The Beautiful Mystery

Dinner is tense. After some silence, Gamache introduces himself and tells the monks he will require cooperation. He directly addresses the unknown killer, reminding him that surrendering now will save the community more pain. The abbot agrees, urging the same course of action. A dissenting monk says that a failure to speak is not the problem, and that the investigation is a threat from outside. Gamache counters that his investigation will end sooner if they comply.

Alone with Beauvoir, Gamache admits that some of his speech was deliberately provocative, designed to reveal that the community is divided and the abbot’s leadership is imperiled. The two police officers enter the chapel, specifically because Gamache knows they may be overheard. Gamache reminds Beauvoir that as a leader, he is often more concerned with the root causes of conflict than whether a subordinate likes him. He wonders whether the abbot and the prior were on opposite factions or even romantically involved, whether the recording was the root of the divide, and why an event that improved the monastery’s finances would be divisive. Eventually, they are joined by monks that have been listening. Beauvoir, impressed, realizes that Gamache’s strategy of thinking aloud was designed to encourage the monks to speak up.