Page 161 of The Grey Wolf
Though he had to admit, it was the proper term. And he knew he should be one among equals, but still, it didn’t feel right. Though there was more to take offense at than what she called him. The threat to search this most private of monasteries, for instance. To violate the sanctity of their home. Their place of worship.
It would not be the first time this had happened. And while this young woman was hardly the Inquisition come to slaughter them, the Carthusians knew that this was how bad things started. Innocently enough.
It was how defenses were breached. Not by force but by a smile. An offer to help.
The Abbot glared at Frère Sébastien, the Gilbertine. Who’d lied and entered their monastery as a lay monk. And opened the gate to these invaders. Yes, that’s how defenses were breached. By friends. By the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“You wouldn’t dare search the monastery.”
Claude Dussault stepped forward, his face grave. “It would be a terrible thing. And I’d hate to do it. But too many lives are at stake. If we do have to serve the warrant, if I need to bring in a force, it will be on you. Not us. You have the power to stop it.”
Sensing a weakening in the Abbot’s defenses, Lacoste said, “We just need to speak to one monk. Twenty minutes should do it. I promise, we won’t take him away. We don’t even have to go inside. Just bring him to us. You can be here for the interview. Please.”
The Abbot looked at the warrant in his hand, then stepped aside and spoke to two of the lay brothers, who left.
Irene and Sébastien exchanged looks, as did Claude Dussault andIsabelle Lacoste. This did not guarantee that Brother Robert would tell them what they needed to know, but it was a huge step forward.
“What can it mean that Dom Philippe and Jeanne Caron are related?” asked Beauvoir as they drove toward Montréal.
“And met recently at The Mission,” said Gamache. “After you called, I told Raymond Rousseau that his brother had seen his niece. Both he and Miriam said that couldn’t be true.”
“Why not?”
“There’d been a falling-out. His niece had refused to see Dom Philippe, or even have his name mentioned. Seems he didn’t return to Blanc-Sablon for her mother’s funeral. Eunice died when Jeanne was thirteen. Drowned. Jeanne adored her uncle and begged him to come back and lead the service.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“I don’t know. Might’ve taken his vows of silence and cloistered life to an extreme. He sent back a short letter of condolence and said he’d pray for Eunice’s soul.”
“That’s cold.”
“She couldn’t forgive him. What made it worse was that years later, when the recording of the Gregorian chants came out, he did interviews and even personal appearances to promote it.”
“He left the monastery for that, but not for her.” Jean-Guy slid a glance at the Chief. “Doesn’t sound like a nice man.”
Gamache was silent for a few moments. “But something’s changed.”
“There’s nothing like a common goal to patch things up,” said Beauvoir.
“That being to poison the population?”
“If that’s what’s going on, yes. That’s Old Testament shit. The Great Flood. Sodom and Gomorrah. Maybe when he finally did leave the monastery, he saw how screwed up the world is. Maybe he sees himself as some sort of messiah, an agent of God. Wouldn’t be the first religious wingnut to take things into their own hands.”
“Could be.”
It was clear that Caron was the black wolf, or at least in league with it. And now it looked like her uncle Dom Philippe had joined the pack. But what use would a Gilbertine abbot be to terrorists?
One thing did occur to Gamache. If Caron knew that he and the Abbot had met. Had formed a mutual respect. Could she be using her unbalanced uncle to distract and mislead him?
Was it working?
“Why did Dom Philippe and Caron meet at The Mission?” asked Gamache, thinking out loud. “And with Charles Langlois? What were the three of them talking about? Is it possible that’s how the map and maybe Langlois’s notes got to the monastery? They weren’t sent to Dom Philippe, they were sent by him.”
Beauvoir considered that possibility. “But Frère Simon told us that Dom Philippe instructed him to keep the map safe.”
“True. He made it sound like he’d told Simon in person. But suppose the Abbot ‘told’ him that in a letter and we just assumed it was face-to-face. We need to ask him.”
Though at this point it didn’t really matter. It was a detail for later.
