Page 147

That, he thought, was a stroke of luck. If the Dean couldn’t tell them what Fillmore wanted, maybe the botanist could find out.

Unfortunately, the head of plant sciences was out sick.

“Perhaps our librarian can help,” suggested the Dean. She obviously had other things to do, and was fairly desperate to dump the two Sûreté officers off on someone, anyone, else.

“Ahhh, Daisy Wolcott,” said the librarian after the Dean left. “Now there’s an interesting person. Sit.”

They remained standing. “We’d like to see any documents of hers you might still have.”

“We don’t have any. Not anymore. They were all destroyed.”

“Destroyed? By you?”

“Good God, no. One of our professors, Abe Russell, took them all out in 1914. He really shouldn’t have, but things were different back then. Less oversight. He was taking them to England to some conference, but the ship sank. He died, and Miss Wolcott’s papers were lost.”

Lacoste and Beauvoir exchanged glances, then sat down.

“Do you know why this Professor Russell wanted to take them with him?” Lacoste asked.

“Not a clue.”

“How about a guess?” There was clearly a hesitation there.

“I did look up Professor Russell,” she admitted. “He’d applied for tenure and been turned down twice. Once more, and he was out.”

“What could that have to do with Miss Wolcott’s collection?” asked Isabelle.

But Jean-Guy had it. “He wasn’t a very good botanist, but he was a decent thief.”

The librarian nodded. “I think he wanted to claim her research as his own.”

“Which would mean it was worth claiming,” said Jean-Guy.

“To take it all the way to the Royal Horticultural Society? Yes. Shame it went down with the ship.”

More of a shame than that Professor Russell also went down.

“But I can’t imagine Miss Wolcott would have much respect for this Russell. Why did she leave her life’s work to him?”

“Oh, she didn’t. She left it in the care of another professor. Lafrenière. He died shortly after the donation was made, and her papers seem to have gathered dust in our archives for years, until Professor Russell took an interest.”

“I’m thinking you know all this because we’re not the first people to ask,” said Isabelle. “You told Monsieur Fillmore the same thing? About the loss of her collection?”

“I did.” She hesitated but said no more. “You should probably speak to the head of plant sciences. He’d know more.”

“He’s sick today.” They got up. “Merci.”

But the librarian remained seated.

“Was there something else you wanted to tell us?” Lacoste asked.

“Maybe.”

Now all three stared at each other.

“What?” asked Beauvoir.

“I’m not sure if I should.”