La nuit du carrefour

the long version

A classic among Simenons, this is the story of Maigret's night vigil at the Three Widows' Crossroads, where the body of a Jewish diamond-merchant had been found. Pompous M. Michonnet, at one house, owned the car containing the corpse; aristocratic Carl Andersen, the Dane, owned the garage containing the car; and vulgar M. Oscar, at the service-station, simply sold petrol to all-comers. None of them knew a thing. Then the victim's widow is shot dead at Maigret's feet, and he plunges into action to uncover a tight little criminal web with a woman at the center of it.