Summary

In Chapter Forty, after Jean-Guy leads the men to the schoolhouse and they find the equipment, he walks to the village green. Ruth sits on the bench next to him and tries to talk. She asks him the question from her poem “Alas” and Jean-Guy finally responds, asking if he is really beyond repair. She puts Rosa in his lap. Jean-Guy tries to give the duck back but Ruth tells him to keep her. She gives Jean-Guy the keys to her car and asks him to take Rosa away from there. Ruth kisses the duck on the top of the head, tells her she loves her, then walks away.

Lacoste manages to get the supervisor to understand she is serious about closing the bridge by using both her gun and showing him the information from the memory stick. Gamache calls Francoeur and learns he...