All language subtitles for Maigret S04E04 The Cellars of the Majestic_Track03-eng

{suspenseful music)

(clock ticking)

(Lift arriving)

{door opening)

{foot steps approaching)

- Prosper?

{door closes)

Prosper?

(dramatic music)

(dramatic theme music)

(match striking)

{accordion music)

{suspenseful music)

(whistling)

- Twenty dozen Beaujolais

(whistling)

- You swim in it here.

(whistling)

- Donge, Donge! Where are you off to?

- To the locker room.

I forgot my handkerchief.

(toilet flushing)

(dramatic music)

- What made you come here in
the middle of the morning?

- I wanted my handkerchief.

I left it in my coat in my locker.

- Hm, your locker is 67.

What made you open this one, 897

- Well, The door, I, I
just happen to notice

it wasn't shut properly.

- Hm Well, who uses 897

- No one. It, it's a spare locker.

- Well, there's nothing
more I can do here.

Mind if I take her away with me?

- Not yet, Doctor, I need her for a bit

How long's she been dead”

- Three hours near enough

- That'd be around six.

Cause of death?

- She was strangled

- She didn't seem to
have struggled very much

- Nevertheless, she was
strangled from behind

(door slamming)

- Well, the sooner I can
get her back to the lab

the sooner you can have a full report.

- All right, Doctor.

Where do you work”?

- In the cellers, the wine

- What time did you get in this morning?

(door shutting)

- I, I was late this morning

I, I should have been in at six.

I, I had a puncture

- How late”?

- A quarter of an hour

- Did you knows her?

Have you seen her before?

- No. No, I've never seen her before

Excuse me.

- All right.

I'll talk to you later

You got anything?

- Nah, it's too soon to say

- Registration card. Hers

- Madeleine Clark, wife of Oswald J Clark

Detroit, Suite 406

When did they check in?

- Seven days ago with their son

and an English nurse named Darwell.

I've asked the manager
ta bring the nurse down

- Hm, and Monsieur Oswald J Clark?

- Left the hotel at eight
o'clock this morning

before she was discovered

- Hm, what was his wife doing
in the male staff locker room

of the Majestic Hotel
at six in the morning”

- She could have been brought here

- From the fourth floor?

She's heavier than she looks.

I wouldn't like to carry her down

a lot of narrow backstairs.

Can I?

Thanks

Not the usual sort of woman's toy

It's brand new, never been fired

- Looks as though she's expecting trouble

- She got it

(knocking on door)

- Well, that'll be the manager.

-Comeinl

- Inspector, Miss Darwell.

- Miss Darwell.

You know what's happened?

- Yes. I shall not be able
to help you very much

- I believe it's Mrs Clark
was your employer, HM?

- Mr. Clark was my employer

- Oh.

And how long have you known him?

- Three years

- How old is the boy?

- Six.

- Did you see Mrs Clark
leave her room this morning?

- No.

- Where do you sleep?

- In the room opposite.

On the other side of the corridor.

- Did you see Mr. Clark leave”

- No.

May I go now?

I have to attend to the boy, Patrice.

- What time do you get up?

- At seven.

I'm sorry, I don't think I
should answer any more questions

except in the presence of my employer.

- Where is he?

- I don't know.

- Very well, you may go.

Now, Monsieur Charles,

what can you tell me about Prosper Donge,

Your cellar man?

- Not a great deal, I'm afraid.

- Well, who can?

- Well, perhaps you could talk to Ramuel?

- Ramuel? Who's he?

- He's my chief cellar man

This way, please

- Taxi!

{sharp whistle)

- What'd she say?

- Orly airfield

- Orly? Right thanks

- Monsieur, I've always liked Donge

He's good at his job

He's never given any trouble

- Hm, yes.

None at all?

- Well, there was a little
thing some time ago

He hit another celler man

and turned over a rack of Latour '53.

- And would you sack a
man on the spot for that?

