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“The police investigating the murder of Monsieur Plessner had copies of some of these documents within hours of his death. Is that possible?”
“Non.” The answer was unequivocal.
“Why not? It didn’t take you long to find them.”
“I’m the Chief Archivist. I was practically born in a file drawer. I know this place, these files, better than I know my own family.”
“But Allida, you can’t know all the documents in the archives. Even just the ones on the war. There must be hundreds of thousands.”
“Which is why I know there’s no way anyone could’ve put their hands on that”—she pointed at the file in front of Reine-Marie, with the doodle of the ship in peril—“so quickly. It would take weeks, months, to dig through all the documents. I think they found what they needed, then left them here, to be used when needed.”
“Which means—”
“Someone must’ve been planning this for a while.”
Not just someone, thought Reine-Marie. The file was in the possession of the police.
She felt physically sick. Her head was spinning with the effort of trying to grab hold of something too immense to grasp.
“When was this file last requested?” she asked.
Madame Lenoir got back on the electronic catalog. It didn’t take long before she looked up, meeting Reine-Marie’s eyes.
“Five weeks ago.”
“Does it say by whom?”
Madame Lenoir was no longer able to make eye contact.
“Daniel Gamache.”
* * *
Armand stood outside Daniel’s apartment and stared at the door.
Then he knocked.
It was opened by Roslyn, who stepped outside into the corridor and closed the door behind her.
“I’m sorry, Armand. He doesn’t want to speak with you. What happened? I’ve never seen him so upset.”
“He’ll have to be the one to tell you. But please, Ros, I need to speak with him. It’s urgent.”
Roslyn looked at her father-in-law. Normally so well-groomed, he was disheveled, his eyes red and his hair messy. Dark strands, mixed with gray, were plastered across his forehead, and his coat was smeared with something brown.
It looked like merde, but smelled, thankfully, of chocolate.
“Stay here. I’ll see what I can do.”
A few minutes later the door opened again and Daniel stepped out.
Armand took a deep breath.
“I can understand that you won’t believe me, but I want you to know that I love you. With all my heart. Always have. Always will. I didn’t join Task Force Two because I wanted to be there for my family. For you. I didn’t want you to go through what I did. But I did agree to train them, and I am so, so sorry that wasn’t clear. This’s my fault and I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you.”
“I don’t care anymore. You’re twenty-five years too late.”
Armand nodded. “Oui.”
