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Beauvoir had paused He knew he’d go to Three Pines, would do as the Chief asked He alould If the Chief asked him to conduct the interviews naked, he would But of course he would never ask that, which hy he trusted the Chief With his life

For a ain the shove, the pressure, and then the horror as his legs had collapsed and he knehat had happened He’d crumpled to the filthy floor of the abandoned factory And he’d heard, fro

"Jean-Guy!" So rarely raised, but raised then

The Chief was speaking to hi to work out the best strategy "You’ll be there as a private citizen, not a houilty Maybe the thing to do is look at it from the other direction"

"What do you mean?"

"Go to Three Pines and try to prove Olivier didn’t murder the Her to pretend he liked these people

But he didn’t

Jean-Guy Beauvoir didn’t like iven hiant, and nearly incoerous, because they hid their thoughts, hid their feelings, behind a s on in their heads? They said one thing and thought another Who knehat rancid thing lived, curled up, in that space betords and thoughts?

Yes These people erous

The sooner this was over, thought Beauvoir s at them over the rim of his beer, the better

FIVE

Once at the bottom of the ladder Gaht down and he could see light flooding from one of the chambers Like anyone else he was drawn to it, but resisted and instead looked into the gloo his eyes to adjust

After aback hundreds of years had seen A low, vaulted, stone basement, a sous-sol in French No sun had ever reached here, only darkness, interrupted over the centuries by candlelight, by whale oil la, brilliant electric lights Brighter than the sun, brought down so they could see the darkest of deeds