by John Farrow
Cinq-Mars poses a different question, although he assumes he knows the answer. “Why Malory? Why not someone else?”
“She’d be in the way, up where the clock tower entrance is located. Cleaning. They had their comings and goings all planned. McBride removed her early, violated her in her own home early, then left her with a necklace around her neck to confuse the issue, to confound us.”
“Which it did,” Cinq-Mars allows. “Especially when it wasn’t there. You’ve gone over the film from Dowbiggin? What does that show?”
He learns that the men traded clothes. McBride arrived in one disguise and departed in another. Parker showed up in another outfit then left looking like McBride did when he first came in. Then Havilland-Clegg went out the door looking like Parker. They knew how to avoid the cameras except for the odd glimpse, and the disguises initially worked to confuse their arrivals and departures.
Hammond assures them both that before this goes to trial they’ll have run down every detail and timed each second. For now, it’s clear what the men did and how. A year ago, Havilland-Clegg noticed the boy lurking on the periphery, spying on him. He returned the favor. He spied on Vernon. Had him tracked. He traced back the lad’s connection to Toomey. Rather than abort their mission he chose to include both in his plan. When he figured out Toomey’s role, apparently by using Parker’s old contacts in the State Department, he duplicated his ruse, only for personal, rather than governmental, effect. They tested several young female recruits. First, they asked them to seek intimate secrets on different professors they chose, and Addie Langford won that contest by sleeping with her target, Professor Edith Shedden. After that, they directed her attentions to Vernon Colchester and discovered how things worked between him and Professor Toomey. Addie found out that they exchanged notes placed inside a tree’s bark, and the two of them never discerned that their correspondence was being monitored the whole time. What she gleaned was passed on to Bennington Havilland-Clegg. She knew enough to do everything in secret, delighted that she was outfoxing another pair of wannabe spies. Havilland-Clegg not only figured out Vernon’s spy education, he was provided with the ideal victim, one who was secretive, loyal, and trusting. Not to mention beautiful. Addie Langford was doomed. When he explained the workings and ramifications to his cohorts, McBride and Parker were both dazzled, they believed they had thrown in with a master magician, neither could imagine being caught. Both reveled in the prospect of unleashing their personal villainy with impunity, not only this once, but on down through time.
“They planned to rape and kill again,” Cinq-Mars says.
“Repeatedly,” Till confirms.
“Of course,” Hammond points out, “once McBride and Parker started yapping, Benny boy couldn’t hold back his contempt for both of them. Called them out for their cowardice and stupidity. He even referred to them as ‘sick,’ as if he’s in the pink of mental health. I asked him if he didn’t think he was a little sick in the head himself.”
Cinq-Mars smiles imagining that exchange. “How did Ben respond?”
“Unloaded on me. Every cuss imaginable. I told him, I didn’t think his language was worthy of a Dowbiggin alumnus.”
They’re quiet, mulling things through. Till sums up his general feeling about it all. “What a world.”
Hammond concurs, “Yeah. The world we live in.”
Cinq-Mars murmurs, “Hmm.”
They look at him. They know he doesn’t fully agree.
Sandra is returning up the walk in the company of her sister and niece. The men wait for her, then shake her hand and kiss her cheek and utter a few final words of sympathy before taking their leave. Hand in hand, Émile walks on with his wife. The other women follow a step behind. A reception is on tap back at the house, then two more services. Neither Sandra nor Émile are feeling as though they can do this, and might beg off. Up ahead Caroline’s friends are waiting. Anastasia and Kali contributed to the investigation of their friend’s murder and are devastated by the prospect of saying their final good-bye. It’s not mere obligation that carries Sandra and Émile forward after that. The company of the young ones invigorates them, and gives them hope, even as their hearts go out to them in a time of sorrow. Buoyed by that, they will attend the other sad events, before finally calling it a day and collapsing into a long and necessary sleep.
In bed, they kiss good night.
Lying there, thinking of Malory Earle’s funeral, Émile remarks, “Wasn’t that band something? They seemed inspired.”
Sandra agrees. “The band was great. Know what? I felt Mom listening in. Thought I did anyway.”
“You not going religious on me, are you?”
“Can’t say. Except she loved their sound.”
They fall from this world awhile. When they awake, they will begin the exploration to find where it is they might live, where it is they might make their way again.
ALSO BY JOHN FARROW
Seven Days Dead
The Storm Murders
River City
Ice Lake
City of Ice
ALSO BY TREVOR FERGUSON
The River Burns
The Timekeeper
The Fire Line
The True Life Adventures of Sparrow Drinkwater
The Kinkajou
Onyx John
High Water Chants
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN FARROW is the pen name for Trevor Ferguson, who has published twelve previous novels, both literary and crime, and had four plays produced. He has been named Canada’s best novelist in both Books in Canada and the Toronto Star. The books in his Émile Cinq-Mars crime series have been read around the world and have received extraordinary critical acclaim. John Farrow lives with his wife in the town of Hudson, Quebec. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Acknowledgments
Part 1
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Part 2
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Part 3
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Part 4
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Also by John Farrow
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
PERISH THE DAY. Copyright © 2017 by John Farrow Mysteries, Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: landscape © Trevor Payne / Arcangel; silhouette © Jorge Salcedo / Shutterstock.com
The
Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Farrow, John, 1947– author.
Title: Perish the day: a thriller / John Farrow.
Description: New York: Minotaur Books, 2017.|Series: The storm murders trilogy; 3
Identifiers: LCCN 2017002190|ISBN 9781250057709 (hardcover)|ISBN 9781250112361 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Police—Quebec (Province)—Montreal—Fiction.|Murder—Investigation—Fiction.|BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General.|FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural.|GSAFD: Suspense fiction.|Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PR9199.3.F455 P47 2017|DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002190
e-ISBN 9781250112361
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First Edition: May 2017