All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #16) - Louise Penny Page 0,143

but do it in front of me. So I’d see. But it wasn’t really until you started reading the file that I was certain.”

“As late as that?” asked Dussault.

“Oui. There was almost no evidence in there. I’d taken most of it out and hidden it in the Musée. When you didn’t say anything, I knew. All the way over here I’d tried to figure out how this could possibly work. The only way I could see was if Girard frisked me and took the gun. Then used it to shoot me and Daniel. When he didn’t, I had to improvise.”

“By shooting me,” said Dussault.

“By pretending to, yes.”

“How did you know he was on our side?” asked Daniel, looking at Loiselle.

“When he hit me in the stomach, he’d obviously pulled the punch. I was pretty sure then. And even this”—he touched the side of his head—“was glancing, designed to draw blood but nothing more. But by then I knew.”

“How?” asked Loiselle.

“At the archives, when I was running to the street, you were shooting and missing. Believe me, no special-forces-trained commando would miss. I take it Arbour, Lenoir, and de la Granger are safe?”

“Yes,” said Loiselle. “Before I left, I arrested the commander. The others quickly gave up, as I knew they would. Their hearts aren’t in the job. There’s no loyalty.”

“Well,” said Dussault, looking at the young man. “There is some.”

“Yessir.”

“If you knew these two were on our side,” Daniel asked his father, “why not just end it then? Why take the risk Girard and the other guards would kill us?”

“They almost did,” said Gamache. “I think Girard would’ve killed me if you hadn’t come out. That distracted them. Gave me a chance. You saved my life.”

“We couldn’t stop them yet,” said Dussault. “We had evidence against Girard and Pinot, but not against GHS. They were setting up Carole Gossette to take the blame. We need Girard and Pinot to take the file to the CEO. We need her to accept it. We have to prove it goes much higher, much further. And we need Pinot to sit down at that table. Speaking of which, we have to go. The board meeting’s about to start.”

“You have to get the evidence first,” said Armand, and told them where he’d hidden it.

“Aren’t you coming?” Dussault asked.

“No.” He turned to Daniel. “You’re going in my place.”

After he told his son what needed to be done, he said, “Thank God you’re a banker. This has to be done exactly right, and you’re the one to do it. None better.”

Daniel turned a furious red and nodded. “It’ll be done.”

“What’re you going to do? Sit on a bench and sip Pernod?” asked Claude.

“Why do people keep asking me that?” said Armand. “No. I’m going to meet my granddaughter.”

Armand had stopped at their apartment for a quick shower, a change of clothing, and two extra-strength aspirin for his splitting headache. In fact, his whole body hurt.

Except his heart.

He’d called Reine-Marie and told her what had happened. She in turn had told Jean-Guy, but Annie had been resting.

“Dad? You’ve seen her?” Annie now asked, her voice thick. “Idola.”

“Idola,” her father whispered. “Perfect. She’s perfect.”

He looked at Jean-Guy. “May I?”

Idola’s father got up and carefully handed his daughter to her grandfather, looking him in the eyes. “We’re safe?”

“Oui.”

Armand cradled her, then reluctantly handed the baby back to her father.

Jean-Guy sat down and, closing his eyes, he rocked his daughter, feeling her heart against his. And her tiny feet resting against the jagged scar across his belly.

Daniel walked around the table to stand behind Alain Pinot. He bent down and whispered, “You’re in my seat.”

“What’s this about?” demanded the CEO.

“He sold his place on the board,” said Daniel.

“That’s not true,” said Pinot. “I have no idea who this man is.”

“Of course you do, sir. You tried to have me killed just a few minutes ago.”

“That’s absurd,” said Pinot, appealing to his fellow board members.

“You conspired to murder the Chief Archivist, the Chief Librarian, and one of GHS’s own engineers, Madame Séverine Arbour,” said Claude Dussault. “And you were party to negligence by GHS Engineering that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands.”

There was an immediate uproar in the room amid calls for the chair to do something.

“Quiet,” Dussault demanded.

He walked them through what had happened.

The derailment of the train in Colombia. The questions asked by the journalist. Her visit to the water treatment plant, and the old mine. Her subsequent murder in Patagonia. The recent attack on the financier