The Beautiful Mystery

Beauvoir awakes in pain and mental turmoil, and takes more narcotics. In the church, Gamache tells Frère Sebastien that while he is not religious, he finds the chants soothing. The Dominican explains that there have been scientific studies that the chants help induce calm in the brain: “While the scientists say it’s alpha waves, the Church calls it ‘the beautiful mystery’” (331). Gamache offends the monk when he points out a similarity between religious ecstasy and an addict’s high. The two part on bad terms.

Frère Sebastien investigates the monastery and the prior’s office, though we don’t know what he is looking for. During his search, the Dominican finds the laptop, and watches part of the recording of the warehouse raid, horrified.

Gamache follows Francoeur out to the monastery, determined to find out what his motives are. Francoeur is typing something on his BlackBerry. Gamache asks if he was texting his former superior, Arnot, but soon realizes it must be someone higher up, as Francoeur did not react to that name. To try to best Gamache, Francoeur indicates he knows about Annie’s relationship with Beauvoir. Gamache reveals that he’s known all along: He is happy for the pair but respected their confidentiality. Gamache quickly figures out that Francoeur must have gotten the files of Beauvoir’s therapist, the only person Beauvoir told about his new relationship. Gamache hopes that after Beauvoir is safely away the two can have their final confrontation.

Gamache and Frère Sebastien apologize to each other for their earlier confrontation. Frère Sebastien tells him that the real motive for the CDF’s interest in the Gilbertines is their Book of Chants. Gamache takes him to Frère-Luc, whose book stuns the Dominican: Most chant books do not indicate the pitch where the singer should begin. The Gilbertines’ manuscript thus contains a unique origin point, so that the listener can know “what the voice of God really sounds like” (344). This makes the book a priceless artifact. Frère-Luc counters that none of the brothers knew this or cared, as only the chants themselves have value. Gamache wonders if this was the motive for murder. Frère Sebastien explains that this is why the Pope sent him: The Gilbertines’ recording indicates a level of musical and spiritual truth inaccessible to others. Gamache looks at both men, slightly disconcerted: “There was something frightening about that level of zeal. For a single dot. In the beginning. The beautiful mystery. Finally solved” (346).

Gamache finds Beauvoir and sees that he has likely relapsed. Beauvoir denies it but then passes out. In the infirmary, Frère Charles diagnoses an overdose. Gamache decides to take Beauvoir back to Montreal himself, as the case is not worth his protégé’s life. He finds the pill bottle—the label is in Frère Charles’s handwriting, but the monastery doctor would never prescribe the drug in that quantity. The doctor’s last prescription was sleeping pills for the abbot, and all his narcotics are in their place.

Gamache ponders both his personal predicament and the case. He knows it is time to attempt to unmask the killer. Beauvoir wakes and explains to Gamache how the pills appeared in his room. He is resentful but also penitent. Gamache tells Beauvoir the boat will come for them soon.

Beauvoir, still weak, goes to the 11 a.m. Mass and finds himself transported by the music. He watches Gamache and Francoeur eye each other, and wonders where Frère Sebastien is. Suddenly, a voice starts singing the nonsense words from the manuscript page. Frère Luc cries out in rage and terror, and Gamache announces to all present that Frère Luc is the one who murdered Frère Mathieu.

In the confessional, Frère Luc confesses to the abbot: The prior needed a lyricist, and threatened to ban Frère Luc from the choir unless he helped write words for the new music. Frère Luc regarded this as sacrilege. The abbot rues letting the prior persuade him to let Frère Luc to join the community too early. As he killed the prior, Frère Luc called out, “Ecce homo” as a defiant assertion that the prior was unworthy of his position.

Beauvoir, suffering from withdrawal, begs for more narcotics and pushes Gamache when he will not give him the pill bottle. Gamache and Beauvoir fight. Beauvoir accuses Gamache of being untrustworthy after the factory raid. Gamache finally realizes Francoeur supplied the pills. Beauvoir refuses to go to rehab, and Francoeur tells him he does not need to. When Francoeur says Gamache is only pressing rehab because he disapproves of Beauvoir’s relationship with Annie, Gamache replies that he and Reine-Marie are thrilled. But then, Francoeur invokes the recording, claiming Gamache is concerned only with himself. Francoeur offers Beauvoir his gun back, and Beauvoir “stepped away from Gamache” (368).

The plane with Frère Luc, Francoeur, and Beauvoir departs. Frère Sebastien says he will let the monks retain their book—he is impressed with the abbot’s resolve, and may help restore the building as a gesture of goodwill. Gamache explains that he had long suspected Frère Luc: He was the only monk who worked alone. Frère Sebastien asks what Gamache would have done had their gambit with the manuscript page failed. Gamache would have put Beauvoir’s recovery first.

On the plane with Francoeur, Beauvoir takes more pills, looking down at the monastery and his mentor. He realizes two things: from this distance, the Gilbertines look like “living crosses,” and the building itself looks “about to take flight” like the musical notation in the chant (372).

Gamache apologizes to the abbot for all the recent suffering. The abbot finally explains the monastic emblem: it comes from a story told by the Innu people, whose land the monastery occupies. In it, two wolves live in an elderly man’s body, one urging morality, and the other cruelty. When a boy asks who wins the argument, the elderly man answers, “the one I feed” (372). The abbot notes the “look of such sadness on the Chief Inspector’s face, it almost broke the abbot’s heart” and offers to hear his confession (372). Gamache demurs.