All language subtitles for Maigret S03E05 High Politics_Track03-eng

{dramatic orchestral music)

(knuckles tapping)

- It is known that a year
before the Clairfond,

get out, get out

I don't want to be interrupted
till I finish this.

- I'm sorry, monsieurs.

- Known that a year before
the Clairfond Sanitorium

was built while it was
still under construction,

Professor Julius Calame

of the Institute of Civil Engineering

made a detailed study of the plans

It is known that his report was submitted

to the appropriate ministry,
the Ministry of Public Works

It is known that this
report vras disregarded

So much is known.

Nothing more. Why?

Because we are told the report is missing.

The minister, Auguste Point,
says that it cannot be found

How very convenient

that such an awkward
document should be missing

What sort of ministry is
this that important paper

should go astray in this way?

- (chuckles) Good. Very good

- You laugh, Benoit

People might laugh,

but the mothers of 128
children are weeping

Professor Julius Calame is dead.

He cannot tell us what was in this report

I ask again, why? Why
is the report missing?

Is it because it criticised the designs?

Is it because the ministry was warned,

the contractors were warned
that to build a sanatorium here

on the banks of the Lize
was a deadly folly, a crime”?

There could be only one
answer to these questions

Let the minister produce the report

Let the truth come to light

Let him stand or fall.

Let the government stand or fall

by the verdict of Julius Calame

(Benoit applauds)

All right

- One more editorial like
that, Monsieur Tabard,

and the government will tremble

- Find me a copy of the
Calame Report, Benoit,

and I'll bring the government down

- Monsieur, in your speech
today in the Chamber of Deputies

and further in the columns
of your newspaper "Trident"

you make reference to a document
known as the Calame Report

I have the honour to
inform you that I possess

what I believe is now
the only existing copy

(dramatic music)

(match scratches)

{jaunty music)

(soft suspenseful music)

- You're a fool, Benoit.

When there are big issues
at stake, one must be bold.

- Maybe, maybe

It's a dangerous game you're
suggesting, Mr. Tabard

- What else can I do?

I'm in this too deep

This report is deadly!

Our only hope Is to play it this way

Get him in again

- If you'll come this
way, Monsieur Piguemal

- Ah, Monsieur Piquemal.

My apologies for keeping
you waiting se long.

I've now read the report

- What do you think of if, monsieur?

- You say Professor Calame
gave you this manuscript?

- I was his assistant, I worked with him-

- Tell me, Monsieur Piguemal,
why have you brought it to me?

- Monsieur?

- You knew of the outcry for this report.

Why didn't you take it
straight to the ministry”?

- The ministry?

They ignored him.

They silenced him

He was a martyr to the
officials, the bureaucrats.

Why should they give him justice now”?

He was a great man, monsieur

His plans,

they were glorious
- It's a week since

the disaster, yet you waited

- (sighs) I was afraid, monsieur

I thought I might lose
my job at the institute

I didn't know whom I could trust.

But then I read your speech, monsieur.

You are a deputy

You have a great newspaper

You could give justice to Calame

You could tell the truth!

- Truth?

The truth.

We live in a world, Monsieur Piquemal,

where the truth is sometimes
considered dangerous

You must knew that there are many people

who are anxious to suppress this report.

- Yes, I know.

- And maybe to suppress anyone
who knows what it contains

- You think I am in danger?

I want no trouble, mensieur

I've done nothing

I only wish to defend the
good name of the professor

- Don't be afraid. You
did well to come to me.

I'll see that you are safe

But first, I want you to take this report

and hand it personally to
the minister, Auguste Point

- But these are the very people

who suppressed the report
in the first place

- Trust me, Monsieur Piguemal

I have only your own
best interests at stake.

Go now with Benoit to the ministry.

On the way, collect a few
things from your apartment

Speak to no one

Benoit will look after you

- You get the receipt?

- Yes.

- Good.

(mysterious music)

{suspenseful music)

- I'm so sorry to have left you,

but you know what cooking is.

Everything is all right.

It's something of a speciality
of mine, boeuf bourguignon

We'd both be delighted if you'd join us

- Thank you, madame, you're most kind

Another time, perhaps

{door clicks)

- He's here. Would you excuse me?

Hello. You're late.

- Question: Where can you buy bedsheets

at one third off current prices?

Who's that?

- Colonel Malle is here.

- Molle?

