A Great Reckoning (12 page)

It was early March and winter still had its grip on Québec. His headlights caught the ragged edges of snowbanks on either side of the secondary road. He drove through the clear, crisp evening, the two cars still behind him.

And then he lost them. Or, more precisely, they lost him.

Sighing, Gamache pulled over into a Tim Hortons outside Cowansville. Parking under the lights, he waited. One of the cars circled once, twice, and on the third time, they spotted him and turned in, parking well away.

The second car had managed to follow him and had pulled off the road a hundred yards beyond the doughnut shop.

Huifen, he suspected. With Jacques, maybe. But he wondered why they hadn't just called the others in the first car when they pulled over.

They needed, perhaps, another lesson on what teamwork meant.

As Gamache drove out of the parking lot the first car pulled right out, determined not to lose him again. The second hung back.

Yes. There was more skill there. And confidence.

He decided to take the scenic route home.

*   *   *

“Where's he going?” asked Huifen.

“I don't know,” said Jacques, bored and hungry. “It doesn't make sense.”

“Maybe he's lost,” said Amelia.

“Maybe he can't find the door back into the parallel universe,” said Nathaniel.

It was difficult to tell when he was serious.

“Has anyone been taking notes on where we're going?” asked Amelia. “I'm lost.”

“That was your job,” said Huifen.

“Mine? I'm in the backseat. I can barely see.”

“Well, I'm driving.”

They argued some more until the road ahead went dark. Very dark. No streetlights. No taillights. No car.

“
Tabernac
,” said Jacques. “Now where'd he go?”

*   *   *

Gamache shook his head.

“I'll be a little later than expected,” he said into the Bluetooth.

“Lost them again?” said Reine-Marie. “Well, I'll set more places at the table. They'll be hungry when they finally find you again.”

“
Merci
.”

He put his car in gear and started looking for the cadets, finally finding them parked in a service station. He pulled in, and though he didn't need any, he decided to gas up. Just to see them scramble. And also to explain his own presence there.

*   *   *

“Shit, there he is,” said Amelia, sliding down in the backseat. “Get down.”

By now they'd gotten so well into the exercise, they'd almost convinced themselves their lives, and those of others, depended on following this man.

They got down. So far down they missed it when the Commander pulled out.

*   *   *

Gamache sighed and paused at the exit to the service station, his blinker on. He all but honked to get their attention.

First thing in the morning
, he thought,
I'm going to call Professor McKinnon and get her to take the students out and refresh them on trailing a suspect
.

Tiring of the exercise and wanting his own dinner, Commander Gamache drove straight home. A motorcade behind him.

*   *   *

“Don't lose him,” said Jacques.

“I'll make a note of that,” said Huifen. She was starving and they still had to figure out how to get back to the academy after this. By that time, they'd have missed dinner and would have to break into the kitchens or do with the crackers they had stashed in their rooms.

Up ahead, the Commander's car disappeared from sight, as though he'd driven off a cliff.

“What the hell just happened?” asked Jacques.

Huifen slowed down and edged the car forward. Then she stopped.

“Holy shit,” she whispered. Behind her Amelia and Nathaniel sat up.

Below them, in the middle of the dark forest, was a radiant village.

Huifen turned off the car and the cadets got out, walking forward. Their boots crunching on the snow and their warm breath coming out in puffs.

They stopped at what felt like the edge of the world.

Amelia tilted her head back, feeling the fresh air raw on her cheeks.

Above them, a riot of stars formed horses and birds and magical creatures.

And below the stars, the village.

“It does exist,” whispered Nathaniel.

Gamache's car drove slowly by old brick and fieldstone and clapboard homes.

Light spilled from mullioned windows and glowed on the snow.

At the far end of the village, the cadets could see people coming and going from what looked like a brasserie, though the view was obscured by three huge pine trees grown up in the very center of the village.

“We should go.” Nathaniel tugged at Huifen's coat, but the older girl just stood there.

