A Fatal Grace

Gamache is angry at Agent Nichol’s arrival. Beauvoir shares his boss’s view; he considers her a:

[…] rancid, wretched, petty little woman who’d almost ruined their last case, and had proved a deeply divisive element in a team that thrived and depended on harmony (155).

Gamache calls Superintendent Francoeur to verify that he has sent Nicole to Three Pines. Gamache realizes that the superintendent is punishing him and his team for a perceived error in judgment on a past case, the Arnot case.

Nichol apologizes for her past poor performance and presents Gamache with Saul’s local address. When she admits that she spoke to Saul, Gamache is annoyed. If Saul is involved in the murder, Nichol’s questions might prompt the photographer to burn evidence implicating him in the crime. Gamache orders Nichol to stay put while he interviews witnesses. The inspector also sends Lemieux to Montreal to investigate the beggar’s murder.

Beauvoir goes to question Saul. Saul says he has been expecting someone from the police and has compiled some interesting pictures to share.

Beauvoir reports that Saul’s photos will be ready in one day. Since CC was his only photographic subject on the day of the murder, his snapshots may reveal some unknown detail about the crime.

Em is preparing lunch for Kaye and Mother Bea when Gamache and Beauvoir arrive to question them about the curling match. They can’t recall any suspicious activity. Kaye says CC sat down in Em’s chair. Later, Kaye saw CC standing behind Mother Bea’s empty chair, gripping the back of it. She screamed and then collapsed. The detectives don’t know how the chair could have been electrified specifically for CC. Anyone might have touched that chair before her.

Lemieux arrives at the Sûreté du Québec headquarters in Montreal. He presents Gamache’s contact with a photo of the beggar’s hand. The contact seems intrigued by the bloodstain pattern in the middle of the palm. He says he’ll get back to Gamache with his findings.  

Lemieux calls Gamache from Montreal. He’s tracked down the homeless shelter where the beggar, Elle, stayed. The director says Elle always wore a necklace that held special meaning for her but would never let anyone see it.

Gamache turns his attention to Agent Nichol. He tells her that he made a mistake and wants to give her another chance. He assigns her the task of looking into the backgrounds of CC’s husband and daughter.

Saul contemplates the one roll of film he’s held back from the police. It contains incriminating evidence, and he considers whether to use it or destroy it.

Another member of the team, Agent Isabelle Lacoste, is having no luck tracking down CC’s parents. CC said her mother’s name was Eleanor de Poitiers, but she was referring to the historic Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Gamache and Beauvoir go to Mother Bea’s healing center to question her. Beauvoir grows nauseous from the heavy incense in the air. Gamache notices that “Be Calm” is the name of the center. He asks Mother Bea about CC. She tells the policemen that CC was a fraud and that her book cobbles together clichés from a variety of religions. She explains that Li Bien is a philosophy of holding all emotion inside and states that CC was crazy to espouse such a theory.

CC also said that colors other than white are impure because they are associated with a specific emotion. Mother Bea explains:

This is where CC was actually quite clever, and very dangerous in my opinion. She’d take something that had a bit of truth or fact and then stretch it beyond recognition (195).

Gamache quietly notes to himself that Mother Bea is doing the same thing with her patchwork belief system, but he refrains from saying so out loud. Beauvoir has an even stronger negative reaction and vomits as soon as he leaves the center, “curs[ing] that woman and her cloying claustrophobic calm” (198).

Gamache takes Beauvoir, who has the flu, back to the local bed and breakfast where they are staying. Next, Gamache will spend time in the local bistro listening to people talk:

Gamache’s job was to collect the evidence, but also to collect the emotions. And the only way he knew to do that was to get to know the people. To watch and listen. To pay attention. And the best way to do that was in a deceptively casual manner in a deceptively casual setting (202).

Agent Lacoste interrupts Gamache’s plans. She tells him that CC invented her parents: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henri Plantagenet were the rulers of England in the 12th century. Gamache wonders why CC felt a need to disguise her past.

Lemieux calls to report that the bloody cuts on Elle’s palm indicated she was grasping something when she was killed. The sketch artist at the Sûreté was able to recreate the pattern. Lemieux sends Gamache a copy of the image.

The inspector also receives a message that the coroner is on her way to meet him at the bistro with the full results of her autopsy on CC.