Maigret And The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon

Author:Georges Simenon [Simenon, Georges]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-03-17T15:12:58+00:00

The effect was the same as when the teacher enters a classroom where the students are chattering. Conversation stopped. The reporters rushed up to the Superintendent.

“Can we report the doctor’s arrest? Has he confessed?”

“Nothing at all!”

Maigret waved them aside and called to Emma, “Two Pernods, my dear.”

“But look, if you’ve arrested Michoux—”

“You want to know the truth?”

They already had their notebooks in hand. They waited, pens at the ready.

“Well then, there is no truth yet. Maybe there will be some day. Maybe not.”

“We hear that Jean Goyard—”

“Is alive. So much the better for him.”

“But still, there’s a man in hiding, and they can’t find him.”

“Which goes to prove the hunter’s not as smart as the prey.”

Taking Emma by the sleeve, Maigret said gently, “I’ll have my lunch in my room.”

He drank his apéritif down straight and got to his feet.

“A piece of advice, gentlemen! No jumping to conclusions. And no deductions, above all.”

“What about the criminal?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders and murmured: “Who knows?”

He was already at the foot of the stairs. Inspector Leroy threw him a questioning look.

“No, my friend. You eat down here. I need a rest.”

He climbed the stairs with heavy tread. Ten minutes later, Emma went up after him with a plate of hors d’oeuvres.

Then she carried up a coquille St. Jacques and roast veal with spinach.

In the dining room, conversation languished. One of the reporters was called to the phone.

“Around four o’clock, yes,” he declared. “I hope to have something sensational for you… Not yet! We’ve got to wait.”

All alone at a table, Leroy ate with the manners of a well-bred boy, regularly wiping his lips with the corner of his napkin.

People outside kept an eye on the Admiral Café, hoping vaguely for something to happen.

A policeman leaned against the building at the end of the alleyway where the vagrant had disappeared.

“The mayor is on the phone, asking for Superintendent Maigret,” Emma announced.

Leroy jumped. “Go up and tell him,” he said to her.

The waitress left, but came right back and said, “He’s not there!”

The inspector bounded up the stairs four by four, returned very pale, and snatched the receiver.

“Hello!… Yes, Monsieur Mayor… I don’t know. I… I’m worried. The Superintendent is gone… No, that’s all I can tell you. He had lunch in his room. I didn’t see him come down… I… I’ll phone you back.”

Leroy, who had not put his napkin down, used it now to wipe his brow.

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