All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #16) - Louise Penny Page 0,87
were playing hide-and-seek. They’d found a false door in the armoire in Stephen’s bedroom and crawled in.
And heard. Their father and Stephen talking. About his parents, and about that day. About the knock on the door. About the very worst thing that can happen to a child. Annie must’ve been too young to understand. But Daniel did.
Parents died.
Nightmares came true.
“You couldn’t be a teacher, a plumber? Even a normal cop? You had to do the most dangerous thing. I know you never loved us. If you did, you’d have picked us.”
“But I did. Oh, my God. Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know—”
He moved toward his son. Daniel stepped back and raised the only thing he had. His umbrella. “Don’t come closer. Don’t you dare try—”
“I love you. With all my heart, I love you. I’m so sorry.”
He stepped forward, and Daniel swung, at the last moment leaning away so that the handle of the umbrella swept by his father’s face, close enough for Armand to feel the air ripple.
Armand hadn’t flinched. Hadn’t closed his eyes. Keeping them on his son the whole time. Though it was hard to see clearly.
Daniel looked like he was underwater.
Throwing the umbrella on the ground, Daniel strode away. Leaving Armand staring after him.
When Daniel was out of sight, Armand raised trembling hands to his face and wept. For all the pain he’d caused. For all those hours, days, years they’d lost.
For the happy, safe, contented little boy who’d died on the stairs that Christmas Eve, waiting for Père Noël.
CHAPTER 28
Ah, look. There’s a second floor!”
Annie was standing in the living room of Stephen’s suite at the George V, wide-eyed. Marveling.
While the bellhop took their luggage upstairs to the bedroom, she turned serious eyes on Jean-Guy. “We must never leave.”
Jean-Guy parted the curtains and was looking outside as Annie gave the young man a tip and closed the door.
“Anyone?” she asked.
“No.”
“Now,” said Annie, picking up the room service menu. “What’ll we have, little man?”
“I hope you’re asking Honoré,” said Jean-Guy, and heard her laugh.
For all her apparent lightheartedness, he knew Annie was putting on a front. For Honoré. For him. In reality she was alert. Vigilant. And worried.
“I need to leave for a few hours,” he told Annie. “Are you and Honoré all right? The flic will stay outside the door.”
“I wonder what the other guests must think.”
“They’ll think that someone very precious is staying here,” said Jean-Guy, kissing her.
As he stepped out of the hotel, he looked to his right. Then to his left, as though trying to get his bearings.
He turned right and strolled, apparently aimlessly, along avenue George V. Pausing now and then to glance in the shop windows, he continued his walk, turning into a smaller street.
And there he stopped.
He’d lied to Annie. Loiselle had been outside, watching.
Reine-Marie slowly closed the dossier and looked across the table at the Chief Archivist.
“This file is inconclusive. It quotes anonymous sources as saying Stephen Horowitz was possibly a collaborator. That he claimed to have been working with the Resistance, but might have been turning them over to the Gestapo for interrogation in the Lutetia.”
“No, not the Gestapo. Common mistake. Many of the documents even from the time say Gestapo, but it was actually a division called the Abwehr that occupied the Lutetia,” said Madame Lenoir.
“Who were they?”
“Intelligence. As bad as the Gestapo. Their job was to wipe out the Resistance. They’d arrest suspected members, take them to a room in the Lutetia, and torture them until they gave up others. Then kill them and move on. Many, most, died without a word.”
Reine-Marie had to pause and gather herself. “You know a lot about it.”
“My grandmother was one of those killed. And the Lutetia, to its credit, has been very open about that time in its history. Many employees fled when the Nazis took over—”
“So they’d have to hire new people.”
“Oui. Maybe that’s where your Monsieur Horowitz comes in. The fact he was German would work in his favor for the Abwehr, but would’ve raised suspicions among other employees, and understandably so. Some were definitely working with the Resistance, but others were collaborators. And some were just trying to keep their heads down and survive. It was a confusing time.”
“To say the least. It would be easy to tar someone’s reputation, to make a false accusation.”
Madame Lenoir grunted agreement. “Many of the executions after the liberation were reprisals, but not for working with the Nazis. Neighbors took it as an excuse to do away