All the Devils Are Here
- Автор: Пенни Луиза
- Серия: Chief Inspector Gamache #16
- Год: 2020
- Язык: английский
- Год: St. Martin's Publishing Group
- ISBN: 9781250145253
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «All the Devils Are Here». Краткое содержание книги:
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand's godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man's life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen's possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d'Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.
It sends them deep into the secrets Armand's godfather has kept for decades.
A gruesome discovery in Stephen's Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.
Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.
For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.
Just then the doorbell chimed. It was the food and drink.
Plates of finger sandwiches, egg mayonnaise, coronation chicken, smoked salmon, and cucumber were put on the table, along with tea cakes and scones. Clotted cream and jams.
And two large bowls of seasoned frites with mayonnaise.
Armand signed for it and received an envelope from the waiter, which he opened, scanned, then placed in his pocket.
As they helped themselves to the food and drink, Armand brought Stephen’s agenda from his breast pocket and turned to the upcoming week. As he did, the scrap of paper he’d tucked into the flap fluttered to the ground.
Séverine Arbour quickly stooped down and picked it up, beating Gamache to it. Though Beauvoir noticed he didn’t really try. And wondered if that paper had really fallen by accident.
“AFP,” she read as she placed it on the table. “Monsieur Horowitz’s writing?”
“Yes,” said Gamache.
“Agence France-Presse?”
“Alexander Francis Plessner. We think the dates are when Stephen and Plessner met. He made the same notation, AFP, in his agenda this past Friday, the day Plessner arrived in Paris.” He handed the slip to Daniel. “Do the dates mean anything to you?”
Daniel studied them and shook his head. “They’re not even in chronological order. They go from oldest to most recent, except that final one. It goes back four years.”
“Might mean nothing,” said Armand, tucking it back under the flap in the agenda. “Now, the GHS Engineering meeting tomorrow,” he said, consulting Stephen’s notes. “Stephen’s not on the board, so how would he get into the meeting?”
“He wouldn’t,” said Daniel. “Couldn’t.”
“And yet,” said Gamache, “that seems to have been his plan. So how would he do it?”
Daniel was shaking his head. “No, it’s impossible. He’d have to get a seat on the board.”
“And how would he do that?” asked Armand. “There must be a way.”
Daniel was staring into space. Thinking.
So like his father, thought Jean-Guy.
He himself tried so hard to emulate Gamache, it seemed a shame, a waste, that someone who did it naturally didn’t value it.
“Board members of corporations are often rewarded with perks,” said Daniel, finally. “Luxury trips to meetings, that sort of thing. And sometimes, rarely but sometimes, they’d be enticed with shares in the company. Nonvoting shares, so they’d never be able to band together and get control, but the shares would still be valuable enough to make them all wealthy.”
“And loyal,” said Annie.
“And blind,” said Reine-Marie. “Hard to see wrongdoing over a pile of money.”
“So Stephen would have to buy shares off a board member?” asked Jean-Guy.
“Yes.”
“Would they know?” asked Reine-Marie.
Daniel thought about it. “The individual board member would have to know, but the chair of the board, the CEO, the majority owner, wouldn’t necessarily. Not if the shares remained in the board member’s name until the last minute.”
“That’s interesting,” said Armand. “According to Mrs. McGillicuddy, Stephen transferred a huge amount of money into his account at your bank a few weeks ago. It’s unfrozen tomorrow morning.”
“Just before the board meeting,” said Annie.
Daniel nodded a few times, his brows drawn together in concentration. “It’s possible.”
“Why would someone agree to sell their shares and give up their seat?” asked Séverine Arbour.
“Money,” said Daniel. “Why else? He’d offer to pay twice, five times, ten times what the shares are worth.”
“Cash raised by, let’s say, the sale of a priceless art collection,” said Jean-Guy.
That sat on the gleaming table. They finally seemed to be getting somewhere.
“There is,” Daniel began, “another reason a board member might sell.”
“What’s that?” asked Reine-Marie.
“Stephen might’ve made it unbelievably attractive to sell, and unbelievably unattractive not to. A push-pull. Suppose he approached a member of the board and told them what he knew. What he was about to reveal. Something so compromising it could not only bring about the collapse of the company, it would ruin anyone connected with it.”
“And within days their shares would be worthless anyway,” said Armand.
“But how would Stephen know that person wouldn’t go directly to Madame Roquebrune?” asked Séverine Arbour.
“He’d have to know the board member personally or have some information that would make him think this person would agree,” said Daniel. “The devil you know.”
“Oui,” said Armand.
“Who’s on the board?” Daniel grabbed the annual report and flipped to that section. “Holy shit.”
“What?” demanded Annie.
Daniel passed it to his sister and looked at his parents.
“Have you seen? Former Presidents, Prime Ministers. Emirs. Generals. She’s a former Secretary-General of the UN. And this one’s a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Two media moguls. It’s a who’s who. And all respected, or, well, mostly respected.”
“All with a great deal to lose if, as you said, it comes out that they’ve been propping up a corrupt conglomerate,” said Armand.
“Collaborators,” said Reine-Marie.
“So,” said Annie. “Which of them sold his or her stake in the company to Stephen?”
“We don’t know that’s what really happened,” Gamache cautioned.
There was silence. No answer was possible, yet.
“We have news, too,” said Beauvoir. “Something I didn’t tell you.” He turned to Annie. “You’re not going to like this. When I left here a couple hours ago, I was pretty sure that man was back, watching us.”
“The SecurForte guard? The one you chased last night?”
“Loiselle. Yes.”
“And you went after him again?” demanded Annie. “Once was bad enough. You said yourself he’s ex–special forces. He could’ve killed you.”
“But he didn’t.”
“That’s not the point.” She was shouting now. Balling up all her anger, all her fears, and hurling them at him. “Suppose he had? I can’t imagine…” She stopped, unable to find the words. “What would we do without you?” She had both hands on her belly. “If something happened? What—”
She dropped her head and started crying. Sobbing. Her mother and father made to go to her, but stopped. It wasn’t their role anymore.
Jean-Guy was already there, kneeling down and holding her. Whispering, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But I had to know what his orders were. To hurt you? The baby? Honoré? I had to stop him. I’m sorry.”
“You can’t leave me,” Annie whispered. “I can’t … this child … I can’t raise her on my own. I need you.”
“You won’t have to. I promise. I promise.”
Annie and Jean-Guy left, returning more composed a few minutes later.
“Okay?” Armand asked his daughter.
When she nodded, he turned to Jean-Guy. “Annie’s right. A younger special-forces-trained guard should’ve been able to take you. He’d take all of us, combined.”
“It was stupid, I admit,” said Jean-Guy. “The guy must’ve been told to intimidate me, but not to directly engage. When I confronted him, he disappeared.”
Madame Arbour cocked her head. She knew that wasn’t the truth. But at a look from Jean-Guy she remained silent. Still, she wondered if she should say something.
This was getting far too complicated.
“That’s when I went to see you,” Jean-Guy said to her. “To get some answers.”
“And what were the questions?” asked Armand.
“Is GHS involved? And if so, what did Stephen find out that was so bad?” said Jean-Guy. “I think now that’s why he got me my job there. He knows my strengths aren’t in business or engineering. But they are in criminal investigation. In noticing if something’s off. And something is off in GHS. Unfortunately”—he turned back to Madame Arbour—“I thought it was you.”