- Oh, I thought you'd knows him

He's come about the telephone calls

- Telephone calls?

- You know me, I think

- Yes.

Hasn't the Colonel got a drink, dear”?

- Well, I couldn't persuade him

Do you want one?

- Yes, I'll have a beer, thanks

Now, what's all this
about a telephone call?

- It was while you were out.

A man telephoned twice but
he wouldn't give his name

- There will undoubtedly
be a third call shortly

[ think you'll find the
caller is Auguste Paint

- The minister?

- I've spoken to your
commissioner and it's in order

for you to go and see
what the minister wants.

If you need twa or three
men, that's all right, too

- I take it this is a political matter.

- May only be a lost fur coat.

Do you know who he is, Auguste Point?

- The Minister of Public Works.

They call him The Honest Man.

- Yes, well, there's no reason to suppose

that he hasn't remained one.

And now I won't prolong my invasion.

Chief Inspector.

- Colonel Malle.

- What an extraordinary man

Oh, I'm glad you came home

I was almost afraid of him.

Who is he?

- He's number one of the political
department of the Surete

- Well, how did he know
who was calling you?

- Oh.

- [Madame Maigret]
{gasps) Oh, I shall never

trust the telephone again.

- You're wise.

- I'l go and see to the dinner

(phone ringing)

- Yes?

Oh yes?

The Green Door.

About nine o'clock?

Right away?

Very well, about 20 minutes.

- Was it him?

- Yes.

- Well, what is it?

- Trouble.

These political boys only get onto us

when they smell trouble, then they try

to hang it round our necks. (scoffs)

Hats over their eyes
Black raincoats. (groans)

Try and save the bourguignon for me.

I'll try and get back in time

{doorbell rings)

- Inspector Maigret, come in

- Minister.
- I'm Auguste Point

Come this way

I'm sorry to drag you out like this,

but it's @ matter of extreme importance

May I take your coat?

- Thank you

- Let's go in here

Can I get you something?

A drink?
- Not just now

Thank you, Minister.

- Well, please sit down.

- [Maigret] Thank you

- Cigarette”

- No.

- Well, I'l come straight ta the point

What do you know of
the Clairfond disaster?

- Only what ['ve read in the papers.

The sanatorium was undermined
when the River Lize

broke its banks, and 128
children were drowned.

- Yes, an appalling tragedy

And the Calame Report”?

- Apparently it's a report
circulated some years back

by one Professor Calame, now dead,

in which he condemned the
proposed plans for the building

It's a report which no one can now find.

- Yes.

Yes.

Chief Inspector, I am accused
of suppressing that report

in order to cover the
criminal incompetence

of my ministry and to shield
the contractors, Nico Roche

At the first news of the tragedy,

the premier asked for
a copy of the report

A search was made in every department,

my own, Health, Treasury.

Everyone knew of the report.

No one could find it
until yesterday evening

when I received a visit from
a person called Piquemal

who said he was a demonstrator

and lecturer at the institute.

He handed me a copy.

- Where did he get it?

- He wouldn't say

- Did he ask for money?

- No, just a receipt, which I gave him

He said he'd brought it to me
because I was an honest man.

- What did it contain?

- Nothing!

- Nothing?
- Nothing!

Nothing that could possibly justify

an attack on my ministry

- Then what was it all about?

- Calame's objections
are purely architectural

He was a fanatic for the functional.

He said that his design could
provide room for 30 more beds

If that had happened,

there'd have been 30 more dead children.

- When did you read the report?

- Midnight last night.

Premier was in the country

I telephoned him at once and he ordered me

to bring him a copy this morning

At nine o'clock I went to
get it and found it gone!

Vanished, stolen

The premiers office has
been onto me all day

There's a debate tomorrow.

Monsieur Maigret, that
Calame Report must be found

I beg you to help me.

- Why not the Political
Department of the Surete?

- This is a theft.

Doesn't that come under your office?

- Did you receive
Monsieur Piquemal in here?

- No, in my private apartments

- Then we'd better have a look at them.

- By all means. Come this way.

- Did Piquemal come in this way?

- No, he came in by the main door

and was brought to me in here

Oh, Anna

- Hello, Papa.

- I thought you were going out

- Yes, we're going to a
cinema and then a party,

but it starts late.

- This is my daughter, Anna
Marie, Monsieur Maigret

- Hello
- Monsieur.

