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"Yes"

"And yet, through our whole interview today you never once called hi pause now

"You won’t believe me"

"Chief Inspector Gamache ordered me to believe you"

"That’s a comfort"

"Listen, Olivier, this is your only hope Your last hope The truth, now"

"His name wasn’t Jakob"

Noas Beauvoir’s turn to fall silent

"What was it?" he finally asked

"I don’t know"

"Are we back there?"

"You didn’t seem to believe me the first time when I said I didn’t know his name, so I made one up One that sounded Czech"

Beauvoir was almost afraid to ask the next question But he did

"Was he even Czech?"

"No"

TEN

"I beg your pardon?"

It was, by Gah count, the millionth time he’d said that, or words to that effect, in the past tenoff his chair It didn’t help that Ken Haslae oak desk