A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #12)

by Louise Penny

“We don’t need your help,” snapped Jacques. “There’s nothing wrong with us.” Gamache thought before he spoke again. “Do you know where this comes from?” He smoothed his fingers over the deep scar by his temple. Three of the cadets shook their heads, but Jacques just glared. “There was a raid I led, on a factory. A young agent, not much older than you, was being held hostage and time was running out. We gathered as much intelligence as possible on the terrain and the hostage takers. Their number, their weapons, where they were likely to be positioned. And then we went in. Inspector Beauvoir here was critically injured, shot in the abdomen.” The cadets turned in their seats to look back at Inspector Beauvoir. “Three agents lost their lives,” Gamache continued. “I went to their funerals. Walked behind the caskets. Spent time with their mothers and fathers and husbands and wives and children. And then I went into therapy. Because I was broken. I still see a counselor when I feel overwhelmed. It’s human. It’s our humanity that allows us to find criminals. But it also means we care, and get hurt in places that don’t bleed. Every day, when I see this scar in the mirror,” this time he didn’t touch it, “it reminds me of the pain. Mine. But mostly theirs. But it also reminds me, every day, of the healing. Of the kindness that exists. We are introduced to Goodness every day. Even in drawing-rooms among a crowd of faults. It’s so easy to get mired in the all too obvious cruelty of the...