- And Alain Roche.

- Monsieur.
- Alain Roche.

- Are we in the way, Papa?

- Well, uh

- Well, we ought to go in any case.

Goodbye, sir.

Monsieur.

- Bye-bye, Papa, and don't wait up for me.

I'll let myself in.

- Anna.
- Monsieur.

Come on.

- I don't know why she had to
open a bottle of champagne

Would you like a glass, Inspector?

- Yes, thank you.

- Oh, please help yourself.

I'll have something a little stronger

- Minister, when did
you last see the report?

- At midnight last night

I had another look at
it and I locked it away

in the top drawer of that bureau.

Oh, there's no sign of forcing

- Just a moment.

Looks quite a simple lock

May be no need to force it

{drawer rattles)

Do any of your staff come in here?

- Most of them very rarely.

But then no one knew
it was here except me

- And Piguemal.

- Yes, of course, Piguemal

- Did you try to contact him?

- Haven't been able to think clearly

In any case, that'd only make it worse

- Did you confide in your daughter?

- No.

- Does she live here?

- [Auguste] When she's in Paris.

- Is Alain Roche a close friend?

- They're more or less engaged

- But not yet

I wonder what they were celebrating

- And I'll answer the
question you haven't asked

Alain Roche is the son of Nico Roche,

the contractor who built the sanatorium.

- Which of your staff do
come in here, Minister?

- My secretary, Blanche Lamotte

She's been in my service for six years,

but I've known her all her life.

She was bom in my province, the Vendee

- Age?
- 35.

- Devoted?

- [Auguste] (chuckles)
They call her The Dragon

- Anyone else”?

- My principal assistant, Robert Fleury.

He joined me when I became minister.

- How long ago was that?

- Just over two years

But I've known him since he was a youth

He was one of my lieutenants
in the Resistance.

- And in between?

- Oh, well, too many
jobs that led nowhere.

But The Dragon vetted him most thoroughly.

- Not the Surete?

- (chuckles) They, too.

- Hmm.

Is this an outside line?

- Yes, but it's probably tapped

- Yeah, probably. When's the debate?

- At three tomorrow.

- We've got 20 hours.

(mysterious music)

(gentle music)

- "Bronze lizard by moonlight,

and the bells of the temple
ringing and swinging

(bell ringing)

And he in the archway waiting, debating."

It's good. I like it

"And the bells of the temple

ringing and swinging."
{bell ringing)

And he on the doorstep,
"waiting, debating."

"The bells of the temple
ringing and swinging."

(bell ringing)

- Madame Tosma?

- Who wants Tosma®?

- The police

- Ch, not another of you

- Oh, the police have
been before, have they”?

- Yes.

- I'm lecking for Monsieur Piguemal

- Well he's notin, as I
told the other gendarme

- Ah, madame, well I'm
sorry to trouble you

- I don't mind the gendarmes

They're part of old Paris
like lilac and absinthe.

You're one of the old kinds.

I suppose you'd like
to see where he lives.

It's down here.

It's the new ones I don't like,

the ones in black raincoats
who won't look you in the eyes

- When did you last see Monsieur Piguemal?

- I wish you wouldn't call
him Monsieur Piguemal

I wish you wouldn't call me mademoiselle.

Piguemal and Tosma is enough

- [Maigret] Like film
stars and musicians, eh?

- Like people.

- Karl Marx, "The Communist Manifesto."

- [Tosma] Yes, I thought
that would excite you

It excited the other gendarme

- What did he ask you?

- Nothing, really

- Schopenhauer, St. Augustine, Aristotle.

- He loved those, too, yes

- What was he like, the other gendarme?

- Like a great black
bird with orange eyes.

Do you know my poem, "The Gull"?

- No, mademoiselle, I'm afraid I don't

- I insist that you hear
this beautiful work.

"The gull only remained,
its stiff wings closed

to cover him.

It was on this cliff this man,

and above this unknown sea-"

- Perhaps ocean might be better, hmm™~

- Ch yes, I think ocean
is better. Thank you

"Above this unknown ocean-"

- When did Monsieur Piquemal ga”?

- Go? Is he gone?

- Well, his razor and toothbrush have

So have his pyjamas

- Can happen that a man
wishes for solitude.

"The gull only remained,

its stiff wings closed to cover him

It was on this cliff this man,

and above this unknown ocean."

