The Beautiful Mystery

The abbot is disconcerted when Gamache asks what skills besides his singing Frère Luc was recruited for. Gamache also notes that the abbot is protective of his secretary, who seems defensive.

The map the abbot gives Gamache is dated 1634, the year of the order’s foundation, and it is written on the same vellum parchment as the text the prior died clutching. However, though the paper may be ancient, the ink is new. Gamache decides that the love of music in the abbey is like an addiction: “if religion was the opiate of the masses, what did that make chants?” (144).

The abbot explains the difference between a standard chant and the prior’s scrap of parchment: the notation on the scrap defied all the traditional rules by including harmonies and instruments. The abbot asks his secretary to make Gamache a copy, and Frère Simon’s complies with a “sour look” (146).

Gamache is in the abbot’s personal garden. He wonders about the prior’s last moments and when and how the killer decided to strike. The abbot’s alibi is that he was in the basement investigating the geothermal heating system—alone because the abbey engineer is overly chatty. Before