A Great Reckoning

Gamache shows the original map to Charpentier. Surprisingly, Charpentier wants to go with Gamache to Three Pines so that he can see the window as well. Charpentier and Gamache arrive at the chapel, met by the four cadets and Reine-Marie, Myrna, Clara, and Ruth. Charpentier observes that the visual composition of the window puts the focus on the soldier’s face, distracting from the map but also not hiding it. The group finally disbands to their various homes, with Charpentier staying with Gamache and Reine-Marie. Charpentier asks about the cadets, and Gamache explains that these four were the closest to Leduc, having been singled out as his protégés. Gamache also reveals having given them copies of the map and that one of those copies was found in Leduc’s room.

Charpentier and Gamache discuss several possibilities: if the killer is framing Amelia, he might be coming after her next and planning to pass her killing off as a suicide. It’s also possible that either she or one of the other cadets did kill Leduc. Charpentier talks about how wondrous the maps are and how they have inspired and influenced him to study tactics; as he reflects, “maps gave [humans] control over their surroundings, for the first time ever” (194).