a piece of toast, kissed Joan, and whispered, “Thank you.”
“Off you go, and play nice,” said Joan.
“It’s my sandbox. I don’t have to play nice.”
She looked outside. It was barely seven in the morning and already the sun was beating down.
Getting in her car, she yelped and lifted her bottom off the scorching seat.
“Shit, shit,” she muttered, throwing on the AC and lowering herself slowly.
She could see heat distorting the air above the hood and wondered what the courtroom would be like.
But Judge Corriveau knew that, even without the heat wave, it would be suffocating.
* * *
“All rise,” she heard.
The door was opened by the guard, and Judge Corriveau stepped across the threshold.
There was a hubbub as all rose. Then sat, as she sat.
Everyone looked slightly disheveled. Already.
She nodded to the Crown, who recalled his witness from the day before.
As Chief Superintendent Gamache walked up to the witness box, Judge Corriveau noticed he seemed composed, wearing a tailored suit that might not look quite so good by the end of the day.
The AC had been turned off and already the room was close.
She also noticed, as he took his seat, that very slight scent of sandalwood.
The gentle aroma sat with her for just a moment before dissipating. Then Judge Corriveau turned her attention to the defendant, who was watching the Chief Superintendent.
There was a sharp focus, and a plea in the eyes. Aimed at Gamache.
It was intense. And only two people in the courtroom could see it. Herself. And the Chief Superintendent.
But what was the defendant pleading for? Mercy? No, that was not Gamache’s to give.
The defendant wanted something from Gamache, was desperate for it.
Forgiveness? But again, surely, that wasn’t his to give either.
What could the Chief Superintendent offer the defendant, a person he himself had arrested, at this point?
Only one thing, Judge Corriveau knew.
Silence.
He could keep some secret.
Judge Corriveau looked from the defendant to the Chief Superintendent. And wondered if a deal had been struck. Something she knew nothing about.
Again, the photo of the cobrador on the village green was put up on the screen. And there it would stay, throughout the trial.
It appeared to be watching them.
“You understand you’re still under oath, Chief Superintendent?” she asked.
“I do understand, Your Honor.”
“Bon,” said the Crown. “You told us yesterday afternoon, before we broke for the day, that you’d concluded someone in the village of Three Pines had done something so hideous that that thing”—the Crown pointed to the cobrador—“had to be called. Who did you think it was?”
“I honestly didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t know, I asked who you thought it might be. Did you have any suspicions?”
“Objection,” said the defense attorney.
Judge Corriveau sustained it, with regret. She’d have loved to hear the answer.
* * *
“A conscience?” said Ruth. Behind her on this dreary November evening, cold rain hit the window and slid down, not quite liquid, not quite solid. “So that’s what it is. I wonder who he’s come for.”
She surveyed them from her seat in one of the deep armchairs in the Gamaches’ living room. Once in, she couldn’t possibly get out without help. It was how her neighbors preferred her. Comfortable and confined.
Rosa sat on her lap, her head swiveling toward whoever was speaking. Like a duck possessed.
“Who made this?” asked Olivier, standing at the door between their kitchen and the living room. Holding a baguette.
“Jacqueline,” said Clara. “Sorry. It was all that was left at the bakery. She hasn’t improved?”
In his other hand, Olivier lifted the bread knife, its teeth askew. He went to the back door and tossed the baton of bread out, for some beaver to sharpen its teeth on. Though he suspected it would still be lying there when some future archeologist found it. It would become like Stonehenge. A mystery.
Myrna got up and, taking her red wine to the window, looked out into the dusk.
“A peace above all earthly dignities,” she quoted. Then turned back to the room. “A still and quiet conscience.”
“Shakespeare,” said Reine-Marie. “But it doesn’t feel very peaceful.”
“That’s because we’re not there yet,” said Myrna. “That thing is here because someone in the village doesn’t have a quiet conscience.”
“It’s just a man in a costume,” said Armand. “He’s playing a mind game with someone.”
“But not us,” said Gabri.
“Really?” asked Ruth. “Not us? We’re immune? Is your conscience really so still and quiet?”
Gabri squirmed.
“Is anyone’s?” Ruth asked, looking at them all before coming to rest on Armand.
In that instant he found himself standing before the door he kept closed, deep