The Grey Wolf

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

After vespers, Frere Simon, the abbot’s secretary, meets Armand and Jean-Guy. Dom Philippe’s whereabouts are unknown, but he left Simon in charge. Armand checks to see if the phone in the abbey works (it doesn’t) and then has Simon show him where the clothes that the monks wear when they enter the monastery are stored. Philippe’s storage box is empty. Armand sees a reply from Reine-Marie to his text, confirming that she knows he’s safe. Jean-Guy and Armand have dinner with the other monks and then meet with Simon in the abbot’s office.

The detectives learn that Dom Philippe made Frere Sebastien his “[p]rior. His second-in-command” (162). This required that he stop being a Dominican (stemming from the Inquisition of Rome) and become a Gilbertine. Sebastien was called to Rome earlier that summer, and after he sent Philippe a letter, the abbot left. Jean-Guy and Armand search the abbot’s office and bedroom but find no information about where he went. Armand shows the recipe to Simon, who doesn’t recognize it.

However, Simon tells them that real chartreuse is an elixir made by Carthusian monks in one place in France and that only two men have the recipe.