Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 26, No. 4. Whole No. 143, October 1955

“Take it easy, Mademoiselle. I’m only asking you to think things over and see if you can remember certain details, which may not have struck you as important at the time... For instance, when was the last time Justin Galmet came to your department?”

The name obviously depressed her and he was half sorry to spoil her enjoyment of a good lunch.

“It was a Saturday,” she said thoughtfully. “I remember it quite well, because that’s always a particularly busy day and we’re dead on our feet by the end of it.”

“A Saturday, then... Did Galmet sit down?”

“In my department that’s very rare. Occasionally, when a customer looks over a number of items. But he never sat down, to my recollection.”

“So from where he stood, he could see the floor below?”

“Yes, he could look down on the slipper department, the bargain counter, the cashier at ‘No. 89’ and the doors leading out to the street. The same things I see myself every day.”

“Now, don’t answer my next question too quickly. On that last day, didn’t you notice a motion or look of surprise, as if he had suddenly seen a familiar face in the crowd?”

“That I don’t know,” she said at last. “But there’s one thing — he didn’t buy a snap-hook that day.”

“Ah! You didn’t tell us! In other words, he suddenly went away...”

“Yes, he went downstairs.”

“And nothing else struck you as out of the ordinary?”

He seemed to be hypnotizing her into a remembrance of what had happened. She said reflectively, “I had a lot of customers. For a quarter of an hour or so, I forgot about him. Then, as I was taking someone over to the cashier, I glanced downstairs and saw, to my surprise, that he hadn’t yet left the store.”

“Where was he, exactly?”

“He was standing not far from Gaby.”

“Is that all?”

“I was very busy that day, and on account of the recent thefts, I had to keep an eye-on my own department. But I’m practically positive that I caught a glimpse of him again some time later. I shouldn’t like you to go by what I can tell you... When you’re looking down at a crowd of jostling people, you can’t be too sure. But I thought I saw him talking to another man.”

“Can you describe the other man?”

“No, except that he had on a gray hat... After that I didn’t see Justin Galmet again until the following Monday, when he went to Gaby’s department. He was waiting for me Tuesday, after work, but I didn’t want to speak to him. It was then that he told me not to worry about what he was doing and promised he’d explain later. I finally gave in, and we came to have a bite in this same place. Yes, just at this table, to the left of the door. Two days later he took me to see the house. He was very happy, and anxious to move into it... What’s the matter?”

The Little Doctor had turned so serious and was staring at her with such a frown that she wondered what in the world he had got out of her story.

“What day of the week is this?” he asked brusquely.

“Saturday...”

He started, and looked at the dishes before them as if he were anxious to see them taken away.

“Will you have some dessert?” he asked, and since she did not dare answer yes, he called for the check. Then without bothering to take her back to the store he jumped into a taxi.

“Quai des Orfèvres... Police Headquarters... Yes, driver, and hurry!”

“Are you back so soon?” asked the Inspector, looking like a statue beside the jumping-jack Little Doctor.

“Yes, so soon... First of all, give me some figures on the thefts in the big stores.”

“That’s easy enough. They keep very accurate statistics — accurate and terrifying. One place on the Left Bank calculates its loss by theft at nearly twenty million francs a year. That’s why all such stores employ a small army of Private detectives.”

“Are the thieves specialists?”

“Yes and no. First of all there are the shoplifters — women and girls who can’t afford to buy what they want and just take it. Yard goods are what they are mostly after. Then come the big battalions of semi-pros — women, too, because they have all sorts of ways of concealing their plunder. They carry shopping bags or have hiding places in their clothes. There was one, I remember, who pretended to be pregnant, and was stuffing things into a sort of kangaroo pouch under her dress. They usually work in pairs, so that one can distract the clerk while the other is stealing. We know a lot of these women but it’s difficult to catch them red-handed. They can smell out both the store detectives and our own men, and make their getaway so fast that we can’t stop them without raising a terrible rumpus. And that’s the last thing the stores want...”

“Isn’t there any bigger game?”

“Oh, yes,” said Lucas with a slightly bored air. “Certain jobs are too daring and clever to have been pulled off by women. But we’ve never laid our hands on any rings...”

“Then there are organized rings?”

“I really don’t know. I’d like to say yes, but we haven’t the proof.”

“And have there been many big jobs in the last few months?”

“Just the normal number, I imagine, that is in the big stores...”