The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

“It’s she who runs the Sirènes at Nice.”
It was better not to look at Mr. Pyke, whose expression of disapproval must
have been as ironical as his good education allowed. Hadn’t Maigret blushed? At
any rate he was conscious of being perfectly ridiculous.
For the fact was that he had on this occasion played the moral reformer. After
sending Marcellin to prison he had turned his attention to Ginette and, just as it
happens in a popular novel, had “snatched her from the gutter” to have her put
into a sanatorium.
He saw her again clearly, so thin that one wondered how men could allow
themselves to be tempted, with feverish eyes, slack mouth.
He said to her:
“You must have treatment, my girl.”
And she answered docilely:
“I’m quite willing, Chief Inspector. Don’t think I enjoy it!”
With a touch of impatience Maigret now asked, looking Monsieur Émile
straight in the face:
“You’re sure it’s the same woman? At that time she was riddled with
consumption.”
“She kept up her cure for a few years.”
“Did she stay with Marcellin?”
“She hardly saw him, you know. She’s very busy. She sent him a money order
from time to time. Not large sums. He didn’t need them.”
Monsieur Émile took a eucalyptus pill from a small box and sucked it gravely.
“Did he go and see her in Nice?”
“I don’t think so. It’s an elegant house. You must know it.”
“Was it because of her that Marcellin came to the Midi?”
“I don’t know. He was a queer fish.”
“Is Ginette in Nice at the moment?”
“She rang us up from Hyères this morning. She saw what happened from the
papers. She’s in Hyères seeing to the funeral.”
“Do you know where she is staying?”
“At the Hotel des Palmes.”
“You were at the Arche, the evening of the murder?”
“I went there for my tisane.”