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But she saw his face in profile, deter, as he looked out at the faces of his neighbors He radiated certainty and calaze shifted to the patrons of the bistro They were sober now Quiet His words had slaer, knocking the stuffing out of the

Ga you haven’t already figured out for yourselves That you haven’t already said to each other You’ve almost certainly looked around and wondered who did it Which of you killed a nine-year-old boy"

And now they looked around again, lowering their eyes as theyback at them

"I knohat’s in those woods," he said "And I could tell you, but I won’t Not because I want to hide it from you I don’t But because it would compro on your help He’s sitting, perhaps a you traation A killer hides in chaos You need to not give him that"

"Then what should we do?" a woman asked

"You should stay out of the woods You should keep your children out of the woods You should be absolutely open and honest when the investigators ask you questions The ation, the fewer places he can hide Laurent was not killed by some serial killer, or some errant madman There was purpose to this You need to et in his way, or in the investigators’ way"

He let that sink in,eye contact with many of the people there

"Reine-Marie and I are proud to be your neighbors And your friends We could’ve lived anywhere, but we chose here Because of you"

He took her hand and together they walked further into the silent bistro

"May we?" he asked Clara and Myrna

"Please," said Clara, indicating the erew around them, the voices a moderate level as reason was restored For now

Across from her, Clara saw Armand close his eyes briefly, and take a deep breath

"Bet you thought you left all the talk of murder behind when Armand retired from the Sûreté," said Myrna

"Well, we did move to Three Pines," said Reine-Marie "We had our doubts"

"Patron," said Olivier, bending down to speak into Gamache’s ear "Isabelle called from the old railway station She’d like to speak to you"