as a couple of senators. All were gathered around a television.

“Any news?” one of them asked when she saw them enter.