It's good. I like it

Definitely better.

"She, meanwhile, on the sand
alone, basking, basking,

remembering the gull
as he lay in the water

Laying and-

- Who was his visitor?

(sniffs) Yesterday.

- Piguemal never had visitors

- Come now, he didn't smoke Havana cigars

on his salary at the institute.

Who was it?

- There may have been somebody

Yes, I seem to remember a
presence, large like you

- Was Piguemal scared of anyone?

- Anyone”?

As an ex-communist, ex-fascist

Rosicrucian Zen Buddhist he had everything

in the world to fear.

- He sounds quite a chap

Now, Tosma, you'll tell me
when he comes back, won't you?

- Tell who?

- Maigret.

- Maigret?
- Mm-hmm.

- (laughs) Now even gendarme are people.

No, don't go. I have another poem.

I think-
- Not now.

Another time, Tosma.

- But this one is more appealing
for a man of your nature

Oh yes.

"Bronze lizard by moonlight,

and the bells of the temple ring."

I like that.

(pan sizzling}
{guests chattering)

- There you go, pal It's all yours

- Merci, monsieur.

- Ckay, honey? Let's go

Say, you folks sure know how to eat

I haven't had such a meal
(fingers snapping)

since I left the States.

- [Waiter] Oh, good evening, monsieur

We have not seen you here for some time.

- Thank you

Thank you

- The duck is very good, Inspector

- I understand that Monsieur Ector Tabard

comes here frequently.

- Yes. monsieur, he comes in
here often, about this time

- Gratin et Choucroute.

- Very good

- The prices have gone up.

And a carafe of the red.

- [Waiter] At once, monsieur.

- Would you excuse me?

I've just seen a friend of mine

Thanks for the drink.

Maigret.

- Hello, Bourgain

- Haven't seen you for a thousand years

- How's the reporting business”

Still with "The Globe"?

- No, I left that.

Too much hard work. May 1?

I'm freelance now.

- Thirsty I expect

Not many oppressed people here.

- There's Match over there
and Figaro in the other room

and here's Ector Tabard
with Suzie Mechamps

Excuse me.

Ector, congratulations on your piece

about the Clairfond disaster.

Formidable!

- I'm glad you liked it.

Is that all right for you”

- Mademoiselle, how does
it feel to be a best seller

three times running?

- Rather a bore.

- [Waiter] Shall I set
another cover, monsieur?

- No, there are just the two of us

- Well, see you anon

The lobsters are done
with chopped mushrooms

and fresh apricots.

- A fillet of sole and a boiled potato

- Oh, waiter. Don't forget my wine.

- At once, Inspector

- [Man] Ah, good evening, Robert

(men chattering)

- [Robert] Thank you very much

- [Man] Ah, there you are

(diners chattering)

- Good evening, monsieur. Table for one?

- Too crowded.

I'll just take a drink at the bar

- Very well, monsieur

- Excuse me.

Good evening, Inspector Maigret.

{Maigret speaking in French)

We thought as you were alone
you might care to join us

- I don't want to intrude on you,

but I would like a word with you

- Be delighted

How can I help you?

- Does the name Piguemal
mean anything to you?

- Piguemal. Sounds like
a horse or a detergent

- Belongs to a man

He wrote you a letter.

- You have been picking, Inspector

Yes, he wrote to me

He told me he had a copy
of the Calame Report

I must have had 50 such letters.

Of course I agreed to see him

- And he had a copy of the report?

- But you know this already.

He asked me to publish it.

I said I couldn't make political capital

out of the death of children.

- So you sent him to Auguste Paint.

- Who, as everyone
knows, is an honest man

- I suggest that you sent
him to Point deliberately

because you had in fact
read the reports yourself

and knew that it
exonerated the government

- Have you read it?

- No, I haven't

- Who told you this?

Point? Piquemal?

- Where is Piquemal?

- Surely you have his address.

- He isn't there.

How much did you pay him to clear out?

- You should leave
politics alone, Inspector.

Ask yourself, who would stand to benefit

by Piguemal's disappearance?

- I think you would if the
report exonerated the government

- Does it?

- According to an honest man

- Inspector, I was born into politics.

My father was a deputy.

The first lesson he taught
me was beware of honest men.

What is at stake for Point?

