The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

has published.”
It may be imagined how delighted the latter was to see a good point awarded
him at last!
“The reporters will go and interview the judge at Groningen, and Madame de
Moricourt at Saumur. The gutter press will laugh at Mrs. Wilcox, and no doubt
her ambassador will make representations for her name to be mentioned as
seldom as possible.”
He drank half a bottle of beer at a gulp and went and sat on the window sill,
his back turned to the sunny square.
“De Greef will remain silent because it’s in his temperament, because he’s not
afraid.”
“And I’ll talk?” sneered Philippe.
“You’ll talk. Because you’re a phony through and through, because in the
eyes of the world, you’ll be the nasty piece of work, because you’ll try to worm
your way out of it, because you’ll convince yourself that by talking you’ll save
your precious skin.”
De Greef turned to his companion, an indefinable smile on his lips.
“You’ll talk, tomorrow probably, when you find several hefty chaps in a real
police station questioning you with their fists. You don’t like being hit,
Philippe.”
“They haven’t the right.”
“Nor have you the right to swindle a poor woman who no longer knows what
she’s doing.”
“Or who knows only too well! It’s because she’s got money that you go to her
defense.”
Maigret didn’t even have to advance toward him for him to lift up his hands
again.
“You’ll talk all the more when you see that De Greef has a better chance of
getting off than you have.”
“He was on the island.”
“He had an alibi, as well. If you were with the old woman, he was with
Anna…”
“Anna will say…”
“Will say what?”
“Nothing.”