Gamache meets with the coroner. Only one fact emerges from the autopsy results: Someone slipped a dose of niacin to CC during the curling match. Niacin will cause the skin to flush, and this was the reason CC removed her gloves and touched the aluminum chair. Gamache asks if the coroner knows anything about Eleanor of Aquitaine. She mentions a movie called The Lion in Winter, and Gamache recalls that there was a video copy of the movie in CC’s trash. He finds the VHS tape and takes it to the Morrows’ house to play on their VCR during supper. They’ve invited a usual crowd of friends to dine with them.

Gamache asks Ruth what the title of her poetry book, I’m FINE, means. She explains that “FINE stands for Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Egotistical.” (217).

Gamache asks the rest of the guests where they all were at the time of the curling match. They account for their whereabouts, but no one can remember seeing Crie. After the movie ends, Gamache wonders why CC would pick two such wildly dysfunctional characters as Eleanor and Henri as her fantasy parents.

Clara takes Gamache to her art studio. He’s awestruck by the brilliance of her work.