- In the usual way, yes

But, well, it was Jules pleading
for him, wasn't it, Ramuel?

- Yes, Monsieur Charles

Yes, I saw what happened

The other man called Donge
a carrot-headed bastard.

I'd have hit him myself
if I were carrot-headed.

- There's always a shortage
of good cellar men

- When was all this?

- Well, it must have been
about five years ago

Donge came here from the Miramar in Cannes

about five years ago

I've been here three years.

It was two years ago

- Two? Thank you.

- Monsieur.

- Do all the cellar staff get here at six?

- No, only Donge

He's on early turn this month

The rest come at eight.

- Including yourself?

- At eight?

Yes.

-Hm

- Monsieur Charles, how
would you bring a body

from the fourth floor to here?

- Well, in the service lift, Monsieur

- Hm, is that anywhere
near the Clark Suite?

- It's right at the end of that corridor,

comes out in the corner down there.

-Hm

- Would the guests know that?

- Well, I don't see how.

- They picked up Clark.

He's on his way

- Where was he going?

- Rome.

- Rome?

All right, Bring him here,
show him the body first

then take him up to his room

- I'll take you up in the
service lift, Monsieur.

- Service lift?

- Yeah, she didn't have to be carried

Convenient.

{suspenseful music)

- Madame Clark's room.

Monsieur Clark and the boy in between

- They wanted it that way

An the American custom.

- Hm, it's known here too

- Ah, it's a terrible thing

that a man can come into this hotel,

(knocking on door)

come into the room and...

- Patron, Monsieur Clark

Inspector Maigret

- Mr Clark, I would like to say

- Monsieur Clark, I am investigating
the death of your wife.

Has he?

All right, she can be
taken to the lab now.

If you would prefer an
hours' respite, Monsieur?

- There's no sense in putting it off.

Is Patrice, um?

- They've taken him to
the playroom, Monsieur

- And Ellen?

Miss. Darwell?

- I fancy that she passed you

while you were on your way back
from Orly airport, Monsieur.

Monsieur Charles, I'm sure you're anxious

to get on your rounds

- Ah yes. Thank you, thank you.

- Now, Monsieur Clark, why
were are you flying to Rome?

- On business.

- What is your business?

- Well, I have a ball
bearing factory in Detroit

That's why I came to Europe

A lot of competition now
from ltaly and Germany

I thought I better look
over the ground for myself

- Bringing the family”?

- Well, Madeleine, my wife, she's

She was French.

She hadn't been home for seven years.

She was keen on the trip

- But not on going to Rome?

- She didn't see any fun in
trailing after me to Rome

when she could have an extra
weeks' shopping in Paris

- Hm, was this planned?

- If you mean did I knows
I was going today? No

I only decided yesterday.

- Hm.

Mansieur Clark, you left
the hotel at eight o'clock

this meming

- That's right.

- To catch a 10.30 plane?

- Yeah.

- Hm?

- Well, I woke early

I went to get some air

I took a walk. I had a cup of coffee.

So what?

Ellen!

- Come in Miss Darwell.

We have reached a point where I think you

may be able to help us

Monsieur Clark, your wife was murdered

between 6 and 6.30 this morning

You left the hotel at eight
and she was already dead

when you left

- I didn't know.

We had separate rooms.

- You didn't try to say goodbye to her?.

- No, I. I looked in on Patrice,

but well, she kept that door closed

and I, well, I didn't want to disturb her

- Was your son asleep?

- Yes. I didn't wake him.

- Oh, so no one, beside yourself,

can say whether or not
you were in this room

between six and eight this moming?

- No, no cne

- Yes. I can because he
was with me all night

- Ellen!

- I had to tell him.

He would have found out anyway

What does it matter?

(deep sigh)

- All right. It's true

Mimi and I were washed up.

- You're not going to get a divorce?

- was aiming at it when
we got back to the States

- Your wife knew of your intention?

- Knew? Of course she knew.

- You told her?

