Cruelest Month

‘I researched ephedra yesterday afternoon,’ said Lemieux, taking out his notebook. ‘It’s not actually a chemical. It’s a plant. An herb called Ephedra dis-ta-chya.’ Lemieux sounded it out slowly and carefully, though no one was likely to correct him. ‘It’s grown all over the world.’

‘Is it like marijuana?’ asked Lacoste.

‘No, it’s not a hallucinogen or relaxant. Just the opposite. It used to be used in Chinese medicine shops as tea for relieving,’ he consulted his notes again, ‘colds and asthma, but then I guess someone—’

‘Don’t guess,’ said Gamache, quietly.

‘I’m sorry.’ Lemieux put his head down and flipped rapidly through his notes, back and forth, while the whole team stared. He finally found the scribble. ‘A pharmaceutical company named Saltzer realized it worked as a diet supplement. It increases the metabolism, and that burns fat. The market for that was huge, way bigger than as a decongestant or cold remedy. Everyone wants to lose weight.’

‘But not everyone needs to,’ said Lacoste. ‘That’s the problem. They created a demand where there shouldn’t be one.’

‘Are you familiar with ephedra?’ Gamache asked.

‘Heard of it, but that’s all. But I am familiar with issues of body image. Most girls think they’re fat, don’t they?’ She made the mistake of looking at Nichol who shrugged. After all, Lacoste hadn’t supported her when she’d made the shit comment, so she was on her own.

‘This isn’t about body image,’ said Beauvoir, trying to bring it back on track.

‘Maybe it is,’ said Gamache. ‘Madeleine Favreau was forty-four, early middle age. A search of her room showed she had no problems with her body, no diet books or weight loss articles, not even any diet drinks or products in the fridge.’

Nichol smiled at Lacoste. Gamache hadn’t agreed with her gross generalization.

‘We have no reason to think she was taking ephedra to lose weight,’ he said.

‘Could she have been taking it for a cold?’ Lacoste asked, undeterred by the maniacal Nichol.

‘It’s not sold as a cold remedy any more,’ said Lemieux.

‘And even if it was, there was none in her room or the bathroom. We’ll do another search, but unless she hid it, and she didn’t really have reason to, then someone else slipped it to her.’

‘Which is why you declared this a murder,’ said Beauvoir.

‘Which is why I think this might have something to do with body image.’

They looked at him, perplexed, having lost the thread of what he was saying.

‘Madeleine Favreau wasn’t taking ephedra, but someone was. Someone had bought it, probably for themselves, and then used it on her.’

‘But ephedra is banned in Canada. Health Canada pulled it years ago,’ said Lemieux. ‘It’s also banned in the US and Britain.’

‘Why?’ asked Lacoste.

Agent Lemieux consulted his notes again. He didn’t want to make a mistake here. ‘There were 155 deaths in the US and more than a thousand incidents reported by doctors. Mostly heart and stroke. And not in the elderly. These were for the most part young and vigorous people. An investigation was launched and it was decided that ephedra certainly burned fat, but it also raised the heart rate and blood pressure.’

‘Then a couple athletes died,’ said Beauvoir.

‘A baseball and a football player, that’s right,’ agreed Lemieux. ‘That was when the baby robin really hit the fan.’ Even Gamache smiled. Nichol did not. ‘An investigation was launched and it was discovered that ephedra affects the heart, but mostly in people with a pre-existing condition.’

‘So it’ll raise the heart rate of anyone,’ recapped Beauvoir. This was what he craved. Facts. ‘But can actually kill people with already damaged hearts. Did Madame Favreau have a damaged heart?’

‘No medication in her medicine cabinet,’ said Gamache. ‘We won’t have the coroner’s report until later today.’

‘I wonder how many people have heard of ephedra?’ said Beauvoir. ‘I hadn’t, but then I don’t diet. Presumably most people who diet have heard of it, is that fair to say?’ He turned to Lacoste, who thought about it. She dieted every now and then. Like most women she owned a fun-house mirror that one day showed her fat, the next slim.

‘I think anyone who diets habitually would know about it,’ she said, slowly, trying to figure it out. ‘Dieters become obsessed with losing weight and any product that promises to do it without effort would be noticed.’

‘So we’re looking for a dieter?’ asked Nichol, confused.

‘But there’s a problem,’ said Lemieux. ‘You can’t buy it here. Or in the States.’

‘That is a problem,’ conceded Gamache.

‘Except,’ came a voice behind them. The technician who’d downloaded the information was sitting at one of their desks, looking out from behind a flat screen. ‘You can order ephedra on-line.’ He pointed to the screen in front of him. Getting up, they moved to his station.

There on the screen was a long list of Googled sites, all offering to ship perfectly safe ephedra to anyone desperate and stupid enough to want it.