‘All right,’ Maïssa began. It was strange how everything she said, and the way that she said it, was completely at odds with her appearance. I wondered if the haircut and the piercings had been imposed on her as part of her disguise. Surely she didn’t always look like that? ‘You are absolutely correct. Emil and I are investigators with OLAF, working with the Hercule Programme. This programme is designed to combat embezzlement and misconduct in public procurement, among many other things.’ She paused. ‘What I am about to tell you is, of course, confidential.’

Hawthorne was losing his patience. ‘Come on, please. I think we’re a bit past that now.’

‘Very well.’ She took a breath. ‘So . . . six months ago we received information which related to the activities of a company called Électricité du Nord, which is based in Rennes and is involved with the construction of the Normandy-Alderney-Britain power line, or NAB, as it is called here. The information suggested that they were making large payments to a person on the island who, in return, had promised to use his influence to make sure that the States gave their support to the project.’

‘You’re talking about Charles le Mesurier,’ I said.

‘Exactly. He received several cash payments in his capacity as adviser to the company, but we believe that a much larger sum of money was concealed in the purchase of a land parcelle that he owned, which would be used as the site for the converter station. Électricité du Nord agreed to pay five times the actual value of the land once the permission had been granted, and that was how he would make his profit.’

‘But you had no proof,’ Hawthorne said.

‘That is right, Mr Hawthorne. Everything I have told you so far was based on anonymous avertissements. How do you say that?’

‘Tip-offs,’ her partner volunteered.

‘Thank you, Emil. Yes. Tip-offs and speculation. We had no actual evidence. We looked. We went deep. But it was not there.

‘And then we discovered that there was to be a festival of literature on the island and we had the idea to create a performance poet who could take part and who would be able to get close to Monsieur le Mesurier, even into his house. We were very pleased when we heard that there would be a party actually inside The Lookout. It was the perfect opportunity.’

‘How did you make sure you were invited?’ I asked.

‘That was not difficult. A cultural foundation in Paris made a financial contribution to the festival on the condition that a French poet was included. It was at the same time that a fake entry in Wikipedia was constructed. We thought it unlikely that anyone would take interest in an obscure poet working in a language that was almost unknown, but in the event that anyone looked, it was there.