OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

286 MAINLY MAIGRET
" Have you any further statement to make? You, Le Clinche? •
" No."
" Buzier? "
" I insist that I am innocent and I demand to be set free."
" And you? "
Adele was making up her lips.
" Me? "~a dab of lipstick—" I "—a look in her mirror—" have
nothing at all to say. All men are mugs! You heard this boy here,
for whom I could maybe have done something pretty silly? You
needn't look at me like that, Gaston. . . . Now, if you want my
opinion, it is that in all this affair on the boat there are things we
know nothing about. Just because there was a woman on board
you thought that explained everything. But suppose it was something
else? "
" Such as . . . ? "
" I don't know . . . Fm not the police. . . ."
She arranged her hair under her red straw toque. Maigret noticed
that Le Clinche turned away his head.
The two detectives exchanged a look. Girard announced:
" Le Clinche will go back to his cell. You two will wait in the
parlour. In a quarter of an hour I shall let you know whether you
are free or not. . . ."
The detectives were left alone, both rather worried.
" Are you going to propose to the examining magistrate that he
should let them go? " asked Maigret.
" Yes! I think it's the best thing to do. They may be mixed up
in the affair. At the same time, there are other elements that have
escaped us. . . ."
" Parbleu! "
" Hello! Give me the Le Havre Law Courts. . •. Hello 1 Yes, the
Court!"
A little later, while Superintendent Girard was talking to the
magistrate, there was a disturbance in the corridor. Maigret rushed
out and saw Le Clinche lying on the ground struggling with three
men in uniform.
He was in a terrible state of over-excitement. His bloodshot eyes
were starting out of his head, his mouth dribbled. But, held down
on every side, he could not move.
" What happened? "
" We hadn't bothered to put handcuffs on him as he'd always
been so quiet. Then, coming down the corridor, he tried to take