The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

big money, but he wasn’t yet sure.”
“Did he make any reference to anyone?”
“No. I have never known him so mysterious. He needed some information. He
asked if we had a big Larousse, the one in I don’t know how many volumes, in
the house. I said we didn’t keep one. Then he insisted on my going to the city
library to look it up.”
“What did he want to know?”
“It’s just too bad, isn’t it? Now you’ve got so far, I haven’t a chance, of
course.”
“None.”
“Of course I didn’t understand a thing about it. I thought that I’d get some
idea when I reached here.”
“Who died in 1890?”
“You’ve seen my telegram? Didn’t he destroy it?”
“The post office, as usual, kept a copy.”
“A certain Van Gogh, a painter. I read that he committed suicide. He was
always very poor and today people fight over his works, which are worth I don’t
know what. I wondered if Marcel had got hold of one.”
“And it wasn’t that?”
“I don’t think so. When he telephoned me he didn’t even know the gentleman
concerned was dead.”
“What did you think?”
“I don’t know, I promise. Only I told myself that if Marcel could make money
with this information, it was possible that I could do so too. Especially when I
learned that he had been killed. People don’t kill for fun. He had no enemies.
There was nothing to steal from him. You understand?”
“You assume the crime has a connection with the Van Gogh in question?”
Maigret spoke without a trace of irony. He took small puffs at his pipe and
gazed out of the window.
“No doubt you were right.”
“Too late, since you’re here and it’s no more use to me. Is there any further
reason to keep me on the island? You see it’s a holiday for me here, and as long
as you keep me here, the old cat can’t say anything.”
“In that case, stay.”
“Thank you. You are becoming almost as you were when I knew you in