The Brutal Telling

Myrna comforts an ashamed Clara, who didn’t stand up for Gabri against Fortin because Fortin is fulfilling her dream. Myrna suggests talking to Gabri about it. Clara tells her husband, Peter, about the meeting with Fortin. Peter tries to keep his envy about her show at bay and sympathizes with her inaction.

Meanwhile, Olivier insists he did not kill the Hermit. He admits he visited the cabin twice on the night of the murder: The first time was to deliver groceries and chat with the Hermit. When Olivier left, he left behind the Hermit’s payment for the groceries, so he went back to the cabin and found the Hermit dead. Olivier doesn’t tell Gamache about the contents of a particular canvas bag or the mythological story the Hermit told him that night. He admits he moved the Hermit’s body to Marc Gilbert’s house to set him up.

Gabri is shocked that Olivier never told him about the Hermit, and that he was the one who moved the body in the first place. Olivier reveals that he and Gabri have a thriving businesses because of the Hermit’s sold artifacts.

Paul has figured out that the initials BM from the violin sheet music refer to Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu. He believes Martinu’s wife, Charlotte, gifted him the violin for his birthday, making Charlotte the initial C in the note attached to the music. Martinu was born in 1980 in what would now be called the Czech Republic. Paul has a phone meeting scheduled with the Martinu Conservatory in Prague to gather more information.

Gamache returns to the cabin to soak in the artifacts before they are filed away for the investigation. He notes how, despite the artifacts’ priceless value, the Hermit used these objects for their original intention; for example, priceless plates were used for eating. Gamache is uncertain if the Hermit fully understood the financial worth of these objects. He realizes that if he doesn’t find another person responsible for the Hermit’s murder, Olivier will have to be arrested.

Gamache still finds it suspicious that Vincent Gilbert showed up at the same time as the Hermit’s murder. He also questions Marc’s purchase of the old Hadley house and suspects he may have wanted the forest surrounding the house. Furthermore, Roar’s trails are close to the cabin. Gamache comes up with a hypothetical scenario: Roar’s son, Havoc, sees Olivier head to the woods and follows him, curious about where he’s going late at night. Havoc discovers the cabin and its treasures. He confronts the Hermit and lashes out at him, killing him. Yet this scenario doesn’t ring true enough to Gamache. He senses the murder was planned with cruelty, not a random occurrence.

Gamache continues to look around and comes across the book by Currer Bell that Paul mentioned. He realizes the book is a first-edition copy of Jane Eyre, using Charlotte Brontë’s original pseudonym, Currer Bell. This makes Gamache realize an important connection: This book and the book found in the outhouse (Charlotte’s Web) are connected to the name Charlotte, the violin could have been gifted by a Charlotte, and the Amber Room was gifted to a wife named Charlotte.

Gamache’s team goes over the latest lab results. The spider’s web is confirmed to be made from nylon fishing line, with no DNA on it, suggesting someone used gloves to weave it and hang it up. They then discuss what “woo” might mean.

Clara and Peter discuss Olivier knowing the Hermit. They then revisit Clara’s conflict with Fortin’s anti-gay bias. She decides to let it go for now but will speak up next time. Meanwhile, Ruth contemplates Olivier and what he told her about his involvement with the Hermit. She writes a poem and goes to bed.

The next morning, Peter changes his mind about Fortin and encourages Clara to express her discomfort with his anti-gay bias. Clara calls Fortin.

Thérèse calls Gamache, inviting him to meet with her and her husband, who have news to share. Clara and Gamache arrange to drive to Montreal together, so he can meet with Thérèse and she can meet with Fortin. Paul speaks with the Martinu Conservatory. They are aware of the violin’s existence, but it disappeared when Martinu died in 1959. The violin would be considered a Czech national treasure. Gamache instructs Paul to look into the local Czech community, especially the Parras. Jean Guy shows Gamache his latest notes from Ruth. The newest one says “In the midst of your nightmare” (226), and Gamache rereads the one that says “that the deity who kills for pleasure will also heal” (226).

At the end of her lunch with Fortin, Clara broaches the topic of Gabri. Fortin again refers to Gabri using a slur. Clara tries to confront him, but he chides her for censoring him and expressing political correctness, which he believes is antithetical to being an artist. Fortin says he’ll have to reconsider her art show.

