Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 26, No. 4. Whole No. 143, October 1955

The Little Doctor and the Slipper Fiend by Georges Simenon

Translated by Frances Frenaye

We have given you our own high opinion of Georges Simenon’s work so often that we think the time has come to tell you what others say and feel about the man who has already written more than 350 books. For example, here is an American critic’s shrewd appraisal and comments: John K. Hutchens of the “New York Herald Tribune” wrote: Are we not all agreed that “this astonishing, prolific, many-sided writer is an artist?... with a swift, austere, impersonal style precisely suited to the demands made upon it... They now call his stories simenons, and that’s eminence for you — a writer’s name as a generic term for his work... his observer’s eye for detail, weather, clothes, customs, food, all the revealing ‘little facts,’ as Stendhal called them, is wonderfully true.”

And now let us hear from an anonymous critic on the “London Sunday Times”: “Ordinary readers buy Simenon’s books ‘as they buy their daily bread’ [certainly more true, we would say, in France than in America, or even in England]... in recent years eminent literary men have saluted his incisive style, and the clear-sighted, compassionate humanity which informs his writing.”

And now we bring you one of Simenon’s Little Doctor stories — one never previously published in the United States. You won’t penetrate easily to the real secret in this story — not until the end, or very near it.

For this tale not only reveals Simenon’s individual style, his grasp of telling detail, and his compassion for people, it also demonstrates his flair for plot; indeed, this story of a private investigator who gets “into a dead man’s skin” is one of Simenon’s most ingenious detective puzzles.

He always came at a quarter past 6 — a pot-bellied little man with beads of perspiration on his forehead which he wiped with a colored handkerchief as he made his preliminary round of the shoe-and-slipper section of the department store. It was a big store, near the Opéra, and at this hour a great mass of people surged out onto the sidewalks, while the streets were packed with jerkily advancing cars, ten abreast.

Inside, elevators darted ceaselessly up and down and customers bumped against one another, each one trying to get waited on before closing time. Only this one placid little man, who looked as if he must live off a modest pension of some kind, failed to share the general excitement and seemed unaware that at half-past 6 shopping hours were over. The slipper section was near the C entrance, and when the little man sat down, Gaby the shoe clerk gave a resigned sigh.

“What will it be today?” she asked, trying to maintain the appearance of a polite sales transaction, although it was time to freshen her make-up and prepare to go home rather than try slippers on a customer who was unquestionably a lunatic.

“A soft slipper, something in brown...”

“The same as yesterday, is that it?”

“No, the ones you showed me yesterday had too thick a sole.”

Every day for the past week things had gone on this same way. The customer looked at Gaby with the disarming shyness of a man in love. As she brought over a pile of boxes he pulled off his left shoe.

“How about these?”

“The color’s a bit light... Haven’t you anything darker?”

By now Gaby — and the other girls too — knew that it would continue like this until the very last minute. He would try on a dozen or more pairs of slippers before making a final choice. Then, just as the closing bell rang, he would go over to the cash register, with the box under his arm. Gaby had even thought up a trick to discourage him once and for all. She asked Antoinette, who worked in the adjacent leather-goods section, to come over and say audibly:

“I just saw your fiancé walking by...” And Antoinette had added, out of her own head: “Is he as jealous as ever?”

But the pot-bellied little customer did not bat an eyelash. He remained a model of patience and good nature. And another stratagem, which was considerably more cruel, had the same lack of effect. When Gaby forced his feet, with the aid of a shoehorn, into a pair of slippers far too small for him, he only winced but did not say a word. It seemed as if he would keep coming in for weeks and months, perhaps even for years — to buy a pair of slippers every day just before it was time for the store to close.

There were tears in Gaby’s eyes as she looked at the chair where her admirer always sat, and she said to the Little Doctor:

“It was the day before yesterday... I didn’t know what other slippers to show him... And meanwhile a grouchy woman with a little boy was waiting for me to take care of her. I stooped to pick up some boxes underneath this counter. Without raising my head I took his foot in one hand, while I held a blue slipper in the other. Then suddenly I had a funny feeling. I raised my head and my first thought was that he had fallen asleep, because his chin was resting on his chest. I leaned over and shook him and his full weight fell onto my shoulders. He collapsed like a sack of potatoes... I screamed and people rushed over. The watchman said: ‘Air! Fresh air! Probably it’s his heart! Because people do have heart attacks here every once in a while. But that wasn’t it at all. As they were loosening his tie and collar they saw blood on his shirt and realized that a bullet had gone into his chest... Yes, right here, in this crowded store! And nobody even heard a gun! He must have been dead while I was trying on the slipper... It made me sick, I tell you. I’ve asked to be transferred to another section. Every time I look at that chair...”

When the Little Doctor — Dr. Jean Dollent, to give him his proper name — had arrived in Paris that morning, Inspector Lucas had already made an on-the-spot investigation. He took the Little Doctor first to the toy department on the third floor. This department was located near the rail of the balcony, overlooking the ground-floor department of shoes and slippers.

“The shot was fired from here,” the Inspector explained. “Down there — two floors down — is the chair where the victim was sitting. I’ve questioned the clerks and they remember noticing a young man wandering about among the toys. In fact, one of the clerks asked if he could serve him and the young man answered: ‘I’m waiting for my wife!’ It was about a quarter past 6, and the fellow seemed to be interested in toy weapons. He picked up several ‘Eureka’ pistols... Now, do you see how he did it? He must have had in his pocket, or in a brief case or parcel of some kind, a compressed-air pistol of deadly accuracy, perhaps with a silencer attached. Because no revolver could kill a person at this distance, and a rifle would have been too noticeable. There are pistols, you know, which at 50 yards are quite deadly... And so the murderer handled the toys with an innocent air. Even when he was pretending to aim a gun, no one was surprised, or really paid any attention. The bell that rings to announce closing-time is very powerful and sets off a certain amount of confusion among both clerks and customers.