“Not yet. We need to know for sure.”

“Know what?” he asked. “We followed him and found the village. This is the mystery. Not that it doesn't exist, but that it does. Let's go before we get into trouble.”

“Aren't you curious?” Amelia asked him.

As they watched, the car came to rest in front of a two-story white clapboard home, all lit up. Smoke came out of the chimney into the crisp night air. Puffs. As though the home was breathing.

The Commander got out of the car, but instead of walking up the path cut through the snow to the sweeping front veranda, he turned in the other direction. And walked away from the home. Toward them.

“Oh, shit. Don't move,” whispered Nathaniel. “He'll see movement. He'll hear us.”

At the bottom of the hill, the Commander stopped and peered.

“Be quiet,” Nathaniel whispered. “Be quiet.”

“You be quiet,” hissed Amelia.

“Dinner's on,” Gamache called into the darkness. “
Boeuf bourguignon,
if you're interested.”

Then he retraced his steps. Followed shortly by the munching of tires on snow. He stopped and watched as a car made its way down the hill and around the village green. A single car. He looked up and saw a very faint glow approach the edge of the hill. And recede. It crept back until there was complete and utter darkness up there.

Armand Gamache walked slowly along the path to his home. Thinking. And realizing he'd been wrong.

The cadets were all in one car.

So who was in the other?

 

CHAPTER 10

“Are you mad at us?” asked Nathaniel.

“Mad?” asked Armand, passing him the basket of fresh rolls. “Why would I be angry?”

“Well, we followed you,” he said, taking a warm roll and holding it in his still chilled hands.

“After a fashion, yes. I'm not angry about the fact you did it, just the way you did it.”

“And we doubted you,” said Huifen. “We thought you were lying when you said you lived in the village.”

Her voice petered out as she watched Madame Gamache ladle huge spoonfuls of beef stew onto plates of egg noodles.

The young people stared as though they'd never seen food before.

Except for Amelia, who was engaged in a staring contest of her own with the other person at the table.

A broken-down old wreck. And her duck.

Commander Gamache smiled. “Doubt is never a bad thing in a Sûreté du Québec agent. You did exactly as I'd hoped. You didn't take me at my word, you looked for proof.”

“But why doesn't this place show up on any map?” asked Jacques, speaking into his fork of
boeuf bourguignon
.

“There're way smaller villages that're on the maps,” said Huifen, managing to look at Gamache. “We didn't believe you lived here because, well, there is no here, here.”

That brought a smile to Reine-Marie's face as she held out her hand for Nathaniel's plate. He'd wolfed down the first helping at a speed that would put Henri to shame, and now she spooned out more chunks of tender beef and onions and carrots along with the rich, fragrant broth.

The food in the academy dining hall had improved since the contract had been taken from a national chain and given to a local chef. But it wasn't this.

Amelia had finished her dinner quickly, putting her head down and scooping the stew into her mouth, barely chewing. Wiping the gravy up with the rolls, she'd cleaned her plate, then sat back, her arms across her chest.

The elderly woman also sat back, and crossed her arms. Amelia had the impression that if the demon duck could have crossed its wings, it would have.

The woman, who'd been introduced to them as the Gamaches' neighbor, Ruth, seemed to be intentionally mirroring Amelia's actions. When Amelia reached for a drink, so did the creepy old lady.

Only, Amelia's glass held Coke. The old woman's was Scotch.

When Amelia ate, she ate. When Amelia sat back, she sat back.

And now they were in a staring contest.

“Well, you found the village,” said Gamache. “And solved the first mystery. And now you've come face-to-face with the second mystery. Why isn't it on any map, except that one?”

“Even Google Maps doesn't have it,” said Huifen. “And the GPS thinks we parked in the middle of the forest.”

“The middle of nowhere,” said Jacques.

“It's still recalculating,” said Nathaniel. “She seemed quite concerned for us.”

Huifen picked up the old map from the pine harvest table and examined it again.

