After breakfast with Émile, Gamache considers the case, including both his emotions and his doubts. Solving Renaud’s murder is likely to require arresting someone he has come to like, and he finds himself uncertain in light of his doubts about Olivier’s guilt. In his reverie, he arrives early at the Literary and Historical Society. Since the library is not yet open, he has breakfast with Elizabeth MacWhirter at her stately home. When MacWhirter learns that Mundin has a son named Charlie, she observes that she finds it pleasant when a child is “named for a parent” (386). Gamache does not yet realize this, but he will later learn Mundin’s mother was named Charlotte—the name that appears in the Hermit’s cabin.

Thinking of fathers and sons, Gamache recalls telling Morin of his own parents and being orphaned at a young age. Alone in the library once MacWhirter leaves for her office, he recalls his struggle to convince Francoeur that the real threat was to the dam.

The narrative shifts briefly to Beauvoir’s point of view. He remembers how Gamache, on the phone with Morin and overcome with the gravity of the situation, “lowered his head into his hands” (389).