The Brutal Telling

Even though Gabri assures Olivier that his bistro won’t suffer because the village loves him, Olivier believes he should shut down his business. Gabri suggests that they befriend the Gilberts, which infuriates Olivier. He tells Gabri that the police will be contacting his father.

Jean Guy tells Gamache that the Gilberts did not use varathane in the reconstruction and remodeling of their house—ruling the house out as the scene of the murder. Clotilde Poirier tells the detectives that despite her children’s antipathy for Olivier, she appreciates him because he saw value in her old belongings and gave her enough money to refurnish her house. Next, Jean Guy and Gamache visit Clotilde’s oldest son, Claude, who has a record of petty crimes. Claude is angry but clearly never leaves his couch. Meanwhile, Marc meets his new horses and is annoyed that they’re not strong. Dominique explains that she saved them from the slaughterhouse. Marc wonders if his decision to start anew has changed him like he thought it would.

The homicide investigation team review their information: They still don’t know the identities of the murderer and victim, why the victim was murdered, where he was murdered, and why his body was moved to the bistro. Isabelle shares her and Paul’s information about Olivier: Olivier Brulé is 38 years old and had an affluent upbringing in Montreal. For much of his career, Olivier worked with high-end corporate clients for a major bank. At some point, Olivier left the bank, met Gabri, and moved to Three Pines. Isabelle hopes to learn more about Olivier’s departure when she investigates his job and father. Olivier owns more than a bistro in Three Pines; he also owns the local bed-and-breakfast, the general store, the bakery, and a bookshop, run by another local, Myrna.

Monsieur Béliveau, who runs the general store, confirms to Paul that he sells paraffin and describes the last two people he sold it to. Meanwhile, Isabelle goes to Montreal to learn more about Olivier. She goes to his former employer and speaks to a man named Yves Charpentier. Yves tells her that people always liked working with Olivier, but there was an investigation into Olivier when two million dollars of company money went missing. Olivier confessed to taking the money, but didn’t steal it. Instead, he used the money to make unauthorized investments, but made the company profit. Despite the profit, he resigned because most of the company lost trust in him.

Paul reports information on the Parras: He tells Gamache that Hanna and Roar moved to Canada as refugees and are now Canadian citizens. He also reports that the general-store manager recently sold varathane to Gabri and Marc. Meanwhile, Isabelle meets Olivier’s father Jacques Brulé in Montreal. Jacques doesn’t have much to say about Olivier’s upbringing because he wasn’t involved; he doesn’t even know his son is gay.

Gamache and Paul interview Olivier and Gabri. Gabri says he bought the varathane to polish the bar in the bistro, but hasn’t used it yet. Meanwhile, Marc and Dominique give Jean Guy a tour of their house. Jean Guy sees Roar Parra working outside. He brings up the mysterious stranger Roar claimed to have seen in the forest, but Roar has nothing new to add. Roar explains that he dissuaded the Gilberts from using varathane; he only works environmentally friendly jobs. Jean Guy notes how the floors in the renovated house gleam.

Jean Guy peels back rugs in the Gilberts’ house to examine the floors better. He is certain the floors’ shine is due to varathane. He brings up the varathane, and Marc admits he used it until he discovered more eco-friendly options. Jean Guy points out that varathane doesn’t become hard for a while, and that the floors look recently applied with varathane.

Marc goes to the incident room to speak to the homicide detectives. He confesses that he woke up to the dead body in his house. He moved the body to the bistro because he didn’t want the story of his new business to start with a crime scene. Marc chose the bistro because he knew where Olivier kept an extra key. Gamache insists that Marc tell the truth. Marc then admits he chose Olivier’s bistro because of how unwelcoming Olivier has been. They receive a call from Dominique, claiming there is a stranger in the woods, headed toward their house. Gamache and Jean Guy rush to the old Hadley house, where they see the stranger. Gamache confronts him and Jean Guy pins the man down, believing he has a weapon in his hand.

Marc is released and brought to his house to check on his wife and mother. He wants to see the stranger, wondering if this man has been spying on them and setting them up for a murder charge. The evidence of the varathane and blood results from Marc’s floor reveal that if Marc did kill the victim, he hadn’t done it in his home. Gamache introduces Marc and his family to the stranger—and Marc is shocked at the sight of his father.

