Bury Your Dead

The scene opens in Three Pines, with Clara Morrow at an exercise class with the women of the village. As the group gathers afterward at the Gilbert spa, Clara intentionally brings up Beauvoir’s recent arrival. Clara looks out the window and reminisces about Olivier’s absence, then asks the others if they can imagine being desperate enough to commit murder.

Michelle, Old Mundin’s wife, surprises everyone by quoting a study that says women are the most committed killers when they finally take such a desperate step. Michelle also admits that Old Mundin’s father fell through the thinning late-winter ice when Old Mundin was only in his teens. The theme of lost father figures and anger preoccupies Clara for the rest of the day.

The scene shifts again to Québec City. Gamache returns to the home of Sean Patrick, asking to inspect his 19th-century photographs, as he suspects the clue to the meeting may be in one of them. He peels back one of the pictures, depicting Patrick and O’Mara digging a hole, and finds that the back is dated to 1869—this is the meaning of the mystery digit, and this is the meeting that Renaud found so significant.

Gamache meets with Dr. Serge Croix, the province’s chief archeologist and one of Renaud’s longtime adversaries. Croix is irascible and resentful of the intrusion. He is working on a site at the Ursuline convent that once housed a shrine to General Montcalm, the defeated commander of the Battle of Québec, the same battle that preoccupies Gamache. Croix can see no connection between Champlain and Chiniquy but is intrigued at the idea of Irish laborers visiting the Literary and Historical Society, suggesting this must have been for an unusual reason or a paid opportunity, given that the two communities rarely interacted at that time. Gamache explains his search for the missing books from Chiniquy’s collection. He asks Croix to investigate what dig might have occurred in 1869, the year of the photograph in Patrick’s home.

Croix is further incensed when Gamache points out that Renaud’s calendar refers to a meeting with an “SC,” and he denies any role in the murder. Gamache asks, partly rhetorically, if Croix knows where Champlain is. Gamache posits that there could be some hidden truth about Champlain that his body would reveal, something that would diminish the power of his role as a “symbol of the greatness of the Québécois” (348).

Gamache regrets the acrimonious tone of his meeting with Croix, as he would have welcomed an academic discussion. At a meeting with the local investigator, Langlois, Gamache admits that his notoriety has grown in recent months, and Langlois, somewhat cryptically, wonders why it took them so long to realize “the attack was coming,” asking, “When did you realize it was more than a simple kidnapping?“(350).

Gamache flashes back to the events of that day and his desperate efforts to allow Nichol to find some trace of Morin. The entire scene ping-pongs back and forth between Langlois’s questions and Gamache’s memories. In the present, Langlois continues marveling that such an elaborate plot nearly escaped detection. In the past, Nichol ultimately found the key evidence, a reference to “La Grande,” which Gamache realized referred to a massive hydroelectric dam that powered not only Canada but much of the United States.

Langlois informs Gamache that more of Renaud’s books may be found in his ex-wife’s home. When he arrives there with Émile, Renaud’s ex-wife piques their investigative instincts by explaining that she took the books for him very recently. They find that the two volumes corresponding to Renaud’s notes are missing and that one is Chiniquy’s personal diary from 1869, the year of the dig. As Gamache peruses the full set of diaries, Beauvoir calls, asking for his advice on the case in Three Pines.

Gamache agrees there are only five possible suspects: the Parras, the Gilberts, and Old Mundin. All of them could have found the cabin or followed Olivier there. Since the priceless treasures were left behind, the two decide the key to the case must be personal, perhaps connected to the word “Woo” or the name “Charlotte,” which both recur in the Hermit’s cabin and his art (366). Beauvoir asks Gamache to look into the Mundins and Carole Gilbert, both originally from Québec City. Beauvoir, uncharacteristically, asks his mentor how he is doing, and Gamache reassures him. Beauvoir has his own flashback to the failed rescue raid, of himself “[f]alling. To lie still on the cold cement floor” (368).

Gamache and Émile spend the evening reading the remaining Chiniquy diaries. The next morning, Gamache finds Serge Croix has tabulated the three significant digs from 1869, one of which is under a restaurant, the Old Homestead. It is near the basilica where Champlain was originally buried, in what was then a tiny chapel. Gamache confirms that the photo of Patrick and O’Mara was taken in that location, and wonders if the restaurant was built over the original small cemetery.

Gamache and Émile visit the restaurant and learn that Renaud explored their basement. The manager allows the two men to see it themselves. Gamache asks Émile if he can meet the Champlain Society once more, and Émile tells him to come at 1:30 that afternoon.