Page 170 of The Grey Wolf
“Québec?” demanded the young man in the back seat. “Let me out.”
Jean-Guy pulled into the traffic on Wellington Street as Gamache locked the doors.
Their guest was now unmistakably a hostage. And all three cops had just crossed a boundary.
CHAPTER37
The conference call was set up for later that evening.
“They have no idea what it’s about?” Gamache asked as they headed to the border.
“None. But they got the message that it was serious.”
“What is this about?” The Mountie in the back seat leaned forward.
Jeanne Caron’s assistant, seated with the RCMP officer, listened as Gamache finally answered the Mountie’s questions.
When Chief Inspector Gamache finished, both men were gaping at him.
“Wait a minute. My boss is planning to poison Montréal’s drinking water? That’s im—?”
They waited for him to sayimpossible, but instead, he fell silent. Gamache had turned in his seat and was watching the young assistant.
“Her routine has changed. She comes back after everyone else has left. Must be really late because I don’t leave before eight every evening. I know she’s been in by the changes on her desk next morning. Some classified files have been pulled and some have disappeared. Other executive assistants have come to me looking for them, but they’re gone. I think she’s also copied documents from other departments.”
“What departments?”
“I can’t remember them all.”
“Try!” demanded Beauvoir. Gamache put his hand on Jean-Guy’s arm to tell him to pull it back.
“The only one I can remember is the Auditor General. I couldn’t figure out why she’d go there. When rumors started that our boss, Monsieur Lauzon, would be promoted to Deputy PM, I figured she was just familiarizing herself with the dossiers.”
“But…?” said Gamache, his voice steady.
“But there seemed a frenzy about it. She’s normally so methodical. We call her Robo-COS. For Chief of St—”
“She wasn’t consulting the files, she was cleansing them,” snapped Beauvoir. “Taking out anything incriminating to her boss.” He turned to Gamache. “Jesus. Including the episode with his daughter.”
“What episode?” Sargent Gauthier asked but got no answer.
Privately, Gamache agreed with Jean-Guy.
After the charges of vehicular manslaughter against Lauzon’s daughter were dropped, Armand had gone to the Auditor General. It was the department that oversaw ethics.
Gamache hadn’t expected any action, and indeed, there was none. But he did want both the cover-up and subsequent threats placed in the record. A record that would have now been expunged. By Jeanne Caron.
That also explained why she wanted, needed, to see him. Why she’d called the other day. To issue fresh, even more serious threats. To make sure he was not tempted to go public. He could prove nothing, but an accusation against the Deputy Prime Minister might be enough.
Still, something didn’t track. If Caron and the Deputy PM were that desperate, if they’d killed Langlois and Parisi and probably others, why not also kill him? Or, if they were afraid he’d left evidence with a lawyer, at least come to him with new threats. But they had not. They’d been singularly silent since those calls.
And that was frightening. It was as though some huge creature were swimming just below the surface. Biding its time.
We wait. We wait.
“Where to?” Beauvoir asked.
“Montréal. The Mission.”
