How the Light Gets In

Over dinner at the Longpré house, Thérèse asks Gamache if he thinks everything will work out. He quotes Julian of Norwich, assuring that “All shall be well” (208). They discuss the Ouellet case. While the official documents show that the Ouellet parents were paid a huge sum for their home when the Quints were born, footage of the girls as children showed them still living in the home. Gamache believes that the documents were fabricated to make the Ouellet parents look like selfish, negligent parents, when they really wanted to care for their daughters, even if they were poor. Gamache remembers the scene of the mother tossing a hat offscreen and calls Inspector Lacoste. She confirms that each of the quintuplets’ rooms had a similar hat with their initials sewn in. Lacoste breaks the news that Beauvoir is on another raid and an officer is down. Gamache freezes, remembering the factory raid when he held Beauvoir’s body, before he had to leave him to pursue the terrorists.

At Myrna’s loft, they rewatch the film of the girls skating again. Now that Gamache knows about the hats with the initials, he knows which quintuplet is which. Thérèse presses Myrna to explain why she referred to Constance as “Hera,” a Greek goddess who was “malicious and jealous” (214). Myrna insists that Constance wasn’t that way and that she just picked a Greek goddess at random.

Gamache receives news that Beauvoir is safe but expresses his growing concern to Thérèse. Gilles manages to connect the dish to the internet, and they return to the schoolhouse to setup the rest of the equipment. Before going in, Gamache holds Nichol back. He grills her about why she was sneaking into his room at the bed-and-breakfast. While she insists she was just telling him that the plan wouldn’t work, he worries that she is either “the nail in their coffin or their salvation” (222). As they leave, Nichol feels relief that Gamache doesn’t know the truth. In the schoolhouse, Thérèse tells Gilles what they are working on. They drink hot chocolate and wait for everything to begin.

The group prepares to hack into the Sûreté archives. Jérôme hums to calm his nerves, knowing that he is about to stick his head out of their “foxhole” of protection. When Jérôme is hesitant to make the final connection, Thérèse insists that they wait. As they go back to the Longpré house for dinner, Gamache wonders what frightened Jérôme. Over beef stew, Gilles explains how he stopped his work as a lumberjack when he started hearing trees. He now makes furniture from found wood. Gilles leaves for the bistro, promising to return in the morning. The agents and Jérôme go over their plan. Nichol will encrypt the channel that they use to make it harder for the Sûreté to find Jérôme. She warns, “They know what they’re doing. They’ll find us” (231). Their equipment is old, but Nichol thinks it is a strength, because they won’t be taken seriously. Gamache wants to start hacking that night which infuriates Thérèse, who thinks his urgency comes from a desire to save Beauvoir before it’s too late. She warns, “You’d sacrifice all of us to save him” (233). Frustrated, she stays behind while the others go to the schoolhouse.