- You don't have to tell a woman

that a man doesn't love her anymore

- Hm, Monsieur Clark, how long
have you and Miss Darwell?

Ellen and I have been
in love for two years.

- Two years?

So, very likely, it was
no secret from your wife

But you never asked
her for a divorce. Why?

- Because she'd have fought
like hell that's why!

Well, that's what you
wanted to know, isn't it?

Oh, leave it go, honey.

He's short of a motive.

He thinks I killed Mimi
to get her out of our way

- I only have the facts
to go on, Monsieur,

and they make you a suspect.

- Well, I'm calling the
embassy. I need a lawyer.

- I agree, Monsieur

- I told you, he was with me all night.

- I know, Mademoiselle

What else could you say?

(dramatic music)

- Ah, Madeleine, otherwise Mimi Clark

Born Mimi Lebeau, Nice, 1828.
father kept a grocery shop

Both parents dead

She won a beauty contest in
Monte-Carlo when she was 17.

After that worked in various Cabaret acts

as dancer and show girl

Well, that seems all Veron
was able to dig out at Nice

- Has she got a record?

- Only of marriage to
Clark in 1956 in Cannes.

- Cannes?

Hm, Prosper Donge, that
cellar man who found the body,

he came from Cannes.

- Ah, yes. What are you thinking?

- Well, they could've met?

- What? She and Donge? In
Cannes? It's a big place

You wanted to know about Ramuel.

Here we are. Born Poitiers in
1912 trained as bookkeeper,

various jobs in hotels.

Ah, first rate record in
resistance during the war,

wound up doing intelligence
work in Bureau 6X.

- You know. she needn't have been dead

- Patron?

- Madame Clark.

She could've come down to the locker room

in the lift herself.

- But why?

- A mission? A rendezvous?

She might not have
known what it was about.

So she'd be frightened,
suspicious, carry a gun

(knocking on door)

- Ah, Patron

- Now then, reporting on Donge

- Hm mm?

He lives with his wife out at Saint-Cloud

in a small house which he owns

and he left it at 5.30
this morning on his bike

just like he said

I got all this from girl in the dairy

across the road from where he lives.

- Oh. Is that all?

- Eh? Well, you asked for a
report, Patron, that's it

- Thank you, Torrance

Oh, when was he married?

- Eh? Ah, well now, that's the funny thing

because the girl in the
dairy doesn't think he is

She says the woman he lives with

only calls herself Madame Donge

- Where does she come from?

- Cannes.

- Cannes?

- Yes, that's right

She used to be a dancer there

until she started putting on weight.

- Another dancer.

- Hmm. Right, what's that address?

In Saint-Cloud?

- It's 79 Avenue Marichelle du Foch

- Right.

Don't leave the office, Lucas

I'll call you from Saint-Cloud

- Right.

(gentle music)

(knocking on door)

(knocking on door)

- [Unseen] Coming!

- Madame Donge™

- Yes.

- Chief inspector Maigret,

I'd like a word with your husband

- He's not back yet

Oh, the coffee's boiling over.

Come onin.

You better come in here, Inspector,

if you don't mind the kitchen

Ow, my girdle

Oh, what was it you wanted with Prosper?

- Just a little matter that we thought

he might be able to help us with.

- Something at the hotel?

- Mm

- Help yourself to some coffee

- Mm, thank you. Smells good

I'm sorry to have
interrupted your dressing

- Oh don't mind me, I only just got up

I don't get to bed till
five in the morning.

I've got a night job

- Prosper has a day job

- That's right.

I get up when Prosper goes to bed.

Is that what he said he was? My husband?

- No, he didn't actually

- Not that he wouldn't marry
me if if [ asked him to,

but I mean, what for?

We get on all right as we are

We're like brother and sister, really

I mean him working days
and me working nights,

don't get much chance to
be anything else, do we?

Still, I always say neither
of us ever has to get into

a cold bed.

- Have you known each other long”?

- Me and Prosper?

Oh, years and years.

Ever since Cannes.