His resignation, the end
of his political career

these are nothing

But a trial, an
impeachment for corruption

Oh, I daren't say that he
accepted money from Nico Roche,

nothing so direct, so crude,

but these things can be arranged

Shall we say by a suitable marriage?

Did you know that Nico
Roche, the contractor's son,

is engaged to the minister's daughter?

- I bring you wine

And you, Nico Roche, the
Clairfond contractor,

decided on a little heliday

He left Paris an hour ago with two cars

and 27 pieces of luggage

- Thank you, Bourgain

Do you still think Point is an honest man?

- I'm so sorry to have
kept you waiting so long

Now, I must telephone

(diners chattering)

(rotary dial clicking)

Hello. It's me.

We've got to move. Send in Riff.

Foal. You idiot!

What do you think I pay you for?

Well, get him. Get him at once

All right, get him first thing
in the moming, but get him

{suspenseful music)

{suspenseful music)

(glass breaks)
(gun firing)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

- "Trident" headline's

"Piguemal, where is he? Who's Hiding Him?"

"The Globe" goes after Nico Roche

"Interviewed by our reporter
before he left Paris

contractor Nico Roche
expressed his entire confidence

in the result of today's
debate in the Chamber.

However, we note that he
prefers to await the result

onboard his yacht at Bordeaux."

Where he was followed,
I may say, by Torrance

- You locking for something,
Patron?

- My braces. Where are my braces?

{suspenders snap)
{men chuckle)

- Look, I sent Torrance
after Alain Roche, not Nico

- Torrance went after Alain Roche.

Alain Roche keeps a bachelor
apartment and gives parties

Point's daughter Anna Marie went to one

the night you asked about.

- What time did she leave?

- Half-past nine next morning
according to the concierge

But Torrance says someone else

was asking the same questions,

someone in a black raincoat.

- Not with orange eyes, by any chance?

- What?

- What about Blanche Lamotte?

- I checked her movements on
the night with her housekeeper

She got home at seven as
usual, worked on some papers

she brought from the
office, got her own meal,

went to bed at 11.

- All as usual.

- That's what the housekeeper says

She never goes out, never has visitors,

except sometimes a nephew
from the country age nine

and a colleague from the
ministry she calls Robert

- Robert Fleury?

- I don't know. She calls him Robert.

She calls the child Robert, too

- Well, well

- Maybe this is Robert Fleury.

He's a pretty busy man

According to the concierge
at his apartment,

Fleury spends most of his spare time

with an expensive piece of
homework called Jeanette Roubaix.

- Coffee's ready.
(tray rattles)

Ah, madame.

- Who is Jeanette Roubaix?

- We're checking

The concierge wasn't very forthcoming

I was her second detective
inquiring about Fleury

- Ah, the Surete, they're
like weevils In a cake

- The funny thing is this
was a couple of days ago,

well before the theft.

- [Maigret] Mm-hmm

- A broad weevil about your
build who smoked a cigar

- I think I saw him last
night at Fillet de Sole

No, he wasn't from the Surete

You know, he sounds
like the man who called

on Piquemal and took him away,

if I can rely on an alcoholic
poetess called Tosma

- Tosma?

- Yeah, you heard of her?

- I seem to remember that name, Tosma

- Yeah?

- But it was a long time ago

- (chuckles) Why wouldn't this
weevil character be Surete?

- Because he turned tail when
I entered the restaurant

Surete wouldn't do that.

- There's damn little to go on

- Damn little time to do it in.

- They'll crucify Paint.

They'll Tear him to pieces

- Why?
- Why?

‘Cause one side needs a scapegoat

and the other wants a
pawn in a power game

It's called politics.

A dirty word, my dear. I apologise.

- Give me a decent, honest crime anyway.

All nice and clean.

- Now, let's just see what we have got

Just the facts.

One, Piguemal has the Calame Report, huh?

Two, he takes it to Tabard,
who sends him to Point.

What next”?

- Three, he takes it to Point.

- Yeah.

No, no, he doesn't

He goes home first to his room at Tosma's

He gets his razor in a bag
and then he goes to Point.

Now, Tabard wants Piquemal out of the way

as soon as he's delivered
the report to Point,

so cigar boy's waiting outside with a car.

Takes him away somewhere,
we don't know where.

Then the next night, four.

