‘So complicated, in fact, that it almost succeeded.
‘He goes back to the Vieux-Pressoir. Asks if Carus is there. He needs two thousand francs immediately, and he knows Bob can’t possibly lend him that kind of money.
‘He throws the gun into the Seine to remove the fingerprints.
‘He turns up several times at Club Zéro. “Oh, hasn’t Carus arrived yet?” He drinks, walks endlessly, adding finishing touches to his plan.
‘It’s true he doesn’t have enough money to escape abroad, but even if he did, that would be no use, he’d be extradited sooner or later. What he has to do is go back to Rue Saint-Charles, pretend to discover the body, and tell the police.
‘And that’s when he thinks of me.
‘He decides to devise a special scenario for me, something that wouldn’t occur to most normal people. The details add up. His wanderings about all night will help him.
‘He lies in wait for me, from early morning, outside where I live. If I don’t take the bus, he’ll have some other plan up his sleeve.
‘He steals my wallet. He then telephones me, and sets in motion a whole rigmarole designed to remove suspicion from him.
‘And he goes too far, in fact. He gives me an entirely fictitious menu of what Sophie is supposed to have eaten at the Vieux-Pressoir. He’s unbalanced, he lacks simple common sense. He can invent an extravagant story and make it sound quite plausible, but he doesn’t think about the simplest, most everyday details.’
‘Do you think he’ll go on trial, chief?’ Lapointe asked.
‘Depends on the psychiatrists.’
‘What would you decide?’
‘Trial by jury.’
And as his two colleagues were surprised at such a categorical reply, very unlike what they knew of their chief, Maigret followed it up with:
‘It would make him too unhappy to be considered of unsound mind, or even only partly responsible. When he’s standing in the dock, on the other hand, he’ll make sure to act out the part of an exceptional being, a kind of hero.’
He shrugged his shoulders, smiled sadly and went towards the window to watch the rain fall.
Read more
OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES
* * *
MAIGRET AND THE NAHOUR CASE
GEORGES SIMENON
‘Maigret had often been called on to deal with individuals of this sort, who were equally at home in London, New York and Rome, who took planes the way other people took the Metro, who stayed in grand hotels … he had trouble suppressing feelings of irritation that might have been taken for jealousy.’
A professional gambler has been shot dead in his elegant Parisian home, and his enigmatic wife seems the most likely culprit – but Inspector Maigret suspects this notorious case is far more complicated than it appears.
Translated by Will Hobson
* * *
www.penguin.com
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OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES
* * *
Pietr the Latvian
The Late Monsieur Gallet
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
The Carter of La Providence
Night at the Crossroads
A Crime in Holland
The Grand Banks Café
A Man’s Head
The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin
The Two-Penny Bar
The Shadow Puppet
The Saint-Fiacre Affair
The Flemish House
The Madman of Bergerac
The Misty Harbour
Liberty Bar
Lock No. I
Maigret
Cécile is Dead
The Cellars of the Majestic
The Judge’s House
Signed, Picpus
Inspector Cadaver
Félicie
Maigret Gets Angry
Maigret in New York
Maigret’s Holiday
Maigret’s Dead Man
Maigret’s First Case
My Friend Maigret
Maigret at the Coroner’s
Maigret and the Old Lady
Madame Maigret’s Friend
Maigret’s Memoirs
Maigret at Picratt’s
Maigret Takes a Room
Maigret and the Tall Woman
Maigret’s Revolver
Maigret and the Man on the Bench
Maigret is Afraid
Maigret’s Mistake
Maigret Goes to School
Maigret and the Dead Girl
Maigret and the Minister
Maigret and the Headless Corpse
Maigret Sets a Trap
Maigret’s Failure
Maigret Enjoys Himself
Maigret Travels
Maigret’s Doubts
Maigret and the Reluctant Witness
Maigret’s Secret
Maigret in Court
Maigret and the Old People
Maigret and the Lazy Burglar
Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse
Maigret and the Saturday Caller
Maigret and the Tramp
Maigret’s Anger
Maigret and the Ghost
Maigret Defends Himself
Maigret’s Patience
Maigret and the Nahour Case
Maigret’s Pickpocket
Maigret Hesitates
Maigret in Vichy
Maigret’s Childhood Friend
Maigret and the Killer
Maigret and the Wine Merchant
Maigret’s Madwoman
Maigret and the Informer
Maigret and Monsieur Charles
* * *
www.penguin.com
THE BEGINNING
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PENGUIN CLASSICS
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Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published in French as Le Voleur de Maigret by Presses de la Cité 1967
This translation first published 2019
Copyright © Georges Simenon Limited, 1967
Translation copyright © Siân Reynolds, 2019
GEORGES SIMENON ® Simenon.tm
MAIGRET ® Georges Simenon Limited
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author and translator have been asserted
Cover photograph (detail)
© Harry Gruyaert /Magnum Photos
ISBN: 978-0-241-30418-1