All the Devils Are Here
- Автор: Пенни Луиза
- Серия: Chief Inspector Gamache #16
- Год: 2020
- Язык: английский
- Год: St. Martin's Publishing Group
- ISBN: 9781250145253
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «All the Devils Are Here». Краткое содержание книги:
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand's godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man's life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen's possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d'Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.
It sends them deep into the secrets Armand's godfather has kept for decades.
A gruesome discovery in Stephen's Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.
Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.
For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.
Armand narrowed his eyes at his daughter-in-law, in mock disapproval, and she laughed.
“The girls love their pajamas,” Roslyn said to Reine-Marie. “I’m afraid they’re going to want to wear them everywhere.”
“I say let them,” said Daniel. “And by the way, Mamma, thank you for not letting Dad pick out the gift.”
“He had the paint rollers all wrapped before I stopped him.”
Armand shook his head sadly. “I guess they’ll have to wait until Christmas.”
While the others laughed, Armand watched Daniel.
He was enjoying himself.
Daniel seemed to have made peace with Jean-Guy. Long jealous of the close relationship his father had developed with his second-in-command, now Daniel could establish his own relationship with Jean-Guy.
Still, Armand noticed that Daniel made sure to put Jean-Guy as far from him as possible. Though that might have just been a coincidence.
He himself hoped to find time in the next day or so for a quiet walk or meal with Daniel. Just the two of them. To make sure everything really was okay, after what Stephen had said.
Armand’s eyes returned to the empty chair. It was twenty past eight, and Stephen, normally a fiend for punctuality, hadn’t arrived.
“Excusez-moi,” he said, and made to get up, just as the door to the bistro opened and the elderly man appeared.
“Stephen,” exclaimed Annie, and struggled to get up before Jean-Guy hauled her to her feet.
Armand and Reine-Marie stood at their places while the younger ones greeted Stephen, then were corralled back to their seats by Margaux in an effort to unblock the aisle in the tiny restaurant.
Daniel gestured for more wine, while Stephen placed his phone on the table in front of him and nodded to the barman. His usual.
The martini arrived along with a fresh liter of red.
“A toast,” said Armand, when they’d all ordered. “To family. New”—he nodded to Annie’s belly—“and very, very—”
“Very,” they all joined in and turned to Stephen, “old.”
Stephen raised his glass and said, “Fuck off.”
“My father’s a man of few words,” said Daniel when the laughter stopped.
“Yeah, you don’t know him so well,” said Jean-Guy. “Just wait ’til he starts reciting ‘The Wreck of the Hesperus.’”
“Just for that,” said Armand. He cleared his throat and looked very serious. “It was the schooner Hesperus—”
Everyone laughed. With one exception. Out of the corner of his eye Armand caught the scowl on Daniel’s face. He clearly did not like being told, even in jest, that Beauvoir knew his father better than he did.
Stephen had also noticed the look on Daniel’s face and gave Armand the slightest of nods before glancing at his phone.
Then, turning to Annie and Jean-Guy, he asked, “How’re you feeling?”
They talked candidly for a few minutes.
“If you need anything,” said Stephen, and left it at that.
“Maybe some ice cream at the Lutetia?” said Annie.
“That I can do,” said Stephen. “After Monday. We can all celebrate.”
“What’s happening on Monday?” asked Jean-Guy.
“Just some meetings. Speaking of which, how’s your new job?”
Down the table, Armand was saying to Daniel, “Wonderful news about your promotion. A whole new department, too.”
“It is,” said Daniel. “Venture capital. Already made one investment.”
“What’s that?”
“Can’t say.”
Can’t, Armand wondered, or won’t?
“So, you do a lot of risk assessment?” he asked.
“Exactly.”
His father listened closely, asking questions. Gently pulling information out of Daniel until his son relaxed and began speaking freely, even enthusiastically.
Reine-Marie watched as Daniel, after a few minutes, leaned closer to his father.
They were so much alike, in so many ways. They even looked alike.
At six foot two, Daniel was slightly taller than his father. And heftier. Not fat, but there was meat on the bone.
As there was with Armand. But slightly less so.
Daniel had grown a beard, which had come in reddish, with a few strands of gray, which surprised Reine-Marie. Time was marching on.
He had thick brown hair, which he wore closely cropped.
His father’s hair was now quite gray, and slightly wavy. And slightly thinning. Clean-shaven, Armand’s face had more lines, of course. And that deep scar at the temple.
Like his father, Daniel was kind and almost courtly.
Unlike his father, young Daniel had not been a scholar, but what the boy had was self-discipline. He worked hard, and often excelled past his more naturally talented friends.
He’d been a happy boy.
Until …
At the age of eight something changed. A wall went up between him and his father. At first it had been a very subtle step back. Always a polite little boy, there was now a formality. A frigidity. A caution that grew into a coolness.
That grew into a chasm.
Reine-Marie had watched as Armand tried to close the gap, but it only seemed to widen with each embrace.
Armand volunteered to coach his son’s hockey team until Daniel had asked him to stop.
He’d then driven the boy to early-morning practices, and sat in the stands with a wretched coffee from the vending machine to warm his hands. Watching.
Until Daniel told him to stop.
Tucking him in at night, he’d always, always told the boy that he loved him.
The words had been met with silence. But still, he’d never stopped, to this day, telling Daniel that he loved him. And he showed, in every way he knew, that he not only loved the boy but also loved being Daniel’s father.
Having lost both his parents, Armand wanted his children to have a mother and father who they could trust to keep them safe and always be there.
But it was never enough for Daniel. Something had torn. Some hole had opened inside him that could not be filled.
And yet Armand remained smitten with the boy. Reine-Marie didn’t think any father could love his children more.
Then came the teen years, and the real troubles. With the drugs. With the arrests.
As soon as he could, Daniel moved away. Putting a deep blue sea between them.
And then Jean-Guy arrived. Agent Beauvoir. Found in some basement Sûreté servitude. Angry, arrogant. One insult away from being fired from the detachment and booted out of the service.
Chief Inspector Gamache had recognized something in the young man. And had, to everyone’s astonishment, not least Agent Beauvoir’s, brought him into homicide. The most sought after, the most prestigious department in the Sûreté du Québec.
Armand had become Jean-Guy’s mentor. And more.
Jean-Guy had risen to become Armand’s second-in-command. And more.
And Daniel had never forgiven either.
Reine-Marie and Armand had talked about that. About possibly putting some distance between himself and Jean-Guy. For Daniel’s sake.
But Armand would not do it. Besides, it wouldn’t help.
“Have you asked Daniel what’s wrong?”
It was the only time she’d ever seen Armand annoyed with her.
“You think I haven’t tried that? I’ve asked. I’ve begged Daniel to tell me what I’ve done. He just looks at me like I should know. I can’t keep twisting myself around, hoping something will finally satisfy him. Beauvoir’s a great investigator and a good man. He shouldn’t be punished because of my relationship with my son.”
“I know.”
What she also knew was that Jean-Guy Beauvoir wasn’t some replacement for their son. His relationship to Armand was far different. Far older. It seemed almost ancient, as though the two had known each other for lifetimes.