I see cigar boy at the Fillet de Sole

He's come to report to Tabard

You know, there's a stink of stale cigar

running through this whole thing

You'll get a whiff of it when you inquire

into Robert Fleury,
Point's personal assistant

What was cigar boy doing with him

a few days before the theft?

- You don't suppose this cigar fancier

could be ex-Surete, Patron?

- A private agent.

- Yeah.
- Alot of them are.

- Ah, you two have got
Surete on the brain.

- It's worth trying.

I tell you who could
tell us, Georges Catroux

- Poor Georges is ill in bed

I was only talking to his wife yesterday

- I'm very worried about Georges, my dear

Why don't you give her a ring”?

- Why, yes, if you like

- Then I'll come and talk to her.

- Georges, telephone.
I switched it through

- [Georges] I'm dead. I'm dying

- Then you'll have to
produce a death certificate

(Georges grunts)

It's Maigret

- What?

Hello? (clears throat)

Maigret, old friend

Yeah, it's me, Georges, speaking.

Hold on. (blows nose)

{sniffling) What can I do for you”

- I'm looking for a type
who used to work for you

and may have set up on his own.

- (coughs) A type used to
work for us now on his own?

Oh, plenty of those

About your age, bulky, mm, smokes cigars

Havana cigars, so help him.

- I'd like to know what
line he's following

- That might be Labarre, Pierre Labarre

- No, no, I know Labarre

- No, I think you must mean Benoit

Makes a good thing out
of divorce and blackmail.

When he was with us, he smoked Caporal

Now he boasts he only
smokes imported cigars.

- Look, I'l send you
around some fruit, huh?

- Yeah, well hurry up
or you'll be too late

- Tell me more about Benoit.

- [Georges] I feel frightful

(dramatic music)

{suspenseful music)
(Anna Marie crying)

- Steady now, Anna, steady

Come on, dear. We've got a lot to do

(Anna Marie crying)

- Chief Inspector Maigret is here

- Maigret? Has he brought any news”

- I told him to send him
straight in, is that all right?

- Yes.

- [Blanche] Good morning

- Morning, Chief Inspector.

- Merning, madame. Minister

Am I too late?

- The premier has said that
he must have one of two things

in his hands at the debate.

Either the Calame Report-

- Or?

- Or this. My resignation

- And Minister, you must listen to this.

Piguemal didn't come to you on his own

He was sent ta you by Tabard

- Tabard?
- What?

- Tabard admits it openly.

Piquemal took the report to him first.

- Then Tabard must have read it.

- Of course he did.

That's why he sent it to you

- I'm sorry, you'll have to explain that.

- May 17
- Of course, please

- For a week now, Tabar has
been challenging the government

to produce this report

He staked his whole political
future on the certainty

that this report would be
damning to the government

Now, Piguemal brings the report to him

and it turns out to be a damp squib

So. now Tabard's in a spot

- So, what does Tabard do?

- Well, he'd like to
destroy it if he could,

but he can't because now
Piguemal knows what's in it, too

But he's cunning as well as desperate,

so he goes one better.

He tells Piguemal to deliver
the report to you privately,

make sure that Piguemal
gets a receipt for it,

and then arranges for it ta be stolen

before anybody else can see it.

- Would even Tabard dare
to go so far as that?

- It's the biggest coup
of his political career

- But he'd have to silence Piquemal.

- There's only a few hours
now till the debate, Minister.

In that time I can't hope to produce

either Piguemal or the report

But if I can prove that
Tabard was behind this theft,

would it make any difference to this?

- Oh, it might, but there's
only five hours to the debate

What can you hope to prove in that time?

- Oh, Minister, you must fight.

- Oh, well, for all the good it'll do

What do you need?

- I should like to question your staff

- Who do you want to see?

- Mademoiselle Lamotte and
Monsieur Fleury together

- Robert, can you spare
me a few moments, please?

- I'l go, Papa.

- No, Anna, stay if you'd like to

Robert, this is Chief Inspector Maigret.

I want you to answer his questions

- [Maigret] Will you sit over
there, please, mademoiselle”

- I've heard a great deal
about you, Inspector

- And you there, monsieur

Now, you're acquainted with
the situation, monsieur?

- Yes, the minister broke
the news this morning

- And you, mademoiselle?

- Yes.

- The Calame Report was stolen

from the minister's private apartment

between midnight yesterday
and 9:30 yesterday morning

Now, the minister sleeps lightly

and he would have heard
anyone breaking in

I believe that the report was stolen

just before nine o'clock

Where were you at that time, Minister?

