OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

A CRIME IN HOLLAND
the conversation that followed, two burly giants were rolling
barrels across the floor, supervised by Mme Van Hasselt in her
slippers. A smell of schnapps and beer lay thick on the air. This was
Holland—and Maigret had never felt it so keenly.
" You've discovered the murderer? " he asked blandly, pointing
to the papers.
A sharp, hostile look from Duclos, as he answered:
" I'm beginning to think that foreigners are right when they think
French people incapable of being serious.... In the present circumstances,
Monsieur, your playfulness is not in the best of taste."
Not in the least disconcerted, Maigret smiled serenely, while the
professor went on:
" No, I have not discovered the murderer. But I have done something
which is far more useful at the start than merely looking
for the murderer. I've analysed the case. Dissected it, so to
speak. I have all the elements neatly sorted out. And now •.."
" And now? "
" It will no doubt be someone like yourself who will reap the
reward of my deductions."
He sat down. He was determined to discuss the case even in this
hostile atmosphere, for which he had only himself to thank. Maigret
sat down opposite him and ordered a glass of Bols,
" Fire away."
" First of all, please note the fact that I am not asking what you
have done, nor what you think about the case.... And now I
begin with the first suspect, that is to say, myself. I occupied the
best strategic position, if I may so express myself, from which to kill
Popinga. Moreover, I was seen holding the revolver that had shot
him, a few seconds after it had been fired.
" I am not rich, and if my name is known all over, or nearly all
over, the world, it is by a small number of intellectual people. I
live in quite a small way, and it is not always easy to make both
ends meet. . .. On the othe*r hand, there was no robbery, nor was
I likely to benefit in any way from Popinga's death. . ..
" But wait a moment. . . . That doesn't mean that I couldn't have
committed the murder. There are people who can tell you that in
the course of the evening, during a discussion of scientific police
methods, I had been arguing that an intelligent man who, with a
cool head, used all his ingenuity, could perfectly well elude detection
by the police, half-educated as the latter are.... And it could quite
well be maintained that I had a bee in my bonnet as regards this
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