He used to work at the Miramar, you know?

And you know, the way waiters have,

the minute they get off work,

they go to another place to be vraited on

Well, he used to come to the
Pelican every day, regular

between four and six.

- That's where you worked

- That's right.

And you'd never believe it, nobody does,

but I was a dancer in those days.

Me. Hah!

Look at me now.

Lavatory attendant at
the little old flea pit

in La Place Blanche.

That's all I'm fit for.

- Well, I think Prosper
is a very lucky man

- Do you really think so?

You should have seen me in those days,

I had the sort of figure
men would turn and stare at.

- I can imagine

(laughing)

- You work alone?

- Oh no, there was me and Mimi and Jo

We did a routine together

and then it all broke up

- Why?

- Oh Mimi got married

and .Jo went on the drink

and I got fat.

- Keep in touch?

- Well, Jo's still down there.

Would you like some more coffee?

- No.

- Prosper won't be more than a minute.

What's it all about anyway?

- Well, it's nothing very much

As a matter of fact, I don't
think I will bother to wait.

You'll tell Monsieur Donge, won't you?

- Well, what shall I say?

- Well, tell him I'll see
him at the hotel tomorrow.

Thank you very much for
the coffee, Madame Donge

Just what I needed.

- Madame Donge!

(giggles)

(gentle music)

- Wait here a minute, I
want to make a phone call

- Yes. I've got that

Molitor 23 75.

Right, hold on.

Torrance, get the exchange to
monitor all calls from there

during the next hour

Where are they likely to call from?

- Cannes, if my guess is correct.

{suspenseful music)

- Prosper!

You just missed him.

- Huh?

- The police inspector is after you.

What have you been up to?

- Oh God!

- But, he said it was nothing

- It's Mimi down at the hotel.

She's, she's been murdered.

(gasp)

- It wasn't, it wasn't me. I didn't do it.

- But that's why he was
asking all those questions

about us, down there

- You didn't tell him, did you?

- I told him about Jo.

- Who?

{jazzy music)

Jo?

Yes.

Just a minute.

Jo?

- Yeah?

- Some of your rich friends from Paris.

- Patron? She's just
got through to Cannes

- Jo? It's Charlotte.

No, Lotte from the Pelican

Don't you remember me?

- Cafe des Artistes. This is Jo talking

- [Jo] (drunkenly) Where
are you”? How have you been?

Heh heh, is Prosper still with you?

- [Charlotte] That's
what I'm calling about,

it's about Prosper.

- [Jo] Barreau, fill it up

- [Charlotte] There's
trouble. It's very important

- [Jo] Come onl

- [Charlotte] Jo, you've got to listen!

- [Jo] And tum off that
blasted music, will you?

I can't hear.

Yeah, La Lotte, I'm still here

- [Charlotte] It's for Prosper, Jo,

if the police ask you about Prosper

- [Jo] Don't look at me like that!

Police? I don't like police

- [Charlotte] Oh Jo, you must listen

If they ask you questions
you just don't know

- [Jo] No, I said fill it

- [Charlotte] You don't remember anything

about Prosper, Mimi and us

Anything.

- [Jo] Yeah, yeah, La Lotte, you trust me

- [Charlotte] Oh Jol

- [Jo] Will you cut out that mu

{phone drops)

- [Charlotte] Jo? Jo? Are you there?

- Sounds as though she's
fallen off the bar stool.

- [Charlotte] Jo, are you there?

- Take the next plane down there

- What, to Cannes?

- Yes.

Whatever you do, don't
look like a policeman

- Right.

{jazzy music)

- Mario! Mario!

Coffee and a cognac

And turn that blasted thing off.

- Ha ha ha

Mademoiselle! It is you, isn't it?

Jo Donau!

Well, well, well, Jo
de Zanzibar, isn't it?

I knew I wasn't wrong.

May 1?

Ha, ha, ha, a small world, a small world.

You don't remember me?

- Should 1?