“No one heard the shot of an air-pistol or one with a silencer... The management of the store is terribly upset and anxious to do all that is humanly possible to catch the culprit. That is why we were asked to recommend a private detective able to conduct an investigation supplementing our own. I gave your name and address, which goes to show that I’m not too jealous of the honors you’ve won... Now go to it, Doctor, and good luck to you!”

The young general manager of the store strode nervously up and down his office, shooting an occasional doubtful glance in the direction of Doctor Dollent. Why in the world didn’t the Little Doctor build up people’s confidence by adopting some mannerism peculiar to himself alone, such as wearing a monocle or smoking cigarettes of an exotic brand? His small stature, tight-fitting clothes, and the youthful way with which he bore his 30-odd years made him seem more like a college student than an experienced crime investigator.

“Look here,” said the manager. “The police think it was a professional job. I only wish it were. But I can’t see why a regular criminal should have it in for a poor fellow who was obviously off his trolley. For my part, I’m afraid the killing was the work of a madman. You know, of course, that big stores, like newspaper offices and public buildings, attract lunatics of all kinds. And if my theory is correct, the madman is bound to shoot again. Such things happen in waves, and no matter how many precautions are taken, there isn’t much that can be done. The newspaper accounts have already hurt our business — yesterday there were hardly any sales in the slipper department or its vicinity. A crowd of sensation-seekers were constantly milling about, but without ever approaching too closely... So go ahead with your investigation, Doctor. I don’t know your methods, and I’m told you haven’t any. But here’s a card authorizing you to go anywhere in the store and interview all our employees... But perhaps I should first introduce you to Alice of our jewelry department. She made a statement to me last night that I wish her to repeat in your presence. Of course, I don’t put much stock in what women say. I know how their imaginations usually run away with them...”

The manager sent for Alice, who proved to be a tall, pale girl with eyes and manner that suggested, just as the manager had said, that she was prey to a vivid imagination. Obviously she read trashy novels and doted on moving-picture stars.

“Will you repeat to this gentleman...?”

The girl was noticeably disturbed and spoke with nervous volubility.

“Well, as I told... well, I saw the picture in the paper, because on the actual day of the crime I was off duty. As soon as I saw the picture I recognized him. Before he began giving Gaby trouble, I was the one he...”

“What do you mean?” asked the little Doctor. “Did he make propositions to you?”

“No — not that. But for several days — I might be able to look up the exact number — he came to my department...”

“At a quarter past 6?”

“Between 5 and 6... Of course, customers often come just to see us girls — we catch on to that fast enough. First of all, they make a small purchase. Well, he had a watch-chain with him and said he was looking for a snap-hook. I showed him a dozen or more and finally he bought one. He came back the next day and said the hook had broken, through his own fault. I didn’t swallow that, because I knew the hook wouldn’t break in one day. Well, he talked around and about it for some time and finally bought another...”

“And did he come back the next day at the same time?”

“Yes, it must have been for two whole weeks that he came every afternoon to buy a snap-hook.”

“Didn’t it ever occur to you that he might be a thief?”

“Yes, it did. My first thought was that he might be a shoplifter. I kept my eye on him and asked a store detective to do the same while I was busy looking for what he wanted.”

“And then?” prodded Dollent.

“That’s all,” and Alice sighed with relief.

“Tell me one thing more,” the Little Doctor persisted. “Where is your department located?”

“Oh, yes, it’s on the second floor — just above slippers and just below toys. That fact struck me too, when I read about it in the paper. I asked to see the manager...”

A few seconds later, after Alice had left, the manager said to the Little Doctor:

“I’m sceptical, as I told you. But I gave the police the gist of her statement and asked them to check on her. It seems that for several weeks now, valuable pieces have been disappearing from her department...”

“Is that unusual?”

“Oh, we expect a certain number of thefts, and the average is always pretty much the same, except during the holidays when thieves make a killing... But the quantity and value of what’s been missing lately from the jewelry department are particularly high...”

It was almost terrifying to come out of the manager’s office and lean over the great well of the store, which was as big as a ship and buzzing with the voices of the crowd below. How in the world was the Little Doctor to begin? He shrugged his shoulders, stepped into an elevator, and a minute later was walking along the Chaussée-d’Antin. There, with the same rapidity as if he were taking aspirin, he swallowed two glasses of brandy. Then he proceeded to the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, number 67. He was just about to knock at the concierge’s window when he saw Police Inspector Lucas interviewing her inside.

For the dead man had now been identified. He was Justin Galmet, 48 years old, no known profession, domiciled for the last twenty years at the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, number 67.

“Do you want to question her too?” suggested Inspector Lucas, opening the door. “Otherwise, you can go up with me to Galmet’s apartment.”

The house was typical of middle-class Paris, or rather of the Montmartre section. It was an old building, whose dark, dingy halls were filled with kitchen odors and the shrill sound of children’s voices and blaring radios. The apartment was on the fifth floor, facing the courtyard. Its three rooms were furnished in heavy provincial style; a canary cage hung in the middle of the window and there was a pot of geraniums on either side.

“Nobody will disturb us,” said the Inspector. “The concierge tells me that Justin Galmet never had any visitors. He was an old bachelor, with fussy ways. She claims that she came up once a week to give the place what she calls a thorough cleaning, but I imagine she actually did very little. Most of the time Galmet made his own bed and cooked his own breakfast and lunch. He went out around 2 o’clock in the afternoon and came back at 9, usually with his arms full of parcels. Then he dined at a little restaurant on the corner of the Rue Lepic. I’ve already called the place and found that he was a familiar figure there. He had a table reserved near the window and treated himself to delicacies of various kinds. He ate his dinner slowly, while reading the evening papers, wound up with a cup of coffee and a liqueur, and then went quietly home... But I have something much more startling to tell you...”

