Maigret and the Hotel Majestic/The Watcher/Death of an Expert Witness [antikvár]

ONEProsper Donge's Flat TireA car door slamming. The first thing he heard each day. The motor continued to run outside. Charlotte was probably saying goodbye to the driver. Then the taxi drove off. Footsteps. The sound of the key in the lock and the click of the electric light switch.A match was being struck in the kitchen, and he heard the slow "pfffttt" as the gas came alight.Charlotte climbed slowly up the newly built staircase, having been on her feet all night. She crept noiselessly into the room. Another light switch. The light came on, through a pink handkerchief with wooden tassles at the corners that served as a makeshift shade.Prosper Donge kept his eyes firmly closed. Charlotte undressed, glancing at herself in the wardrobe mirror. When she got to her bra and girdle, she sighed. She was as plump and pink as a Rubens, but had a passion for constricting herself When she had finished undressing, she rubbed the bruise marks on her skin.She had an irritating way of getting into the bed, kneeling on it first so that the mattress dipped to one side."Your turn, Prosper!"He got up. She dived quickly into the warm hollow he had left, pulled the bedcovers up to her eyes, and lay there unmoving."Is it raining?" he asked, running water into the sink.A muffled groan. It didn't matter. The water was icy, unfit for shaving. Trains rumbled past below.Prosper Donge got dressed. Charlotte sighed from time to time, because she couldn't get to sleep with the light on. Just as he stretched out his right hand to the switch, with his other hand already on the doorknob, she muttered thickly:"Don't forget to pay the installment for the radio."There was hot coffee on the stovetoo hot. He drank it standing up.