“Because I found the account.”
“How?” he asked.
Agent Cloutier glanced over at Ruth. “A little help from the crazy lady.”
Lacoste and Gamache looked puzzled, but Beauvoir’s brows cleared.
“The number on the back of the painting,” said Beauvoir.
“Yes. It wasn’t his password, it was the account number. He wrote it there so he wouldn’t forget it.”
She put in the numbers, and up popped the account. Under the name Baumgartner.
“Three hundred and seventy-seven million dollars,” Lacoste read off the screen.
“A motive for murder,” said Beauvoir. He stood up and placed a call. Ordering agents to arrest Bernard Shaeffer.
The sun was up and flooding into the offices of Horowitz Investments when Beauvoir arrived. He’d had time to shower and change and had asked Hugo and Caroline Baumgartner to meet him in Hugo’s office.
The office was as impressive as Hugo Baumgartner was unimpressive. Floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the city. It spoke of success but didn’t drip wealth. It was restrained, while saying all it needed to say.
Jean-Guy took note. Wondering if he could make over his office like this.
The siblings sat side by side, like a princess and a toad. Caroline self-contained and elegant. Hugo squat and disheveled. No tailor could ever make him look tailored. But his bulging eyes were warm and encouraging, and he rested his hand on his sister’s.
“You have news, you said?”
“We do,” said Beauvoir.
He’d brought Agent Cloutier with him. He’d invited Gamache as well, but having also showered and changed, he had another meeting to go to. With the Premier Ministre du Québec.
The review board had come down with its recommendations.
Just before entering the meeting with the Baumgartners, Beauvoir had received a call from Gamache.
“I’ve had a message from Kontrollinspektor Gund in Vienna. There’s been a decision on the will.”
Beauvoir listened, and then, after wishing Gamache good luck, he hung up and entered his own meeting.
“You know who killed Anthony?” asked Caroline.
“Yes. Early this morning we arrested Bernard Shaeffer.”
She closed her eyes and exhaled. “Oh, poor Anthony.”
“But why would Shaeffer kill him?” asked Hugo. “Revenge for being fired? That was a couple of years ago.”
“You’d be surprised how long people can hold on to things.”
“Were they still seeing each other?” Caroline asked.
“Not that we can tell,” said Beauvoir. “Not as lovers anyway. But there’s evidence that your brother got him a job after he was fired. He’s working at the Caisse Populaire.”
“At a bank?” asked Hugo. “Why would Tony do that? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if you need to set up false accounts and hide money.”
Hugo opened his mouth to speak, then shut it and stared at the Chief Inspector.
“You have proof?”
Beauvoir nodded. “Shaeffer admitted he’d set up a shell company and a numbered account in Lebanon in your brother’s name, in exchange for the job and his silence. We found millions.”
Caroline looked at Hugo. “What does this mean? Anthony really was stealing?”
“It looks like it. Are you sure it was him, Chief Inspector? Maybe Shaeffer set up an account in Tony’s name but used the money himself. Tony found out, confronted him, and Shaeffer killed him.”
“We considered that possibility,” said Beauvoir. “That your brother actually knew nothing about it. There was also the strange issue of the amount in the account. Slightly over seven million.”
“Sounds like a lot to me,” said Caroline.
But Hugo understood. He was watching Beauvoir, his ugly face expressive. “According to the statements you showed me, he’d taken hundreds of millions. So where’s the rest?”
“Exactly.”
Beauvoir nodded to Agent Cloutier, who put Anthony Baumgartner’s laptop on the table and set it up.
“It took us a while, but we finally got into your brother’s computer.” Beauvoir looked at them. “I hope this won’t upset you.”
They looked at each other, and Caroline gave a curt nod. “Best we know. I expect it’ll all be made public soon enough.”
“The interesting thing about your brother,” said Beauvoir as Cloutier brought up the files, “is that almost without exception he was described as decent, brilliant. A great mentor and a man of integrity, who when he discovered wrongdoing, turned the person in, knowing he’d get some of the blame.”
“That was the Tony we knew,” said Hugo.
“But his actions told a different story. A man who was brilliant, yes, but deceitful. Embezzling not just tens of millions but hundreds of millions. Who betrayed a young co-conspirator and turned him in when it looked like they’d be caught. It’s a familiar story for those of us in homicide. People lead double lives. They appear to be one thing while actually being not just something else but something totally opposite to what people think.”
“How else do they get away with it?” said Hugo.
Beauvoir was nodding. “Except most don’t. Let me show you what we found on his laptop.”
The Premier stood at his desk, and Gamache rose also.
He’d been in the Premier’s Montréal office less than ten minutes.
These things didn’t take long.
“I’m sorry, Armand,” said the Premier, looking down at the unopened envelope on his desk. “If there was any other course possible, I’d have taken it.”
“I appreciate your telling me yourself, and in person. I knew what would probably happen when I made those decisions. It could’ve been worse. You could be arresting me.”
“You’ve made some enemies, Armand, but you have a lot more friends. I hope you know I’m one of them.”
“I do.”
“And you got the drugs back, that’s what matters. I’ve been reading the preliminary report on what happened. You do know that if you hadn’t already been suspended, you’d have been suspended for what you just did.” He looked at Gamache closely. “And no one else knew you’d had a cadet thrown out of the academy and that she was working with you?”
“No one.”
“Not even Beauvoir?”
“Not even him. Just Cadet Choquet and me.”
The Premier nodded slowly. But decided not to question it further. The less he knew … He walked forward, to show Gamache the door.
“How is she?”
“Recovering. She’ll be running the Sûreté one day.”
“Yeah, well, the job’s open. Apparently you have to be half crazed to accept it, so that bodes well for her. I just hope I’m long retired by the time there’s a Chief Superintendent Choquet.”
Gamache smiled, then paused at the threshold. “There is something you can help me with.”
“Name it.”
“There’s a little girl.…”
Gamache called Reine-Marie and told her what happened, then drove across town to the low-rise apartment building and pressed the button for the caretaker’s apartment.
Benedict let him in, and a few minutes later Gamache was sitting on a worn sofa in the tiny basement apartment. Katie and Benedict were across from him, sitting on boxes.
“Have you figured out who killed Monsieur Baumgartner?” Benedict asked. “You know, I thought for a minute yesterday, at your place, that you suspected us.”
“More than a minute,” said Katie.
“No, I haven’t come about that. Chief Inspector Beauvoir will be by later this morning to talk with you.”
They exchanged glances, then Katie asked, “Why have you come?”
“There’s a decision in the court case in Vienna. It came down this morning.”
Benedict took Katie’s hand, and they waited.
“They ruled in favor of the Baumgartners.”
The couple sat still for a moment, then Benedict put his arm around Katie and she nodded.
“It’s what we expected,” said Katie. “And without that letter the Baron and Baroness’s wishes won’t be followed. They’ll keep it for themselves.”