Summary

In Chapter 4, Matheo, Patrick and Lea agreed it was time to tell Gamache what they knew about the black-robed figure. Matheo and Lea approached Gamache in the bistro and asked if they could talk with him and Reine-Marie in the bookstore. Myrna was invited to join them.

Matheo put a newspaper on the table featuring a picture of a man in a top hat and tails. Matheo said it was a cobrador del franc or a debt collector. These men were hired to follow a debtor everywhere, eventually shaming the person into paying his debt. Lea explained they were generally only hired in extreme cases. If a person was followed by this sort of person it was for a good reason. Matheo told Gamache that he and his wife believed the man in the village green was a cobrador.

Gamache noted the black-robed...