The Nature Of The Beast Part 21

To a place already sullied beyond redemption, he thought. Though the only place that came to mind was the forest, where a boy had been murdered and a gun designed to kill en ma.s.se had sat for decades. But there were too many people and he didn't want to have to explain himself.

So if not a place that was d.a.m.ned, there was only the alternative. The divine. A place that could withstand the onslaught of John Fleming.

He and Henri walked to the edge of the village. They climbed the stairs to the doors of the old chapel, always unlocked, and stepped inside.

No one was in St. Thomas's Church but it didn't feel empty. Perhaps because of the stained-gla.s.s boys, there in perpetuity. Sometimes Armand would go up to St. Thomas's just to visit them.

He sat now on the comfortably cushioned pew and put the play on his lap. Henri lay at Gamache's feet, his head on his paws.

The two of them looked at the window, created at the end of the Great War. It showed soldiers, impossibly young, clutching guns and moving forward through no-man's land.

Armand came here sometimes to sit in the light thrown by their images. To sit in their fear and to sit in their courage.

This place was sacred, he knew, not because it was a church but because of those boys.

He felt the weight of the script on his legs, and the weight of memory. Of what Fleming had done. It came crashing, crushing, down until the script felt like a slab of concrete, pinning him to those memories.

And he heard again the testimony of the shattered officers who'd finally found Fleming. And seen what he'd done. And Armand saw, again, the photographs from the crime scene. Of the demon another demon had created.

The seven-headed monster.

Armand dropped his eyes to the script, red and gold light spilling from the boys onto the t.i.tle page.

He gathered his courage, took a breath, and opened the script.

CHAPTER 14.

"I see you're back. Do you mind if I join you?"

Jean-Guy Beauvoir sat down across from Professor Rosenblatt at the bistro. The elderly scientist smiled, clearly welcoming the company.

"I just unpacked my things at the B and B and thought I'd come over for lunch," said Professor Rosenblatt.

"You're making notes," said Jean-Guy, looking at the open notebook. "On the gun?"

"Yes. And trying to remember all I can about Gerald Bull. Fascinating character."

"I see you also stopped by the bookstore."

A slim volume sat on the table between them.

"I did. Wonderful place. I can't resist a bookstore, especially a secondhand one. I found this."

He gestured to the copy of I'm FINE.

"I was actually going to buy something else, but some old woman stood by the cash register and said she wanted every book I chose. This was the only book she let me buy. Fortunately I'm a fan."

Beauvoir smirked. "You like the poet who wrote I'm FINE?"

"I do. I think she's a genius. Who hurt you once/so far beyond repair/that you would greet each overture/with curling lip." Rosenblatt shook his head and tapped the book. "Brilliant."

"Ruth Zardo," said Beauvoir.

"Ahhh, I see you know her too."

"Actually I was introducing you. Professor Michael Rosenblatt, may I present Ruth Zardo and her duck, Rosa."

The elderly scientist looked up, startled, into the pinched face of the old woman who'd essentially bullied him into buying her book.

He struggled to his feet.

"Madame Zardo," he said, and practically bowed. "This is an honor."

"Of course it is," said Ruth. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Rosa, nestled against Ruth, stared beady-eyed at Professor Rosenblatt.

"I, well, I was just-"

"We asked him here to help," said Beauvoir.

"With what?"

"With what we found in the woods, of course."

"And what was that?" she demanded.

"It's a-" Rosenblatt began, before Jean-Guy cut him off.

Ruth glared at the professor. "Have we met?"

"I don't think so. I'd have remembered," he said.

"Well," said Jean-Guy, looking at the empty chair at their table, then at Ruth. "Good-bye."

Ruth gave him the finger, then limped away to join Clara at a table by the fireplace.

"Well," said the professor, regaining his seat. "That was unexpected. Is that her daughter?"

"The duck?"

"No, the woman she's sitting with."

The very idea of Ruth giving birth shocked Beauvoir. He was still struggling with the thought that she'd been born. He imagined her as a tiny, wizened, gray-haired child. With a duckling.

"No, that's Clara Morrow."

"The artist?"

"Yes."

"I saw her show at the Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal." His eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute, did Madame Morrow do a portrait of Ruth Zardo? The old and frail Madonna? The one who looks so loathsome?"

"That's the one."

Professor Rosenblatt glanced at the other patrons. At the beamed and cheerful bistro, at the comfortable armchairs. He looked toward the bookstore, then, in the other direction, the boulangerie that carried moist madeleines that tasted like childhood.

