The Long Way Home

As Jean-Guy is trying to reach the bartender, Gamache gets a call from Reine-Marie, who has heard from the college. They could not find Norman’s file, but it turned out that one of their staff had pulled it at the request of someone else a few months ago. Gamache and Reine-Marie surmise that Peter may have gone to Toronto, requested the file, and then waited there while they looked for it. The staff member destroyed the original file but only after making electronic copies, which are now on their way to Reine-Marie. She has already learned that Norman requested his last paycheck be sent to Baie-Saint-Paul, indicating that he did indeed go there after losing his job. This would also explain why Peter headed there after looking at the file.

A short time later, Gamache and Jean-Guy get phone calls at the same time. Reine-Marie summarizes the file to Gamache, including Norman’s most recent contact address, while the bartender tells Jean-Guy where Vachon goes every year. The places are the same: a remote fishing village called Tabaquen, located on the Lower North Shore of the St. Lawrence River. With this information, Gamache now knows “where this all began […] and where it would end” (284).

By early the next morning, the group is ready to depart for Tabaquen, a remote fishing village with no road access. Marcel insists on coming with them. They fly there on a small plane; during the flight, the pilot explains that he usually flies visitors only part of the way there. He usually drops them in the town of Sept-Iles, and they take a boat from there. Clara shows the pilot the photo of Peter from the yearbook (in which he is photographed with Massey). The pilot confirms that he recognizes the man, who is “tall, old, English” (292).

Clara abruptly decides that, if Peter went by boat, they should also go by boat and insists the pilot drop them in Sept-Iles so that they can retrace Peter’s journey. Jean-Guy disapproves of this idea, but Gamache reminds him that they agreed to let Clara make the important decisions. The group gets off the plane just in time to board a boat bound for Tabaquen. The voyage will take several days through notoriously dangerous waters.

On board the ship, the group is surprised that no one recognizes the photo of Peter. They wonder if the pilot could have been mistaken or misleading them. One of the boat crew finally confirms having seen Peter and noticed that he seemed quiet and withdrawn. Comically, Myrna and Clara end up with luxurious accommodations while the men are put in much rougher conditions. At the first port, a town called Port-Menier, the group gets off the ship to ask if anyone has seen Peter. No one has.

Myrna has been thinking back to her surprise that the pilot was able to recognize Peter so quickly from an old photograph and has a sudden idea: both Peter and Massey were in the photo they showed to the pilot, and she wonders if the pilot had recognized Massey. Gamache quickly phones the pilot, who confirms that it was Massey he recognized. He had flown Massey to Tabaquen yesterday. They ask the pilot to come and pick them up, but he is unable to do so, so they must get back on the ship.

Aboard the ship, Clara is astonished that Massey did not tell them anything about going to Tabaquen. There is no way to know whether he was aware that Norman was there when he spoke with them. As Clara reflects, “It’s not just down the street, it’s half-way across the continent. You’d have to be pretty desperate” (306). Gamache hints that Marcel might somehow be involved with Noman’s cult, and that is why he insisted on going with them. Clara acknowledges that this is possible and tells Gamache that she is keeping an eye on Marcel as well.

On the ship, Gamache receives a message from the police in Baie-Saint-Paul: the only thing the dogs have found at the former colony is a box containing empty cardboard rolls and a powder that has not yet been identified. They wonder whether the colony could have been a front for a drug operation and speculate that Massey followed Peter to Tabaquen either to confront Norman or to protect Peter.

The boat makes its way through increasingly rugged and remote territory consisting of “cold gray water, the hard gray stones, the thick gray clouds” (314). Meanwhile, the report has come back, and the powder found in the box is asbestos. Gamache recalls that he heard the art college had to do renovations because of asbestos found in its walls This event took place at the time when Peter and Clara were studying there. Gamache phones the college to ask if someone could have taken some of the asbestos. The staff admits that it could have happened but wonders why anyone would want a deadly substance.