Page 100 (1/2)

"When she was dein to see why they called you Poo"

Clara laughed "It was actually a bit of a , her address, her sisters She forgot Dad, she even forgot us But she also forgot to be angry It onderful," Clara s list of grievances She actually becaotten to love, but she also forgot to hate It was a trade-off Clara was happy to accept

The women in the roo parents, about Mr Spock, about good books they’d read

They mothered each other And by lunch they were ready to meet the winter’s day As Clara walked home, scone cruht of Old’s father, frozen in time And the look on Marc Gilbert’s face as the crack had appeared

Armand Gamache sat in the Paillard bakery on rue St-Jean and stared at Augustin Renaud’s diary Henri was curled up under the table while outside people were trudging head down through the snow and the cold

How could Chiniquy, the fallen priest, and Augustin Renaud, the aist be connected? Gas, the exclamation marks, the swirls around the names of the four men Chin, JD, Patrick, O’Mara Swirls of ink so forceful the pen had al numbers

9-8499

9-8572

Almost certainly the numbers related to books sold by the Literary and Historical Society and, equally certainly, they were from the lot donated by Chiniquy’s housekeeper and left in their boxes in the baseht them from the secondhand bookseller, Alain Doucet In two lots First in the suo

What was in those books?

What did Chiniquy have that excited Augustin Renaud?

Ga to do with Champlain, and yet the priest had shown absolutely no interest in the founder of Québec

Chin, Patrick, O’Mara, JD 18-so

If Chiniquy was ninety when he died in 1899, that meant he was born in 1809 Could the number be 1809? Or 1899? Maybe But where did that leave him?

Nowhere

His eyes narrowed

He looked at 1809 closely then snapping his notebook shut he drained his drink, put money on the table then he and Henri hurried into the cold Taking long strides he saw the Basilica getting larger and larger as he approached