Labri

Labri was standing motionless, with his back to the wall.

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Beside the curtain, in the shadows, stood a door of which customers must have been unaware and which Labri pushed open like one well used to doing so, before switching on the light.

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Labri, panic-stricken, had abandoned her lying in his basement, leaving someone else to discover her body!

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Two days previously, Labri had sold his business, which he was to go on running for another week before handing it over to the new proprietor.

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Until the day when she learnt that she was part of the stock, that she was to be handed on to the purchasers of the shop, that Labri was going off without her, Labri whom she thought of as her lover …

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Like any good tradesman showing his current accounts, Labri lifted a calendar hanging against the wall and disclosed an opening that gave on to the boudoir next door.

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Labri, who lived in a small apartment in the Rue de Metz, had been questioned that morning by the local Superintendent, and had begun by telling lies.

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Labri with his podgy face and those velvet eyes, who, cautious business man that he was, had led her to believe that people can be lovers without …

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

And Labri shrank back against the wall in a state of total collapse.

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977

Now Labri could quite well have simulated paternal concern and made her swallow the bitter tea on the pretext of administering some medicine or other.

Maigret's Mistake Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1977