Thérèse has been looking into the items in the cabin—none of which have been reported as stolen. It’s possible that the Hermit bought the items, stole them from dead people, or was entrusted with them. Thérèse’s husband, Jérôme, explains that the inscriptions on the wood carvings—“OWSVI” and “MRKBVYDDO”—are codes. No matter how many codes Jérôme tried using, he couldn’t crack these codes. However, he thinks the carvings’ codes are part of a Caesar’s Shift: Julius Caesar would send secret messages using the Roman alphabet by shifting the letters by three letters. For example, the word “kill” would be coded as “NLOO.” Jérôme speculates that someone familiar with the Caesar’s Shift used a key word that would determine the carvings’ alphabet and shift.

Jérôme uses the key word “Charlotte” to decode the carvings. The result is an incomprehensible “VDTK and MMF/X.” The key words “Walden” and “woo” are used, but to no avail. Gamache asks Jérôme about Vincent Gilbert, whom he used to work with. Jérôme doesn’t like Vincent because he believes he manipulated his famous book Being to convince people that he was Godlike.

Thérèse shows Gamache images on her computer of a wooden carving that matches the two found in the cabin. The computer image of the shipwreck carving contains the faces of the men and women from the cabin’s carvings, except for the young man. Thérèse’s found carving is being held in a private collection in Zurich. She also found another carving depicting the young man dead or asleep on the side of a mountain, in a collection in Cape Town; the young man is not scared but serene. Thérèse says both carvings were sold through a high-end company in Geneva that sold seven wood carvings six years ago. The last one that sold was sold for $300,000 last winter. Gamache remembers Olivier saying he threw the Hermit’s other wood carvings into the forest. He is certain Olivier lied, and muses that Olivier might have killed the Hermit for possession of all the carvings. Eventually, Thérèse decodes the mysterious “woo.”

Jean Guy asks Roar and Hanna about the local Czech community, as Roar served as the Czech Association’s president a few times. He tells the couple that the murder victim was Czech and shows them a photograph of the Hermit again. They insist they never met the man.

Thérèse brings Gamache to Heffel’s Art Gallery in downtown Montreal. She points out the large bronze statue outside of the gallery—which depicts a woman with a horse, a dog, and a monkey on the horse’s back. The statue depicts Canadian artist Emily Carr, whose monkey was named Woo. Carr’s most famous paintings were of Haida totem poles on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

On the ride back to Three Pines, Clara tells Gamache about her conflict with Fortin and his desire to cancel her show because of it. She then says Emily Carr is an inspiration to Canadian artists, especially women, as Carr braved the wilderness to capture the essence of Canadian beauty. She tells Gamache about the brutal telling: Carr was close to her father, but something happened when she was a teenager and she never spoke to him again. Years later, Carr wrote to a friend that her father said something, a brutal telling, that was unforgiveable.

Jean Guy suggests the victim wasn’t Czech. Olivier could have lied or misidentified the Hermit’s accent. While there was a Czech violin and sheet music in the cabin, there were also artifacts from other cultures. This is Gamache’s favorite part of homicide investigations: the twists and turns that seem small in the moment but make a difference in the bigger picture. Jean Guy tells Gamache that the lab results regarding the slab of wood with “woo” confirm that although the tools in the cabin were used to make the wood carvings, the word “woo” was carved by different tools and a different hand. Gamache informs the team of Thérèse and Jérôme’s findings. The lab results confirm that the wood carvings, and the “woo” wood, are made from wood from the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Gamache meets with Olivier and asks him about the name Charlotte and British Columbia. He produces the two wood carvings and asks Olivier to tell the truth. Olivier admits he didn’t throw away the other carvings. He describes one in which a young man lies on a mountain and confirms it’s the same one Thérèse found online. Olivier sold this carving online for $1,000 on eBay, but a European gallery owner reached out to him, asking if he had more carvings. Olivier sold another carving for $15,000.

Gabri apologizes to the Gilberts for what Olivier did. Marc accuses Gabri of not being welcoming and being hypocritical. Gabri explains that in Three Pines, the ethos is to look out for one another and consider happiness over money. Vincent stands up for his son, accusing Gabri of using a fabricated moral code to excuse Olivier’s actions and blame Marc.

Meanwhile, Gamache tells Jean Guy that he will be going to the Queen Charlotte Islands to settle ties. He suspects the murderer is in Three Pines, that the Hermit made an ally of Olivier because he knew of his greed, and that the Hermit likely lived in the woods to hide from someone. Jean Guy shows Gamache the latest note from Ruth, which reads “and pick your soul up gently by the nape of the neck and caress you into darkness and paradise” (306).

