The Beautiful Mystery

Because the order usually lives in silence as much as is practical, the abbot finds the idea of speech intimidating and unwelcome, though clearly necessary to the murder investigation.

Gamache and his team fingerprint the monastery’s inhabitants, and Gamache investigates the prior’s office and bedroom. The monastic cell is unremarkable, but the office showcases the man’s lifelong devotion to Gregorian chant. The investigative team discusses the strict monastic schedule—one of the monks must not have been at his assigned task. Beauvoir is skeptical of these men, who believe in an invisible deity and live away from the world. Gamache agrees to an extent. He and Beauvoir wonder why the abbot and the prior had a meeting scheduled that same day.

Beauvoir verifies most of Frère Simon’s story. The investigators are technologically isolated: The satellite dish they brought is nonfunctional and only their Blackberry phones work. Gamache worries about the pressure of time: the boatman will depart that afternoon even if they have no solution.

The abbot orders his flock to cooperate with the investigators: “I’m lifting the rule of silence […] You’re free to talk. Not idle chatter. Not gossip. But to help those officers get at the truth” (59).