The Grey Wolf

At the bistro, Ruth asks Armand about the phone calls. They’re joined by their friends Myrna, who owns the bookstore, and Clara, a painter, as well as the bistro’s owners, Olivier and Gabri. It’s out of character for Armand to rudely swear, but he doesn’t tell them it’s Jeanne. His phone rings again.

Reine-Marie’s phone also starts to ring. They both answer because it’s their alarm company alerting them that a sensor in their Montreal apartment was tripped. Armand tells them that it’s probably a false alarm and not to send anyone. He sends “his second-in-command and son-in-law” (12), Jean-Guy Beauvoir, to check it out. Jean-Guy doesn’t notice anything awry in the apartment. After Armand gets off the call, he asks Reine-Marie if she wants to have dinner in Montreal with their other friends, and she agrees. As they leave the bistro, Armand sees someone he recognizes but doesn’t recall how he knows the man. He’s later revealed to be Dom Philippe, a monk whom Armand knows, wearing plain clothes.

The next morning, Armand can’t find his raincoat. As Reine-Marie, the senior archivist of the Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Quebec, goes to work, Armand goes into the Sûreté headquarters. His team is investigating two murders that appear to be mob hits, but the victims have no apparent mob connections or connections to each other. However, both were killed in the exact same way. Armand tells Evelyn Tardiff, who works in organized crime, about his mob theory. She isn’t convinced that they’re mob hits but agrees to check them out. Armand thinks the murders are the beginning of a larger plan that will bring chaos.

The department heads go to their Monday meeting, which is dominated by the inept (and later revealed to be corrupt) Chief Inspector Goudreau. Armand thinks about getting a new raincoat. After the meeting, he meets with Isabelle Lacoste, his “co-second-in-command” (20). She gives him a package, saying that it has been cleared: It isn’t a bomb and doesn’t contain toxic substances. The attached note says that the box contains something that will interest Armand. He asks to see the security footage of the delivery and then opens the box with gloves. Inside layers of newspaper is his raincoat.

Armand calls Reine-Marie and tells her not to return to the apartment just yet. Jean-Guy arrives, and Armand says that the coat must have been stolen when the alarm went off. Jean-Guy sends a police car to Armand’s apartment. Armand searches the coat for clues and finds a note asking to meet in one pocket. A second note appears to be part of an herbal recipe in which the rarest herb is angelica stems; on the back of this note, one word is written: “water.”

Armand returns to his apartment and talks to the officer there, explaining that he just needs her to file a report on the break-in. The coat was taken from a hook by the front door. Armand calls Reine-Marie and tells her that it’s safe to come home. When she arrives, he tells her about the coat and shows her the pictures of the notes. She doesn’t recognize the writing on them and thinks the meeting is a trap. The note refers to the meeting location, one of Armand’s regular haunts, by a name that only locals use: Open Da Night. He asks Reine-Marie to go back to Three Pines and says that he’ll join her later. Isabelle sends Armand the video of the package being delivered to the Sûreté reception. It’s delivered by a small young man who avoids looking at the camera and whom Armand doesn’t recognize. The agents don’t find any cameras or bugs in Armand’s apartment. He tells Jean-Guy that he’s going to the meeting.

Armand fills the cafe Open Da Night with Sûreté agents but refuses to take a gun to the meeting. Jean-Guy offers to go in with them, but Armand fears that the person who left the note will recognize Jean-Guy from the photos in Armand’s apartment. Armand gets coffee and a pastry and asks the barista, Vito, for an extra pastry. A man in a hoodie, who isn’t the man in the video, arrives. Armand gestures to Isabelle to stay back as the man sits at Armand’s table. Armand asks him to put his hands on the table to show that he isn’t carrying a gun, and he obliges. He says his name is Charles Langois, which turns out to be true, but Armand doesn’t believe him at first.

Charles tells Armand that he hired an unhoused man to deliver the package, and he’s surprised when his pastry arrives. Armand says that the man in the video looked hungry. Charles seems to have a working-class accent called joual and says that he didn’t know whose apartment he was hired to break into but was given a key, which he threw away afterward. Next, Charles claims to need the coat because he’s unhoused, but Armand sees that this is a lie.

Meanwhile, Olivier calls Reine-Marie and asks her to try a new drink at the bistro. Ruth, Clara, and Myrna are also there. Everyone hates Olivier’s green drink, called “The Last Word” (42). The others ask Reine-Marie about the caller that Armand swore at over the phone.

Armand continues his conversation with Charles. Charles says that he’s being set up and asks for protection. He claims to not know the name of the person who hired him and describes him, but Armand doesn’t think the description is true. Armand also doesn’t believe that the man paid Charles in full, up front, and doubts that Charles is a resident of the unhoused shelter called “The Mission” (46). After having Charles write down a phrase from the note that was in Armand’s coat pocket, Armand concludes that the writing is the same. Armand then shows Charles the recipe.

Meanwhile, Reine-Marie tells her friends about Jeanne, who is the assistant to a member of Parliament. That member, Marcus Lauzon, requested (through Jeanne) that Armand drop a case against Lauzon’s daughter. When Armand refused, Jeanne and her boss took revenge on him.

Charles doesn’t recognize the recipe’s list of herbs. He then lies, saying that his employer wanted him to break into Armand’s apartment to settle a bet. Isabelle listens in (through the wire that Armand is wearing) and watches the conversation carefully. She and Armand notice a grandfather and a young girl in the cafe and worry about their safety. Armand calls Charles out on his lies and starts to leave. Charles admits that he doesn’t live at The Mission but volunteers there. Armand stays, and Charles says that he was only paid half up front for the job and that the man who paid him was an assistant to a politician who visited The Mission for publicity. Charles can’t identify the politician but tells Armand what days he volunteered so that Armand can check the shelter’s security footage.

Charles also admits that he was paid to put both notes in Armand’s coat. Armand thinks this is a lie. Charles knocks over Armand’s water, nearly destroying the note. Armand asks why he wants to destroy the paper, and Charles says that water is important. Then, Armand calls out Charles’s lie about not knowing details about the coat. Charles says that he’s trying to help Armand but can’t tell him what’s happening, even though he thinks Armand is trustworthy. Charles adds that he never saw the recipe before. Armand says that Charles’s boss will know that Charles put the note about the meeting in the coat pocket. Charles still won’t reveal the identity of his boss, but Armand thinks that Charles could be brave rather than scheming.

Charles walks toward the door of the café, and Armand follows him. Armand watches an SUV close to the cafe as Charles tells him that the “Sûreté is compromised” (57). Charles can’t tell Armand who the corrupt agent(s) is and makes another comment about water being unsafe. A woman waves at the SUV, and it starts to move. Charles admits that Charles is his real name as the SUV heads toward him. Armand grabs the young girl, protecting her as the SUV crashes into the terrasse and hits Charles. After ordering Isabelle to call for ambulances and look after the others, Armand talks to Charles, holding his hand, as he dies. His last word is “family,” and Armand thinks this means that Charles wants Armand to tell his family what happened. When Armand assures Charles that he will, Charles has a panicked look. Then, he dies.

Isabella and a paramedic check on Armand’s injuries. After the paramedic leaves to check on others, Isabella says that she captured the crash on video and that the police are going after the SUV. Armand takes the notes out of his coat, putting it over Charles’s body as onlookers gather and post videos online. The driver’s face is obscured in the videos, but Armand says that the driver was the same man who dropped off the package earlier and that a woman signaled him. Armand makes sure that the young girl is okay and notices that he has some whipped cream on his hand that was on Charles’s hand. The SUV grazed his leg, and he lost a shoe.