“And you don't know the answer to that question?” she said, looking from the Commander to Madame Gamache and back again. “Why the village only shows up here but nowhere else?”

They shook their heads.

“What gets me is that this shows things a normal map never would,” said Huifen.

“Like the snowman and the cow,” said Jacques, leaning toward her. “Why a snowman? It can't possibly be a landmark since it would melt away.”

“Then there's the pyramid,” said Nathaniel.

“Maybe it was just an exercise, to pass the time,” said Huifen. “Like those old embroideries. What were they called?”

“Samplers,” said Madame Gamache.

“That's not a sampler,” said Amelia, keeping her eyes on the wretched old wreck in front of her. “All those little lines. They're contours. Showing elevation. It's a real map.”

“Why was it made?” asked Huifen.

“And that's the third secret this map has yet to give up,” said Gamache. “What's its purpose?”

The map had seemed almost laughable when they'd first seen it hanging on the wall of the Commander's rooms, but now it was ripe with intrigue.

“It's sort of nice that Three Pines isn't on any official map,” Reine-Marie admitted. “It means we won't be disturbed.”

“Too late,” said Amelia, gesturing to Ruth.

Armand said nothing, remembering the glow on the hill.

Someone had found them.

“So where did the map come from?” asked Amelia, breaking eye contact with the crazy old lady.

Throughout dinner, the kitchen had been filled with the scents of cinnamon and brown sugar, mingling and mixing with the earthy aroma of the
boeuf bourguignon
and rolls.

Now Armand got up and brought something out of the oven, and the fragrance became even more pronounced.

Taking off the oven mitts, he turned to Amelia.

“It was a gift from the person who found it. He could see how much I'd admired it.”

“Olivier didn't find it,” snapped Ruth. “I did.”

They were the first words she'd spoken, besides the “Fuck off” to Huifen when she'd tried to help the frail old woman to the table.

“True,” said Reine-Marie. “But it belongs to Olivier. Not sure if you noticed the bistro when you arrived. He and his partner Gabri own it.”

“But where did he find it?” asked Amelia. “It wasn't drawn yesterday, it must've been lying around for years.”

“It was in a wall,” said Ruth. She too had broken eye contact and was looking down at the copy of the painting on the pine table.

The duck, however, continued to glare at Amelia, winning the contest.

“It'd been walled up,” said Ruth.

“What?” asked Nathaniel. “Why?”

“Why?” asked the Commander, putting bowls of warm apple and raspberry crisp with melting Coaticook vanilla ice cream in front of them. “That's a very good question.”

He could tell by their faces that the cadets were beginning to appreciate that an investigation wasn't linear. It was like the map, with contour lines and winding roads. And obstacles. And every now and then you came across something completely unexpected.

“Why put a map into a wall?” Gamache asked.

“It was waiting,” said Ruth.

“Now, Ruth,” said Reine-Marie. “Don't play mind games with our young guests.”

“It's no game. There's something strange about that map. I feel it. And I know you do too.”

She'd spoken to Armand. After he gave a curt nod, the old woman turned to Amelia, resuming the staring contest.

“And so do you.”

“I feel nothing. None of this matters. It's an exercise,” said Amelia. “An assignment. Nothing more. And not even a very interesting one.”

“Then why're you here?” asked Ruth, struggling to her feet. This time no one helped her. She walked to the door, followed by Armand.

“Some things disappear for a reason, Armand,” she said, then turned back to the cadets at the table. So young. Trying to be unmoved by this creepy old woman. But their wide eyes betrayed them.

“You asked what the map was waiting for. Maybe it was waiting for you,” said Ruth. “You found the village, maybe that's enough. Maybe you should stop now.
Sneak home and pray you'll never know/the hell where youth and laughter go.
”

“Now there's a woman who knows an exit line,” said Huifen as Ruth left. Even Amelia laughed. Though she expected to see her breath in the suddenly chill air.