- Seven years ago. Maurice
des Jacques, theatrical agent

used to book [ots of acts just like yours.

- Oh, you're in the business

- (laughing) Am I in the business?

I never forget a face or
a figure, on a contract.

What'll you have?

- Cognac. Thanks.

- It wasn't the Zanzibar,
it was the Pelican.

- Of course! you and that girl,

what was her name?

Mimi, Mimi.._le what? Mimi Lebeau!

{jazzy music)

- And who was the other
one? You know, the big one,

the one with the figure

- Oh, you mean La Lotte?

- That's right, yes. Yes.

Quite a routine you had,
the three, three, three

- The Three Graces.

- Yeah!

- Yeah.

That was classical.

High class music. None of this junk.

We stripped to Beethoven.

- Pity.

- What?

- He'd have liked it.

- Who?

- Beethoven.

Pity it all broke up?

- What?

- The three of you. The act.

- Yeah.

- Barman, keep them going

- Well, it's the one thing you can't do

when you're a stripper,

start a family

- Yeah. Spoiled many a career

- Yeah, well, we'd never have made it

Not La Lotte and me.

But Mimi...

- Ah, now Mimi had
something. She really did

- Yeah, and chucked it away

- She could have done anything.

- Well she did really

-Eh?

- Well, You wouldn't know about this,

but when she found she was pregnant

she starts a dead set at this American

that was hanging round

Rich as dirt!

They were married inside the month

- What?

- Well, that's Mimi all over

I mean, talk about falling on your feet!

(laughing)

- You mean she let the American
think the child was his?

- Of course!

And he never knew.

(laughing)

- Well, who was the real father?

- Well now, this is the real

- Deing all right are ya?

Phone calls from Paris,
friends coming to visit ya

- La Lotte.

She told me and I was too stinking drunk

(laughing)

- Cop! A dirty cop!

- That's not bad Brandy

- And you never guessed

- No. I swallowed that
kid hook, line and sinker.

Red hair, freckles, all of it.

You might think me all
kinds of a fool, Inspector,

but when I married Mimi I, I loved her.

- How did your wife
explain the boys looks?

- Well, she said her own
father was a redhead.

Patrice was named after him.

Seemed all right to me

Wait a minute.

- You've thought of something?

- Yeah,

those letters.

- Letters?

- She didn't get much mail,

that's how I came to netice them.

Violet ink on a green
envelope, French stamp,

always the same handwriting

I didn't know who they were
from or what was in them.

But I guess I do now

- How often did they come?

- Every three months.

I figured maybe some relative

she didn't want to tell me about.

See, I gave Mimi a pretty good allowance

I never asked her what she did with it.

That was her affair.

But one day, just by chance,

I came across some old
bank statements of hers

and I glanced through them

There was this quarterly payment,

always for the same amount, $2,000

Well, now I can put the two together

The letters...

- And the payments

- Blackmail.

(dramatic music)

- Marie, please, you'll get me the sack.

Wait till I come home.

- [Unseen] You mean
till the cows come home

Where have you been for
the last three nights?

- Herel Here, I tell you!

Now get out!

- And you expect me to believe that?

- Where the hell do you think I'd go?

You've locked me out of my own house

- Yes, three nights ago

What about the other two?

Don't tell me you haven't
got a warm bed somewhere

You think I don't know you?

You think I don't know
your rotten little game?

- Oh Marie, for God's sakel

- You think I'm going to
keep your rotten house

on the rotten few Francs you give me?

while you go off for three nights

chasing off your rotten fancy bits?

- Oh, shut up!

Shut up!

How do you do, Inspector?

This is my wife

- Madame.

- Will you be back tonight?

- Yes, my dear.

- Because if you're not,
you know what'll happen

- Yes. My dear

- She make habit of this?

- It's the first time she's tried it here.

And the last.

- Hmm.

Why did you lie to the police?

- Lie?

- Yeah. The morning of the murder,

you said that you came in here at eight.

- 1 did.

