sharp glance from Duclos. And his reply:
âIâm beginning to think the foreigners are right. A Frenchman is above all someone who cannot resist irony. Well, in this case, monsieur, it is out of place.â
Maigret looked at him, still smiling, and in no way put out of countenance. The other man went on:
âNo, I havenât found the murderer. But I have perhaps
done more. Iâve analysed the situation, Iâve dissected it. I have isolated each element of it â¦Â and now â¦â
âNow â¦?â
âNow, someone like you will no doubt profit from my deductions and wrap up the case.â
He had seated himself. He was determined to talk, in spite of the atmosphere which he himself had made unfriendly. Maigret sat down opposite him and ordered a Bols.
âIâm listening.â
âYou will notice in the first place that I am not even asking you what you have done, or what you think. Iâll start with the first potential suspect: myself. I had, if I may say so, the best strategic position to shoot Popinga, and besides I was seen holding the murder weapon a few moments after the attack.
âIâm not a rich man, and if my name is known throughout the whole world, or almost, it is only by a small number of intellectuals. I am a man of modest means and sometimes living in straitened circumstances. But there was no theft, and in no way could I have hoped to benefit from the death of a lecturer at the Naval College.
âBut wait! That doesnât mean that charges against me can be dropped. And people will not fail to recall that in the course of the evening, since we were discussing forensic science, I defended the proposition that an intelligent man who wished to commit a crime in cold blood might, using all his faculties, outwit a poorly educated police force.
âFrom which they might deduce that I had sought to illustrate my theory by example. Between ourselves, I can
categorically state that if that were the case, the possibility of suspecting me would never have arisen.â
âYour good health,â said Maigret, who was watching the bull-necked brewersâ men come and go.
âTo continue. I postulate that if I did not commit the crime, and yet the crime was nevertheless committed, as everything seems to indicate, by someone in the house, then the whole family is guilty.
âDonât look startled! Examine my plan of the house. And above all, try to understand the psychological considerations, which I am about to develop.
This time, Maigret could not suppress a smile at the professorâs scornful condescension.
âYou have no doubt heard that Madame Popinga, née Van Elst, belongs to the strictest sect in the Reformed Church. In Amsterdam, her father is known as the fiercest of conservatives. And her sister Any, already, at twenty-five, has similar ideas in politics.
âYou only arrived here yesterday, and there are many aspects of Dutch life with which you are not yet familiar. Did you know that a teacher at the Naval College would receive a severe reprimand from his superiors if he were seen entering a café like this one? One of them lost his job, merely because he persisted in subscribing to a newspaper suspected of advanced views.
âI met Popinga only that one evening. But it was enough, especially after having heard what people said about him. A likely lad, you might call him. A rollicking likely lad! With his round cheeks and his bright eyes full of fun â¦
âYou need to understand he had been a sailor. And when
he came back ashore, he had, in a sense, put on the uniform of austerity. But the uniform was bursting at the seams.
âDo you see what I mean? It will make you smile. Because youâre French. A couple of weeks ago, the club he belongs to held one of its regular meetings. Since Dutchmen donât go out to cafés at night, they get together in a hired room, under the pretext
âIâm beginning to think the foreigners are right. A Frenchman is above all someone who cannot resist irony. Well, in this case, monsieur, it is out of place.â
Maigret looked at him, still smiling, and in no way put out of countenance. The other man went on:
âNo, I havenât found the murderer. But I have perhaps
done more. Iâve analysed the situation, Iâve dissected it. I have isolated each element of it â¦Â and now â¦â
âNow â¦?â
âNow, someone like you will no doubt profit from my deductions and wrap up the case.â
He had seated himself. He was determined to talk, in spite of the atmosphere which he himself had made unfriendly. Maigret sat down opposite him and ordered a Bols.
âIâm listening.â
âYou will notice in the first place that I am not even asking you what you have done, or what you think. Iâll start with the first potential suspect: myself. I had, if I may say so, the best strategic position to shoot Popinga, and besides I was seen holding the murder weapon a few moments after the attack.
âIâm not a rich man, and if my name is known throughout the whole world, or almost, it is only by a small number of intellectuals. I am a man of modest means and sometimes living in straitened circumstances. But there was no theft, and in no way could I have hoped to benefit from the death of a lecturer at the Naval College.
âBut wait! That doesnât mean that charges against me can be dropped. And people will not fail to recall that in the course of the evening, since we were discussing forensic science, I defended the proposition that an intelligent man who wished to commit a crime in cold blood might, using all his faculties, outwit a poorly educated police force.
âFrom which they might deduce that I had sought to illustrate my theory by example. Between ourselves, I can
categorically state that if that were the case, the possibility of suspecting me would never have arisen.â
âYour good health,â said Maigret, who was watching the bull-necked brewersâ men come and go.
âTo continue. I postulate that if I did not commit the crime, and yet the crime was nevertheless committed, as everything seems to indicate, by someone in the house, then the whole family is guilty.
âDonât look startled! Examine my plan of the house. And above all, try to understand the psychological considerations, which I am about to develop.
This time, Maigret could not suppress a smile at the professorâs scornful condescension.
âYou have no doubt heard that Madame Popinga, née Van Elst, belongs to the strictest sect in the Reformed Church. In Amsterdam, her father is known as the fiercest of conservatives. And her sister Any, already, at twenty-five, has similar ideas in politics.
âYou only arrived here yesterday, and there are many aspects of Dutch life with which you are not yet familiar. Did you know that a teacher at the Naval College would receive a severe reprimand from his superiors if he were seen entering a café like this one? One of them lost his job, merely because he persisted in subscribing to a newspaper suspected of advanced views.
âI met Popinga only that one evening. But it was enough, especially after having heard what people said about him. A likely lad, you might call him. A rollicking likely lad! With his round cheeks and his bright eyes full of fun â¦
âYou need to understand he had been a sailor. And when
he came back ashore, he had, in a sense, put on the uniform of austerity. But the uniform was bursting at the seams.
âDo you see what I mean? It will make you smile. Because youâre French. A couple of weeks ago, the club he belongs to held one of its regular meetings. Since Dutchmen donât go out to cafés at night, they get together in a hired room, under the pretext
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