The Long Way Home

After arriving in Baie-Saint-Paul, the group visits all the inns and hotels, but Peter is not staying at any of them. Clara is frustrated because she did not think Peter would be hard to find once they arrived, and Myrna suggests they pause to gather themselves. Jean-Guy brings them to a quiet restaurant on the shores of the St. Lawrence River. After they eat and catch their breath, Clara proposes they show Peter’s paintings to the local galleries to see if anyone recognizes them. They split up to visit as many galleries as possible and plan to meet at a local restaurant later. Jean-Guy and Gamache have no success, and two of the galleries they visit are closed. They are also preoccupied with trying to find somewhere to stay for the night.

When Clara and Myrna return, they have not had success either, but some elderly local men identified the spot from which Peter must have made one of the paintings. Clara is anxious to go there, but as they speak a man sitting at a nearby table comes over to talk to them. He heard the group mention a famous artist, Clarence Gagnon, as they spoke about the impact of the setting on artists, and he says that he admires Gagnon as well. Clara says they do not have time to speak with him, but they take the man’s card.

The group drives to the spot depicted in Peter’s painting: bluffs overlooking the St. Lawrence, contained in a crater formed by a meteorite hitting Earth millions of years before. The vista and view are magnificent, and they are moved by what Peter tried to capture. They realize that “Peter had traveled from Scotland to here. From cosmic speculation to cosmic fact. A purely rational man was chasing the magical” (196). They are also increasingly anxious about what might have happened to him after he stood in this spot and created the painting. 

Still without a hotel for the night, the group returns to town to have dinner. Gamache suggests they reach out to the local police, as he is growing increasingly concerned about Peter. Clara had assumed the paintings mean that Peter is still in Baie-Saint-Paul, but Gamache points out that all they know is that he was here at some point. Anything could have happened to him after he completed the paintings and sent them to Bean. Distressed and frustrated by the suggestion that Peter might be dead, Clara storms out of the restaurant.

A short time later, Clara returns with Marcel Chartrand, the man who had introduced himself to them earlier. Marcel owns a local gallery dedicated to works by Gagnon, and he offers to let them stay in his apartment. They accept the offer, but Gamache is suspicious. He knows that Marcel has recognized him as a famous police investigator. Gamache admires the art collection in Marcel’s home, and they discuss the famous Canadian artist Tom Thomson, who died under mysterious circumstances. When Gamache apologizes to Clara for bringing up a potentially insensitive story about an artist dying, Clara explains to Marcel that her husband is Peter Morrow and that he is missing.

Shockingly, Marcel says that he spent time with Peter the previous April. Peter had rented a cabin nearby but moved out in the late spring, and Marcel has not seen him since. Marcel does not remember much about when or why Peter left. He says that Peter lived a very simple and isolated life. He never saw any of Peter’s work and did not know what he was working on. Marcel admits, however, that he recognized both Clara and Gamache when he saw them in the restaurant and was being disingenuous when he pretended to be merely interested in their conversation. Gamache does not know what to make of Marcel, but he makes careful note of the fact that “Chartrand was not always completely honest” (206).

Gamache wakes up early the next morning in the spare room of Marcel’s home. Marcel offers to show him the gallery, which leaves Gamache awe-struck. Marcel comments that Peter was also often deeply moved by looking at the collection of Gagnon’s art. Alone with Gamache, Marcel comments that he thinks Peter came to Baie-Saint-Paul looking for someone or something, but he never knew what. Marcel also says that when Peter first arrived, he asked about someone named Norman. Marcel did not know what Peter was talking about, but he did some research and learned of a man who had once led an artists’ colony in the woods nearby and went by the name of “Noman.” The colony had failed and Noman left the area before Peter arrived. Marcel does not think this is the person Peter meant, and he also does not know if Peter ever found Norman.

The whole group goes to breakfast at a diner Peter was known to frequent. The server does indeed know Peter but comments that Peter always came in alone. As they talk, Clara recalls that there was a professor named Norman at her art school. However, Peter did not like or admire him. Gamache phones Reine-Marie and asks her to go to Toronto and talk to the art school to see if she can find anything about this Norman. Gamache wants Reine-Marie to go in person because “if anyone could wheedle classified information out of an institution, she could” (214).

Reine-Marie and Ruth fly to Toronto together to follow up on Gamache’s request. Once there, they meet with Massey, who tells them about Professor Norman. Massey explains that he was eccentric and promoted strange theories about art, which led to students mocking him and not respecting him. He could also be cruel and obsessive. He would berate anyone who disagreed with his views and theories, even though they were not accepted in most academic circles. Massey and the others became increasingly convinced that, for the good of the students, they needed to get rid of him but, before they could do so, he set up an event to mock unsuccessful students. While students with promising artworks had the opportunity to exhibit them in a salon, Norman displayed the work of unsuccessful students in a Salon des Refusés. Clara had previously spoken about her work being included in this show and how hurtful she found it. Massey laments the cruelty he showed toward his students, and Reine-Marie can readily imagine “how vile that was” (222). Norman was fired from the college shortly afterward.