Here Inspector Lucas paused to weigh the effect of his words upon the Little Doctor.

“I found Justin Galmet’s name in our files,” Lucas continued, “not as a criminal but as a member of the Force. He joined up 25 years ago and served for four years before resigning. Someone had left him some money, he stated, and his intention was to live on the income from it. I turned up some fellows who used to know him and asked them about him. They described him as a lonely, taciturn sort. He was inclined to be lazy and used to sit for hours over a bottle of beer. And even then he had developed a taste for good food. A man fated to be a bachelor... Now, shall we look over the premises together?”

Galmet’s apartment was not exactly clean, but neither was it as disorderly as a man living alone might have left it. Dollent began by giving food and drink to the canary. The open window afforded the traditional view of the rooftops of Paris, gleaming in the sun. Lucas had opened a big old wardrobe and now he called out to his companion:

“Look here! This is full of parcels that haven’t even been untied. From different stores... Do you want to help me cut the strings?”

The two men proceeded to do the unpacking. They found not only many pairs of slippers, but a number of other heterogeneous objects as well: earthenware plates, cuts of rayon material, combs, toothbrushes, bottles of hair tonic, and a collection of pipes, although the concierge had said that Galmet was not a smoker. In most cases, the price tags were still attached.

“What do you make of it, Doctor?” the Inspector asked.

“I don’t think he was a shoplifter. None of these things has sufficient value to justify theft. Nor was he a kleptomaniac — you’ve noticed they were all carefully wrapped and many of them had a cashier’s check tucked under the string.”

“Do you think Galmet had an abnormal passion for shopgirls and made these purchases simply to have an excuse for talking to them? In the long run, that would involve his spending a lot of money. The slippers alone cost him over a thousand francs a day. And he couldn’t afford to be that extravagant... Shall I give you my honest opinion?”

Inspector Lucas paused, and when Dollent nodded the Inspector went on: “Don’t-be too cocky over what I am going to say. I know your methods by now and I know under what circumstances each of us works better. Well, to be frank this is your kind of case. There’s something... well, pathological about it. Galmet’s not the type we’re accustomed to deal with. And his murderer quite terrifies me with his cold-blooded assurance...”

Instead of thanking Lucas for the compliment, the Little Doctor gave a deep sigh.

“You’re not too keen about the case either?” queried the Inspector.

“Not until I have something to go on — some clue, some sign... I can’t for the life of me fathom...”

“If there’s anything I can do...”

“Yes, there’s one thing. I’d like you to find out from the various stores where he bought these things whether he always came back for several days in succession and whether he went to the same clerk every time.”

It was a good thing that the Little Doctor didn’t mind making a fool of himself. He wasn’t bothered by the fact that the clerks at the neighboring counters, who must have been warned of his little game, neglected their customers and looked over at him, nudging one another, some of them stifling a giggle at his expense.

He had eaten a good lunch, topped by coffee and liqueur, and had ordered a couple of cocktails in anticipation of the next meal. What did the case add up to? A man was dead, and nobody knew a thing about him. Indeed a duller and yet more mysterious individual would have been hard to imagine. Galmet had not a single friend or relation, and appeared to have lived in complete solitude. And yet it was to someone’s interest that he should die. The only established fact — the only leg he could stand on, as the Little Doctor put it to himself — was that Justin Galmet had gone to quite a few stores, each for a certain number of days in succession, and had bought the same articles from the same clerk every day, articles for which he had no use and simply stuffed into his wardrobe.

It was a quarter past 6, and Dollent was sitting with his left shoe off in the very chair in which Galmet had died. He said to Gaby:

“Repeat exactly the same motions you went through with the man who was killed.”

“You mean I am to try to fit you with a pair of slippers?” she asked, moving clumsily because of her reawakened fear.

“Just so — with the same motions and even the same rhythm.”

“Should I try to hurt you, too?” she said with a feeble smile.

The Little Doctor surveyed the scene. Glancing upward, he saw part of the jewelry department on the second floor. He recognized Alice, who looked down at him from time to time over the railing. Just above her were the toys, among them a miniature soldier’s outfit with two pistols. These were not dangerous weapons, however, because they only shot toy arrows. Because of his angle of vision he could see no more of the upper floors than the gilded railings running around them.

“Oh! I hear music,” he observed, at the same time screwing his face into a grimace because the slipper Gaby was trying on was too small. “Is that a regular feature?”

“Don’t speak to me about it! It’s the hardest thing in the world to get used to, and it goes on all day long. When it’s quiet music, I don’t mind so much, but at this hour they put on two-steps and marches in order to quicken the customers’ pace and speed them on their way. And the jazz!... Shall I keep trying on the slippers?”

The Little Doctor’s eyes ran over the main floor. Just in front of him there was a bargain counter, where every week a different item was on display. To his left was a cashier’s cage, marked “No. 89” and, just behind that, a gilded door opening onto the crowded sidewalk.

“Why is this part of the shop more crowded than...?” he started to ask, suddenly guessing the answer when he noticed a subway entrance just outside.

“I’ve tried on six pairs...” Gaby was saying.

“And how many did you try on him?”

“Sometimes as many as seven. Once nine, as I remember.”

“What made the difference?”

“I don’t know.”

