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They walked through the woods, following bright yellow ribbons tied to the trees Like cruun

Professor Rosenblatt was not used to forests Or fields Or lakes Or nature of any kind They’d walked for a few minutes and he was already tired He skidded off another ed a tree trunk to stop hi out to steady the older ain He’d offered to carry it but the professor had politely, but firress through the forest beca fro his way across a dance floor

Lacoste and Beauvoir were now a distance ahead, almost sed up by the trees

"This is not my natural habitat," said the professor, unnecessarily "I prefer four walls, a computer and a plate of madeleines"

Gamache sency I don’t suppose…"

"Sadly, no," said Gamache with a smile

Far up ahead Rosenblatt could hear, between his raspy gasping breaths, the two officers talking Words familiar from television shows drifted back to him

DNA Forensics Blood work

He wondered how the boy had died, though at thathih the forest

And then, in the gloo that made his heart leap One of the treessweat fro a scientist, Professor Rosenblatt knew it could not possibly be a tree, walking But he also knew that this forest contained other unbelievable things

And then his vision adjusted, and he saw that it wasn’t, of course, a tree at all, but another Sûreté officer, dressed in his reen unifor around that hill, still another

And then his eyes adjusted souarded

He thought he was prepared, but as he stared at the towering juht escaped and left hiht-headed

"Ready?" Isabelle Lacoste asked

One by one they went inside First Inspector Beauvoir, then Chief Inspector Lacoste Then it was Professor Rosenblatt’s turn