Page 113 of Miss Wolcott’s Ghost

“Wait a minute,” said Gamache. “Her estates. Where were they?”

“I told you. England. Ireland. She had one in Croatia and another in France.”

“France? Where in France?”

“Aix-les-Bains. When her estate was sold to pay debts, she donated some papers to the university there. What?”

She’d noticed their reactions.

“Jeanette Bouchard,” said Jean-Guy. “She went to Aix-les-Bains. That can’t be a coincidence. She might still be there. Do you have an address for Miss Wolcott’s estate?”

“Are you kidding? Who’s Jeanette Bouchard?” Dr. Lagacé asked.

It was becoming a very good question. Who, and where, was she? And why did she go to a place where Daisy Wolcott once had an estate?

“Jeanette Bouchard must have gone looking for Daisy Wolcott, or at least her papers,” said Isabelle. “Somehow her research figures into this. Or at least Jeanette Bouchard thinks so.”

“And is there a connection between Miss Wolcott and the Empress of Ireland?” Jean-Guy asked.

“Not likely. She was dead by the time the ship sank,” Lacoste pointed out. Gamache was staring straight ahead, trying to see where this all led. But it was too murky. And not getting any clearer.

He turned back to Dr. Lagacé. “Could Miss Wolcott’s Ghost be of value after all? Could the dead man have discovered something?”

“And trained botanists missed it? Did he even see the plant?” she asked. “I was under the impression it only appeared after that fellow was dead.”

As far as they knew, that was true.

“We need to find Madame Bouchard,” said Gamache. “She must have some answers. And I’ll speak again to Charles Fillmore. I need to also break the news to him about his brother.”

It was the sort of thing that had to be done in person.

“Excusez-moi.” Beauvoir stepped away and placed two calls. One to the Canadian Border Agency, to see if Jeanette Bouchard had returned. And another to the police in the French town, asking them to track down the old estate.

And to see if they had any information on a Canadian visitor.

“Jeanette Bouchard,” said Jean-Guy, and spelled it.

While he did that, Armand sent a message to Charles Fillmore setting up a meeting for later that day. He noticed that Dr. Harris had replied to his question.

Yes, she wrote. The injuries are consistent with blows from a shovel.

He texted agents to return to the crime site and search the woods again, this time for a shovel. Handle with care. Might be murder weapon.

“Jeanette Bouchard hasn’t returned to Canada,” Beauvoir reported.

While they had the botanist there, Armand had another question for her.

“Rosemary keeps coming up in this investigation. Can you think why?”

“Well, maybe someone is trying to tell you something.”

“What do you mean?”

“As you know, in the language of flowers, rosemary means remembrance. Maybe someone wants you to remember something.”

“The messages aren’t meant for us,” said Gamache. “The rosemary we’ve found is old. If it’s a message, it was for someone else.”

This investigation was littered with both rosemary and a failure to remember.