Page 174 of Miss Wolcott’s Ghost

“Yes. Jeanette said periwinkle will help. She said she’d look into it. I thought it might be another joke. That her client’s name was Periwinkle LaPlante. That’s not possible, is it?”

“It is unlikely.” Her energy was waning. He could almost see it seeping out of her.

“Thank you for seeing us.”

He offered his hand, and she laid hers in his. It was cold to the touch, and he wrapped his large, warm hand around it. He could feel her heartbeat through the thin skin. It was like holding a tiny, injured bird.

But this was an injury he could not heal, and a chill he could never banish.

“There was no pain,” he said softly, looking into her bloodshot eyes.

The pain all belonged to her mother now. Far more excruciating than giving life, this letting go of it.

The kitten got up and walked over to Armand. He picked it up and stroked it. “Lovely little one.”

He handed her back to Madame Bouchard.

“Jeanette’s. She found it on a garbage heap. Who does that to another creature?” She lifted the kitten to her lips and kissed the top of her head. “But you’ll live with me now, and I’ll take good care of you, right, Peduncle.”

“That’s the cat’s name?” asked Armand.

“Yes.”

Comeau sat mute in the passenger’s seat, staring out the window and eating corn chips as Armand parked outside Brian Fillmore’s home and placed the Sûreté card in the windshield.

Agents, waiting for the Chief Inspector, got out of their cars. But still, he sat still, thinking.

Jeanette’s mother was dying. Was it possible Jeanette found out what Brian Fillmore was looking for and figured it must be worth a fortune? Money she’d need for her mother’s care. Private nurses so she could stay in her own home, to the end.

And periwinkle? What did Jeanette mean by that? Professor Agrawal had said the Madagascar periwinkle was proving to have potential in the treatment of cancer. Did Jeanette know about that?

She must have known about Daisy Wolcott. She was at her estate. And named her cat after Daisy’s cat.

Had Jeanette enlisted Gaston’s help? Was he lying about how much he knew?

It seemed likely, though there was no proof of this beyond the circumstantial, including that Comeau clearly knew about Daisy Wolcott and the estate. He’d gone there looking for Jeanette. He said he’d pieced it together from her jottings, but Armand didn’t believe a word of that. He thought it entirely possible Jeanette had told Comeau about this side gig. If not all, then enough.

“When did you have that fight with Jeanette?”