How the Light Gets In

When the Brunels, Gamache, and Nichol are finally ready to plug in the equipment, they cannot make a connection because snow is covering the dish. Gamache walks into the forest and climbs to the top of the hunting blind to clear it off. While the climb terrifies Gamache, he knows that there is no turning back. At Nichol’s signal, a flashlight beam, he knows that it has worked. Jérôme and Nichol are able to get into the network using the national archives. They hack in through a Sûreté outpost to keep their location hidden. After a while, they trip an alarm.

Charpentier, a security officer, calls Francoeur to notify him that there was a data breech within the Sûreté. He thinks that it might be a mistake and keeps an eye on it. Hours later, he assures Francoeur that “it was nothing” (303). Nonetheless, Francoeur demands that more agents monitor the situation. He calls in the head of cybercrimes, Chief Inspector Lambert.

Jérôme shows the others where he tripped the alarm—he found construction files from years ago. This confuses the group since construction is far outside the Sûreté jurisdiction. Gamache studies the shift reports from the Aqueduct, an old engineering company’s file that was associated with Arnot’s name in the system. Nichol doesn’t see the point in looking up the 30-year-old company, but Gamache says that “old sins have long shadows” (306). Jérôme realizes that the Sûreté aren’t just looking out, they’re actively searching for them. While Nichol’s encryption works for a while, Lambert finds them.

This chapter shifts back and forth between the perspective of Lambert and Francoeur at the Sûreté, trying to discern who is hacking into their network, and the group at the schoolhouse in Three Pines. Nichol sets off an alarm while bringing up the old Aqueduct file. They get out of the file, but Gamache insists that they go back, since the secret must be there. They discover that the company that built and managed the Aqueduct went bankrupt but reopened from another company later. All of the sudden, Lambert starts erasing files, trying to back them into a corner. Nichol escapes just before Lambert finds her in the system. Gamache insists that they take a break, wondering what the connection is between the construction file and the Aqueduct file. They hypothesize that the files are hinting at corruption in the construction industry.

Back at the Sûreté, Francoeur demands that they find out who is hacking the files, stop them, and “erase the evidence” (313) Francoeur suspects that Jérôme Brunel is one of the hackers and never went to Vancouver. Tessier calls the Vancouver police to try to confirm whether the Brunels are there. Francoeur calls the Brunels’ daughter, who insists that her parents are in town and don’t want to speak to anyone associated with Gamache. When he senses worry in her voice, Francoeur concludes that she’s covering up for her parents.

As Gamache ponders over the contracts they found in the system, he remembers Audrey Villeneuve’s death and realizes that the infrastructure work that was contracted out by the government was never really done. Kilometers of roads and bridges are on the brink of collapse. He sees the name Georges Renard, the Premier of Québec. While everyone else is shocked, Jérôme doesn’t seem surprised. Gamache realizes that Jérôme knew all along and was too afraid to say anything. Gamache leaves to visit Pierre Arnot and learn more about Audrey Villeneuve’s death. Before he leaves, Nichol privately admits that she was the one who leaked the factory raid video. She never meant to embarrass Beauvoir or anyone else—she just wanted everyone to see that the tragedy was not Gamache’s fault. She was about to tell Gamache at the bed-and-breakfast but backed out.

At the high security prison, the SHU, Gamache convinces the head guard to allow him to see Arnot. The man they bring in is not Arnot. Gamache insists that they “Guard that man they say is Arnot” (330) and leaves quickly. Nichol sends Gamache an email explaining that Renard used to be an engineer at the Aqueduct. This explains why the terrorists who tried to bring down the dam knew what to do—they were guided by an engineer who had built the dam. Gamache sends the group at the schoolhouse a message indicating that they should hide out at the Longpré home.

Back at Sûreté headquarters, Lambert realizes that Yvette Nichol must be one of the hackers. Lambert and Francoeur go to the subbasement and find it deserted, with equipment and a satellite dish missing. Francoeur realizes where Gamache is hiding.

Myrna meets the Brunels and Nichol at the Longpré home and insists they hide at her home. She has a letter from Gamache with the story of the Ouellet case.

Gamache drives to visit Audrey Villeneuve’s family. Her husband also suspected that Audrey had not died by suicide. He says that Audrey had been short-tempered for weeks. They would joke about how she hated the traffic in Montréal and was assigned to work on the construction files for the area. She particularly disliked driving through the Ville-Marie tunnel. She was excited before going to her Christmas party, where the Premier of Québec would be visiting. Gamache realizes that Audrey wanted to warn him about the tunnel collapsing since no one else listened to her. While he leaves, Gamache quickly turns back, asking to see the dress that Audrey’s husband mentioned her sewing for the Christmas party. He finds a computer memory stick sewn into the seam.

The group in Three Pines hides in Myrna’s home while she reads the letter that Gamache wrote, outlining the Ouellet case. Gamache believes that the government took the Ouellet twins from their parents to profit from their fame.