Maigret's Mistake by Georges Simenon

Author:Georges Simenon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141984155
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

6.

Technically, as it were, Antoinette wasn’t so wrong.

By the time Maigret got to the Cochin hospital on Faubourg Saint-Jacques, Étienne Gouin had already left for the Saint-Joseph Clinic in Passy, together with his assistant. Maigret had expected that, since it was after eleven. But he wasn’t here to see the professor. Perhaps, when it came down to it, he didn’t want to meet him face to face just yet, although he didn’t quite know why.

Gouin’s department was on the second floor, and Maigret had to negotiate with the office staff before he was given permission to go upstairs. He found the long corridor more animated than he had expected, the nurses under great pressure. The one he approached as she came out of one of the rooms, looking less busy than the others, was a middle-aged woman with already white hair.

‘Are you the head nurse?’

‘The head nurse for the day shift.’

He told her who he was, and that he would like to ask her a few questions.

‘What about?’

He hesitated to admit that it was about the professor. She had led him to the door of a small office but didn’t invite him in.

‘Is that the operating theatre I can see at the end of the corridor?’

‘One of the operating theatres, yes.’

‘What happens when a surgeon spends part of the night in the hospital?’

‘I don’t understand. You mean when a surgeon comes here to perform an operation?’

‘No. Unless I’m mistaken, they’re sometimes here for other reasons – if they’re afraid there might be complications, for example, or else to wait for the result of their operation.’

‘That does happen. What of it?’

‘Where do they go?’

‘That depends.’

‘On what?’

‘On how long they stay. If they aren’t here for long, they come to my office, or walk up and down the corridor. But if they have to wait for several hours, in case an emergency operation is necessary, they go upstairs, to the interns’ section, where there are two or three rooms at their disposal.’

‘Do they use the stairs?’

‘Either that or the lift. The rooms are on the fourth floor. Most of the time, they rest until they’re called.’

She was clearly wondering what these questions were in aid of. The newspapers hadn’t mentioned Gouin’s name in connection with the death of Lulu. It was likely that nobody here knew of his relations with the girlfriend of Pierrot the Musician.

‘I don’t suppose I can speak to someone who was here the night before last?’

‘After eight o’clock?’

‘Yes. I should have said the night of Monday to Tuesday.’

‘The nurses who are here now are all like me. They belong to the day team. It may be that one of the interns was on duty. Wait a moment.’

She went into two or three rooms and at last came back with a tall, bony, red-haired young man wearing thick spectacles.

‘Someone from the police,’ she said and went and sat down in her office, but didn’t ask them in.

Maigret introduced himself.

‘Detective Chief Inspector Maigret.’

‘I thought I recognized you. What would you like to know?’

‘Were you here on the night of Monday to Tuesday?’

‘Most of the night, yes.

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