It certainly wasn’t the slippers, for Justin Galmet had never even taken them out of the boxes, much less worn them. A sudden thought caused the Little Doctor to smile. He had just lowered his eyes. Could it be that?... No! That wasn’t sufficient reason for killing a man. It was true, however, that as Gaby leaned over to try on the slippers, the opening of her dress slipped down, affording a view of her breasts... After all, Galmet had gone previously to the jewelry department and Alice didn’t have to lean over to show him her wares. And in other shops Galmet had made entirely different purchases — innocuous ones.

“You’ll have to make up your mind,” Gaby was repeating. “The closing bell’s about to ring.”

Sure enough, a loud clang filled the spacious store with its vibrations. Customers made for the doors, clerks bustled about, and floorwalkers, in their black jackets and boutonnieres, darted around like sheep dogs, saying: “Closing time, ladies and gentlemen — time to go home!”

At the cashier’s cage, last-minute purchases were being rung up. The cashier put down a big yellow envelope in order to rake in a handful of francs.

“Will you take these, then?” Gaby was asking.

“Those or any others...”

The Little Doctor insisted in seeing the experiment through. If only he could get himself into the dead man’s shin — and discover what he had been looking at from this particular vantage point on the preceding days! That was the crucial question.

Meanwhile, Gaby was slipping on his left shoe.

“This way,” she said.

He was about to ask her why she was leading him in a direction opposite to that of the exit when he saw the reason for himself. The cashier of “No. 89” was emerging from her cage with a yellow envelope in her hand, and above the cage itself hung a sign saying Closed.

“Come with me,” said Gaby. “Only the central cash register is still open.”

The Little Doctor, taking in every detail of the scene around him, almost lost track of the young woman who was leading him against the tidal wave of outgoing customers.

“Thirteen hundred and sixty francs,” said the central cashier.

Turning around to look over his shoulder, the Little Doctor thought he saw the cashier from “No. 89” about to enter an elevator with the yellow envelope still in her hand. Gaby put a parcel into his hand and looked at him anxiously, as if wondering whether he had discovered some clue. Dollent shrugged his shoulders and dug into his pocket for the sixty francs in small change.

“Will you be back tomorrow?” Gaby asked him curiously.

“Perhaps... Yes, I think I will.”

Once outside, the Little Doctor was so at a loss what, to do with the slippers that he took advantage of the swirling crowd to drop them on the sidewalk...

“Hello,” said a voice on the telephone shortly after he had reached his hotel. “Inspector Lucas speaking. We’ve traced Galmet’s bank account to the branch of the Credit Lyonnais nearest to the place where he was living. He seems to have deposited about ten thousand francs a week, except for a dozen or so deposits of as much as 50,000. The deposits have been spread out over the last twenty years... Hello... Are you there?”

“Yes, go on.”

“But in the last three months his weekly deposits were considerably larger than usual. 350,000 francs last week; 150,000 the week before; 100,000 the week before that. And in the two preceding months around 50,000 francs every week...”

“Well, well — that adds up to quite a pile!”

“Yes, and the way he accumulated it is quite irregular. His net assets after the last twenty years are some 3,000,000 francs, because of course he had also made withdrawals. Then he added about 1,500,000 francs in the last three months alone. And that’s not the whole story. An individual has just come to us and said that he’s a real estate agent. About ten days ago Justin Galmet went to his office on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin and told him that he was looking for a little house in the country, preferably on the Loire River. They had got to the point of negotiating for the purchase of a house worth between two and three million francs, in the vicinity of Cléry. In fact the deed was to be drawn up next week.”

“Did Galmet go to look the place over?”

“Yes, last Tuesday. He went in a taxi, which must have set him back quite a bit of money, in the company of a pretty young woman, who obviously looked upon this as her future home.”

“And you’re holding out on her name in order to give me a surprise...”

“How did you guess it?”

“Never mind, out with it! Gaby?...”

“You’re very close. But it’s someone even more unexpected. And I know it for certain. While you were walking off with your parcel a short time ago, I waited at the exployees’ exit with my real estate agent. He identified her without any trouble, especially since he had spotted from a distance her mustard-color coat...”

“Well then...”

“Alice! The girl from the jewelry department. Look here, Doctor, I don’t want to hurt your feelings or disappoint you. But, contrary to what I told you earlier in the day, I’m beginning to believe that this case is up our alley after all. Do you follow what I mean? It looks like the simple matter of a policeman turned thief... Hello... Why don’t you say something? Have I rubbed you the wrong way?”

“Me?”

“Then, for heaven’s sake, say something! I’m still at my office. Will you come have a drink with me before going to bed?”

“No, thanks.”

“Sure you’re not angry?”

“Sure!”

Now Lucas was the one who had nothing to say. Warm-hearted fellow that he was, he couldn’t bear to offend the Little Doctor.

“You’ll beat me to it another time,” the Inspector went on. “Meanwhile, do you want to have some fun? I’ve summoned this girl, Alice, to my office for tomorrow morning. I don’t know whether we’ll have to get tough with her, but it may prove an interesting session.”

“Good night.”

“Will you come tomorrow morning?”

“Perhaps. Good night. Right now I’m terribly sleepy.”

And this was quite true, for as usual, when he was called in on an investigation, the Little Doctor had tucked away more drinks than were good for him.

It was by sheer chance that the Little Doctor boarded the same subway car as Alice. It was the rush hour and the car was so crowded that he could study her unobserved.

“I wonder what a girl like her was thinking about when she tried to lie her way out of trouble and then suddenly finds herself called up before the police,” he said to himself.

Alice’s thoughts couldn’t have been any too gay. Unlike the lively Gaby, she had a somewhat melancholy disposition. She was just as pretty as the next girl, but she was the kind who takes life seriously. This morning her eyes were red, and since she did take things so hard it must have been because she had cried a good part of the night. Her make-up was carelessly smudged and her hair in some disorder. She lived in a furnished room, near the Rue Lamarck, and the Little Doctor wondered whether she had even bothered to stop somewhere for a roll and a cup of coffee on the way.