Massey recalls that he and Peter spoke only briefly about Norman when they visited, and he does not think Peter would be trying to find him. Massey offers to show them the yearbook from the time Norman worked at the college so that they can see a photo of him, but when they look through it, they realize that the book includes images of artwork instead of photos of the instructors. Nonetheless, Reine-Marie asks to borrow a copy of the yearbook and takes it with her. The yearbook also includes a photo of Peter and Massey together.

Back in Baie-Saint-Paul, Gamache, Clara, and their companions have gone to see the cabin that Peter rented, but they were unable to find any clues or information. With nothing to do until they hear back from Reine-Marie, they decide to show Peter’s final paintings to Marcel. While Marcel looks at them, Gamache gets a phone call from Reine-Marie. She and Ruth are on their way back to Montreal, and she fills him in on their conversation with Massey. She also says that the college is looking for a contact address for Norman and will let them know if they find anything.

After Gamache hangs up and shares what he heard from Reine-Marie, Clara comments on her memory of Norman and his strange obsession with muses. The group talks about how muses impact the creative process for different people. Marcel points out that “a muse might inspire them, but it doesn’t make them great artists or guarantee success” (233).

At the Montreal airport, Reine-Marie sends Gamache a photo of a page from the yearbook spotlighting the works of the professors. As she and Ruth drive back to Three Pines, Ruth explains the history of the muses. In Greek mythology, there are nine muses, representing areas of knowledge including poetry, history, science, and drama. Curiously, there is no muse for painting or sculpture, leading to speculation that there may have been a 10th muse. One of Norman’s obsessions was this theory of the 10th muse.

Gamache looks at the photos Reine-Marie sent him and is struck by Norman’s artwork: a painted self-portrait that Gamache interprets as violent and angry. He also notices something unusual about the signature. Reine-Marie phones him and goes into more detail about Norman’s theory, including his belief that the 10th muse exists and must be found by anyone who wants to be a great artist. Gamache and Reine-Marie speculate that the 10th muse is someone cast out and excluded by her sisters and warped as a result. Gamache is left wondering if “the tenth muse, and the pursuit of her, [had] driven Professor Norman mad? Or was he already mad, and she was his salvation?” (241).

Gamache shows the image of Norman’s self-portrait to the others and points out that, if you look closely, his signature reads “Noman.” It seems increasingly likely that after Norman was fired from the college, he went to Baie-Saint-Paul and started the artists’ colony under the name of Noman. The group walks into the woods, where the colony used to be, and realizes that Peter’s other two pictures were painted at this site. The connection is only gradually apparent because at first, “there was no correlation between the wild colors and fierce strokes of the painting and the bucolic scene […] but the longer they looked, the more it fell into place” (246).

The group grows suspicious that Marcel knows more about the colony and Noman than he is letting on, but Marcel insists that he only visited the colony once, to talk about Clarence Gagnon. Marcel comments that Gagnon’s relationship to the beautiful geography of the region might have led Norman to think Gagnon had found the 10th muse.

Back in town, Gamache implies that he thinks Marcel might have been involved with the artists’ colony and then stayed in the town after it collapsed. Meanwhile, Jean-Guy chats with a server at the local bistro where the group has been eating; he noticed that it is called The Muse. The server says that the restaurant is indeed owned by an artist but that the owner is out of town painting and will not be back for several weeks.

Jean-Guy then questions an older man tending bar at the restaurant. At first, the man is hostile, but he becomes intrigued when Jean-Guy claims that he works for a gallery in Montreal and is trying to find an artist who goes by the name of Noman since his paintings have increased significantly in value. This lie is “the very thing guaranteed to get both a response and respect” (254).

The bartender reveals that the restaurant is owned by a man named Luc Vachon, who had previously lived at the artists’ colony and knew Noman from that time. From what the bartender knows, Vachon helped Noman but also seemed uneasy around him. Noman left abruptly, and the bartender does not know whether Vachon kept in touch with him. Vachon still paints and is away on his annual painting trip. The bartender does not know of anyone else involved with the colony or anyone else who might have any of Noman’s paintings.

Meanwhile, Gamache, Clara, and Myrna have run into the two men who initially told Clara about Peter’s paintings depicting the view from the river bluffs. They also recognized the subject of the other paintings as the former colony in the woods and vaguely recall Noman. He was apparently charismatic but also strange, and they wondered why he kept the colony so secluded.

Clara questions Marcel about whether Peter ever said anything about Scotland and tells the story of Peter having visited the garden of Cosmic Speculation. Jean-Guy joins them and explains what he learned about Vachon. The group decides to spend another night, since Marcel is happy to have them, and they go to the local police station to explain their search for Peter.

The police chief does not know anything about Peter; she has heard of Noman and the artists’ colony but says that the colony has been abandoned for at least 10 years. There was never any suspicious activity associated with it. She asks an older officer if he knows anything else, and the officer asserts that it was not just a colony: it was a cult. He also does not know why Noman left or where he went.

Before he leaves, Gamache discreetly asks the police chief to send dogs to the abandoned colony to sniff for bodies. Marcel mentions that he needs to go to his other home, which is more remote, and he asks the group to come with him. They agree, even though Jean-Guy points out to Gamache that “we’re better off here than in a house in the middle of nowhere” (269).