A Fatal Grace

At the Morrow home, Clara replays a scene from The Lion in Winter for Gamache: In the shot, Eleanor of Aquitaine descends from a barge. All that’s visible is the bow of the boat, some trees, and gray water. Everyone is stumped as to why CC found this scene significant.

Gamache produces the book of poetry that Clara lost on the day of Ruth’s signing. She can’t recall when she dropped it, but she tells him about the beggar. Clara sheepishly confesses that she thought she was speaking to God. The beggar said she’d always loved Clara’s work, but Clara denies ever having laid eyes on the woman before.

Gamache glances at the TV screen one more time and notices the figurehead on the prow of the boat. It’s a shrieking eagle. 

The group investigative team gathers in the Incident Room. Gamache compares the video clip of Eleanor’s boat prow to historical research about the real queen’s emblem. Both are a shrieking eagle. CC deliberately chose that symbol as the logo for her company.

Gamache then tells his team why CC was gripping the spare lawn chair. After studying Saul’s various photos, the inspector notices that the lawn chair had been moved sideways to a crooked position. The murderer knew that CC had a fixation for straightening up objects that were out of place. Someone had deliberately shoved the chair askew at some point during the match.

The team speculates as to why Saul burned the missing photos. If he was planning to blackmail someone, he would surely have kept them as incriminating evidence.

Gamache sorts through CC’s trash for any additional clues. He finds a filthy leather strap attached to a pendant. The design is a screaming eagle. He makes his first critical connection: When Elle was strangled, she gripped something in her hand, leaving cuts on her palm that match the outline of the necklace. He notes:

The emblem of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the logo for CC de Poitiers and the necklace of the beggar were the same. The murderer had taken it because it proved something more terrible than who killed Elle. It proved that Elle and CC were connected. They shared more than a symbol. Elle was CC’s mother (302).

Gamache checks the signature that Elle used to sign in to the shelter in Montreal. Her name wasn’t “Elle.” It was “L.” This is the same initial painted inside the Li Bien ball. The inspector concludes that someone is killing the women in CC’s family.

Gamache and Beauvoir race over to the old Hadley house to warn Lyon and Crie that Crie might be the next victim of the killer. The inspector orders a police guard around the house.

Over dinner at the bistro, Gamache and Beauvoir discuss the case. Gamache asks if Beauvoir trusts Nichol. His answer: he does; she’s been very cooperative. Gamache expresses his doubts, and Beauvoir realizes that Nichol’s reassignment might have something to do with the Arnot case. Headquarters isn’t pleased with Gamache. Perhaps Nichol has been sent to spy. 

At 2:20am, a siren awakens Gamache and everyone at the bed and breakfast. There’s a fire in town. Gamache, Beauvoir, and Nichol race outside to help. Everyone has gathered at Saul’s chalet. Half the building is already in flames. Gamache spies Ruth, the fire chief, and notes her “calm and decisive” manner; he “knew a leader when he saw one” (318).

No one has seen Saul. He may still be inside the house. The inspector notices Nichol racing for the back door and curses her stupidity (319). Beauvoir and Gamache run inside the house, now to rescue both Saul and Nichol. They climb upstairs and are trapped by the fire. Forcing a door open, they find Nichol barricaded inside. Billy Williams manages to get a ladder to a window nearby. The trio escapes as the entire house goes up in flames, along with Saul.

The following morning, Three Pines “seemed more diminished by the death of the unknown photographer than by CC’s” (328). It appears the blaze was an accident and not arson. Too much creosote had built up in the chimney. When Saul lit a fire to burn his roll of film, he accidentally caused his own death.

Nichol tells Gamache that she ran into the burning building to rescue Saul because he bore the same name as her uncle: “stupid Uncle Saul in Czechoslovakia, who’d flunked out of the police and failed to save his family” (330). At first, Nichol is euphoric that Gamache tried to save her. He must care. She must be worth it, after all. Then, her suspicions grow that he rushed into the building only to save Saul. Gamache has a frank conversation with Nichol, insisting they need to trust one another. She agrees but later places a private call to her boss in Montreal, revealing everything that Gamache has told her in confidence.

The team reassembles in the Incident Room. Lacoste has received the blood sample results from L’s necklace. There are two sets of bloodstains. One belonged to L and the other to CC. Gamache explains that CC killed her own mother because having a mother who was a beggar would ruin the launch of CC’s Li Bien product line: “‘Something had to die, either her dream or her mother. It wasn’t much of a choice’” (340).

Gamache spends a few moments randomly rearranging the capital letters in L’s wooden box. He believes he now knows why she kept them.