“But I’m not going to worry my head about her,” he mumbled to himself as he left the subway at the Pont-Neuf station.

It was a magnificent day, with the sunlight bubbling like champagne as it dispelled the haze rising up from the Seine. Alice walked quickly, without turning around. She hesitated for a moment before Police Headquarters, and then finally walked by the officer on guard and up the dusty steps. When the Little Doctor saw her again, it was through the windows of the waiting-room. He went straight to Inspector Lucas’s office.

“Look here,” he said. “You said something about getting tough... Don’t be too hard on the girl. She seems to be in a bad state already.”

“Show her in,” Lucas said gruffly to one of his subordinates.

The Inspector was in a very good humor. Spring was pouring through his windows and he was wearing an unusually bright polka-dot tie. If he was trying to be brutal, it was with a twinkle in his eye.

“Sit down, Mademoiselle. I must tell you from the start that this is a very serious matter. You may be in real trouble.”

At once her eyes filled with tears, and she dabbed at them with a soggy handkerchief.

“Yesterday, you didn’t tell us all you know. And you also gave false testimony, which falls under Article... under some article of the law.”

“But I thought...”

“What did you think?”

“I thought no one would ever find out about our... relationship. I’ve been so upset by all that has happened...”

“How long had you known Justin Galmet?”

“For about three weeks.”

“And you became his mistress so quickly?”

“Oh, no, sir! I can swear on the heads of my little brothers...”

“Whose heads did you say?”

“The heads of my little brothers. I’m all alone in the world with the two of them. One of them is at school and the other in an orphanage...”

“But I fail to see the connection between them and Justin Galmet.”

“I’ll explain. If it had been for myself alone, I’d never have paid any attention to him. He was too old for me and not my kind...”

“Excuse me. Let’s begin at the beginning... You first met him in the store?”

“Yes, in my own department. As I told you before, he came every day to buy a snap-hook for his watch-chain. He was very proper, or else I’d never have listened to him. I’m not sure now, but then he seemed to me a perfectly respectable person... On the third or fourth day he said timidly, ‘Mademoiselle, are your affections engaged?’ I told him that the responsibility of my two little brothers would probably never allow me to marry.”

The Little Doctor noticed, that the Inspector had fallen into a kindly manner and barely raised his voice to ask:

“So the third or fourth time you saw him, this total stranger was making propositions, is that it?”

“That’s hard to say... He wasn’t like the rest. He was very gentle and he told me that he’d always been very much alone.”

“Did he tell you all this while you were showing him snap-hooks?”

“No, he asked me to have lunch with him at a little place on the Chaussée d’Antin. He told me that his life was about to take a new turn, that he was going to inherit some money...”

The Little Doctor and the Inspector exchanged looks. Justin Galmet seemed to have had inheritances on the brain. Hadn’t he said the same thing when he left the police force?

“He wanted to settle down in the country, preferably on the Loire, and he asked whether, if he found a suitable house, I’d marry him. Then he said that my little brothers could live with us and he’d give them a good education.”

Alice was crying audibly now, but it was hard to tell whether it was because of fear or sorrow.

“That’s the kind of a man he was,” she went on. “I asked for a day off to go see the house at Cléry, and all the way out he behaved quite properly. ‘A few days from now,’ he told me, ‘there’ll be nothing to keep me in Paris. We can apply for a marriage license’...”

“Just one thing, Mademoiselle,” said the Inspector. “Weren’t you surprised when your new fiancé stopped coming to your department and began directing his attentions to Gaby and her slippers?”

“Yes, on the first day, because he hadn’t given me any warning... But he swore that he wasn’t really interested in her at all and begged me to trust him. As far as that goes, I could watch the two of them from above.”

“And so you thought it was perfectly natural behavior?”

“He’d never spoken to me of his profession, but I imagined he was a...”

“A what?”

“A detective. We’re accustomed to seeing them about the store. When I learned of his death, my first thought was for my little brothers. I’d already told them we were going to live in the country.”

Did Inspector Lucas really need to blow his nose? In any case he did so.

“Are you sure that this time you have told us the whole truth?”

“I believe so. That’s all I remember.”

“Didn’t your fiancé ever say anything else that revealed his character to you?”

“He was always appealing and quite proper,” she repeated. “In spite of the difference in our ages I felt sure he wouldn’t make me unhappy.”

The Little Doctor said to himself that in another minute she’d harp again on her little brothers. But at this point Lucas cut her short.

“You can go now, Mademoiselle,” he told her. “If I need to see you again, I’ll send for you.”

“And I won’t get into trouble?”

She could hardly believe that it was over, that she was free to leave the building into which she had entered so fearfully.

“I don’t know how to thank you, Inspector. If you only realized...”

“Very well. Goodbye.”

He practically pushed her out the door, and when he came back and shut it behind him, his face betrayed involuntary emotion.

“Well, I wasn’t too much of a brute, was I?” he asked the Little Doctor.

“I was just thinking how different events appear from different points of view,” the Little Doctor answered. “It’s a little bit the way it is in the theater. On one side you have the audience, who believe in the action played out before them, and on the other the actors and stage-hands, who are readying costumes and scenery. To this girl, for instance, Justin Galmet’s death has all sorts of sentimental meanings; to us it’s a mystery, a problem to be solved... How do you size the fellow up in the light of what we’ve just heard?”

