Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (Inspector Maigret, #38)

While committing what he intends to be his last burglary, "Sad Freddie" discovers something completely out of his line: the body of a dead woman, her chest covered in blood, holding a telephone in her hand. Inspector Maigret is called in to solve the crime, and after an exhaustive search, a psychological duel, a marathon interrogation, and innumerable glasses of Pernod, wine, cold beer, and brandy--a sure sign that this is no easy case--the famous French sleuth triumphs.Maigret is a registered trademark of the Estate of Georges Simenon The police knew him as "Sad Freddie." The newspapers tagged him "the burglar on a bike." Once he had worked for a safe-manufacturing firm. Now he was In business for himself, cracking the safes he had once installed. Tuesday night's job was to be his last. Then he and his wife would buy a place in the country. It was to have been a routine job, but on his way to the safe in a house in Neuilly. Freddie stumbled across something that was altogether out of his line: a dead woman, her chest covered with blood, holding a telephone in her hand. When Maigret is called in, he finds that the house belongs to an overweight dentist and his elegant, ancient mother. After an exhaustive search, a psychological duel, a marathon interrogation. and innumerable glasses of Pernod, wine, cold beer, and brandy — a sure sign that this is no easy case — the famous French sleuth triumphs. The official slip of paper, duly filled in and handed to Maigret by the office boy, read: Ernestine Micou, alias Lofty (now Jussiaume), who, when you arrested her seventeen years ago on rue de la Lune, stripped herself naked to taunt you, requests the favor of an interview on a matter of most urgent and important business. The wife of a respected safe-cracker comes to Maigret after her frightened husband tells her of stumbling upon a corpse while robbing a dentist's house. Maigret is pitted against the surly dentist and his cunning mother who deny any knowledge of the corpse. First published in 1951