Gamache arrives at the Queen Charlotte Islands, known as the Haida Gwaii to the locals. He is greeted at the airport by Sergeant Minshall, a member of the Haida tribe and the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. Sergeant Minshall explains that the Haida have two clans, the Eagle and the Raven. The sergeant has arranged for Gamache to meet with elders from both clans.

The pilot who flew Gamache from Vancouver to Haida Gwaii—Lavina—arrives to escort Gamache to dinner with the clan elders. Gamache meets the pilot’s great-grandmother, Esther. He reveals the murder as what led him to Haida Gwaii. He believes the Hermit may have been in Haida Gwaii about 15 years ago and mentions his Czech accent. None of the Haida recognize the victim from pictures. Next, Gamache shows the Haida elders the wood carvings. Will Sommes, a Haida man famous for his carvings, examines the carvings closely. He doesn’t know who the victim is, but tells Gamache that he was clearly terrified.

Gamache meets Lavina at the dock. Lavina and Will Sommes want to fly Gamache to a part of the islands where he can see where the wood from the carvings come from. As they fly, Sommes points out sacred spots for the Haida. They land and meet a Watchman named John. Gamache sees totem poles along the beach. Sommes tells him that they’re at Ninstints, the largest collection of standing totem poles in the world. The site is protected, but was once invaded by missionaries who destroyed many of the original totem poles. Gamache shows John a picture of the Hermit. John doesn’t recognize the man, but tells Gamache that 15 years ago, the Haida successfully stopped loggers. Gamache believes the victim could have been a logger, as he built his own log cabin. John shows Gamache his own log cabin, and it is identical to the Hermit’s.

Gamache receives an email from Thérèse, who has tracked down four more carvings—which noticeably lack inscriptions. Afterward, Sergeant Minshall escorts Gamache to Greeley’s Construction to ask if anyone recognizes the Hermit. Greeley himself is defensive about the 1980s and ’90s, when the disputes between the Haida and the loggers turned violent. He insists he doesn’t recognize the victim from Gamache’s photographs. Still, Gamache is certain that the Hermit was on the Queen Charlotte Islands. On the flight back, he recalls Ruth’s messages and figures out what the carvings mean.

Clara struggles with whether or not to call Fortin and apologize. She ultimately decides to drive to Montreal to pick up her portfolio from Fortin’s gallery.

Jean Guy looked into Olivier’s finances and discovered that Olivier is worth about $4 million, half of which is due to the artifacts he sold. He and Gamache meet with Olivier and Gabri. The detectives recount Isabelle’s conversation with Olivier’s father, and Gabri is shocked that Olivier hasn’t told his father about him. Gamache spreads out photographs of the seven wood carvings they know about. He asks Olivier to put them in order of the story. When Olivier claims he doesn’t know the order, Gamache grows angry, reminding him that cooperation might be his only option to help himself.

Olivier tells the mythological story: The young man convinces his village to leave the Mountain for a land where no one dies or falls ill, but he steals a package containing the Mountain King’s treasure. As the villagers set sail for the promised land, the young man constantly looks back, knowing the Mountain King is following them. Wherever the villagers went, the Mountain King’s chaos followed, causing famine, floods, plagues, and war. The young man eventually hides himself away from the villagers, betraying his people. There is something that pushed the Mountain on, a force that even the Mountain feared—however, the Hermit died before he could tell Olivier what this force was. Olivier suspects the Hermit carved the ending and kept it in a canvas bag, but when Olivier looked for the canvas bag after the Hermit’s death, it was gone.

Gamache asks Olivier to share the Hermit’s identity. Olivier reveals that the Hermit was named Jakob and was from Czechoslovakia. Jakob sold some of his antiques to officials in order to escape when the Berlin Wall fell. He fled to the Queen Charlotte Islands, but the protests over the logging industry pushed him away. Gamache then asks Olivier about the term “woo,” as he believes it means something more personal than a reference to Emily Carr’s monkey. Olivier insists he doesn’t know anything about it.

Gamache, Jean Guy, Isabelle, and Paul explore theories about the Hermit—Jakob. Gamache wonders if Jakob’s artifacts were a collection of objects from other people who also hoped to leave Czechoslovakia and start anew in Canada. This would explain why Jakob’s collection is diverse. Jean Guy suggests that, like the young man in the mythological story, people trusted Jakob to save them, but he betrayed them.

