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"I think so At least, she was trying"

"Have you?" he asked

"Have I what?" asked Suzanne, though shepause "I hope so," said Suzanne

Gamache lowered his voice so that they had to strain to hear "But is it real hope? Or just a trick of the light?"

TWENTY-SEVEN

"You lied to us at every turn, then dismissed it as simply habit" Gamache continued to stare at Suzanne "That doesn’t sound like real change toas it’s convenient And a lot about what’s happened in the last few days has been extremely inconvenient But so to Clara’s party"

"I didn’t know Lillian was even here," said Suzanne "I told you that"

"True But then you told us a lot of things For instance, that you didn’t knoho the fa art like it’s a bodily function was about It was you"

"You?" said Clara, turning to the lively woman beside her

"That revieas the last shove," said Gamache "After that you went into free-fall And landed in AA, where you ed But you weren’t the only one of your group to lie"

Ga beside Suzanne on the sofa "You also lied, sir"

Chief Justice Pineault looked amazed "I lied? How?"

"It was, to be sure, more a sin of ouay, don’t you?"

"I can’t say"

"Well, let uay had to stop drinking if he had any hope of keeping the Kelley Foods contract As he himself said, they’re a notoriously sober co notoriously inebriated So he tried AA"

"If you say," said Thierry