Lucas merely shrugged his shoulders. The day before, Justin Galmet had been one more of the strange characters that people every big city. Now there was something positively touching about him. Had he really meant to marry the virtuous Alice and take her little brothers to live with him in the country? And if so, why had a bullet wiped out his plan on the very eve of its accomplishment? For he had said: “A few days from now there’ll be nothing to keep me in Paris...” Days, he had specified, not weeks, after all the years that he had lived there. “‘To keep me in Paris,’ ” the Little Doctor murmured over and over to himself, as if to wring all possible significance out of these words. That was it! There weren’t ten questions to be answered, or even two or three; there was only one, so obvious as to seem stupid. What was keeping him in Paris for a few more days? Once the answer to this was found, the rest would reveal itself automatically.

“Where are you going?” asked Inspector Lucas, lighting his pipe and sitting down at his desk.

“I’m going to have a drink... Inspector, do you know why there are so many drunkards?”

“Hm... No... I suppose...”

“Your supposition is probably incorrect. It’s because the only cure for a hangover is a hair of the dog that bit you!”

The Little Doctor was whistling to himself as he went out onto the street. He seemed to be a man breathing in the joy of life through every pore, and no one could have guessed that a question as obsessive as a horsefly buzzing before a storm was preying upon him. What could have kept the fellow in Paris a few days more? Abruptly he quickened his pace and went straight to the department store, where Gaby and Alice were presiding, as usual, over their respective sections.

“I’m sorry to bother you again, Mademoiselle,” he said to Alice. “I’m perfectly proper, too. That’s why I’m asking you to lunch with me in a little place on the Chaussée d’Antin. When are you free?”

“At half-past 12.”

“Then I’ll be waiting for you at the subway entrance.”

Dollent had chosen an ordinary little restaurant, and dozens of shop clerks were lunching around them. Alice was not altogether at ease, but the gaiety of her companion, who had downed three drinks before she came, occasionally caused her to smile.

“Don’t hesitate to take all the ‘extras,’ Mademoiselle. The check goes on my expense account, I assure you.”

“Have whatever you like best,” he continued. “What would you say to some lobster?”

“Lobster makes me break out with a rash,” she answered ingenuously.

Someone at the next table was eating her favorite dish, and the smell of it proved irresistible.

“Tripe? Good! I like it myself. Waiter, two orders of tripe.”

There are days when the air is washed clean, when the city breaks out into smiling color, when everything is good and beautiful. There in the cheerful, little restaurant it seemed impossible that someone should have gone to the toy department with a pistol which unfortunately was no toy and shot a poor fellow having a pair of slippers tried on...

“Take it easy, Mademoiselle. I’m only asking you to think things over and see if you can remember certain details, which may not have struck you as important at the time... For instance, when was the last time Justin Galmet came to your department?”

The name obviously depressed her and he was half sorry to spoil her enjoyment of a good lunch.

“It was a Saturday,” she said thoughtfully. “I remember it quite well, because that’s always a particularly busy day and we’re dead on our feet by the end of it.”

“A Saturday, then... Did Galmet sit down?”

“In my department that’s very rare. Occasionally, when a customer looks over a number of items. But he never sat down, to my recollection.”

“So from where he stood, he could see the floor below?”

“Yes, he could look down on the slipper department, the bargain counter, the cashier at ‘No. 89’ and the doors leading out to the street. The same things I see myself every day.”

“Now, don’t answer my next question too quickly. On that last day, didn’t you notice a motion or look of surprise, as if he had suddenly seen a familiar face in the crowd?”

“That I don’t know,” she said at last. “But there’s one thing — he didn’t buy a snap-hook that day.”

“Ah! You didn’t tell us! In other words, he suddenly went away...”

“Yes, he went downstairs.”

“And nothing else struck you as out of the ordinary?”

He seemed to be hypnotizing her into a remembrance of what had happened. She said reflectively, “I had a lot of customers. For a quarter of an hour or so, I forgot about him. Then, as I was taking someone over to the cashier, I glanced downstairs and saw, to my surprise, that he hadn’t yet left the store.”

“Where was he, exactly?”

“He was standing not far from Gaby.”

“Is that all?”

“I was very busy that day, and on account of the recent thefts, I had to keep an eye-on my own department. But I’m practically positive that I caught a glimpse of him again some time later. I shouldn’t like you to go by what I can tell you... When you’re looking down at a crowd of jostling people, you can’t be too sure. But I thought I saw him talking to another man.”

“Can you describe the other man?”

“No, except that he had on a gray hat... After that I didn’t see Justin Galmet again until the following Monday, when he went to Gaby’s department. He was waiting for me Tuesday, after work, but I didn’t want to speak to him. It was then that he told me not to worry about what he was doing and promised he’d explain later. I finally gave in, and we came to have a bite in this same place. Yes, just at this table, to the left of the door. Two days later he took me to see the house. He was very happy, and anxious to move into it... What’s the matter?”

The Little Doctor had turned so serious and was staring at her with such a frown that she wondered what in the world he had got out of her story.

“What day of the week is this?” he asked brusquely.

“Saturday...”

He started, and looked at the dishes before them as if he were anxious to see them taken away.

“Will you have some dessert?” he asked, and since she did not dare answer yes, he called for the check. Then without bothering to take her back to the store he jumped into a taxi.

“Quai des Orfèvres... Police Headquarters... Yes, driver, and hurry!”

“Are you back so soon?” asked the Inspector, looking like a statue beside the jumping-jack Little Doctor.

“Yes, so soon... First of all, give me some figures on the thefts in the big stores.”

“That’s easy enough. They keep very accurate statistics — accurate and terrifying. One place on the Left Bank calculates its loss by theft at nearly twenty million francs a year. That’s why all such stores employ a small army of Private detectives.”

“Are the thieves specialists?”

