Page 179
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.
