Friend of Madame Maigret by Georges Simenon Read Free Book Online

the story, but without mentioning your wife’s name, when I asked him to try to find the taxi. By the way, he’s just phoned to say that by sheer chance he’s already found the driver. He’s sending him over. The man will be here in a few minutes.”
    â€œWas there anyone in your office when you rang Lamballe?”
    â€œProbably. There’s always somebody in here. And no doubt the door to the inspectors’ office was open. But who? It frightens me to think that there might be a leak right here.”
    â€œI suspected it yesterday. There was a leak as far back as February 21, because when you went to the rue de Turenne to search the bookbinder’s premises, Philippe Liotard had already been notified.”
    â€œWho by?”
    â€œI don’t know. It can only be somebody in the building.”
    â€œThat’s why the suitcase had disappeared by the time I got there.”
    â€œMore than likely.”
    â€œIn that case why didn’t they dispose of the blood-stained suit too?”
    â€œPerhaps they didn’t think of it, or else they thought we wouldn’t find out what kind of stains they were. Perhaps they didn’t have time.”
    â€œDo you want me to question the inspectors, chief?”
    â€œI’ll take care of it.”
    Lucas had not finished going through his post, which was stacked up on the long table he was using as a desk.
    â€œNothing interesting?”
    â€œI don’t know yet. I’ll have to check. Several tips about the suitcase, of course. An anonymous letter states simply that it hasn’t left the rue de Turenne and that we must be blind not to find it. Another claims that the root of the matter is at Concarneau. A five-page letter, closely written, reveals with supporting arguments that the government itself fabricated the whole business out of nothing at all in order to divert attention from the cost of living.”
    Maigret went into his own office, took off his hat and coat, stoked right up, despite the mildness of the weather, the only coal stove still in existence at the Quai des Orfèvres, which he had had such a hard job to retain when central heating was installed.
    Opening the inspectors’ door a crack, he called in little Lapointe, who had just arrived.
    â€œSit down.”
    He closed the door again carefully, told the young man once more to sit down, and walked around him once or twice, glancing at him curiously.
    â€œYou’re ambitious, aren’t you?”
    â€œYes, chief inspector. I’d like to have a career like yours. That’s what you might call presumptuous, isn’t it?”
    â€œAre your parents well off?”
    â€œNo. My father’s a bank clerk, at Meulan, and he had a hard time bringing us up decently, my sisters and myself.”
    â€œAre you in love?”
    He didn’t blush, didn’t seem embarrassed.
    â€œNo. Not yet. I still have time. I’m only twenty-four and I don’t want to get married before I’m settled.”
    â€œDo you live by yourself in a furnished room?”
    â€œFortunately not. My youngest sister, Germaine, is in Paris too. She works for a publisher on the Left Bank. We share a place, and at night she has time to cook for us, and that’s a saving.”
    â€œHas she a young man?”
    â€œShe’s only eighteen.”
    â€œThe first time you went to the rue de Turenne did you come straight back here?”
    He suddenly blushed, hesitated a moment before replying.
    â€œNo,” he finally admitted. “I was so proud and happy at having discovered something that I treated myself to a taxi and went around to the rue du Bac to tell Germaine about it.”
    â€œThat’s all, my boy. Thanks.”
    Lapointe, uneasy, worried, was reluctant to leave.
    â€œWhy did you ask me that?”
    â€œI’m the one who asks the questions, aren’t I? Later on maybe you’ll get a chance to do some interrogating