- Oh, about that time I was in my bath.

I believe that the thief
came in by that door

which means he would have
had te pass the attendant

in the outer corridor
and Mademoiselle Lamotte

at her desk in the outer office.

At what time did the first
visitor arrive, mademoiselle?

- Shall I get my book?

- No, it's all right, Blanche

My first visitor yesterday
morning was at 9:30

Durant of the auditor's office.

- Was there anyone before Durant?

- No, monsieur.

- And you were here promptly at nine?

- A few minutes before.

- A few minutes before.

And you, monsieur, did you see anybody?

- [Rabert] No.

- You were here promptly at nine”

- Oh, a little after.

- About 10 minutes after I arrived.

- 80, Mademoiselle Lamotte was here

when you arrived, yeah?

- Minister, do you
approve of these questions

which seem to be directed
against your staff?

- I'm sorry, Robert, but I
think you should answer them

- Were you ever approached
by a man called Benoit?

- Benoit?

- An agent who resigned
from the political force

and set up on his own

He's about my build and
smokes Havana cigars

- No, I'm sorry, I can't help you

- And you, mademoiselle?

- [Blanche] No, monsieur.

- He may not have called himself Benoit

- There's been no one here like that.

- I didn't ask if he'd been here.

I asked if the man I described

had ever approached Monsieur Fleury

- And I answered you no.

Well, that is to the best of my knowledge.

- I wonder if your premise
is quite right, Inspector.

The person who removed the document

might've come the other way.

- What makes you say that?

- Minister, this is very
embarrassing for me

- Well, what do mean, Robert?

- A few minutes after I
arrived, after nine o'clock,

there was a cable which
needed quick action

I often have a few words with the minister

while he takes his coffee.

As I was entering the
apartment, I saw Anna Marie,

Mademoiselle Point, going
into the private room

- [Both] Robert!

- I'm sorry, I'm forced to say this

- You sure it was Anna Marie?

- Yes, I'm afraid so

- Is this possible?

- I can't disprove it. No, Papa

- Well, I can

You arrived home yesterday
moming after 10 o'clock

No doubt you slipped in
quietly because you were still

wearing your evening clothes, weren't you?

You didn't leave Alain
Roche's apartment until 9:30

- Yes, Papa, I did stay
the night at Alain's flat

- Anna.

- But I was with my friend,
Isabella de Merci, Papa

We shared the same room
together at Alain's

and I was not here at nine that morning

as Monsieur Fleury very vrell knows

- Well, perhaps you'll be good enough

to explain what you meant
by that remark, Robert

Robert!

- Why, Minister, I was only-

- Just one moment, Minister

I'm going to cause you
some further embarrassment.

Mademoiselle Lamotte, you
have a nephew age nine, yeah?

- Yes.

- You and Monsieur Fleury
occasionally take him out

to the zoo, the cinema?

- Yes.

- Your nephew's name is Robert, Is it not?

- Yes.

- Is it @ coincidence that
Monsieur Fleury's name

is Robert also?

- All right, Inspector.

He's our son.

Oh, I knew that Robert had a wife

We've had to wait a long time

Now he's free to give our child a name

- Is your intention the same”

- Well, we have to find a flat

Of course the future
seems rather uncertain.

- But you're hoping and planning, huh?

- Both.

- Then how do you explain your relations

with the wife of General Roubaix?

- Rober, tell him it isn't true

- Blanche, Blanche

- Tell him it isn't true!

- You know that while
we're forced to live apart

there've been certain little locations.

- No.
- But this was different

from the other little
locations, wasn't it?

Jeanette Roubaix is the wife
of a powerful and jealous man

He had you watched by a
private detective, by Benoit

Benoit approached you and
promised to say nothing

to General Roubaix if you would
procure for him some papers

from the minister's
bureau, the Calame Report

- Rober, that can't be true!
- Robert!

- Now, mademoiselle, who
deserves your loyalty?

The minister or him?

- Yes!

Yes, that man Benoit did come here!

- Blanche!

- He called himself Benedict.

- Benedict?

- He had an appointment with him!

- Robert, if this is true, if
Benoit was blackmailing you,

let's have it out.

I shan't forget the old days.

- All right.

All right, monsieur, you want the truth,

but you're not gonna like it.

