Summary

Maître Susane busied herself with researching the Principaux case. The articles she found told the story of Marlyne’s crime and Gilles’s response to it. Maître could not make sense of everything, but poured over the police inspectors’ reports and the associated interviews with the subjects and their intimates.

Marlyne had called the police after killing her children. She was calm when they arrived. The officers found the three children, Jason, John, and Julia, lying in intentional positions on the “their parents’ bed” (53). Marlyne told the officers that she had drowned them. Maître guessed that Marlyne’s crime was inspired by hate, but everyone said Marlyne had doted on her children. She was particular about their care, even forsaking her own health to care for them.

After the officers “tried and failed to revive the children,” Gilles returned home...