“Yes and no. First of all there are the shoplifters — women and girls who can’t afford to buy what they want and just take it. Yard goods are what they are mostly after. Then come the big battalions of semi-pros — women, too, because they have all sorts of ways of concealing their plunder. They carry shopping bags or have hiding places in their clothes. There was one, I remember, who pretended to be pregnant, and was stuffing things into a sort of kangaroo pouch under her dress. They usually work in pairs, so that one can distract the clerk while the other is stealing. We know a lot of these women but it’s difficult to catch them red-handed. They can smell out both the store detectives and our own men, and make their getaway so fast that we can’t stop them without raising a terrible rumpus. And that’s the last thing the stores want...”

“Isn’t there any bigger game?”

“Oh, yes,” said Lucas with a slightly bored air. “Certain jobs are too daring and clever to have been pulled off by women. But we’ve never laid our hands on any rings...”

“Then there are organized rings?”

“I really don’t know. I’d like to say yes, but we haven’t the proof.”

“And have there been many big jobs in the last few months?”

“Just the normal number, I imagine, that is in the big stores...”

He toyed with a paper-knife while the Little Doctor remained tactfully silent. After a pause Lucas rewarded his patience with a sigh.

“Other kinds of robbery have been on the increase,” the Inspector admitted. “In specialty and jewelry shops, for instance. A customer sweeps up a handful of jewels and dashes out to a waiting car. You’ve read about it in the papers. Almost impossible to carry off, you might say, and yet it’s done... There’s psychology in it, an element of surprise. The shopkeepers may be serving other customers at the same time — accomplices in the crime, perhaps — and it takes a minute or two for him to recover his presence of mind and turn in the alarm. Outside, it’s the same thing. The streets are full of traffic, the getaway car moves swiftly away and before anyone realizes it’s gone, leaving confusion behind it... What makes you smile?”

“Did I smile?” said the Little Doctor ingenuously.

“It seems to amuse you.”

“Why not? By the way, how many men could you let me have this evening? Men who aren’t too well-known, who can pass unnoticed in a crowd.”

“It depends on what you want to do with them.”

“Perhaps nothing at all, perhaps quite a lot. It all depends on whether my logic holds together. If it’s without a flaw, then... No, I’ll tell you later. If it doesn’t come off, I don’t want to be a jackass... How many men can you spare?”

“Half a dozen?”

“That’s not enough. I need at least twice that many. And a fast car, with no indications that it belongs to the police.”

“Do you realize that I can’t authorize an operation of this importance without consulting the higher-ups?”

“Very well,” said Dollent, imperturbably, “go ahead and consult them.”

“It’s only 6 o’clock, Inspector; we have plenty of time.”

“But if something’s going to happen, you can’t be too sure.”

“If anything happens, it will be at exactly half-past 6. Have another glass of beer.”

The two men were sitting at an outdoor café table, just across from the department store. A police car was parked, in defiance of all rules and regulations, in front of the nearby subway entrance. The Little Doctor had made all the arrangements, not on the spot, where he might have been noticed, but in the Inspector’s office, where he had drawn up a plan as thorough as that of a major military engagement, in which every man had a definite part to play.

“You, redhead: at exactly quarter past 6 you are to go to the slipper department and try on one pair of slippers after another until 6:30, when you will have your eye on cashier ‘No. 89’. And you there: you’ll treat yourself to a new wallet... Don’t worry, Lucas, it’s all on the expense account... You must be there when the bell rings, and you’ll have your eye on...”

And the Little Doctor put X marks on the plan of the store.

“Three men near the door, but they mustn’t close in until half-past. No use spreading the news that we’ve set a trap. And three others at the subway entrance.”

Dollent had carried out plenty of investigations, but this was the first time he had ever deployed such a large number of plainclothesmen. Inspector Lucas looked at him with a mildly dubious air.

“Is that all?” he asked somewhat ironically.

“No, I’d like to have one man in the toy department — just as a safety measure. I don’t want to come to the same end as Justin Galmet.”

Now, at the café table, the Little Doctor, watch in hand, dropped tantalizing hints to the Inspector as they passed the time away.

“If Galmet had been a regular department-store thief, do you think one of his accomplices would have murdered him? Don’t answer me too quickly... It doesn’t look as if he were really a big-time professional, in view of the amount of money he had in the bank. And only a petty thief would risk arrest for gains of a few thousand francs a week... But, you say, in the course of these last months... No, Inspector...”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“But I know what you were thinking! Four and a half million francs don’t come to much after twenty years of thieving, and this insignificant little man doesn’t seem the sort to inspire such a cleverly planned crime. There’s the basis of the whole thing, the leg to stand on, that I always search for from the start. I made a mistake in pinning my attention on Galmet. The murderer is the real starting point! And the fellow that thought up the shooting from the toy department is nobody’s fool. I could swear that Galmet saw him from above, while he was talking with Alice. He rushed downstairs. Alice isn’t sure that the two actually spoke, and I feel sure that if they did, it was for only a few seconds. Every day after that, Galmet came at quarter past 6 to the slipper department... Doesn’t that give you a clue?”

But Lucas merely mumbled: “It’s quarter past 6 now.”

“One more glass of beer, and we’ll be off.”

The Little Doctor drained his glass, crossed the street, and went into the store by a side entrance. With Lucas beside him he made his way to the jewelry department on the second floor. Alice looked up anxiously from her customers, but the Little Doctor made a gesture of reassurance.

“There’s one man we can’t count on to move fast, and that’s your redhead,” he observed to the Inspector. “Because he has one shoe off, just like Justin Galmet... Now, tell me this: If you planned to rob a bank or office employee, what day of the month would you choose to do it?”

His questions were almost unbearably irritating, but perhaps this was only his way of containing his impatience.

“What day? What do you mean?”

“Just what I say. What day of the month would you pick out if you wanted to hold up a bank employee? January 4th, for instance?”

