How the Light Gets In

Myrna’s gift is a child’s blue tuque, or fitted knit cap. The tag on the inside has the initials “MA,” which Gamache guesses might mean “Mama,” if the hat belonged to Mrs. Ouellet. He wonders if Constance realized that her mother loved her, questioning, “Was that the albatross she’d been lugging around all her life?” (245). The hat is like the ones the girls wore in the film. Each has a winter theme, which makes Myrna remember when Constance told her that hockey was “Brother André’s” favorite sport. They assume that she was referring to Frère Andre, the man who blessed their mother before passing away. They go back up to the loft and watch the Ouellet children’s film repeatedly. The mother gave the five girls their hats and tosses the light blue tuque off-screen. Gamache calls Lacoste, hypothesizing that one of the girls hadn’t died. If they lied about Virginie’s death, he wonders what else they lied about.

Gamache drives to the forensics lab and drops off the hat. In the homicide department, he finds that most of the agents hadn’t shown up to the meeting he called. He sends the rest of them home and tells Lacoste that he will be resigning and thanks Lacoste for her loyalty. He hired her from the serious crimes division, where she was berated for having meditated, trying to send thoughts to a child victim, “reassuring her that she wouldn’t be forgotten” (250). Gamache tells her how proud he is of her.

Francoeur and Tessier listen to the recording from Gamache’s office. While Tessier is overjoyed that Gamache is retiring, Francoeur knows that Gamache, suspecting his office was bugged, must have wanted him to hear that conversation. He takes the transcript to show his “lunch companion,” his unnamed boss. He insists that his men have “dealt with” covering up Audrey Villeneuve’s death. Even though her body missed the water and was found next to the Champlain Bridge, it was ruled a death by suicide. Francoeur’s “lunch companion” was a worker on the James Bay hydro dam and has become “one of the most powerful men in Québec” (256). While the details of their plan aren’t revealed, Francoeur knows that they will “manufacture rage” (256). Francoeur assures him that by messing with Beauvoir, they have kept Gamache distracted.

Meanwhile, Gamache meets with the Ouellet’s hometown parishioner, Father Antoine. The Quints only came home for their father’s funeral. The Ouellet farm was left to Père André, Marie-Harriette’s younger brother. Gamache wonders whether the deceased Ouellets actually were buried, or if one might have lived and is only presumed dead.

At Sûreté headquarters, Gamache learns that there were three sets of DNA on the hat. Two pairs are much older and related. Gamache is surprised that one of the sets of DNA is male, from a brother or father. Gamache sits in his deserted office and wonders whether Constance was trying to tell Myrna something about her father by gifting her the hat. Gamache wonders if Isidore was abusive.

Before leaving headquarters, Gamache walks to Beauvoir’s office and invites him to come with him and get help for his addiction. Beauvoir mocks Gamache’s suspicion of everyone but himself and cries that he isn’t “good enough to save” (268). Beauvoir convinced himself that Gamache left him on the factory floor and told everyone that he was weak when he went to rehab. Beauvoir is inconsolable and repeatedly shoves Gamache against the wall. Gamache apologizes for what happened and says he would give his life to save Beauvoir. Beauvoir takes Gamache’s gun and says he could kill him. Gamache repeats that he is sorry and wants Beauvoir to come with him. As he leaves, Gamache despairs that evil might win.

Gamache visits the Ouellet quint’s uncle, who now lives in Montréal. André Pinault helps him clean his cuts where Beauvoir hit him. André has seen his fair share of bar fights and is unphased. André is “strong, vigorous, weathered” (273). He says he is younger than his nieces were, since his parents had many children, and Marie-Harriette was much older than him. He doesn’t seem to like the Quints. He says they didn’t have friends and were paraded like royalty. André lived with Isidore until he died but hasn’t heard from his nieces in years. He seems neither happy nor unhappy when he hears that Constance died. André insists that Dr. Bernard’s book was a bunch of lies to make the Ouellet parents look bad. The Ouellet parents were decent people and the shame of the press killed Marie-Harriette. While Father Antione claimed that Isidore wanted his daughters to come care for him, André insists that he blamed them for their mother’s death. André is bewildered by Gamache’s detailed questions about the girls’ childhood.