- You spent the night here.

I just heard you say so

- Yes. There's a restroom
for the staff on late duty.

I slept there.

- Why didn't you tell me?

- Because in the first place

I was breaking hotel regulations

The day staff aren't supposed to use it

Well, if the manager heard

- All right, I won't tell him

And the second?

- Because I'd have had to explain why

Would you want to admit that
you were married to a bitch

who'll lock you out of your own house

whenever she felt like it?

- You have my sympathy

You're like a Captain on the
bridge, here, aren't you?

- Well, there's a lot
of valuable stock here,

I've got to see everything that goes on

It hasn't made me a Captain yet.

- Hm.

- Is that all you wanted, Inspector?

To see my quarter deck?

- No. I'm looking for Prosper Donge

- Well, he asked for the day
off, he said he was sick.

- Yes.

What's his work? Hm?

- Well, he keeps check of the stock

makes entries in his book here.

- In violet ink?

- That's what the hotel provides

- You haven't seen him write letters here?

- Letters?

- Yeah, though you knew
everything that went on here

- I've never seen him write letters.

He's not supposed to

- Well, he does, you know,

on green paper and in viclet ink

It's enough to sour the wine.

- Yes. Donge had an account
with our Cannes branch

and he transferred here five years ago

- How much?

- Quite modest then, 500,000 Francs

Old Francs, of course

The sort of small savings
one would expect of a waiter

- Did he keep on paying
in after he came to Paris?

- Oh yes, he was very regular.

Then in the second year
he drew everything out

to buy his house in Saint-Cloud

- But he kept the account open?

- Yes.

- And did he come to the bank himself?

- Well, at first, yes, but not afterwards

- After what?

- After he bought the house

- I see. Did you deal with him personally”?

- Oh no, no. I never even met him

No. Claudel, one of my
cashiers, saw to his account.

- I'd like to talk to him if I may

- You'll have to consult
a spiritualist, Monsieur,

Claudel is dead.

- Well that's a big help

Have you got any idea why he
stopped coming to the bank”?

Well, I suppose it was
a matter of convenience.

He wrote to us saying that he'd
be transacting his business

by letter, that was after
he moved from Saint-Cloud.

- He moved from Saint-Cloud?.

- Well, yes, to number 22 Rue D'Anjou

- Aha.

It looks as though he started
paying in again after that

- Oh yes

It was after he moved from Saint-Cloud

that we received the
first American payment

to his account for $2,000

- American.

- Well, that's all there is.

I'd let it out before I even
remembered you'd rung me

- But you didn't tell him about Prosper?

- Oh, I told him enough

- Oh anyway, it's done now

- Yeah.

Make no mistake Prosper,

it's you they're after

- But Prosper didn't kill Mimi!

- Tell that to the cop
who's watching outside

- What?

What shall we do?

- Get away, that's the answer.

Look, I know the cops

They get you, they talk to you,

lead you up the garden

Dirty, stinking!

If I see that fellow again.

Him. they'll have him confessing
half the murders in Paris

before they'll tell him what day it is

- Prosper, do you hear that?

Well, where can he hide?

And what about him?

- Oh, I've eaten bigger
ones than him for breakfast.

You can leave him to me.

No, it's that one who saw me in Cannes

you've got to worry about.

Hey look, we'll get Prosper to Cannes

And once he's there I know a dozen places

- Prosper, do you hear that?

- At least she gave him
a French name, Patrice

- Ohl He's still going
on about that kid of his.

That's all he ever
wanted, a kid of his own.

And it was taken away from him

What Mimi ever saw in you,
you carrot-headed fool

Why couldn't I have given him one?

Prosper!

{entrance bell ringing)

- Do you know him?

Or his name?

Donge.

DON GE

- You've got no right to do that!

They're private!

- Take it easy. Take it easy.

You'll burst a blood vessel.

Tell me, do your clients
collect their mail

or do you forward them on?

- This is a Poste Restante,
work it out for yourself.

