All the Devils Are Here(104)

“Okay now,” he said, sitting back down on his crate and leaning toward Beauvoir. “Loiselle? What haven’t you told us?”

“He was following me because he wanted to talk.”

“Talk?” said Gamache. “You mean threaten?”

“No, I mean talk.”

“What did he want to say?” asked Daniel.

Jean-Guy told them everything, with Séverine Arbour jumping in now and then.

“And you believed him,” said Gamache when they’d finished. “That he wants to work with us now? Seems pretty abrupt.”

At that moment there was a knock on the door. “Armand?”

When he opened it, Reine-Marie quickly slipped through. As she hugged him, she slid his phone back into his pocket.

“That was fast.”

It didn’t bode well.

“Madame Béland saw me right away. The board members aren’t staying here, and the meeting isn’t here either.”

“Damn,” said Jean-Guy. “It was such a good theory.”

“But?” said Armand. He could tell by Reine-Marie’s bright eyes that there was more.

“But Madame Béland did know where they’re staying, and where the meeting’s being held. Can you guess?”

“The Lutetia,” said Jean-Guy.

“Oui.”

They looked at each other. And smiled. Yes. They were moving forward.

Reine-Marie was brought up to speed about Xavier Loiselle, and the SecurForte operative’s desire to switch sides and help them.

She listened closely, shooting glances at her husband, and remembering his prediction. That the next thing they’d do was get someone on the inside.

And now there were two potential “someones.” Arbour and Loiselle.

“You believe him?” she asked, unknowingly repeating Armand’s question.

“Honestly, I’ve gone back and forth, but yes, eventually I decided he probably meant it.”

“Probably?” asked Daniel. “Is that good enough?”

“It’s all we’ve got, so yes, it’s pretty damned good.” Jean-Guy turned to Gamache. “With Loiselle on board and on the inside, we can finally make a plan.”

“Great,” said Daniel. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” On seeing their expressions, he explained. “Mike Tyson said that.”

“You’re getting advice from Mike Tyson?” said Beauvoir.

“And you’re inviting someone who might be a killer to join us? What’s worse?”

At that moment, Jean-Guy was tempted to show Daniel what being punched in the face felt like.

And yet, maddeningly, he recognized that Daniel, and Mike, might be right. Only the most disciplined, or the most stubborn, stuck to a plan when the first blow landed.

The key was knowing when to adapt, and when to hold firm.

And he also recognized, somewhat grudgingly, that Daniel had a right to question. He had a lot at stake.

Was Xavier Loiselle an ally, or a spy?

Was he a member of their Resistance, or a collaborator?

“You’re right,” said Jean-Guy, to Daniel’s surprise. “But I think this’s a risk we need to take.” He turned to Séverine Arbour. “What was your impression of Loiselle?”

She thought about it, then nodded. “I agree. I think he’s sincere. He could’ve turned us in when we went to the office this afternoon, but he didn’t. I think he’s on our side. Is that a certainty?” She looked at Daniel. “No. As an engineer, I’m not at all comfortable with probabilities. The bridge will probably stay up. The plane will probably fly. No. We deal with as close to certainties as we can get. But life isn’t a schematic. It’s not an engineering project. Sometimes we need to take a risk. And sometimes, I guess, we need to be the one doing the punching.”

Beauvoir nodded to Daniel. And Daniel, after a pause, nodded back.

“Did you say you went back to GHS Engineering this afternoon?” asked Armand.

“Yes,” said Arbour. “All three of us. Loiselle pretended he was still tailing us.”

“Why did you do that?” asked Reine-Marie. “Isn’t that like walking right into the rat’s nest?”

“We wanted to try to get into Carole Gossette’s files,” said Madame Arbour. “She oversees both the Patagonia and Luxembourg projects. We thought we might find out what GHS Engineering was really doing.”

Armand sat forward. “You mentioned Patagonia earlier. What’s that about?”

“Seven years ago the regional government realized that an abandoned mine was poisoning the drinking water of a town downriver,” she explained. “GHS Engineering was contracted by the Chilean government to build a water treatment plant. Which they apparently did.”

“Apparently?” asked Reine-Marie.

“According to what I was seeing coming across my desk, it was taking a very long time to build. Far too long. I wasn’t suspicious of anything at first, except maybe government corruption, payoffs. The usual. Contractors prolonging construction to make more money. I did see that one of the first things GHS did before even beginning the project was to order a water sample taken and analyzed so they’d know what was coming down from the mine.”