A Crime in Holland Read Online Free

briefcase. I was just going to take notes for a book I’m writing when I heard a gunshot, from so close by that it could almost have been fired in my room. I rushed outside. The bathroom door was ajar. I pushed it. The window was wide open. And someone was groaning in the garden, near the bicycle shed.’
    â€˜Was the light on in the bathroom?’
    â€˜No. I leaned out of the window. And my hand touched the butt of a revolver, which I automatically picked up … I thought I saw someone lying on the ground near the shed. I made to go downstairs. And I bumped into Madame Popinga, who was coming out of her room, in shock. We both ran downstairs. We had got as far as the kitchen when we were joined by Any, who was so alarmed that she had come down in nothing but her petticoat. You’ll see what I mean when you meet her.’
    â€˜And Popinga?’
    â€˜Half-dead. He looked up at us with great agonized eyes, clutching at his chest with one hand. At the moment I tried to lift him up, he stiffened. He was dead, a bullet through the heart.’
    â€˜And that’s all you know?’
    â€˜We telephoned the gendarmerie, and the doctor. We called Wienands out, and he came to help us … I sensed a certain awkwardness around me. I’d forgotten that I had been seen holding the revolver. The gendarmes reminded me of this and asked me to explain. Then they requested me politely to remain available for further questioning.’
    â€˜And that was six days ago.’
    â€˜Yes. I’ve been working on the problem, trying to resolve it, because it
is
a problem. See these papers?’
    Maigret tapped out his pipe, without looking at the papers in question.
    â€˜And you haven’t left the hotel?’
    â€˜I could do, but I prefer to avoid any incidents. Popinga was very popular with his pupils and you meet them all the time around town.’
    â€˜And no physical clue has been found.’
    â€˜Ah yes, sorry. Any, who is carrying out her own investigation and hoping to identify the killer too, although she doesn’t go about it methodically, sometimes brings me some more information. You ought to know that the bath in the Popinga bathroom is covered with a wooden lid, which converts it into an ironing board. The day after the murder, they took the lid off and found a shabby seaman’s cap, which had never been seen in the house before. On the ground floor, a police search found the end of a cigar on the dining room carpet, very dark tobacco, Manila I think, such as none of them smoked, Popinga, Wienands or the young pupil. And I never smoke. And yet the dining room had been swept after dinner.’
    â€˜From which you deduce …’
    â€˜Nothing,’ said Jean Duclos. ‘I’ll draw my conclusions in my own good time. I apologize for bringing you all the way here. And they could have picked a policeman who knew the language. You can be useful to me only in the event that they take any measures regarding me, in which case you would have to make an official protest.’
    Maigret stroked his nose, while smiling a truly delicious smile.
    â€˜Are you married, Monsieur Duclos?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜And before this you were not acquainted with the Popingas, or the little sister Any, or any of the other people present?’
    â€˜No, none of them. They knew me, by reputation …’
    â€˜Naturally! Of course!’
    And Maigret picked up the two carefully plotted diagrams, stuffed them in his pocket, touched his hat and went out.
    The police station was modern, well-lit and comfortable. Maigret was expected. The station master had reported his arrival and they were astonished not to have seen him yet.
    He went in as if to his own office, took off his light spring overcoat and placed his hat on a chair.
    The inspector who had been sent from Groningen spoke French slowly and rather pedantically. A tall, blond, clean-cut young man, of