OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

226 MAINLY MAIGRET
i
It was those last words that unnerved the boy. He looked wildly
round him. Would he have the strength of mind to hold out?
" It isn't possible. You couldn't know that. . . I. . • I . . . "
" There was only one window you could see from there. Madame
Popinga's. .. . Someone was at that window. Someone who, like
you, saw the couple take much too long to pass into the rays of the
lighthouse. Someone who knew that Conrad and Beetje had stopped
by the way...."
" I was at the window," said Madame Popinga firmly.
And now it was Beetje's turn to look round her wildly with
frightened eyes.
•
To everyone's surprise, Maigret asked no further questions. Not
that that brought any relief. On the contrary, it only added to the
prevailing uneasiness. They seemed to have come to the climax,
and the sudden pause only heightened the suspense.
The inspector went out into the passage, opened the front door,
and called out:
" Pijpekamp! . . . Would you come here, please? Leave Oosting
where he is."
And then, as the Dutchman approached:
" You saw the lights go on in the Wienands's? ... I suppose
they're switched off now? "
" Yes. They've gone to bed."
" And Oosting? "
" He's standing behind the tree."
The Groningen detective looked round him with astonishment.
Everybody was calm now, unbelievably calm, but they all looked
as though they hadn't been to sleep for nights and nights.
" Have you got the revolver? "
" Here it is."
Maigret took it and held it out to Duclos.
" Will you please go and put this in the place where you found
it after the murder? "
There was no resistance left in the professor, and he meekly
obeyed, rejoining them a moment later.
" Will you wait here a moment? " said Maigret to Pijpekamp.
"I'm going out with Beetje Liewens, just as Popinga
did. Madame Popinga will go up to her room. So will her sister