The Search for Louise’s Father

Maigret and the Dead Girl

This flow follows the old photograph and the recovered criminal identity that reveal the dangerous secret behind Louise’s final journey.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Kept Photograph The Kept Photograph from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The Kept Photograph An Old Image Among Louise’s few belongings, Madame Crêmieux remembers a worn photograph of a distinguished man in a pale suit.

The Kept Photograph from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The Kept Photograph An Old Image Among Louise’s few belongings, Madame Crêmieux remembers a worn photograph of a distinguished man in a pale suit.

The Kept Photograph An Old Image Among Louise’s few belongings, Madame Crêmieux remembers a worn photograph of a distinguished man in a pale suit. Louise had kept it in a notebook, but gave no explanation beyond saying that the man was her father. An Identity Without a Name The photograph is an intimate clue, yet it provides no immediate answer. It joins Louise’s hidden past to the present investigation and gives Jules Maigret a reason to look beyond the people she met in Paris.

A Mother’s Story A Mother’s Story from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". A Mother’s Story Germaine in Monte Carlo Féret finds Germaine Laboine at the Monte Carlo Casino, absorbed in roulette.

A Mother’s Story from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". A Mother’s Story Germaine in Monte Carlo Féret finds Germaine Laboine at the Monte Carlo Casino, absorbed in roulette.

A Mother’s Story Germaine in Monte Carlo Féret finds Germaine Laboine at the Monte Carlo Casino, absorbed in roulette. She recalls that Louise left home at sixteen and that a letter from Mademoiselle Poré once warned her to take care of the girl. The Missing Father Germaine describes a Dutchman who lived with her in Istanbul, claimed to marry her, and vanished after their child was born. His intermittent money orders and letters never gave her a clear account of his whereabouts or work.

The False Marriage The False Marriage from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The False Marriage A Promise in Istanbul Germaine remembers Julius Van Cram presenting himself as a gentleman and saying they were married in Istanbul.

The False Marriage from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The False Marriage A Promise in Istanbul Germaine remembers Julius Van Cram presenting himself as a gentleman and saying they were married in Istanbul.

The False Marriage A Promise in Istanbul Germaine remembers Julius Van Cram presenting himself as a gentleman and saying they were married in Istanbul. She believed him, returned to France with him, and gave birth to Louise in Nice. The Discovered Fraud Years later, officials rejected the Turkish paper Germaine had relied on: she had never been legally married. Van Cram’s disappearance thus becomes more than an abandoned relationship; it marks the beginning of a life built around a man who concealed his identity.

The Criminal File The Criminal File from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The Criminal File Names Across Borders Jules Maigret searches police records and finds no convincing file under Julius Van Cram.

The Criminal File from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The Criminal File Names Across Borders Jules Maigret searches police records and finds no convincing file under Julius Van Cram.

The Criminal File Names Across Borders Jules Maigret searches police records and finds no convincing file under Julius Van Cram. A cross-reference instead leads to Hans Ziegler, a multilingual confidence trickster known under a string of aliases. A Pattern of Fraud The records describe a practiced swindler who lured wealthy victims into handing over money, then vanished with an accomplice. The history makes Germaine’s vanished partner newly legible, while leaving open what happened to the proceeds of his crimes.

The Message from Prison The Message from Prison from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The Message from Prison Confirmation Abroad Jules Maigret learns from Clark that Julius Van Cram had died in Sing Sing Penitentiary under another name.

The Message from Prison from "Maigret and the Dead Girl". The Message from Prison Confirmation Abroad Jules Maigret learns from Clark that Julius Van Cram had died in Sing Sing Penitentiary under another name.

The Message from Prison Confirmation Abroad Jules Maigret learns from Clark that Julius Van Cram had died in Sing Sing Penitentiary under another name. A former partner, Jimmy O’Malley, had recently been released and crossed the Atlantic to leave Louise instructions. An Inheritance at Risk The message directed Louise to a Polish tailor in Brooklyn, where $100,000 was hidden. What might have become a new beginning instead explains why criminals targeted her: the fortune was real, her identity was essential, and her ignorance made her easy to exploit.

The first day at Madame Crêmieux’s flat

Late on the second day

Years before the murder, recalled during Féret’s call

The morning after Germaine’s account

At the inquiry’s climax, during the call to the United States