Twenty years earlier, Marc had been told by his mother that his father was dead. Carole explains that when Marc’s father, Vincent Gilbert, decided he needed a new life, she found it easier to say he was dead. Vincent and Carole have been in contact over the years, so Vincent could get updates about his estranged son.

By the time Gamache and Jean Guy return to the incident room, they see Ruth and her duck, Rosa, waiting for them. Ruth has already heard that Marc was the one who put the dead body in Olivier’s bistro. She demands to know if the detectives will arrest Marc. Earlier, Jean Guy received a note from Ruth suggesting she missed something. He asks what she meant, but she doesn’t clarify. She gives Jean Guy another note, then leaves. Gamache doesn’t arrest Marc because is not convinced he’s the culprit. Jean Guy suggests that Vincent Gilbert left the body in Marc’s house to give him an excuse to reenter his son’s life. Then he reads Ruth’s new note: “I just sit where I’m put, composed of stone and wishful thinking: that the deity who kills for pleasure will also heal” (158). Reflecting, he asks who Vincent is, as Gamache seems to recognize him. Gamache says some people consider Vincent a saint.

Myrna tells Gamache that everyone in town is talking about Marc’s involvement in the murder. She wants the murderer to be Marc, but as a former psychologist, she recognizes that this hope comes from a mistrust of outsiders. Gamache asks her for a book titled Being. She finds it for him and leaves him alone to read.

Jean Guy researches Vincent Gilbert and learns that he came from a prominent family, became a doctor, and created a test to detect Down syndrome in utero. But then he suddenly left for India and joined Brother Albert at LaPorte. Gamache gives Jean Guy the copy of Being, which is about Brother Albert and LaPorte, written by Vincent. Isabelle reports on Olivier’s departure from corporate financing and Olivier’s father. Suddenly, Dominique falls from her horse outside the bistro, shocked and upset. She tells Gamache that she had been inside a cabin in the woods, a cabin covered with blood.

Part of the deceased Hermit’s mythological story includes a young boy who became entranced by the Mountain. His devotion to the Mountain allowed society to flourish around the Mountain. The Mountain King tells the boy a secret.

Olivier watches the scene outside his bistro and knows what caused Dominique to fall off her horse. Dominique found the Hermit’s cabin while exploring the woods on horseback, after deviating from Roar’s trails. Gamache and Jean Guy enter the one-room cabin, where they find the victim’s belongings and blood. Roar clears the trail, and the rest of the homicide team gather evidence at the scene of the crime. They investigate and find a flourishing garden as well as tins of paraffin. The investigators find old but clean clothes, used books, and an old violin, but no ID. They find two sets of fingerprints they can send in for lab testing. Notably, Gamache sees groceries in the kitchen. Because no one ever saw a stranger in town, someone must have delivered the groceries. The victim has two chairs, which implies he had a visitor. Gamache is awed to find antique glass objects and a first-edition copy of Walden.

The homicide detectives wonder why the murderer didn’t steal any of the victim’s priceless objects. Because the murderer could have left the victim’s body in the cabin, it’s clear they wanted the victim to be found.

In the deceased Hermit’s mythical story, the boy who hears the Mountain King’s secret convinces his family to leave town. The secret is that of a land where no one dies or falls ill. He says goodbye to the Mountain and takes a package with him. As for written stories, in the victim’s outhouse, Isabelle finds outdated money and a first-edition copy of Charlotte’s Web. Meanwhile, Vincent Gilbert meets Gamache. Vincent recalls his time at LaPorte, living and working with people with Down syndrome. A guru in India told him to help people, so now, he wants to help his son.

Jean Guy, Isabelle, and Gamache look over the photographs they took in the cabin. Gamache wants to call Superintendent Thérèse Brunel, an expert in art theft and head of property crime. He wonders how the victim accumulated so many items without anyone seeing him. Isabelle gives Gamache an object from the crime scene, a carved piece of wood stained with blood, with the inscription “woo” whittled onto it.

