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Evelyn turned to her husband "Al?"

Gamache sat across from the couple and waited for the answer

He’d been on the bench with Ruth and Monsieur Béliveau when the vehicles drew up to the old railway station

He’d been trying to absorb the news that John Fle was once in Three Pines Was in fact Gerald Bull’s project et out of the car with Al Lepage, while Clara and Evie climbed out of the pickup truck Evie ran to her husband’s side while Clara hesitated, then walked back to her home

Gamache turned back to Ruth and Monsieur Béliveau

"When you sent John Flee really was?"

He hadn’t directed the question specifically to either one, but both nodded

"You helped him across the border" It was a stateain, they nodded

"It was 1970," said Monsieur Béliveau "We were involved in the peace ers across We were approached about a special case"

Ruth was silent, her thin lips all but disappearing

"You didn’t approve?" asked Gamache

"I was conflicted," she said "I couldn’t decide if I thought Frederick Laas also a victim of the war or a psychopath"

"A conflict," said Monsieur Béliveau with a small smile "Your own civil war"

Ar Ruth would have lashed out at him, but with Monsieur Béliveau, Clément, she accepted what he said

"Because I wasn’t sure, and he hadn’t been convicted, I didn’t feel I could refuse," said Ruth "But it didn’t mean I had to like it Or him"

"It helped that we didn’t have television at the tinal didn’t make it into the valley," said Monsieur Béliveau "We’d read the reports of the atrocity in the newspapers and seen the photographs, but it wasn’t until years later thatthe newsreels"

"If you’d seen film of the Son My Massacre," Armand asked, "would you have helped Frederick Lawson find sanctuary here?"