Page 213 of A Better Man

“He won’t listen to me.”

“I think you’d be surprised.”

Gamache walked along the slushy road, in the opposite direction to Cameron, who was now barely visible through the mist.

Gamache heard Beauvoir on the other side of the house, knocking on the door.

“Tracey, it’s the Sûreté. Chief Inspector Beauvoir.”

Gamache took a few steps off the road, onto the soft grass, soaked by melting snow.

There was a door back there. Closed. It led, he knew, into Tracey’s studio.

As he got closer, he saw the boot prints.

He stopped. And stood absolutely still.

He heard pounding now. Beauvoir. At the door. Trying to get a response.

But there was no one there to respond, Gamache knew. At least no one alive.

He turned and shouted to Cloutier. “Homer’s already been here and gone. Beauvoir needs to get inside and find Tracey.”

“Yessir.”

She ran down the drive, sliding slightly in the mud but keeping her footing.

“He’s here,” she shouted. “Homer’s here.”

At the door, everyone turned.

“How’d you know?” demanded Beauvoir.

“Chief Inspector Gamache told me. Said to tell you to go inside. Tracey might be—”

“Merde,” said Beauvoir, and reached for the door handle as the two agents reached for their guns.

“Holster them,” said Lacoste.

The door was locked, and solid. They threw themselves against it, just as Cameron arrived. The human battering ram.

Putting his shoulder to it, the door burst open.

As he rushed in, Beauvoir wondered, very briefly, where Gamache was.

CHAPTER FORTY

“Tell him I’m following Homer,” Gamache shouted after Cloutier, as she ran to warn Beauvoir.

Then he turned back to the prints.

One set arriving.

One set returning.

Gamache followed the boot prints into the forest.

After a few steps, he paused and looked around. He knew then where Homer was heading.