It was an old building. The walls and ceilings had long been out of true, and there were gaps in the parquet floors.
‘Mama, a gentleman wants to talk to you.’
The woman came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron. There were some soap suds still at her elbow.
‘I’m Inspector Maigret. By chance, I saw your daughter push open the door across the way. Was it you who found the body?’
‘What body? Lucette, go to your room.’
‘Your neighbour’s.’
‘She’s dead? I always said that would happen one day. At her age, people shouldn’t be living alone. She must have felt unwell and couldn’t call anyone.’
‘No, she was murdered.’
‘I didn’t hear a thing. Of course there’s a lot of noise out on the street.’
‘It wasn’t a gunshot, and it didn’t happen this morning but yesterday afternoon or evening.’
‘Ah, poor woman! She was a bit too stuck-up for my taste, but I had nothing against her.’
‘Were you on good terms?’
‘I don’t think we’ve exchanged ten sentences in the seven years we’ve been living here. I’d sometimes see her going out in the morning. In winter she wore a black hat, in summer a white one, and she always had gloves on, even to go shopping. But that was her own business, I suppose.’
‘Did she have visitors?’
‘Not to my knowledge. Oh, wait, I’ve two or three times seen a woman ring the bell, rather a stocky woman, mannish-looking.’
‘During the day?’
‘No, in the evening. Just after supper.’
‘And recently, you haven’t noticed any unusual comings and goings in the building?’
‘There are always people coming and going, it’s like a railway station. The concierge just stays in her lodge across the yard and doesn’t bother with the tenants.’
She turned towards her daughter, who had sidled in again silently.
‘What did I tell you? Back to your room, miss.’
‘I’ll be seeing you again, because I need to interview all the tenants.’
‘I suppose you don’t know who did it?’
‘No.’
‘How did they find her?’
‘Someone from the second floor saw the door open. And as it was still open an hour later, she called out Madame Antoine’s name and went in.’
‘I can guess who that was.’
‘Why?’
‘Because she’s the nosiest person in the building. You’ll see, it’ll have been that Rochin woman.’
They heard steps on the stairs and Maigret went to meet the prosecutor’s men, who were just arriving.
‘This way,’ he said, ‘Doctor Forniaux was here, but he’s busy this morning, so he had to leave.’
The deputy was a tall young man, suave and elegantly dressed. He looked around in surprise, as if he had never before seen an interior of this kind. Then he glanced briefly at the huddled grey form on the carpet.
‘Do we know how she was killed?’
‘Suffocation.’
‘Well, obviously she wouldn’t have been able to put up much of a fight.’
Examining Magistrate Libart arrived in turn, and he too looked around the room with curiosity.
‘It’s like being in an old film,’ he remarked.
Lapointe had come back upstairs and his eyes encountered Maigret’s. They did not shrug their shoulders, but thought the same thing nevertheless.
OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES
* * *
Pietr the Latvian
The Late Monsieur Gallet
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
The Carter of La Providence
The Yellow Dog
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, Lognon and the Gangsters
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 Loner
Maigret and the Informer
Maigret and Monsieur Charles
* * *
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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 Maigret et le marchand de vin by Presses de la Cité 1970
This translation first published 2019
Copyright © Georges Simenon Limited, 1970
Translation copyright © Ros Schwartz, 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
Front cover design by Alceu Chiesorin Nunes
ISBN: 978-0-241-30429-7
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writin
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