Page 37 of The Grey Wolf
You know, Charles had said.Or at least you suspect.
Gamache sighed in frustration. Charles had been wrong. He neither knew nor suspected.
Beauvoir’s phone buzzed with a text from Lacoste. “Shit. They found the SUV in Terrebonne, the Lachenaie landfill. And the driver.”
Gamache turned from the window. “Dead?”
“One shot in the head. No ID. She’s sending photos.”
Gamache had often wondered if it was intentional, or unintentionally ironic, that the place the city had chosen to dump all its garbage was called Terrebonne. Good earth.
And not just garbage. It was a favorite dumping ground for the Montréal mafia. More than a few bodies had been found there.
Gamache gave a curt nod. “Did you get a photo of that pin?”
“Oui.I’ll send it into the system.”
“No,” said Gamache abruptly. “Keep it between us. Show Isabelle, but no one else.”
“You believed him about the Sûreté? That there’s someone on the inside?”
“I don’t know, but we have to assume.”
Did Charles know he was being more than just set up? That he was targeted? Is that why he wanted to meet away from the Sûreté?
And yet he’d chosen to meet the most recognizable cop in Québec, in a public place. If he suspected he was being watched, then he wanted them to be seen together. That’s why the popular café. That’s why he’d even paused on the sidewalk.
Far from wanting to hide, he wanted to be seen, and seen with Chief Inspector Gamache. Charles must have thought that would guarantee his safety. No use killing him if he’d already spilled everything, and to a senior Sûreté officer.
But he was wrong. And that meant there was even more, much more, at stake than even Charles Langlois realized.
“Jean-Guy?”
“Oui?”
“If you knew you were being watched, and you had evidence that could damage some very nasty and desperate people, what would you do?”
Beauvoir thought. “If I was that afraid? I’d broadcast it. Send it to the cops. So that it wouldn’t do any good to kill me for it. The information was already out there.”
“But if you couldn’t do that? If you still had to sort out the innocent from the guilty?”
“Weellll.” Jean-Guy thought. “I guess I’d hide it until I knew.”
“That’s what I’d do too.”
Gamache looked over to the desk. Was it possible the laptop and papers and whatever was on the wall hadn’t been stolen but hidden?
“Got it,patron. The symbol on the pin.” Beauvoir held out his phone. “It’s for a group called Action Québec Bleu. Some environmental organization.” He hit the small phone icon and put it on speaker.
“Action Québec Bleu,” said the cheerful young voice.
“Bonjour,” said Gamache. “I’m calling to find out if you know a Charles Langlois.”
“Well, yes,” said the woman. “He works here, but he’s not in today. Can I take a message?”
“Non, merci.I might drop by, can you give me your address please?”
She did. He wrote it down and thanked her before hanging up.