“I don’t see...”

“Never mind. January 4th would be a very bad choice, because you’d find little on him. He’d just have paid his rent and the Christmas holidays would be only a few days behind. No, the time to rob a white-collar man is directly after pay-day... Don’t you notice anything around you?...”

Lucas was too annoyed to reply, and the Little Doctor continued to soliloquize:

“The crowd is twice as large as yesterday. It’s a crowd of real buyers, and the cash registers are filling up with money.”

The Inspector pricked up his ears.

“Do you by any chance mean...?”

But his question was interrupted by the bell, which clanged through the whole store, while the piped music struck up a march in order to speed the customers out.

“You’ll see,” said the Little Doctor. “If something happens it will be very quick. Don’t lean over too far, or you’ll make yourself conspicuous.”

He himself knew exactly what to watch for. The cashier at “No. 89” sealed a big envelope and came out of her cage. The crowd was flowing like a stream of lava among the counters and she had to fight her way through it in order to reach the elevator. Suddenly she cried out, and at the very same moment the Little Doctor detected a pearl-gray hat beside her. What happened next had the appearance of chaos. A woman screamed, and another one, whose child had been knocked over, screamed even louder. Some people, mindful perhaps of the recent murder, stampeded for the doors, while the redhead detective rushed forward, minus his left shoe.

“We needn’t bother to hurry down,” said the Little Doctor, unable to contain his joy. “We’d only get there too late. If your men do their duty...”

The gray hat had disappeared, and the crowd pouring out of the store mingled with the crowd on the sidewalk.

The man with the gray hat was in Inspector Lucas’ office, with his face scratched and his collar torn, looking somewhat the worse for wear. He had been nabbed, after a struggle, just as he was slipping into a car parked right in front of the police car itself. But the envelope wasn’t on him, and it was not found anywhere along the path he had taken. Who knows how many accomplices had passed it through their hands along the way? He had planned a masterly job and even now he did not lose countenance, although he could not help returning the Little Doctor’s penetrating stare.

“Unless I’m mistaken, Inspector, this is the leader of the ring of which you told me.”

“Go ahead and see if you can pin anything on me!” said the prisoner. “The cashier can’t possibly say that I took the envelope from her. In a crowd like that, it might have been anyone.” And there was some reason for his boasting.

“Do you know what particularly impressed me, Inspector?” said the Little Doctor. “The fact that the place where Justin Galmet was sitting when he met his death was a strategic position. First, cashier’s cage ‘No. 89’ is the only one anywhere near a door; second, this door is the one most frequently used, because it is the nearest to the subway entrance. Now it was on a Saturday that Galmet came hastily down from the jewelry department. What could he have seen below? This man in the gray hat! And he knew that the presence of this man meant something was cooking!”

The Little Doctor was thirsty but he had to soothe his taut nerves with no more than a cigarette.

“When he was on the Force, I’m sure Galmet dealt with thefts of this kind. That’s probably what lay behind his resignation. He figured that if every thief gave him a 10 or 20 per cent rake-off... Do you see now? He knew their faces, and he could live off their work instead of turning them in! Not a very pretty idea, but a clever one. He lived quietly, keeping an eye on his chickens and waiting for them to hatch. While he was making small purchases in the stores, his practiced eye spotted the petty operators. That’s how he managed to lead a typical middle-class existence and put 10,000 francs in the bank every week. Until one day he fell on bigger game...”

The man in the gray hat looked at the Little Doctor with what Lucas had to grudgingly admit was admiration.

“Don’t tell me you’re a copper!” he interrupted.

“I’m Jean Dollent, a practicing physician at Marsilly, near La Rochelle,” his captor answered politely. “As I was saying, a few months ago Justin Galmet came across this gentleman’s ring, which doesn’t deal in peanuts. He asked for his percentage, and they couldn’t refuse him. His bank deposits increased, and he began to think of retiring to the country. Then something unexpected happened. After years of making eyes at salesgirls, simply in the line of business, he was seriously smitten with the beautiful but melancholy Alice and decided to marry her. He was on the track of a jewel thief, but found a bride instead...

“Just at this point he saw the familiar figure of this gentleman downstairs and knowing he must be up to something went to find out what it could be. For several days he returned to the same spot in order to see the job with his own eyes and stake a claim to the profits. Very soon he guessed that the cash envelope from ‘No. 89’ was the object. On a Saturday night, there might be as much as six million francs in that envelope, and his percentage would help him to buy his country house without using up all his savings. That is what kept him in Paris for a few more days. He had to wait until this gentleman actually pulled off the job. Then wedding bells, little brothers, vegetable gardening, and all the rest. He neglected to reckon with only one thing — that this gentleman might be fed up with the squeeze imposed upon him. In fact, our friend here had arranged to bump Galmet off, and the floor plan of the shop worked in his favor. A single pistol shot, and...”

The man in the gray hat was now growing excited, when at a sign from Lucas the door opened and the salesman from the toy department walked in.

“That’s the fellow,” the salesman said promptly. “I didn’t see him fire the shot, but that day he was fingering the toy guns, and I am sure...”

“Poor chap!” sighed the Little Doctor, as he sat with Lucas over his fourth drink at the station café, waiting for the train to Marsilly. “It was a devilishly clever idea — to prey on thieves and all the while to live so prosaically, cooking his own breakfast... Do you know, there’s one thing that tempts me to strew flowers on his grave, and that’s Alice and her brothers. I’m sure he really meant to marry her, and he would have made them all very happy, there on the banks of the Loire. Alice is really out of luck.”

He shook his head sadly.

“How so?”

“Because now she has a very good chance of remaining an old maid!”

And turning to the waiter, he asked: “How much do I owe you?”