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Gamache looked at his Inspector "What do you think?"

"I think the trout have no choice They return because they’re trout That’s what trout do Life is that simple Ducks return to the same place every year Geese do it Salmon and butterflies and deer Jeez, deer are such creatures of habit they wear a trail through the woods and never deviate That’s why so e People are the sae?" Gaht me that people, that cases, are basically very simple We’re the ones who co it?"

"I think so I think she was killed by someone she screwed End of story A sad story, but a simple one"

"Someone from her past?" Ga The people who knew the new Lillian after she stopped drinking say she’d become a decent person And the people who knew the old one, before she stopped drinking, say she was a bitch"

Beauvoir was holding up both hands, one was clutching the er, the other held a french fry Between the the old and new are the saether "There’s only one Lillian Just as there’s only oneit after she joined AA, but believe me, that bitter, nasty, horrible wo people?" the Chief asked

Beauvoir ate the fry and nodded This was his favorite part of an investigation Not the food, though in Three Pines that was never a hardship He could remeone days with barely anything to eat, or shared cold canned peas and Spam Even that, he had to ade produced bodies and gourmet meals in equal proportion

He liked the food, but what he mostly loved were the conversations with the Chief Just the two of them

"One theory is that Lillian Dyson caize"

"If she did I bet she wasn’t sincere"

"So ould she have been here, if she wasn’t sincere?"

"To do what it was in her nature to do To screw someone"

"Clara?" Gamache asked

"Maybe Or so," said Gaht, for her anyway"

Was the answer so si true to who she really was?