A Rule Against Murder

When they arrive in Three Pines, Gabri, the owner of the bed-and-breakfast, meets them at the door. He has packed a bag for Peter and Clara and asks Gamache to take it back to the lodge for them. On the way back to Manoir Bellechasse, Gamache and Beauvoir stop at the local Sûreté offices, where the statue is being stored as evidence. When Gamache touches the statue, which appears to be made of marble, he is surprised to find it warm. They conclude that it is not made of stone but cannot identify the material.

The statue’s expression once again strikes Gamache, reminding him of a Rodin statue that he admires called Les Bourgeois de Calais, or The Burghers of Calais. He tells Beauvoir the story behind it: The statue commemorates six prominent men of Calais who surrendered themselves to the English to save their city from siege. Rodin’s sculpture shows them as terrified, despairing, and resigned, and Gamache gets the same feeling from the statue of Charles Morrow. He begins to wonder what was behind the man’s expression.

When the crane operator mentions a small carving of a bird on the statue’s shoulder, Beauvoir climbs the ladder to see it. Gamache, who is terrified of heights, follows him reluctantly. When he sees the bird, he wonders why it has no feet and decides to ask the artist.

Agent Isabelle Lacoste is in the lodge’s kitchen watching Chef Veronique and her staff prepare for the evening meal. She notices that everyone, including herself, is drawn to the chef and that there is an intimacy between Veronique and Pierre that she can’t explain. Madame Dubois tells Lacoste that they hire a new staff every year—it gives the young people the opportunity to learn French as well as a trade. Her husband did the same in his youth, and it was always his dream to open an auberge. Lacoste realizes that this sense of welcome is what makes the Manoir special. She also recognizes that Pierre has the same quiet, confident leadership style as Gamache.

In their room, Clara asks Peter what Julia meant about their father’s secret. He brushes the question aside impatiently. When she brings up Gamache, he is ambivalent, and she realizes that Gamache, when he finds the killer, will destroy Peter’s family.

The members of the Morrow-Finney family prepare for dinner. Marianna wraps a scarf around her neck, still angry with Julia. Thomas puts on his shirt with the frayed cuffs and the cufflinks that his father gave him. Sandra smiles to herself, thinking of Bean sticking marshmallow cookies to the ceiling. Irene is dressing for dinner as well, thinking that she owes it to Julia. She imagines that Julia had loved her and that they would’ve been friends. Bean, alone in the dining room, escapes into their myth book, imagining riding Pegasus.

Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste go over the timeline for the night of Julia’s death, including everyone’s movements and when they went to bed. Gamache tells Beauvoir and Lacoste about Julia Martin’s husband, David, the famous financier who is now in prison. He shares Thomas’s comment about toilets to Julia and her subsequent outburst, but they don’t understand the significance.

Lacoste shows them a pack of letters that she found in Julia’s room, along with two crumpled notes that she found in the fireplace. They finish their fantastic meal, which leads them to talk about Chef Veronique. Lacoste admits that she, too, had gotten a strange feeling from Veronique that she can’t identify. She also mentions that she thinks Veronique is in love with Pierre.

Clara, at dinner with the family, cannot believe how cold and civilized everyone is. No one has brought up Julia. Clara asks Irene how she is doing, and Irene uses the opportunity to reprimand her children for not asking. She says that Julia was the most loving of all of them. She then tells Peter what Sandra had overheard. Peter denies it, but Irene finally collapses and begins to cry. Just then, marshmallow cookies begin falling from the ceiling.

Lacoste takes Beauvoir and Gamache to Bean’s room, where they see the numerous alarm clocks. Gamache wonders why they are all set for seven o’clock in the morning. Beauvoir tells them what Marianna had said about how she kept Bean’s sex a secret, even from her family.

Peter is at the crime scene, thinking that Julia is destroying the family now, as she had before, and is resentful that Irene is idealizing her. Gamache has come out to the garden to get some air and to look again at the marble cube. He is still bothered by the fact that it is unmarked by the falling statue. He sees Peter, and they talk about mythology and a book that Irene read to them when they were young. Peter begins to grieve for Julia and for the fact that now, in death, Irene considers her perfect, and Peter has been reimagined as a terrible son.

When Gamache asks Peter what is bothering him, Peter tells him about their conversation being revealed. He yells at Gamache, who takes it, unresisting. When Peter calms down, Gamache asks who he believes killed Julia. Peter suspects Bert, as Irene will most likely get Julia’s life insurance, and Bert married her for money. They then walk out onto the dock and see Bert in one of the chairs. He tells Gamache that he knew Gamache’s father, Honoré.

Bert leaves the dock abruptly after his statement. When Peter asks what he meant, Gamache tells him that his father, Honoré, had died when he was a child. Peter assumes it was murder, but Gamache says no. He and Peter stay on the dock until night falls and return to the lodge without speaking.

The next morning, Gamache is awake early and goes to the kitchen to ask for coffee. Elliot gives him a coffee tray and appears to have regained his calmness, although Gamache wonders if it is an act. He asks what Elliot thought of Julia and, though Gamache senses anger, Elliot is polite and superficial in his reply. He says only that she took time to talk to the staff, which few people do. Gamache remembers, from the employment records, that Elliot is from British Columbia, like Julia. Elliot leaves, and Gamache enjoys his coffee on the dock but is soon joined by Bert.

Bert explains that he had seen Honoré give speeches in Montreal and was sorry to hear about the car accident that killed him and Gamache’s mother. Gamache appreciates that Bert does not say the things that people usually say about his father. When Bert admits that he sits on the dock to watch birds, Gamache asks him about the significance of a bird without feet, but he doesn’t know.

When Gamache asks if Bert resents being on the outside of the Morrow family as Irene’s second husband, Bert replies that he wouldn’t want to be on the inside. He thinks that the Morrows have all developed ways of escape, protecting themselves from a lifetime of abuse. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Gamache sees Bean galloping across the lawn. Bert explains that Charles Morrow had been his best friend. He had worked for Morrow’s company, as an accountant, from the beginning. Gamache asks why Morrow sold his company rather than leave it to his children, and Bert thinks it is because he knew that none of them were suited to it. He also tells Gamache that he was in love with Irene all his life.