a lot of dealings with senior government officials, elected and appointed. You hear things in the halls of the National Assembly, in the chat before committees sit down to business. Lea Roux had a reputation for being fierce, but also principled. A potent combination. She’d brought forward many progressive bills in the National Assembly, often against her leader’s wishes.”
“So she would choose her principles over her career?” asked the Crown.
“It would appear so.”
Though Gamache’s time in homicide had taught him something else. Appearances could not be trusted.
* * *
“That was a very brave thing you did,” said Clara, when they’d returned to the Gamaches’ home.
“Can you believe it worked?” asked Lea, her eyes wide, her face flushed despite just coming in from the cold.
Reine-Marie had invited Lea and Matheo to join them for dinner.
Lea was on a high after confronting the mob. Adrenaline. Something Gamache knew a lot about.
The pounding heart. The effort to keep terror in check. Standing your ground. The body taut, the mind whirring.
And then it was over. But the adrenaline still coursed, like a drug, through the body. They were all feeling it, but none more than Lea. The first to make the stand.
“Shame Patrick and Katie can’t join us,” said Reine-Marie, walking with them into the kitchen. “I saw them driving away earlier this evening.”
“They’re having dinner at Le Relais in Knowlton,” said Lea. “Steak-frites night. Missed all the fun.”
“Though I don’t think Patrick would’ve been much help, do you?” asked Matheo.
It was perhaps true, thought Gamache, who’d also picked up on Patrick’s timidity. But it didn’t need to be said, especially by a friend.
But then, maybe Patrick wasn’t really a friend. Anymore. They seemed to be spending less time together this visit than in the past.
“This looks delicious,” said Reine-Marie, ladling out the stew Olivier had brought. “Merci.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Come on, tell them the truth,” said Gabri, taking a warm dinner roll, substituted for the baguette. “He didn’t make it. Anton did.”
“The dishwasher?” asked Matheo, looking at the stew with some suspicion.
The chicken was tender, delicately seasoned. The stew was complex. Familiar, but exotic.
“It’s all things he collected in the woods,” said Myrna. “Nouveau Québec cuisine. That’s what he wants to create.”
“The dishwasher?” Matheo repeated.
“We all have to start somewhere,” said Myrna.
“How long’s he been here?” asked Lea. “I don’t remember him from our last visit.”
“And he is memorable,” said Clara, thinking of the lithe young man with the floppy hair and ready smile.
“He arrived a couple months ago,” said Gabri. “He and Jacqueline were working together in some home and both lost their jobs.”
“Home, like seniors’ home?” asked Lea.
“No,” said Olivier. “Home like private home. She was a nanny, I think, and he was their private chef.”
“Some home,” said Matheo.
“Are you enjoying your new job, Armand?” asked Lea.
“‘Enjoying’ is perhaps not the word,” he said. “I’m just trying not to be overwhelmed. Let me ask you something. When you were first elected a couple of years ago, you sponsored a bill, one you felt strongly about, if I remember.”
“That’s right. Most new members have some legislation they’re personally attached to. Most are defeated.”
“Was yours?” asked Clara.
“It was. A bill to end overcrowding in emergency wards.”
“Actually, it was about the war on drugs,” said Armand.
“Oh, yeah, that’s right.”
“I read your bill closely,” said Gamache. “I was head of homicide at the time and a huge percentage of the crime, of the killings, in Québec are drug-related.”
“And what did you think?”
“I thought it offered creative solutions to an obviously failing situation.”
“Then why did her bill fail?” asked Gabri.
“A number of reasons,” said Gamache.
Senior Sûreté officers on the take. Corruption in government. The cartels getting more and more powerful and calling the shots.
But he wouldn’t say any of that to them. Though there was one reason that he could discuss.
“It might seem trivial, but one reason is that you named the bill after someone. I can’t remember who.”
“Edouard,” said Lea. “And why was that a problem?”
“It made it feel like a personal crusade by a member trying to make her mark, and not a sweeping solution to a growing social threat.”
“Other bills are named for people,” said Clara. “Lots of them.”
“Absolutely, but those that succeed already have broad public support. Their sponsors have done their legwork. Gotten the media, the public and fellow politicians behind them. You”—he turned to Lea—“did not.”
“True. If politics is an art, I was finger-painting.”
“So who was Edouard?” asked Reine-Marie.
“He was our roommate at Université de Montréal,” said Matheo.