Death Threats

4

"Well? How was the weekend?" The Chief, in the sun, stroked his white goatee and smiled maliciously at a bad-humored Maigret.

"Another time, I'd appreciate it if you'd be kind enough to send someone else for this kind of mission. It's nice to save people, but it would be better if they deserved it! However, such that they are…"

"Who are you talking about?"

"The whole family!"

"Without exception?"

"Well, maybe except for a beautiful young girl who… Still, no one has the right to play all Sunday afternoon at the Temptation of Saint Anthony!^[6] When one has such a body, one should cover it, or at least…"

"The threatening letter?"

"I was sure about that from the very start. Sent by the brother, Oscar, obviously! For a long time he'd been trying to get rid of his elder brother by getting him to go away to the mountains. And it was he who, under pretext of protest against the drugs which this same Émile took, unceasingly brought him medical books. You understand?"

"Hmm…"

"You can't really understand if you don't know the family. In short, Oscar, at fifty and a few years, wanted to live his life, which he couldn't do as long as he remained under the supervision of his brother. He told himself that by frightening him, he would finally get him to move away, which would enable him devote himself to his small vices in the company of Babette, and undoubtedly to marry her.

"It may be very clear for you, but I must say…"

"It's unimportant. Oscar has admitted it. I was sure that he wouldn't push the joke further, that he would never make an attempt on his brother's life. Unfortunately, this kind of joke, like many of its kind, led to tragedy, because it gave ideas to someone. A poor soul, the nephew, raised in this lunatic asylum, excited by cocaine, torn, exalted, angry morning and night…"

"I follow you less and less!"

"I will try to be more precise in my report, but that won't be so easy to write. In short, the young man, Henri, informed of the threat which weighed on his uncle, told himself that he could well put it into execution. Note that in that house, any of them would have done so readily. You know the story of the Mandarin^[7]? If one had given to whomever, Oscar, Babette, Françoise, Éliane, the possibility, by simply pushing a button, of removing Émile…"

"Henri tried to do it by putting a strong dose of cocaine in the capsule which his uncle took at regular times. He didn't have the courage to wait for his agony. The police picked him up in Paris that same night, half dead with fear, since he'd absorbed a massive quantity of drugs and had fallen into a stupor in a sleazy dive in Montmartre."

"And that's it." Maigret wiped his brow, approached the window and breathed, with full lungs, the air of the morning.

"He's been arrested?"

"In the hospital. His uncle didn't file a complaint, frightened of the idea of the publicity resulting from public debates in the Assizes.

"So that…?"

"Nothing! My wife is furious! Émile threw up onto my trousers, which she'll have to send to the cleaners, and she spent a bad Sunday."

He lit his pipe, grumbling between two puffs which went up towards the sun, "Talk about a sympathetic villain! But those people there…"

And the chief, ironic, retorted, "The Criminal Investigation Department doesn't occupy itself only with killers, Maigret. Don't forget the other heading, that under which you will file your report."

"Which is…?"

"Investigations at the request of the families."^[8]

The Chief admittedly was sure not to have heard Maigret's "Damn, then!" for he had already gone out the door.