Page 43 of The Grey Wolf
He knew that most of the journalists, most of the cameras, were trained on him, and he was not going to show any discomfort.
After the Mayor, the Chief Superintendent spoke. She made a brief statement, again reassuring the public, and then it was Gamache’sturn. He’d been given a prepared statement, which he needed to read. But they could not dictate or control his pauses, his tone. His facial expression. Or his answers to questions.
Whoever had ordered the hit at the café would be watching.
When it came time for reporters’ questions, they were hurled at him and only him.
Describe what happened, Chief Inspector.
How did it feel?
You and the dead man were seen together in the café. Do you know him?
Why were you meeting?
Who was the driver? Why did he run his vehicle into that café? Did he have a grudge against you? Against the café?
What did Charles Langlois say to you as he was dying?
Armand answered all the questions as truthfully as he could.
He was interviewing Monsieur Langlois in connection with (pause) a possible crime. One he could not discuss.Non, Charles Langlois was not a suspect in that crime.
In terms of what Langlois had said when he lay dying on the road—Gamache looked into the cameras—that was (pause) private.
An online vlogger stood up and asked if Langlois had been the target.
Gamache turned to her. He knew her well. She had pretty much devoted her site to tearing down the Sûreté in general and Gamache in particular. And now she had him in the crosshairs.
“We’re looking into that possibility,” said Gamache.
“But it seems obvious it was either him or you.”
“Do you have a question?”
“He must’ve been important, to bring you out.”
It was not said with respect. But Gamache hadn’t expected it to be. Though he also had not expected her to be at this hastily called news conference. But there she was.
“Again, do you have a question?”
“We’ve all seen the video, Monsieur Gamache. It’s clear that you saw the vehicle approaching before anyone else. You could’ve saved Monsieur Langlois, but you chose to save yourself. Why is that?”
Gamache was silent, and into that beat, she demanded, “How can the public feel safe when the Sûreté protects itself first?”
While the word “coward” was not actually said, not yet anyway, it hung in the air.
The seasoned journalists looked from the Chief Inspector to the vlogger and back.
Gamache stared at her, assessing. Not an answer, but a sudden thought. An idea.
He opened his mouth to answer, but the Chief Superintendent stepped in front of the microphone.
Madeleine Toussaint launched into a blistering defense of her head of homicide, pointing out that he’d saved two people, at considerable risk to himself. That was clear to anyone who watched that video.
“It might’ve been clear to you,” said the vlogger. “But I saw a man who saved himself and just happened to fall into an elderly man and a little girl. Injuring them in the process. I saw no evidence it was a deliberate act to save them.”
It was difficult to shock seasoned journalists, many of whom had been on the crime beat for years, but this very personal attack on Gamache did.
