Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Tattoos
    The Tattoos
    The Tattoos
    Ebook123 pages2 hours

    The Tattoos

    By Eugene Lapole

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Book 3: After the First World War Maigret returns to France and goes to work for the French Police. He loaths the new director of the S. N., Nardon, since he is one of the asses from the First War that led to the French army mutiny. Over a million men died because there was no adjustment made for the machine gun and other improvements made in the technology of war. As a 'new' recruit Maigret gets the morgue duty, calculated to sicken. That however is not its effect on Maigret. On his first visit he notices a tattoo on a freshly recovered corpse that had spent the last week or longer rotting in the Seine. Later another body turns up with the same tattoo and Maigret's guide to his first day at the morgue calls him up to come and see it. Maigret notices a curious feature about the tattoo and on the off chance sends a letter to his father. His father recognizes the symbol on the tattoo and realizes that the number on what appears to be a bar is the number of a gold bar missing from a Belgium bank. The bank lost nearly 200 bars to looting during the German retreat from Belgium. Thinking this might lead to the recovery of those missing bars Maigret is asked by his father to investigate. Nothing comes of it until another body turns up with the same tattoo, this time in rural France. The victim is the headmaster of a girl's school that he and his wife ran. By this time Maigret is in more trouble with Nardon who gets rid of him by sending him to investigate the new body. Later when Nardon discovers that Maigret only went because he hoped this new body might lead to the recovery of the gold, which it does not, he is furious. Another version of the tattoo turns up in Paris and this on the slimmest of leads leads to recovering the gold from the villain of Maigret's first case, The Circle Game. For this Maigret receives some commendation from Belgium's king and a promotion from Nardon's brother who runs the French Police. Nardon gets rid of Maigret by posting him to rural France where Maigret solves two cases before resigning and moving to England (A Case of Hysteria and The Seven Sisters). Eugene's version of the tattoos once published convinces Nardon that Maigret has acted outside the law, and given his dislike of Maigret, Nardon does everything in his power to catch Maigret and prosecute him. This may be another reason for the move back to England. The murder that Maigret investigates is something of a psychological horror story, that has much in common with a similar murder reported as Les Diabolique, or The Devils.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEugene Lapole
    Release dateAug 3, 2015
    The Tattoos
    Author

    Eugene Lapole

    BIOGRAPHY Eugene Lapole is a retired English teacher who taught creative writing and drama for thirty years, writing plays for his students to produce. He's a devoted advocate of the plain and simple style of writing, interested in the matter of facts of history, and in all the sciences. While teaching, he worked for twenty years on an etymological dictionary (not published) and wrote poetry. After retiring he spent several years working on edited versions of Herodotus, Livy, and several other Classical Historians, with a particular interest in forensic analysis of their texts, in an effort to clear up many 'mysteries' and 'problems' posed by the imperative of their time (lying to please their patron, for one). For a more recreational pass time he started to write murder-mysteries, but with a twist. These were called in general The Unfortunate Cases of Inspector Maigret, (of which 30 plus have been written) because none of those cases could be solved in a traditional manner. In some cases the guilty party could not be brought to justice, for one reason or another and yet Maigret strives to find a satisfactory solution. All the stories are presented in pure dialogue with no external narrative. Thus they read like plays or film scripts.

    Read more from Eugene Lapole

    Related to The Tattoos

    Related ebooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Just a Kiss

      Jun 4, 2020

      Just a Kiss
      6 min read

    • Article

      An Afternoon In Her Shoes

      Jul 26, 2022

      An Afternoon In Her Shoes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      What is the uncanny valley? asks the student and I draw the graph on the board, and point to the lowest point, and then move up the slope; This is like a scarecrow, it’s kinda shaped like a human but you’re not sure; This is where you’d put a mannequ

      6 min read

    • Article

      Chuckles

      Dec 15, 2023

      A man returns home from a night out and is quite inebriated. He’s trying to get into his house but can’t get the keys into the keyhole. A stranger passes by and asks the man if he can help him unlock his door. “No,” the man replies. “I’ll insert the

      2 min read

    • Article

      Conveyor

      Jul 10, 2023

      I’m sitting upright in a chair in a bright, white room that makes me think of a clinic. I don’t know where I am nor how I got here. Two people, strangers, stand in front of me. One is wearing a pale blue uniform with a yellow badge on his chest. He s

