Free The Glacier Gallows by Stephen Legault

if HCE had someone in the closed-door meetings last month?”
    â€œI found out they did, but not who. I don’t think it was the head honcho. It was someone local who is on the payroll. Some kind of consultant or something.”
    â€œCan you find out who?”
    â€œNobody will talk with me anymore, Brian. Even my friends on the council have clammed up, and I think I know why the tribe is doing this. At first, I just thought that all these gas wells were going to net the band a lot more money. I’ve poked around and I’m pretty sure someone is on the take. It looks like HCE has offered to build a new community center in Browning, fix up some of the cultural sites around the res, and even fix some of the water infrastructure at the local high school.”
    â€œStrictly speaking, that’s not graft, it’s extortion, in the political sense, but I don’t know if it’s illegal.”
    â€œThe band says that all of those projects will cost about six million dollars—six-point-three, to be exact. But I got a friend in the IRS down in Great Falls who was able to do some dirty work for me, and he says that High Country Energy reports marketing and promotional expenses for this project that are closer to eight million.”
    â€œMaybe they’re padding their promotional budget somewhere?”
    â€œYeah, I thought of that. But HCE doesn’t do any formal marketing. No advertising. This isn’t Chevron; they don’t sell anything to the end consumer. All these guys do is find oil and gas, get it out of the ground, and then sell it to someone else to refine and pass on to the consumer. No, this two-million-dollar discrepancy is something other than billboards and TV ads.”
    â€œWhere do you think it’s going? If HCE is reporting it to the IRS , then it can’t be for bribes.”
    â€œDepends on what you call a bribe.”
    â€œIs there proof? You could go to the media.”
    â€œI don’t know. There’s no straight line.”
    â€œWhat do you want to do, Joe?”
    â€œI don’t know what to do. Remember what I told you about our beliefs about digging holes in the ground, Brian?”
    â€œHow could I forget?”
    â€œHigh Country is going to drill eighty of them.”
    BRIAN MARRIOTT WENT through security at the House of Commons and picked up his pass. He walked up the stairs to the main entrance hall and then proceeded to the National Press Theatre.
    As he entered the room, his Blackberry buzzed. He was a few minutes early, but the room was already crowded with reporters and parliamentary staff. He found a seat near the back and looked at his phone. There was a message from Charles Wendell:
    Sorry 4 last night. By way of apology am sending u this frm the review guidelines 2 be released at 11 . “The Minister shall direct his department to include other forms of power generation to be included under the category of ‘alternative’ so that they may be considered for energy procurement programs under the new guidelines: wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, run of the river (hydro), traditional hydro, nuclear, clean coal technology and other forms of power deemed to be ‘alternative’ by the Minister.”
    Brian checked his watch. It was 10:58. He typed back quickly. Where did you get this?
    Friend inside Dept leaked 2 me. Gone out to reporters. It’s a trap.
    Brian looked around the room. There were about twenty reporters there. He zeroed in on Tara Sinclair, the science reporter for the Globe and Mail , in the front row. She had her head down, looking at her iPhone.
    Brian typed back, I’m in the Press Theatre.
    Get out now.
    Brian had started to stand when David Canning walked in the door. With no way of making an exit without raising a ruckus, Brian sat down and waited for the trap to be sprung.
    â€œTHE MINISTER WONDERS if you have a moment to talk, Mr. Marriott.” Brian had made the most of his