Leopold Graf

Leopold Graf is 40 and the chief operating officer of Lumexa, where he joined at 28 as a contracts analyst and rose faster than any colleague. He was born in Stuttgart, the son of a car-factory engineer and an accountant, studied business administration at St. Gallen and speaks four languages with the same accent of someone who never had to raise his voice. The company's partners in Asia know him by his first name, and many treat him as a friend.

He lives in an apartment of glass and concrete near the English Garden in Munich, with an almost unfurnished living room, a leather armchair turned toward the window and a climate-controlled wine cellar he shows to few visitors. He runs at six in the morning along the river, takes his coffee without sugar and never schedules a meeting before ten. He says that whoever chases time has already arrived late.

He has dark brown hair gelled back, a thin clean-shaven face, light, attentive eyes, and the bearing of a man who never hurries. He wears a navy suit without a tie, a white shirt open at the collar, discreet cufflinks and a thin steel watch he consults only when he wants the other person to notice. He is elegant, cold and soft-spoken, and has the habit of answering a question with another, like a negotiator, so that only afterward does the other person notice he heard no answer at all.

About the work, his account is objective: he takes care of operations and of the partners in Asia, who bring in half the company's profit. He opens doors, he says, he does not check statements, because there is a whole department for that. He speaks fondly of the partners and with discreet disdain of anyone who asks for spreadsheets. When the conversation tightens, he courteously points to the others, never raising a finger.

Leopold knows that his position puts his name close to every contract in Asia. When the detective says he made one billion nine hundred million euros disappear, he calls the accusation cheap for so large a number and announces that from now on he will speak only through his lawyer. It may be the calm of an executive with nothing to fear. It may be that of someone who always knew when to fall silent. The detective will have to decide which.