Paul has been tasked with guarding the cabin overnight. Lonely, he plays the victim’s violin. Then, inside a pillowcase, he finds a pocket with an intricate carving of men and women on a boat. On the bottom, there’s an inscription that reads “OWSVI.” Paul searches the other pillowcase and finds a pocket with a carving of men and women staring at an ocean, with an inscription that reads “MRKBVYDDO.” He sees a spider’s web, and in the web, the word “woo” is weaved in.

Paul shows the homicide team the wood carvings, which have been dusted for fingerprints. He shows them a photograph of the spider’s web reading “woo.” Isabelle connects the spider’s web to Charlotte’s Web. Paul brings up a book by Currer Bell he found in the cabin, about a girl named Jane in England, but it’s unfamiliar to the other detectives.

Gamache tells couple Clara and Peter Morrow about the groceries in the cabin, and they’re surprised at the thought of someone from the village knowing the victim. They use the term “one of us,” illustrating the protective dynamic of Three Pines. Gamache shows them the carvings Paul found, hoping for their artistic analysis. Clara and Peter are moved by the beauty of the carvings but also find them disturbing. Clara has a meeting with art expert Monsieur Fortin, so Gamache allows her to take one of the carvings to get his opinion on it.

Gamache returns to the incident room, where he finds Thérèse Brunel looking through photographs of the wood carvings. He suggests that Thérèse’s husband, Jérôme, a retired doctor with a passion for codes, might be able to help. Thérèse determines that the carvings are made from cedar redwood from British Columbia, a wood that was popular among the Haida tribe to make totem poles. She finds a “worm” on the carving.

On the carving, which depicts men and women joyfully facing forward from their boat, one young man stands in the back, gripping a package and looking behind them in fear—the “worm.” Isabelle shares lab results: A pile of woodchips from the cabin is confirmed to be of red cedar from British Columbia. This confirms that the victim was the artist of the carvings.

In the Gilbert house, the family comes together after the recent series of shocking news. Carole and Marc go out to tend to the horses together. Marc is worried about one horse in particular, and Carole tells him the horse’s name is also Marc.

Thérèse is astonished by the artifacts in the cabin. She reveals that the violin belonged to Bergonzi, craftsman Stradivari’s best student; this values the violin at a million dollars. Paul also finds original sheet music with Bergonzi’s name. None of the investigators recognize the language on the sheet music but deduce it was written by someone with the initials BM in 1950. A note attached to the sheet music is addressed to someone with the initial B, signed by someone with the initial C. Gamache suggests C gave the Bergonzi violin to B as a gift.

Thérèse tells Gamache that most art theft rings specialize in one type of art—but the cabin holds art of different styles and from different time periods. She is most in awe of a piece of amber, which must come from the Amber Room, a Prussian room made of amber that the Soviet Union dismantled when the Nazis invaded. The rumor is that Albert Speer, a Nazi who worked closely with Hitler, hid the Amber Room in the Ore Mountains, a mountain range between Germany and the modern Czech Republic.

Clara meets with Denis Fortin, a well-known gallerist, at Olivier’s bed-and-breakfast. She shows him the wood carving entrusted by Gamache. Fortin is unimpressed by the carving and claims he’s seen many like it. He changes the subject to Clara’s showing in his gallery. He tells her that a friend of his who represents the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) will be at the show, as well as an art critic from the New York Times. Clara is grateful for Three Pines, the place where her art was nourished for years. Gabri clears Clara and Fortin’s drinks, and when he leaves, Fortin expresses disgust at gay men in general.

Gamache gets closer to the spider’s web from the cabin and discover it’s actually made from woven thread. At the Gilbert house, Carole is trying to convince Marc that his father, Vincent, should stay with them. Soon, Old Mundin and his son, Charles, arrive at the house. Old Mundin read Vincent’s book Being (recalling his time at LaPorte, living and working with people with Down syndrome) and is a fan, especially as a father whose son has Down syndrome.

Gabri notices Olivier is distracted. Olivier sees Ruth’s duck, Rosa, outside, wearing his sweater. He confronts Gabri about it, and Gabri tells him that he donated his baby clothes to Rosa. Olivier gets angry and privately recalls the next part of the Hermit’s mythological story. The young man convinced his villagers to leave for a promised land. But during the journey, he notices that the sky is forever in twilight—the sun never quite sets or rises. They then reach a large body of water.