Gamache and Jean Guy go to the Parra house. They ask the family why Havoc works for Olivier when he could work in other businesses and make more money. Roar says Havoc likes working with people and doesn’t like being alone in the woods. Gamache tells Roar and Hanna that their victim was Czech, named Jakob, and likely stole objects from other Czechoslovakians. Roar is insulted that Gamache would suggest that all Czechs know one another. Gamache implies that Havoc followed Olivier from the bistro to Jakob’s cabin on the night of the murder. Then he asks Roar how he afforded a unique house. According to the team’s research, 15 years ago, when Roar built his house, Czechoslovakia’s split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic wreaked chaos on Czech lives; Jean Guy suggests it was a good time to smuggle things out of the country. The family members whom Roar and Hanna wanted to sponsor didn’t want to leave their other family, but still sent family heirlooms to the couple. Roar and Hanna sold some icons to a dealer in New York, which gave them enough money to build their unique house.

Gamache then asks Roar and Havoc if they whittle, and they do. He then tells the Parra family that an investigation team will arrive soon to search the house and take fingerprints. They will also be looking for a canvas bag with another wood carving. Hanna tells Havoc to get his whittling tools. Afterward, Gamache walks to the incident room. He reflects on the power of storytelling, and how people easily believe intriguing stories—and can be changed by a brutal telling.

The investigation team explores the bistro. Behind the bricks in the stone fireplace, they find an old menorah—the murder weapon. The paraffin found on Jakob’s body came from the menorah’s candles. The team also finds the missing canvas bag. Despite this evidence, Olivier insists he didn’t kill Jakob. He confesses that Jakob gifted him something worth $50,000 that once belonged to Catherine the Great. This payment is what Olivier returned to the cabin for on the night of the murder. Olivier instead took Jakob’s menorah and canvas bag. He claims he took the menorah because it has his fingerprints. He struggled with what to do—to help his dead friend or run away. Gamache realizes Olivier sees the Gilberts as rivals because of their business and their hiring of Roar to make new trails in the woods—as these trails would eventually lead to Jakob’s cabin and its riches. Olivier decided to ruin the family by placing Jakob’s body in the old Hadley house.

Gamache asks Olivier to reveal the ending of the mythological story. Olivier reiterates that Jakob died before sharing the ending, but Gamache insists it wasn’t Jakob telling the story—it was Olivier himself. At some point, Jakob had become paranoid and restless. He wanted to go into town, but Olivier couldn’t let this happen, so he told the mythological story as a scare tactic. As Olivier told the story, Jakob would whisper “woo.” Gabri is shocked, and Gamache finally arrests Olivier for murder.

Weeks later, Gamache returns to Three Pines. He goes to Jakob’s cabin, now empty. He tries the Caesar’s Shift again, this time with the number 16, the number hung above the cabin door, instead of the word “sixteen”; he made a new alphabet out of the standard alphabet and the alphabet up to the sixteenth letter. He cracks the code: “MRKBVYDDO” translates to “Charlotte” and “OWSVI” translates to “Emily.” Gamache now believes Jakob kept and inscribed these two carvings for his own comfort. Vincent Gilbert appears at the cabin. Marc has given the cabin to his father, and Vincent calls Olivier the Hungry Ghost—one of the Buddhist states of life that represents greed.

Gamache believes Olivier killed Jakob out of desperation and anxiety, and will likely be tried for manslaughter instead of murder. He is certain Jakob’s collection was entrusted to him by fellow Czechoslovakians who hoped to be reunited with their treasures. Jakob likely betrayed them and hid in the woods in fear of being found. Years of isolation made him paranoid, and his only company, Olivier, made him even more scared. Olivier may not have wanted Jakob to die, but the evidence points to him.

When Clara returned to Montreal to collect her portfolio, she ran into Thérèse. Thérèse was moved by Clara’s portfolio and arranged for her to meet with the chief curator at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montreal. Meanwhile, the villagers of Three Pines are torn about the court case. They want to be loyal to Olivier, but the facts are shocking. They have a hard time believing Gamache would arrest his own friend unless it was for a good reason. Gabri stands by Olivier and tells Gamache that it doesn’t make sense for Olivier to have moved Jakob’s body to the Gilberts’ house after killing him. Gamache explains that the cabin has evidence of Olivier’s years there, that he needed people to focus on the Gilberts so the cabin wouldn’t be discovered.

The last wood carving in the canvas bag depicts Olivier. It was inscribed “GYY”—or “woo.” To Gamache, Olivier is the Mountain King in his own story. The force chasing the Mountain King is conscience.