All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #16) - Louise Penny Page 0,80
asked Reine-Marie.
“He talked tonight about retirement,” said Armand. “They must’ve offered him more money than he could ever make as a cop. A lifetime of peace and security for himself and his family.”
Armand rubbed his forehead, his fingers naturally finding the long, deep scar at his temple.
What would it take?
“Ummm,” said Reine-Marie. “There’s something you should know. I asked Monique—” She turned to Annie and Jean-Guy and explained, “Dr. Dussault. Claude’s wife. I asked her tonight about his cologne. I’m sorry, Armand, but it seemed the only way.”
“That’s all right,” he said. “I’m sure you were careful.”
“I think I was. I found out that it’s called 4711. I have a bottle of it at home that I bought this afternoon at the BHV.”
“You found it?” said Armand.
“Oui. I wanted to be able to confirm it really is the same scent we smelled, and that Claude really does use it. I didn’t show Monique the bottle, I just said I was looking for a gift for you, Armand,” she said, turning to face him directly. “It is Claude’s cologne. Monique confirmed it.”
He gave a very small nod.
“She told me his second-in-command bought some for him and for herself,” Reine-Marie continued, “when they were on a trip together in Cologne. They toured the place where it’s made. Monique says Claude only puts it on when they’re going to meet.”
There was silence as they took that in.
“That means,” Reine-Marie said, deciding they were taking too long to get there, “that it could’ve been Irena Fontaine we interrupted in Stephen’s apartment.”
“It could also mean they’re closer than we realized. We need to find out more about her,” said Jean-Guy.
“And SecurForte,” said Reine-Marie.
She took over the laptop and put the name in. Up came a website.
It was spartan, to say the least. All they could see was the home page. They needed a security code to access more.
The home page photo showed a handsome, well-groomed, muscular man in a suit standing alert beside a Maybach, while a woman, smiling but also alert, held the door open for a little girl and her mother.
In the bottom right corner was their logo.
“That’s the same emblem I saw on the guard’s uniform,” said Jean-Guy. “The same one in that article.”
“It looks like a snowflake,” said Annie. “Why would they have a snowflake as a corporate logo?”
“Look closer,” said Reine-Marie, doing just that. “Those are spears, tridents, in a circle.”
The spears were radiating out from a central point, as though protecting it.
“That’s no snowflake,” said Reine-Marie. “That’s a promise, and a warning. Clever.” She smiled. “Making it look like one thing while actually being something else. Hiding its real nature. An insignia like that is more than just a corporate logo. It’s a symbol. It means something. Most paramilitary emblems do.”
After a few dead ends, she sat back and turned the screen to the others. “Voilà. The Helm of Awe.”
“You’re kidding, right?” said Annie, leaning in. “Sounds like a comic book.”
“The Helm of Awe,” Reine-Marie read, “is an ancient Norse symbol of protection and overwhelming might.”
“What’s the Sûreté du Québec logo again?” Jean-Guy asked as they stared at the Helm of Awe. “A kitten?”
“Playing with a ball of yarn, oui,” said Armand.
Annie laughed. They all knew the Sûreté logo was a fleur-de-lys. A flower. Appropriate, but hardly awe-inspiring.
Fortunately, they didn’t need a symbol to be inspired.
“Does it say who runs SecurForte?” asked Armand.
“No,” said Reine-Marie. “But I’m sure I can find out.”
“Actually, there’s something else we need you to look into,” said Armand.
He told her and Annie about the documents Irena Fontaine had produced, questioning which side Stephen was on in the war.
“But that’s ridiculous,” said Annie. “There’s no way he was a Nazi.”
“Those documents were supposedly suppressed by the Allies, you say?” said Reine-Marie. “Hidden in the Archives nationales. I have experience with those archives. They’re immense. If those documents were buried seventy-five years ago, they wouldn’t be easy to find. And yet she had them within hours of the investigation beginning. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Go on,” said Armand.
Reine-Marie thought. “They must’ve already had them, ready to use if necessary.”
“By ‘they,’ you mean Fontaine’s boss. The Préfet de Police,” said Beauvoir.
They were back to Claude Dussault. All leads led them there.
“Looks like it, yes,” said Armand.
“But why?” asked Annie.
“Suppose Stephen found out that GHS was, for example, stealing corporate secrets,” said her father. “They’d have to stop him before he exposed them. How would they do that?”