- I like you, cooperative type

Never mind, it takes all sorts, en?

-'Allo, ‘allo, "allo,

sidelines, hm?

Blond. English lessons
Correctional exercises?

Who are you trying to fool?

We could close you up
just like that, you know

- It's been tried.

I've been here for 42 years

The number of angry husbands
I've seen standing where

you are now, waiving their fist at me!

I tell you no more than I tell them,

if I did, no customers

You want me to starve?

- You know, you're breaking my heart

You go buy yourself a button

- All right, come back. Torrance

- It was all because
of this woman, Patron,

she started having a fit.

Well, I had to do something, Patron.

She began taking her clothes
off, right there in the street.

- Yes, I know, she used to
be a well-known stripper.

All right, you can come back now.

Well?

- The Rue D'Anjou is an
accommodation address,

a Poste Restante.

- And the proprietor is an oyster?

- The one I get's an example.

He's not afraid of angry husbands

He wasn't afraid of me, either.

One thing I did find out,
clients have to collect

their letters personally

- Hmm. Well, that's scmething

Lucas, did you ever see
Clark's boy, Patrice?

- No.

Should we cover Rue D'Anjou?

If he goes to collect
his mail, We've got him

- Yeah. But Donge has disappeared

- What was Torrance doing”?

- Coping with an ex-stripper

who's putting on the
finest act of her life.

Well, it doesn't matter.

Lucas, when did you last have a night off?

- Me? I work 24 hours a day.

- Good. I think I knows
what's on Donge's mind

(stairs creaking)

(coughing)

{suspenseful music)

(door closing)

- Patrice.

- Going somewhere?

- Argh

- C'mon now. Don't wake up your son

(dramatic music)

(deep sigh)

- Torrance!

- Patron?

- Bring in some coffee.

Are you hungry?

Rolls for one.

- Right, Patron.

Now, while we're waiting we'll
put on our favourite record

Now, you were having this affair
with Mimi Lebeau in Cannes.

You knew that she was
expecting your child

- No. Do you think I would've
let her marry that...?

- Why, when did you find out?

- Charlotte told me.

- Who told her?

- She knows. She always knew

- So what did you do?

I told you! I wrote to Mimi four or five,

four or five times.

I begged her ta let me have my son

I wanted my...

- What did she reply”?

- She didn't reply! She didn't!

- She sent you money.

- No.

- It's in your account
at the bank, $20,000

100,000 New Francs

- I told you I closed my account

I took out all my money when
I, when I bought my house.

- How did you close it?

- By letter. I wrote the bank a letter.

- All right, we'll go on to the next bit.

By a miracle she turns up here

with her husband and your son.

At the very hotel where you're working

- It was a miracle. It was.

-Goon.

- I sent her a message.

I asked her to come down
to the staff locker room.

- Why there?

- Because it was the
only place at six o'clock

in the morning when nobody would see us.

I told her how to use the service lift.

I was late.

I had this puncture. She'd gone

Or she hadn't come. I didn't know what...

- Why did you go back there later?

- I thought I might find some
sign that she'd been there,

something I'd missed

I stood looking around and

Then I opened,

opened that locker door

Lucas!

Take him in then.

- Come on. Up you get

- Give him that.

{Door closing)

- Well that is it.

He's not a fool

and he's not a clever man.

He's obsessed by his son

And he's got an answer to everything

- Hm. Well, at least we know
why Mimi took the revolver

She obviously was going
to meet her blackmailer.

Mind you we've only Donge's word for it,

that he was delayed by that puncture

- Hm. We've only got
Donge's word for anything

What's the name of that bank manager?

- Um, Jolivet.

- Jolivet.

Well, as soon as the banks
are open, ask Monsieur Jolivet

how it is that Donge still
has an account at his bank

when he sent a letter
closing it three years ago

- Did you say closing
it? But it is still open

No. no, we never received such a letter

- This is insane.

No, no, no, not you, Monsieur Jolivet

Me, us, the whole thing.

