Maigret's Patience by Georges Simenon

Author:Georges Simenon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241304143
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

5.

When Aline opened the door to him, she looked worried; she gazed at him intensely, dark rings under her eyes. Maigret was more placid than ever. In the time it took to cross the landing, he had adopted that easy-going demeanour that his inspectors knew well and were never taken in by.

‘I didn’t want to leave the building without wishing you as good a night as possible.’

Lucas, who was sitting in an armchair, put the magazine he was reading on the carpet and stood up lazily. It was quite evident that the atmosphere between these two people who had just spent several hours together in the apartment and were destined to spend several more before morning was far from cordial.

‘Don’t you think you’d be better off going to bed, Aline? It’s been an emotionally draining day. I fear that tomorrow will be just as difficult, if not more so. Do you have some sort of sleeping pill or tranquillizer in your medicine cabinet?’

She gave him a hard stare, trying to read his innermost thoughts, furious that the inspector was giving her no way in.

‘For my part, I learned a lot this morning, but I need to verify certain things before I talk to you about what I have discovered. Only this evening, in fact, I made the acquaintance of the rather curious fellow who lives across the landing from you.

‘I was wrong about him at first and assumed he was merely a salesman working in chocolate and sweet boxes.

‘It turns out his business is more wide-ranging and incorporates in particular the world of jewellery.’

He took his time, refilled his pipe, apparently miles away.

‘With all this going on, I haven’t had dinner yet. I hope Monsieur Louis will still be there waiting for me at the Clou Doré and that we can eat together.’

Another silence. He pushed down the tobacco with a familiar prod of his index finger, picked out a stray flake, then finally struck a match, while Aline watched these painstaking movements with growing impatience.

‘A handsome man, that Fernand Barillard. I wouldn’t have thought one woman would be enough for him, especially as his wife seems a tad insipid for the likes of him. What do you think?’

‘I don’t know him.’

‘Naturally, the landlady of a building can’t know all her tenants intimately. Especially since I ask myself whether this is the only property you own.

‘I’ll find out tomorrow, from Maître Desgrières, with whom I have an appointment. This is a complicated business, Aline, and I don’t always feel I have a firm footing in it.

‘To be on the safe side, I’ve posted a man downstairs, in case Barillard feels a need to go out. And his telephone line, like yours, has been tapped.

‘So, you see, I’ve given you fair warning. No doubt you have nothing to say to me?’

Tight-lipped, she strode off with clipped, robotic steps to her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

‘Is it true, chief, all that stuff you just said?’

‘Most of it. Goodnight. Try to stay awake.

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