You talked of a thief.

I'd like to suggest someone
acting for personal motives

the motives of gratitude.

I owe everything to the minister

When you told me that the Calame Report

was in your bureau, the hint was enough

To me that was an order.

- Robert!

- Minister, I read that report,
and to save you I took it

- It exonerated me!

- It incriminated you

It would have meant
your arrest, your ruin

- You were like a son to me.

For God's sake, tell the truth, now!

- But this is the truth!

- Liar! Judas!

- Minister.

(phone ringing)

- Yes. Maigret.

Yes, Luca

Anything yet on Piguemal?

- Not yet, Patron, but
we have a possible lead

We know that Benoit keeps
a room at the Hotel Bercy

and he hasn't been there for
the last couple of nights

Now, they say he goes to a place

about an hour outside Paris to a cottage

(phone ringing)
All they can tell us

is it begins with Saint

We tried the police at Saint Val,

Saint Van, Saint Ci, Saint
Coeur, but they've never

heard of Benoit.
- Paris, here.

We're looking for a man called Benoit

who may be in your area.
- Try them with Benedict.

That's the name Benoit used.

{suspenseful music)

{suspenseful music)

Look and see what they're doing.

{suspenseful music continues)

- Good morning, Chief Inspector

- Ah, the chief weevil himself.

Might have known.

- You know our Monsieur Benoit,

a sad ex-detective who's lost his client.

- Where is Piquemal?

- We're digging now

- Did he do it?

- We believe a thug called Tony Riff

- I swear I didn't know that
Riff was after Piquemal

Piguemal asked me for protection

He wanted me to hide him.

- Then who told Riff where Piquemal was?

- You know and I know.

The man who hired them both.

- Be careful.

- Oh yes, be careful

Well, Benoit I expect
you'll do about 12 months

for your part in stealing the report

Riff will be found somewhere
with his head beaten in.

And Tabard. (scoffs)

I suppose Tabard will
give another 10,000 francs

to the victims of the Clairfond disaster.

Well, my case ends here

You can clear up the rest of the mess.

- I knew it.

{door thuds)

Jules!

I've got something to show you.

- Mm, what?

- I found some old copies
of "Poetry in Life."

- Oh, not poetry now, dear.

- Well, I didn't know
you were coming back,

but I've cooked you something

- I'm not hungry. I just want a cognac

I'm sorry, dear, What were
you saying about poetry?

- Well, I was trying to tell you

I found some old copies
of "Poetry in Life."

I thought I remembered something

about that strange name Tosma

- Oh, it's too late. No use now

- Well, I looked through them

Listen to what it says.

"Lili Tosma, contributor
of the poem 'The Gull'

is known in another world as the wife

of the brilliant young architect
and engineer Julius Calame

This clever young couple
have recently moved."

Jules?

{door thuds)
Jules?

(Tosma humming)

- [Maigret] Tosma, now listen

Somebody must have typed these reports

Now, whe was it? Did you type them?

- Of course I typed them.

I typed all my husband's reports

- How many copies did you make?

- I made five copies

- Five. Now, where are they now?

- Ah, where indeed

Where are the leaves?

Oh yes, they are gone, gone, gone.

- You had a copy for Piguemal

- Oh ves, Piguemal

The last copy, the carbon
one that my husband kept

- What happened to the
original manuscript, huh?

- Ah, Maigret. (chuckles)

That will be very valuable one day

- Oh, never more than now

- Mm-hmm.

- Tosma
- Hmm?

- This could save an honest man.

- What's that to me” (chuckles)

I like it.

(clock ticking)
(soft suspenseful music)

- It's nearly three.

Time for you to leave for the Chamber

(clock ticking)

- I never thought that that was a place

I should be ashamed to enter.

For the last 12 hours I suppose

I've been hoping for a miracle

Stupid of me

I can't face it, Blanche

Please see that the
premier gets this at ence

- [Blanche] Chief Inspector

- Where's the minister?

- He's in there.

- Minister, the original
manuscript of the Calame Report

- Original?

- Yeah, there isn't much time

You'll have to hurry.

- How can I thank you”

- Be careful what you
read out in the Chamber.

Some of the blank spaces
are filled with poetry

- Ch, monsieur. (chuckles) Thank you

- Now, where's that champagne, hmm~

Now you've really got
something to celebrate

- Yes. (chuckles)