All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #16) - Louise Penny Page 0,21
moment later.
“You must prepare yourself for a difficult decision.”
She looked into those thoughtful eyes. They were deep brown, and she could tell this was a man who’d had to make many difficult and painful decisions. Who’d known pain himself. That much was etched into his face, and not just by the deep scar at his temple.
She’d seen wounds like that before, when working emergency, and she knew what must have made it. She looked at him with more interest.
Yes, there was pain in that face. But now she saw other lines. This man also knew happiness.
And by the way he and his wife held hands, lightly, they knew love.
She was glad. They’d need it.
“Can we see him, please?”
“Yes, but only one of you, and briefly. We have some papers for you to sign, and there are his personal effects. Best to take them with you, for safekeeping.”
“I’ll get those,” said Reine-Marie as they stood up. “While you see Stephen.”
“There’s a gendarme outside Monsieur Horowitz’s door,” said the doctor. “I understand there’s some concern that this was no accident.”
“Yes.”
They left Reine-Marie to sort Stephen’s things, which arrived in a sealed cardboard box, while Armand was taken down the quiet hall, to a private room.
The gendarme, at a word from the doctor, let him pass.
Opening the box, Reine-Marie shoved aside the bloodstained clothing, cut off by the emergency room medics, then opened the sealed plastic bag. Stephen’s iPhone was there. Smashed.
She tried it. It was dead.
There was loose change, and mints, and a handkerchief. His wallet had 305 euros, and credit cards.
She was about to close the bag when she remembered the things she’d picked up from the street the night before. Reaching into her handbag, Reine-Marie placed Stephen’s broken glasses and keys into the bag.
Then, pausing, she took a closer look at the keys.
Last night, in the dark and panic, they hadn’t struck her as odd. Now, in daylight and relative calm, they did.
In fact, far more than just odd.
CHAPTER 7
I’m sorry, Madame. I can’t let you in.”
Reine-Marie stared at the young man guarding Stephen’s room.
“Please.” She gave him her most matronly smile. “I just need to speak with my husband.”
These are not the droids you’re looking for, she thought and almost shook her head. Jean-Guy had clearly rubbed off on her.
The young flic examined the woman standing in front of him. Her tone said, I’m your mother’ s age and harmless.
But her eyes were far too intelligent to fool the agent. Besides, his mother had much the same eyes, and she was a judge on the French assize court.
She’d taught him never to underestimate anyone, especially a smart woman.
He smiled back and made a decision, recognizing that sometimes common sense needed to prevail. He’d also learned that from his mother.
For common sense, he opened the door. For his training, he went in with her.
Reine-Marie paused. Unable, for a moment, to go beyond the threshold.
Stephen was breathing with the aid of a machine. There were monitors and drips. His body seemed to be wrapped from head to toe in bandages, including over his eyes.
How could this man still be alive, she thought.
But it also brought flooding back, catching her up and tumbling her around, memories of seeing Armand in much the same condition.
She took a sharp breath in and recovered herself.
Armand sat beside the bed, his reading glasses on. With one hand he held Stephen’s hand. In the other he held a copy of that morning’s Le Figaro.
“Energie Stat is down three points, to 134.9. Produits Cassini is up half a point, to 87.6.”
He was reading the report from the Bourse de Paris to Stephen, as though it was a fairy tale for his grandchildren. Giving each an inflection, a drama.
The young gendarme stopped just inside the door, and stared. It was a tableau so intimate he felt as though he’d violated these people by his presence.
“Armand?” Reine-Marie approached the bed.
He looked up, clearly surprised to see her. “I’ve found something,” she said quietly.
Getting up, Armand kissed Stephen on the forehead and said quietly, “I’ll be back soon. Don’t go anywhere. I love you.”
The box with Stephen’s belongings was placed on the table by the window in the hospital room.
Armand went through the contents as Reine-Marie watched. Interested to see if the same thing struck her husband.
Armand went first to Stephen’s suit jacket, stiff with blood, and did something unexpected. Turning it inside out, he searched and, with a smile, withdrew a Canadian passport.