All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #16) - Louise Penny Page 0,54
home this morning. His name is Alexander Francis Plessner.”
She was speaking directly, and exclusively, to Annie and Daniel. Watching them closely.
“Does the name mean anything to you?”
The siblings looked at each other, then back to the investigator, shaking their heads.
“No,” said Annie. “Should it?”
Armand’s brows lowered as he watched the investigator examine his children.
Fontaine turned her focus on Annie. “Are you sure?”
Annie’s face opened in surprise. “Alexander Plessner? I’ve never heard of him.”
Fontaine continued to stare at her.
“What’s this about?” Gamache asked of Fontaine. “Do you know something?”
She turned to him.
This was clearly the Chief Inspector’s Achilles’ heel. His family. She knew it. And he knew it.
“I know that your daughter’s firm handles his business in Paris. Did he help you get your position there?”
“I’ve never heard of the man,” Annie repeated. “Not personally, not professionally. But I can help you get whatever information it’s legal to give out.”
Good for you, Armand thought.
“That won’t be necessary. Merci.” Fontaine turned to Daniel. “And you, sir? Do you know him?”
Daniel frowned in concentration, then shook his head. “Sorry. No. Was he a friend of Stephen’s?”
“Alexander Plessner was an investor. Venture capital mostly.”
It took a force of will for Armand not to look in Daniel’s direction.
“Ahh, then he might’ve had investments with some GHS subsidiary,” said Daniel. “Maybe he invested in one of their riskier ventures.”
And now his father did look over at Daniel.
He’d just had time, before the investigators had arrived, to warn them not to volunteer information, no matter how banal it might seem. Answer the Commander’s questions honestly, but not more than was asked.
Everything can be misinterpreted.
“This’s very helpful,” said Fontaine. “Do you happen to know what those subsidiaries are?”
“Well, it’s not listed on the Bourse,” said Daniel, ignoring the sound of his father clearing his throat, “so it’s hard to get accurate information. The great advantage of being a private company is just that. Privacy.”
“Perhaps you mean secrecy,” said Fontaine, smiling at him in a conspiratorial way.
Daniel smiled back. Clearly enjoying showing off his expertise.
It was, Gamache knew, a technique in investigations. Appeal to the ego of a suspect. And watch them spill.
“That’s probably more accurate,” conceded Daniel. He opened his mouth to go on, but his father interrupted.
“Regulators would know what the company’s into, wouldn’t they, Commander?” he asked, making it clear who should answer the question.
“You’d be surprised,” said Fontaine.
“By what?” asked Reine-Marie.
“By how little they actually regulate,” said Daniel, leaping in again. “By how little they really know about corporations.”
“Tell me more,” said Fontaine, leaning toward him.
“Well, the French government checks compliance,” Daniel said. “But if a large corporation like GHS is slow to respond, the bureaucrats just move on to another company. Something smaller. Something simpler. So they can at least show progress.”
“So you’re saying, sir, that these corporations, in your experience, aren’t deliberately hiding anything?”
“From competitors, yes. But from the regulators, no. In my experience they try to be as transparent as possible. The problem is that there are too many companies, and too few watchdogs.”
Fontaine looked over at Gamache, who was listening, stone-faced. Showing absolutely no reaction to what his son just said.
But what must he be thinking?
Probably exactly what she was thinking. Daniel Gamache’s answer was naïve at best. Deliberately misleading at worst.
And while his father might want to think the best, Commander Irena Fontaine absolutely thought the worst.
“Let’s move on—” began Fontaine.
“Wait a minute,” said Gamache. “I have a small question for Daniel.”
He was breaking, shattering, his own advice to his family, but he had no choice.
“Oui?”
“Here in France there are a number of agencies that oversee corporate governance, right?”
“Yes. There’s the AMF, for instance.”
“But that’s mostly financial institutions, like banks,” said his father. “It wouldn’t oversee a private multinational company like GHS.”
“That’s true. But there are government bodies that enforce French commercial codes.”
Daniel was beginning to color. Not comfortable, it seemed, being essentially cross-examined by his father
But Commander Fontaine knew exactly what Gamache was doing.
This wasn’t a cross-examination. This was a rescue mission.
He’d seen the danger his son was in. He was giving Daniel another chance to explain. To not appear to be covering up for unethical companies.
To admit there was often complicity and collusion, bribery and intimidation. That sometimes watchdogs looked the other way while corporations got away with murder.
“You’ve been here for a while, Daniel. What do you think?” asked his father. “Could a private corporation intentionally hide its activities from regulators?”
He’s leading him right to it, thought Fontaine. And she found, despite herself, that she was rooting