Friend of Madame Maigret by Georges Simenon

narrow room facing the street, with keys hanging on a board.
    â€œAnyone there?” he called.
    The smell reminded him of the time when he was just about Lapointe’s age, in the Hotels Section, and used to spend his days going from one boardinghouse to another. It smelled of a mixture of washing and sweat, unmade beds, slop pails and food being warmed up on spirit lamps.
    A slatternly woman with red hair leaned over the bannisters.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    Then, all at once, realizing that it was the police, she snapped crossly:
    â€œI’m coming!”
    She took her time upstairs, moving buckets and brooms; finally she appeared, buttoning her blouse over her protruding bosom. At close range, her hair proved to be almost white at the roots.
    â€œWhat’s the matter? They checked here only yesterday, and I have nothing but quiet tenants. You’re not from the Hotels lot, are you?”
    Without answering he described to her, so far as the taxi-driver’s testimony permitted, the companion of the lady with the white hat.
    â€œDo you know him?”
    â€œI may. I’m not sure. What’s his name?”
    â€œThat’s just what I’d like to know.”
    â€œDo you want to see my book?”
    â€œFirst I want you to tell me whether you have a tenant who looks like him.”
    â€œNobody except Monsieur Levine.”
    â€œWho’s he?”
    â€œI don’t know. A very decent man, anyhow, who paid for a week in advance.”
    â€œIs he still here?”
    â€œNo. He left yesterday.”
    â€œAlone?”
    â€œWith the little boy, of course.”
    â€œAnd the lady?”
    â€œYou mean the nurse?”
    â€œJust a minute. Let’s begin at the beginning so as to save time.”
    â€œThat’ll suit me fine, because I haven’t any to spare. What’s Monsieur Levine done?”
    â€œJust answer my questions, will you? When did he arrive?”
    â€œFour days ago. You can check in my book. I told him I hadn’t got a vacant room, and it was true. He insisted. I asked him how long for, and he told me he’d pay for a week in advance.”
    â€œHow could you accommodate him if you had no room?”
    Maigret knew the answer, but he wanted to make her say it. In this kind of hotel the first-floor rooms are generally reserved for occasional couples coming in for a few minutes or an hour.
    â€œThere are always the ’casuals’ rooms,” she replied, using the traditional term.
    â€œWas the child with him?”
    â€œNot at the time. He went to fetch him and came back with him an hour later. I asked him how he was going to manage with such a young child, and he told me that a nursemaid he knew would take care of him most of the day.”
    â€œDid he show you his passport, his identity card?”
    According to regulations, she ought to have asked for these documents, but she obviously hadn’t complied.
    â€œHe filled out his slip himself. I saw at once that he was a respectable man. Are you going to make trouble for me just for that?”
    â€œNot necessarily. How was the nurse dressed?”
    â€œIn a blue suit.”
    â€œWith a white hat?”
    â€œYes. She would come in the morning to bathe the kid and then take him out.”
    â€œAnd Monsieur Levine?”
    â€œHe would hang around in his room until eleven or twelve o’clock. I think he went back to bed. Then he would go out, and I wouldn’t see him again all day.”
    â€œOr the child?”
    â€œNor him either. Not much before seven o’clock at night. It was she who would bring him back and put him to bed. She would lie down on the bed fully dressed while she waited for Monsieur Levine to come home.”
    â€œWhat time did he come in?”
    â€œNot before one in the morning.”
    â€œWould she leave then?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou don’t know where she lived?”
    â€œNo. I only know that she took a cab