      9 min read

    • Article

      AN EXCERPT FROM The First Line of Dante’s ‘Inferno’

      Dec 1, 2020

      Early forties, tall, self-possessed. Hiking in the woods in search of her missing sister. A young park ranger, late twenties. Pretty. Slim. Strong. The play is formatted like prose; however, it is intended for performance. If actors simply perform th

      15 min read

    • Article

      Chuckles

      Jun 4, 2021

      Hannah: Whatever happened to that couple who met in the revolving door? Peter: I think they’re still going around together. A schoolteacher carefully explains the story of Adam and Eve in the children’s Sunday school class. Afterwards, the children a

      4 min read

    • Article

      New NEIGHBOUR

      Oct 21, 2020

      “It was a cold rainy morning and Mr Dear was staring out of the sitting room window. He does this because a) he thinks it makes him look wistful and sensitive, and b) he knows it annoys me when I’m dusting because he could be lifting up all the usele

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Joy Of Quitting

      May 19, 2019

      The Joy Of Quitting
      7 min read

    • Article

      You Talkin’ To Me?

      Nov 9, 2023

      You Talkin’ To Me?
      3 min read

    • Article

      A tricky MOMENT

      Mar 10, 2021

      “As the great feminist thinker Tammy Wynette so vividly reminds us, sometimes it’s hard to be a woman. Yet it seems that life as a man isn’t always a bowl of cherries eaten on a bed of roses, while watching Match of the Day. As Mr Dear complained t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Chuckles

      Jul 7, 2023

      I don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account. I just walk around announcing out loud what I’m doing at random times. I’ve got three followers so far, but I think two are cops. ■ What does a shoemaker say when he sneezes? A shoe! ■ What’s it called w

      4 min read

    • Article

      Six Stories

      Sep 8, 2020

      I’m on the train, traveling alone, with two seats to myself. I have to use the restroom. Without thinking about it carefully, I ask a couple across the aisle if they would please watch my things for me for a moment. Then I take a closer look at them

      8 min read

    • Article

      Performance

      Nov 10, 2022

      “Wait here,” the guard said as he shut the door behind him, leaving me by myself. The floor inside the lab was polished, and the air smelled of disinfectant, and yet the room felt unclean. Leaves shook on a tree outside the window, making shadows on

      18 min read

    • Article

      Chuckles

      Feb 11, 2022

      Fancy yourself a joker? Email original jokes to chuckles@you.co.za or send them to Chuckles, YOU, PO Box 7167, Roggebaai 8012, and we may publish them on this page. Sue’s husband, a scout leader, gets sick. Though she’s never been camping before, she

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Girl I Knew Somewhere

      Dec 2, 2021

      The Girl I Knew Somewhere
      6 min read

    • Article

      “Apparently Life Goes On …”

      Jan 25, 2023

      “Apparently Life Goes On …”
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2021

      “Psst, I need to talk to you.” My best friend, looking super excited, is pulling me toward the nearest classroom. It’s empty, and she shuts the door. “This is really big. I made a time machine, and it can take our brains back in time if you know how

      7 min read

    • Article

      “Apparently Life Goes On ...”

      Jan 29, 2023

      “Apparently Life Goes On ...”
      7 min read

    • Article

      Peeping DEBS

      May 3, 2023

      As it’s quiet,’ said Grace, my charity shop colleague, ‘may I pop to the bookshop to get some fuses?’ ‘Fuses? When did the bookshop start selling fuses?’ ‘They don’t sell them, silly. Lovely Chris has a spare box that he’s brought in for me. I’ve run

      3 min read

    • Article

      Good news, BAD NEWS

      Nov 30, 2022

      The good news is that I’m still married. And the bad news? Well, we’ll come to that in due course. It is true that a temporary frost had descended over Dear Towers, as you’ll remember if you were good enough to visit last week. This was because Mr D

      3 min read

    • Article

      Love Story

      Apr 22, 2022

      ‘She looked into his handsome, craggy face, his black hair blowing in the cold wind. He smiled at her, tracing his finger lightly down her arm. She shivered and, misunderstanding, he took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders, holding it clo

      3 min read

    • Article

      Coming To Terms

      May 25, 2021

      Coming To Terms
      14 min read

    • Article

      Choriza May

      Dec 3, 2021

      Choriza May
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Tattoos

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Tattoos - Eugene Lapole

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1