A Better Man
- Автор: Пенни Луиза
- Серия: Chief Inspector Gamache #15
- Год: 2019
- Язык: английский
- Год: St. Martin's Publishing Group
- ISBN: 9781466873711
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «A Better Man». Краткое содержание книги:
It's Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Floodwaters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil, a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.
As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father.
Increasingly hounded by the question, how would you feel..., he resumes the search.
As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And in the tumult, mistakes are made.
In the next novel in this constantly surprising series that deepens and darkens as it evolves (The New York Times Book Review), Gamache must face a horrific possibility, and a burning question.
What would you do if your child's killer walked free?
It was just dumb luck that Chief Inspector Gamache had given her this time alone with Homer. He couldn’t possibly know what it meant to her. But now she needed to actually use it.
They were getting closer and closer to Three Pines.
Now was the time.
But what should she say? She couldn’t just blurt out, “I love you.”
Or could she? Maybe he needed to hear it. Especially now. To know someone loved him. Deeply.
Just before cresting the hill that would take them down into Three Pines, she reached over and placed her hand on top of his.
He didn’t pull away.
As they arrived at the Gamache home, just before putting the car in park, she squeezed.
And he, she was pretty sure, squeezed back.
Jean-Guy checked his phone again. It was instinctive.
There were, as he already knew from the last time he checked, no bars. No reception. Which was why he’d chosen a car with a radio connecting them to the station.
Now he stared at the handset. While beside him, Gamache stared out the window. Into the twilight. Through the trees to the lonely home and the single light at a single window.
Jean-Guy checked his phone again.
“That’s not true.”
“It is. The coroner just confirmed it. That baby was Carl’s.” Lacoste leaned forward. “A little girl. His daughter. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it, Pauline?”
Pauline was silent, but Lacoste could see her mind whirring.
Superintendent Lacoste had another question for Pauline Vachon.
“Where were you on Saturday afternoon and evening?”
Homer knelt and put his face against the smelly old dog, rubbing him, mumbling to him, before standing back up.
“Armand called to say you were coming,” said Reine-Marie, standing at the door as Henri and Gracie ran out to greet the new arrivals. “I’m glad.”
She was freshly showered and had put on slacks and a soft sweater. She turned to Agent Cloutier. “I have soup and sandwiches in the kitchen. You must be hungry.”
She was. “Yes, please. Merci.”
As they entered the home, Homer stepped closer to Reine-Marie, looking at her face. Then he shook his head.
“I did that,” he said, pointing to the bruise. “I can’t believe it. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
“I do,” she said. “And I think you showed amazing restraint. I shouldn’t have tried to stop you. I’d have ripped the head off anyone who tried to stop me.”
If it had been Annie dragged from the river. Or Daniel. Or Armand. She’d have done far worse to anyone standing between her and them.
“Your room is waiting for you. Would you like to freshen up, then meet us in the kitchen?”
He nodded, and the two women watched as he slowly climbed the stairs. Followed, slowly, by Fred.
“Homer?” said Lysette, not sure what to do.
“I’ll be fine, Lysette.”
Even something as small as hearing him say her name thrilled her.
“Chief Inspector, this is Cameron.”
Beauvoir snatched the mouthpiece off its cradle and pressed the button. “Oui.”
Gamache turned to watch, holding Beauvoir’s eyes.
“We have the warrant for Tracey’s arrest.”
Beauvoir exhaled. They had it.
But he wanted more.
“Is Superintendent Lacoste still in the interview room?”
“Yes.”
“Tell her to call as soon as she comes out.” He went to replace the handset, but Gamache stopped him.
“I have an idea.”
“Hold on, Cameron,” said Beauvoir, and clicked the handset off while Gamache explained.
Beauvoir nodded approval, then clicked the handset back on. “Still there, Cameron?”
“Oui, patron.”
“This is what I want you to do.”
Agent Cameron knocked on the door, then entered.
Lacoste glanced at him with some annoyance. It was unusual to be interrupted in the middle of what was proving a difficult interrogation.
Pauline Vachon was holding unexpectedly firm.
She would not admit that Tracey planned to kill his wife and that that’s what the posts were about.
Cameron bent down and whispered in her ear, then left.
Lacoste smiled and turned back to Vachon, who was watching her with feigned boredom. But after a few seconds of silence, Vachon’s brows lowered.
“What?” she demanded.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but an arrest warrant has just been issued for Carl Tracey. For the murder of Vivienne Godin. Chief Inspector Beauvoir is bringing him in. He’ll be here in half an hour.”
Lacoste got up and, collecting the papers, closed the file.
“Can I go now?”
“Not quite yet. I want to hear what Monsieur Tracey has to say. Then you can go.”
She walked to the door. And stopped when she heard that one word. That beautiful word.
“Wait.”
The radio crackled, and Jean-Guy reached for it so quickly it bobbled out of his hand.
He juggled it for a moment before finally grasping it.
“Beauvoir.”
“We have him,” said Isabelle Lacoste. “Pauline Vachon just admitted they’d discussed killing Vivienne. That Tracey planned to do it.”
“She’ll sign the statement? Testify against him?”
“Yes.”
They knocked on the door.
By now it was dark. Not even the porch light was on. Though there was still the one light on. Upstairs.
They knocked again. Still no answer.
Beauvoir turned to the two uniformed Sûreté agents and signaled them to go around back. Then he and Gamache exchanged glances.
Beauvoir turned the handle of the front door. It was unlocked. He swung it open.
“Tracey? Carl Tracey?” Beauvoir called. “Sûreté. We have a warrant for your arrest.”
He walked in, slowly, carefully, with Gamache right beside him. Both seasoned officers scanned the room. Looking for a killer.
They found him passed out, drunk, on the bed. In a puddle of his own vomit.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The arraignment was held the next morning, in Superior Court at the Palais de justice in Montréal.
Once he’d sobered up, Carl Tracey had been given a shower and a change of clothes. He spent the night at the Cowansville detachment, where he’d been booked for murder.
From there, early in the morning, he’d been driven to a cell in the Montréal courthouse.
Chief Inspectors Beauvoir and Gamache met there first thing and interviewed him, with his court-appointed lawyer present. Predictably, his lawyer told him not to say anything. Equally predictably, Tracey couldn’t help but talk.
After Tracey claimed he had nothing to do with Vivienne’s death, Beauvoir presented him with Pauline Vachon’s statement.
“She says you talked about killing your wife—”
Tracey snorted. “Who doesn’t say that every now and then?”
“I don’t,” said Chief Inspector Beauvoir.
“You will.”
Beauvoir knew he shouldn’t let this man get up his nose, but Tracey was firmly lodged there. That smug, weaselly look. From a man who’d just killed his wife and unborn child.
“You know nothing—” Beauvoir began.
“Chief Inspector,” said Gamache, a warning in his voice.
Carl Tracey turned to Gamache. “I wouldn’t kill my own wife. Too obvious. But someone else’s … That was your wife in that village, right? Looks like you and I have something in common. That bruise on her face?”
Gamache grew very still, very quiet. Then he turned back to Beauvoir, who was staring, dumbfounded by what Tracey just said.