Georges Simenon - Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett

Maigret and The Enigmatic Lett

Georges Simenon

the 1st episode in the Maigret saga
Pietr-le-Letton
translated by daphne woodward
1931

A 3S digital back-up edition 1.0

Contents

PENGUIN BOOKS

Georges Simenon was born at Lige in Belgium in 1903. [NOTE: died in 1989] At sixteen he began work as a journalist on the Gazette de Lige . He has published over 212 novels in his own name, many of which belong to the Inspector Maigret series, and his work has been published in thirty-two countries. He has had a great influence upon French cinema, and more than forty of his novels have been filmed.

Simenons novels are largely psychological. He describes hidden fears, tensions and alliances beneath the surface of lifes ordinary routine which suddenly explode into violence and crime. Andr Gide wrote to him: You are living on a false reputationjust like Baudelaire or Chopin. But nothing is more difficult than making the public go back on a too hasty first impression. You are still the slave of your first successes and the readers idleness would like to put a stop to your triumphs there You are much more important than is commonly supposed; and Franois Mauriac wrote, I am afraid I may not have the courage to descend right to the depths of this nightmare which Simenon describes with such unendurable art.

Simenon has travelled a great deal and once lived on a cutter, making long journeys of exploration round the coasts of Northern Europe. A book of reminiscences, Letter to My Mother , was published in England in 1976. He is married and lives near Lausanne in Switzerland.

NOTE: This Omnibus Edition was split into its three component parts for digital release.

GEORGES SIMENON

MAIGRET MEETS A MILORD

comprised of

MAIGRET MEETS A MILORD

MAIGRET AND THE HUNDRED GIBBETS

MAIGRET AND THE ENIGMATIC LETT

PENGUIN BOOKS

Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books, 625 Madison Avenue, New York, New York10022, U.S.A.

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1B4 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

Maigret Meets a Milord first published under the title Le Charretier de la Providence 1931

Copyright A. Fayard et Cie, 1931

This translation first published in Penguin Books 1963

Translation copyright the Estate of Robert Baldick, 1963

Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets first published under the title Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien 1931 Copyright A. Fayard et Cie, 1931

This translation first published in Penguin Books 1963 Translation copyright Tony White, 1963

Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett first published under the title Pietr-le-Letton 1931

Copyright A. Fayard et Cie, Paris, 1931

This translation first published in Penguin Books 1963

Translation copyright Daphne Woodward, 1963

Published in one volume in Penguin Books 1983 All rights reserved

Made and printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Set in Monotype Garamond

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

Chapter 1
Age About 32, Height 5ft 6 ins

Interpol to Sret, Paris:

Xvzust Cracovie vimontra in ghks triv psot uv Pietr-le-Letton Breme vs tyez btolem.

Superintendent Maigret, of No. 1 Flying Squad, looked up from his desk; he had the impression that the iron stove which stood in the middle of his office, with its thick black pipe sloping up to the ceiling, was not roaring as loudly as it should. He pushed aside the paper he had been reading, rose ponderously to his feet, adjusted the damper and threw in three shovelfuls of coal.

Then, standing with his back to the stove, he filled a pipe, and tugged at his shirt collar; it was a low one, but it felt too tight.

He glanced at his watch; four oclock. His jacket was hanging from a hook on the door.

Slowly he drifted back to his desk, where he read out the message in an undertone, decoding it as he went:

International Criminal Police Commission to Sret Gnrale, Paris: Police Cracow report Pietr the Lett passed through on way to Bremen.

Interpol, the International Criminal Police Commission, at that time had its headquarters in Vienna, from where, broadly speaking, it directed the campaign against gangsterism in Europe, its chief function being to maintain contact between the police forces in the different countries.

Maigret picked up a telegram, also written in polcod the secret international language used by police headquarters all over the world. He read it aloud in clear:

Polizei - Praesidium, Bremen, to Sret, Paris :

Pietr the Lett reported making for Amsterdam and Brussels.

A third telegram, from the Nederlandsche Centrale in Zake Internationale Misdadigers - the Netherlands police headquarters - announced:

Pietr the Lett left for Paris 11 a.m. by North Star express coach 5 compartment G.263.

The final polcod telegram came from Brussels, and said:

Confirm Pietr the Lett passed through Brussels 2 p.m. in North Star compartment as reported by Amsterdam.

On the wall behind Maigrets desk was an enormous map, and he now planted himself in front of this, a tall, burly figure, hands in pockets and pipe clenched between his teeth.

His eyes travelled from the dot that stood for Cracow to the other dot that indicated the port of Bremen , and from there to Amsterdam and Brussels.

Again he looked at his watch. Twenty past four. The North Star , doing a steady 66 miles an hour, would now be somewhere between Saint-Quentin and Compigne.

No stop at the frontier. No slowing down. In coach 5, compartment G 263, Pietr the Lett was no doubt reading or looking out at the view.

Maigret went to a door and opened it, to reveal a cupboard with an enamel basin and tap. He washed his hands, ran a comb through his thick hair which was dark brown, with only a few grey threads at the templesand did his best to straighten a tie he could never persuade to look really neat.

It was November. Dusk was falling. From his office window he could see a stretch of the Seine, the Place Saint Michel, and a floating wash-house, all shrouded in a blue haze through which the gas-lamps twinkled like stars as they lit up one by one.

He opened a drawer and glanced through a cable from the International Identification Bureau at Copenhagen:

Sret, Paris:

Pietr le Letton 32 169 01512 0224 0255 02732 03116 03233 03243 03325 03415 03522 04115 04144 04147 05221 etc.

This time he took the trouble to translate aloud, and even repeated the words several times, like a schoolboy going over a lesson:

Apparent age 32 years. Height 5 ft 6 ins. Nose: bridge straight, base horizontal, jutting out. Ears: large Original Border, crossed lobe, outward anti-tragus, lower fold straight; peculiarityspaces between folds. Long face. Sparse light-blond eyebrows. Lower lip prominent, thick, drooping. Long neck. Eyes: halo around the pupil mid-yellow, periphery of the iris mid-green. Light blond hair.

This was a verbal portrait of Pietr, or Piet, the Lett, and to the Superintendent it conveyed as much as a photograph. It described the mans general appearance: short, slight, youthful, with very fair hair, fair, thin eyebrows, greenish eyes, and a long neck.