All the Devils Are Here(122)

“It isn’t.” Gamache left it at that. “Did you hear about the body found yesterday morning in an apartment in the Seventh Arrondissement?”

“No.”

No, of course not, thought Gamache. The police hadn’t yet released the news.

“The man was murdered. The apartment is Stephen’s, and the dead man is Alexander Plessner.”

“Oh, shit. I know Monsieur Plessner. Stephen introduced us a few months ago. Jesus, what’s going on? What’s happening?”

Pinot’s face was blossoming from red to purple. Gamache wondered if, before their conversation was over, he’d have to do CPR on him.

How deeply buried was his heart? Wrapped in layers of ambition and foie gras.

“I don’t know,” said Gamache. “I’m hoping you can help.”

“How?” asked Pinot.

“What do you know about GHS Engineering?”

“Ahhh, so that’s it.”

“What do you mean?” asked Gamache.

“I’m on the board. Stephen approached me about buying my shares, which would get him on the board. I asked why, but he wouldn’t tell me.”

“How long ago was this?”

Pinot considered. “Six, seven months.”

About the time the job at GHS had been offered to Jean-Guy, thought Armand. Stephen was putting his plan in place.

“And did you agree? Without even knowing why?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

“Because he asked. That’s all I needed.” Pinot studied Gamache. “Would you need more?”

Armand smiled slightly and shook his head.

“I was willing to do it immediately, but Stephen wanted to wait until the last minute, until the morning of the board meeting. He swore me to secrecy. Do you have any idea what he had in mind?”

“No, but I found this in his agenda.” Armand showed Pinot the photograph of the slip of paper. “We think the AFP means Agence France-Presse. Do these dates mean anything to you?”

Pinot studied them. “Yes. This one. It’s when one of my reporters disappeared.”

“Anik Guardiola. In Patagonia.”

“You know about her?”

“I know it was called an accident. But almost certainly wasn’t. What happened?”

“I don’t know. Not for sure. I should’ve asked more questions, back when her body was found. Should’ve pushed more. That’s how I got on the GHS board, you know.”

Armand did not know. But he knew enough to keep quiet and let Pinot talk.

“The police in Patagonia said it was a hiking accident. I sent investigators. They discovered that her laptop and phone and all her notes were missing. But by then her body had been cremated. We pressured the government, but—” He lifted his beefy hands.

“What story was she on?”

“It was about water quality. We traced her steps to meetings with various corporations, including GHS. They were very open, said she’d visited the site of the proposed treatment plant and the mine that they’d closed. They seemed extremely disturbed by her death. That’s when they offered me a seat on their board. As a gesture of transparency and goodwill.”

He took a sharp breath and a long exhale. “This was four years ago. It seems they knew me better than I knew myself. It appealed to my ego. I was dazzled by the other board members. Completely taken in.”

“When did you realize things were not as they seemed?”

“Only when Stephen asked me to give him my seat on the board.”

“Give?” asked Gamache. “He was going to pay you hundreds of millions, non? Hardly a gift.”

“You do know a lot.”

“It’s what I do,” said Gamache, his patience wearing thin. “I get information. Please stop obfuscating. We don’t have time.”

“Yes, he was paying for the shares, but it wasn’t for me. A trust has been set up for victims. Some of that has been set aside for the family of my murdered journalist. You can check.”

“Victims. Of what?”

“I don’t know. I asked Stephen, and all he’d say is that it would be clear at the board meeting.”

Armand nodded, taking this in. It sounded like Stephen, who liked to keep information to himself. “Have you ever heard of neodymium?”

“It’s a rare earth element, isn’t it? We did a series on them a couple of years ago. They’ve become a hot commodity. Why?”

“That mine in Patagonia GHS bought and Anik Guardiola investigated hasn’t been closed. They’ve been mining neodymium. I think she found out about it.”

Pinot’s brows rose. “Huh. If that’s true, it’s quite a find. GHS hasn’t announced this to the board. Why keep it a secret? Why would Anik Guardiola finding out about it be a problem? It’s not illegal, is it?”

“I think the issue isn’t the mineral, but what they’re doing with it. I think your young journalist found out too much and was murdered to keep her quiet. She also did a story, which Stephen noted, about a train derailment in Colombia. Any idea what that was about?”

“No, none. You’re going to have to remind me. What’s neodymium used for?”

“Batteries. Laptops. Hard drives,” said Gamache. “But there’s some suggestion a new use has been found. Something in telecommunications. Do you know any engineers, someone not associated with GHS, who might know?”