Then he looked out the window to the old, solid homes, and the three tall pines like guardians on the green. Then back to Ruth Zardo sharing a table and a meal with Clara Morrow.

"What is this place?" he asked, almost beneath his breath. "Why did Gerald Bull choose to come here, of all places?"

"That's one of the questions I came to ask you, Professor," said Beauvoir.

"Salut, Jean-Guy," said Olivier, standing at the table with his notepad and pencil. "Bonjour," he said to the professor.

"Olivier, this is Professor Rosenblatt. He's helping us with our investigation."

"Oh, really?"

"I believe I spoke to your partner, Gabri," said Rosenblatt. "I've arranged for a room at the B and B."

"Wonderful. Then we'll be seeing more of you."

Olivier waited, clearly hoping for more information. But what he got was their lunch orders.

Jean-Guy, after a mighty struggle with himself, asked for the grilled scallop and warm pear salad. He'd promised Annie to eat more sensibly.

"Maybe Gerald Bull coming here is karmic," said Rosenblatt, after Olivier left. "Yin and yang. Two halves of a whole?" he offered when he saw his companion's scowl.

"Oh, I know what it means, but you don't believe in that sort of thing, do you?"

"You think because I'm a scientist I don't have a faith?" Rosenblatt asked. "You'd be surprised how many physicists believe in G.o.d."

"Do you?"

"I believe for every action there's an equal reaction. What else is yin and yang? Heaven and h.e.l.l. A peaceful creative village, and a dreadful killing machine close by."

"Where else would the devil go, but to paradise?" asked Beauvoir.

"Where else would G.o.d go, but to h.e.l.l," said Rosenblatt.

The elderly man raised his hands, blotched with age, and lifted first one then the other.

A balance.

"Merci, patron," said Jean-Guy, leaning back to make room for Olivier to put down his plate.

The scallops were large and succulent and grilled golden brown. They lay on a bed of grains and fresh herbs and roasted pine nuts and goat cheese next to a warm grilled apple. He was about to ask about the pear but was distracted by the bacon club sandwich with thin, seasoned fries put before the professor.

He is smart, thought Beauvoir.

"Can I tempt you?" Rosenblatt asked, pushing his plate a millimeter closer to Jean-Guy.

"Non, merci," said Jean-Guy, taking a fry.

The professor smiled, but then it faded.

"Who're they?"

Beauvoir followed Rosenblatt's scowl and saw Isabelle Lacoste standing in the doorway of the bistro with Sean Delorme and Mary Fraser.

Across the room, Mary Fraser turned to Lacoste. "Is that him?"

"Professor Rosenblatt, oui," said Lacoste. "Would you like an introduction?"

Isabelle pretended not to hear the urgent whispers of Non, merci behind her as she wove between the tables.

"They're coming this way," said Rosenblatt in an urgent whisper. Beauvoir half expected him to bark, "Quick, hide."

"There you are," said Isabelle, as though seeing Beauvoir was a surprise and not part of the plan. "We were just coming in for a late lunch too. I don't believe you've met. Professor Michael Rosenblatt, may I present Mary Fraser and Sean Delorme. They've just arrived from Ottawa. They're also interested in what we found."

Rosenblatt had once again struggled to his feet, though with far less gusto than for Ruth Zardo. He didn't exactly curl his lip at the newcomers, he was far too courtly for that. But it was close.

"We haven't met," he said. "But I believe we've corresponded."

"Yes" was all Delorme said, while Mary Fraser remained silent, though she did shake the professor's hand. More, Lacoste felt, out of habit than desire.

Lacoste looked around and spotted a table in the corner, a distance from Beauvoir and the professor.

"I think that one's free," she said, and watched as the CSIS agents practically climbed over the other tables to get to it.

Chief Inspector Lacoste had asked Olivier not to mention that she'd called ahead and reserved it.

"They work for CSIS," said the professor, turning his back on them. "But of course, you know that. I think it would be a stretch to call them intelligence agents."

"Then what are they?" asked Beauvoir.

"File clerks," said Rosenblatt.

"How do you know them? And how come they know you?"

"I've pet.i.tioned the government for the files on Gerald Bull and Project Babylon for years. I was planning to write a major paper on him to mark the twentieth anniversary of his a.s.sa.s.sination. Those two are in the department that keeps the dossier on Dr. Bull, but they won't release the information."