Allright, I'm sorry we troubled you

- It's no trouble, Monsieur

As a matter of fact, I
was going to call you

We received a letter from
Donge in this morning's mail

Shall I read it to you”?

- Another one? Well, yes, go ahead

Wait a minute.

What's that?

In Brussels?

Oh, this is ridiculous.

You better come over, Monsieur Jolivet,

bring that letter with you, will you?

Yes. Right away

Patron, Donge never closed his
account in, in, at the bank

He wrote to them this morning
asking for the entire balance

to be transferred to the
National Bank in Brussels,

105,000 New Francs.

- Is it supposed to be a forgery”?

- I'm not falling for that. You tell me.

- Well, it could be

And vet again, this letter
is written with the same pen,

that's almost certain,

-Hm

- The same ink.

It's written in great disturbance of mind.

And so are these last entries
in this stock book here

A desperate man, I should say

- A desperate man..

- No, it's no good,

I shall have to give
it the full treatment.

Do you mind if I keep them a little while”

- All right, but as soon as you can.

- If it is a forgery, I've
never seen anything as good

Why, the man would have to be trained

Not only that, he'd have
to get right into the skin

of the man he was copying,
watch everything he did

almost become that man.

Have I said something?

- The Captain on the bridge,

he's a desperate man, all right.

To get away from that wife
of his, among other things

A trained forger? No.

- Patron?

Ramuel worked in intelligence,
Bureau 6X during the war,

had an excellent record.

There we are,

- Enemy documents section, of course!

They used to forge like mad

Command orders, passports,
identity cards, the lot

- Anyone who could fool the Gestapo

wouldn't have much trouble with the bank.

With apologies to Monsieur Jolivet,

- Yes, but what am I going to do?

A letter from a client is an order.

I must transmit this money

Unless you have proof.

- What does it entail,
this sending of money? HM?

- A paper transaction,
there's no difficulty

- Oh but there is.

It's very complicated business

Endless forms to sign, hm”

In front of witnesses.

- Do you think Ramuel will fall for it?

- That depends how desperate he is

{entrance bell ringing)

- Is there anything?

- Patron? Would you mind?

It worked!

Yes. He's just gone out now

Oh, bad news, definitely

He's crossing the road

He's talking to his taxi driver

- 1, I don't understand

Why didn't you post me the
declaration in the usual way”?

- As I explained, any transfer abroad

of over 50,000 Francs must
be declared by the exporter

and the signature witnessed
by an authorised person

A formality but there it is

- Is that all?

- That's all.

Tiresome but then we live
in a bureaucratic age

We're all victims.

Use my pen

There, Where I've marked

- Thank you

- And thank you

Prosper Donge.

Beautiful. Shall I witness it?

(dramatic music)

- Your Captain on the bridge, eh?

- Mm

- Ramuel must often have seen
Donge writing his letters

when he ought to have been at his work

- How would he know what was in them?

- Quite simple, when he was
in the middle of writing one,

send him away for 10
minutes and then read it.

- And that's how he
found out about Patrice

- Started the whole sordid business.

Your wife thought that she
was sending the money to Donge

and all the time Ramuel was getting it.

- Poor Mimi. Of all the hotels in Paris,

I had to pick this one.

- Fate, Monsieur, and don't
start blaming yourself for that

- But why should he want to kill her?

- To prevent her from
meeting Donge, Monsieur Clark

Ramuel came into this locker room

just before six on that moming

He saw his blackmail victim standing there

waiting for Donge. Who else?

And Donge was due to report
for work at any moment

So he had less than a
minute to save his skin.

He panicked

- You want to see me, Inspector?

(door shutting)

- It's Monsieur Clark
who wants to see you

Is the boy still upstairs?

- Yeah.

- Well?

- Came an Mr.Donge, you'll
want to see your son.

- Saint Augustine, that's a very rare one.

- Oh, [think I gone
off wine for this week.

Let's go and have a beer