Maigret Goes Home by Georges Simenon

Author:Georges Simenon [Simenon, Georges]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Georges Simenon
ISBN: 9780156551656
Google: D1fxAAAAMAAJ
Amazon: 0156551659
Barnesnoble: 0156551659
Goodreads: 440779
Publisher: AudioGO
Published: 1931-12-31T11:00:00+00:00

Maigret left. He was about to go down the outside steps, a man appeared beside him before he could see where he had come from.

“Excuse me, Chief-Inspector … Could you spare me a few minutes?… I’ve been told … ”

“What?”

“That you practically belong to the house… Your father was in my job… Would you do me the honour of having a drink with me at home?”

And the gray-bearded steward led his companion across the yard. Everything was ready in his house: a bottle of brandy whose label proclaimed its great age, biscuits. A smell of cabbage and bacon was coming from the kitchen.

“From what I’ve heard, you knew the château in very different circumstances… When I arrived here, the decline was beginning … There was a young man from Paris who… This is some brandy from the days of the late count … No sugar, I suppose?”

Maigret stared at the table with the carved lions, which had brass rings in their mouths. And once again he felt physically and morally tired. In the old days, he had been allowed to come into this room only if he was wearing slippers, because of the polished floor.

“I’m in a rather difficult position… And it’s you I’d like to ask for advice … We are poor people … You know that a steward’s job doesn’t make a man rich …

“Some Saturdays when there wasn’t any money in the safe, I paid the farmers myself.

“Other times, I advanced money to buy cattle the tenant farmers wanted … ”

“In other words, the countess owed you money!”

“Madame la Comtesse knew nothing about business … Money was disappearing all over the place… It was only for indispensable things that it wasn’t available … ”

“And it was you … ”

“Your father would have done the same, wouldn’t he? There are times when you mustn’t let the local people see that the coffers are empty … I drew on my savings.”

“How much?”

“Another glass?… I haven’t counted … At least seventy thousand… And now again, for the funeral, it’s I who … ”

A picture imposed itself on Maigret’s mind:

His father’s little office near the stables, at five o’clock on Saturday. All the people employed at the château, from the linen maids to the farm laborers, were waiting outside. And old Maigret, installed behind the desk covered with green percale, was arranging coins in little heaps. Each person passed by in turn and signed his name or made a cross on the register.

“Now I don’t know how I’m going to get it back… For people like us, it’s … ”

“Yes, I understand… You’ve had the mantelpiece changed.”

“Yes. The old one was wood. Marble looks better.”

“Much better!” grunted Maigret.

“You understand, don’t you? All the creditors are going to descend on the château … The count will have to sell up … And with the mortgages … ”

The armchair in which Maigret was sitting was new, like the mantelpiece, and must have come from a Paris furniture shop. There was a gramophone on the sideboard.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.