Maigret Travels: Inspector Maigret #51 by Simenon Georges

Author:Simenon, Georges [Simenon, Georges]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241303832
Amazon: 0241303834
Goodreads: 60100376
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2018-01-04T08:00:00+00:00

6.

In which Maigret is invited to lunch, and in which the talk is still of VIPs

It had ended less badly than Maigret might have feared. For the little countess, those knocks at the door were providential, because they allowed her to get out of a scene she probably didn’t know how to end.

Once again, she had rushed into the bedroom, while Maigret, unhurriedly arranging his tie and smoothing his hair, went and opened the door to the corridor.

It was quite simply the floor waiter, looking suddenly intimidated and asking if he could take away the breakfast tray. Had he been listening at the door, or had he, without specifically listening, caught the echoes of the scene? If so, he didn’t show it, and when he left, the countess reappeared, calmer now, wiping her lips.

‘I assume you’re planning to take me back to Paris?’

‘Even if I wanted to, I’d have to go through some pretty lengthy formalities.’

‘My lawyer here wouldn’t let you obtain extradition. But I want to go, I’m determined to attend David’s funeral. Are you taking the four o’clock plane?’

‘Quite likely, but you’re not taking it.’

‘And why is that, may I ask?’

‘Because I don’t want to travel with you.’

‘It’s my right, isn’t it?’

Maigret was thinking of the reporters and photographers who would be sure to mob her, both in Geneva and at Orly.

‘It may be your right, but if you try to take that plane, I’ll find a more or less legal way to stop you. I don’t suppose you have any statement to make to me?’

When all was said and done, this interview had ended in an almost grotesque fashion, and to recover his footing in a familiar reality, Maigret had next had a telephone conversation of nearly half an hour with Lucas. The hotel management had spontaneously offered him a little office near reception.

Although Doctor Paul hadn’t yet sent in his official report, he had given Lucas a preliminary report over the phone. After the post-mortem, he was more than ever convinced that someone had held David Ward down in his bath, since there was no other way to explain the bruises on his shoulders. In addition, there was no trauma to the neck or back, as there almost certainly would have been if the colonel had slipped, hit the edge of the bath and knocked himself unconscious.

Janvier had been tailing Marco. As was to be expected, the first concern of the little countess’s ex-husband, on leaving Quai des Orfèvres, had been to phone Anna de Groot.

Lucas was overwhelmed by telephone calls, many from large banks and financial companies.

‘Will you be back this afternoon, chief?’

‘I’m taking the four o’clock plane.’

As he put the telephone down, he was handed an envelope which a uniformed police officer had just brought for him. It was a charming note from the director of the Sûreté in Lausanne, saying that he would be delighted to have the opportunity to at last meet the famous Maigret and inviting him to ‘a very simple lunch, by the lake, in a quiet Vaudois inn’.

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