Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Author:Louise Penny
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

CHAPTER 23

“I have some questions,” Jean-Guy Beauvoir said, his voice quiet. But also businesslike.

He’d driven through the sleet, into Montréal, to break the news first to Katie’s sister, Beth. He needed her now to focus, not to sink deeper into sorrow. That could wait. Right now he needed answers.

“Did Katie ever mention a cobrador?”

Beth looked at her husband, beside her on the sofa. From the basement they could hear the children, arguing over a laptop.

“A what? No.”

“Did she sew?”

Now they looked at him like he must be crazy. Beauvoir couldn’t blame them. These questions sounded nonsensical even to him.

“Sew? Ho—wha—” Beth struggled to get a word out.

“She was wearing a sort of cloak and we wondered if she made it.”

“No, she isn’t handy in that way. She cooks,” said Beth, her voice hopeful, as though that might help.

Beauvoir smiled. “Merci.” And making a note that he would never need, he saw Beth look at her husband and give him a strained smile.

“You’re close to your sister?”

“Yes. We’re only a year and a half apart. She’s younger. I always protected her, though she didn’t really need it. It became a kind of joke. She lives just a couple streets over, and Mom and Dad are a couple blocks away. Oh, God.”

Again, Beth turned to her husband, who put his arm around her shoulder.

“Mom and Dad.”

“I’ll tell them,” said Beauvoir. “But it would help if you were there.”

“Yes, yes of course. Oh, Christ.”

“You and Katie told each other everything?” he asked.

“I think so. I told her everything.”

Beth’s husband lifted his brows just a bit. Very little, but it was enough to show surprise. And some discomfort.

“I’m sorry, but you need to tell me anything she shared with you that could be compromising.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did she ever break the law? Did she ever do anything that she was ashamed of, that she never admitted to anyone? That someone could hold against her?”

“No, of course not.”

“Please, think.”

And she did.

He watched her pale, blotchy face. The rigid body, trying to contain the pain. Trying to hold it together.

“Katie used to take money from our mother’s purse. So did I. I think Mom knew. It wasn’t much, just a quarter or fifty cents. She once cheated on an exam. Cribbed from the girl next to her. Geography. She was never good with that.”

“Anything else?”

Beth thought, then shook her head. “No.”

“Her marriage was good.”

“It seemed good. They work together too, Katie and Patrick.”

Again, her husband, Yvon, shifted. And Beauvoir looked at him.

Recognizing the scrutiny, Yvon said, “We, I, never liked him. I thought he was taking advantage of her.”

“How so?”

“She was clearly the brains, the one who got things done. But she always, oh, what’s the word…?”

“Kowtowed?” said Beth. “Not so much gave in to him, but whatever Patrick wanted, Patrick got.”

“He’s manipulative,” said Yvon. “Doesn’t work on us.”

“Doesn’t work on most people,” said Beth. “Only Katie. It was the only sore spot. We love her, and don’t really like him. But she’s happy with him and so we put up with it.

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