The Beautiful Mystery

In the prior’s office, Gamache is forced to interact with Francoeur, who is preventing him from reading the official forensics report on Frère Mathieu by constantly asking questions. Gamache recognizes this is deliberate: “a twist on an old interrogation technique. Designed to irritate, to annoy. Interrupt, interrupt, interrupt, until the subject finally exploded and said far more than they normally would have” (193). Gamache reminds himself not to underestimate Francoeur’s strategy or intellect.

Francoeur mocks Gamache for being wrong about the murder weapon and for not having solved the case. The two verbally spar, insulting each other until Francoeur calls Gamache “an arrogant, smug, incompetent asshole” (197) and Beauvoir interrupts the conflict.

As Francoeur leaves for lunch, Gamache briefs Beauvoir on the report: the murder weapon was not a rock but a metal tool; the killer must have picked it up with some intent, not on impulse. Gamache asks Beauvoir not to antagonize Francoeur and stay away from him. But Beauvoir feels too protective to let Gamache handle it alone, so while he outwardly agrees, he “knew he’d just lied” (200).

Beauvoir and Gamache choose their lunch companions deliberately: Beauvoir sits with Frère Raymond, the engineer and building manager, while Gamache sits with Frère Simon, the abbot’s personal secretary. Beauvoir also watches the monks react to Francoeur: Those who favored a second recording seem to admire the superintendent.

Frère-Raymond is voluble about the various construction flaws in the abbey, though he celebrates the original architects. Frère Raymond was also a supporter of the prior: The building’s foundations are so damaged that another recording and lifting the vow of silence were the only ways to save the order. Frère Raymond explains that only he and the abbot knew about the building’s fragility: “The silent order would make money with their voices, and save the abbey. But the abbot was too blind to see that what he prayed for he already had” (205-06).

Beauvoir then chats with Frère Charles, the abbey doctor, who takes no side in the abbey’s conflicts: “Like the Red Cross. I just tend to the wounded” (209). Frère Charles asks about Gamache’s occasional hand tremor, and Beauvoir reluctantly explains the injury, feeling triggered when the doctor says, “I have relaxants and painkillers” (212).

Gamache and Beauvoir compare notes on their lunchtime conversations. Gamache is particularly interested to learn the state of the abbey building. He wonders if the abbot or Frère Raymond ever told the prior, raising the stakes in the already tense standoff. On the day of the murder, “the abbot admitted it was the prior’s idea to meet. Only the timing was the abbot’s. So, the prior had asked for the meeting. Could it have been about the foundations?” (216). Gamache briefly imagines the abbot as the killer but realizes this would not explain the musical notation that the prior died clutching. Beauvoir suggests searching the basement for the murder weapon and investigating the abbey foundations.

Francoeur approaches, and Beauvoir, to protect Gamache from his adversary, invites Francoeur to the basement, to both men’s surprise .Beauvoir realizes Gamache is unhappy with this but also sees “something else in the Chief’s face, visible for just that instant, when he’d raised his brows. It was fear” (220).