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"Oh God," sighed Armand

Jean-Guy lowered his hands and instinctively drew his ar for a tissue

Both men wiped and blew and finally stared at each other

Armand was the first to sain sometime"

"Is that why you ca for another tissue and wondering how many tears these books had seen while the rest of the world saw a calh "That was a surprise I ca I’ve known I should do for a while but haven’t wanted to But after talking to Ruth, there was no way out of it"

"What’s that?"

"I have an appoint I need to speak to John Fle"

Gamache tried to make it sound like any other rendezvous, but couldn’t quite pull it off The hand holding the tissue tre the moist tissue

"I see," said Beauvoir And he did He knew slightlycase He’d followed the trial and he’d heard the ru around Sûreté headquarters And he knew, though he was never told outright, that there’d been a secret trial A trial within a trial, and the Chief Inspector had been part of it, though in what capacity Beauvoir didn’t know

"What’cha reading?" he asked, in an intentionally hyper-cheerful voice, and nodded toward the file on Gamache’s knees "Is it about a serial killer?"

But he could see by the grim expression on Gamache’s face that he’d overstepped, in the question and in the ill-tihten thea heavy hand on it, then he looked at Jean-Guy "Why did you leave when Lepage was telling us about the Son My Massacre?"