Maigret's Failure by Georges Simenon

Author:Georges Simenon [Simenon, Georges]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Georges Simenon
ISBN: 9780156551373
Google: NdBcAAAAMAAJ
Amazon: 0156551373
Goodreads: 7914760
Publisher: Mariner
Published: 1955-12-31T11:00:00+00:00

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VI

THE MAN IN THE LUMBER-ROOM AND THE SUMS BORROWED FROM THE PETTY CASH

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it was five o'clock when Maigret got back to the Quai des Orfévres; the lights were on already, and that made one more day without a glimpse of sun—one wouldn't even have suspected it was still there, behind the thick layer of angry-looking clouds.

There were a few papers waiting on his desk, as usual, most of them about Mrs. Britt. The public never gets worked up right away. It's as though it were distrustful of any case the papers are only just beginning to talk about. After two or three days the first reaction begins to be felt in Paris, and then in the provinces. The story of the vanished Englishwoman had already penetrated to the most remote villages, and even to foreign countries.

One of the messages reported she had been seen at Monte Carlo by two people, one of them a croupier at one of the tables; and as this was not at all unlikely, the Superintendent went into the inspectors' office to give instructions about the matter.

The office was practically empty.

'Someone was brought along for you, Chief. Considering the state he was in, I thought I'd better lock him up in the lumber-room.'

This was the name given to a narrow room at the end of the corridor, which had the advantage of being lit only by a skylight that was out of reach. After the day when a suspect, shut up in an office to await interrogation, had thrown himself out of the window, a grey-painted bench had been put into the unused room and a stout lock on the door.

'How is he?'

'Dead drunk. He lay down at once and he's asleep. I hope he's not been sick.'

All the way along in the taxi that had brought him from the Boulevard de Courcelles, Maigret had been thinking about Fumal and the strange way he had met his death.

He was a very suspicious man, all the evidence pointed to that. He was no simpleton. And it must be admitted he had a kind of skill in summing people up.

He had not been killed in his bed, nor taken by surprise when off his guard for some reason or other.

He had been found fully dressed, in his office. He had been standing in front of a cupboard containing files, when he'd been shot from behind, at point-blank range.

Could the murderer have come in without a sound, and crept up unnoticed? Most unlikely, especially as a big stretch of the parquet floor was uncarpeted.

So Fumal must have known him, known he was behind him, and not been expecting the attack.

Maigret had glanced at the papers in the mahogany cupboard, most of which were business documents, contracts, deeds of sale or transfer about which he understood nothing, and he had asked the Finance Department to send him an expert, who was now on the spot, inspecting the papers one by one.

In another piece of

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