OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

298 MAINLY MAIGRET
let a glimmer of a look filter through. And that look sought out
Marie Leonnec.
Just as the inspector rose, a shot rang out and there was a general
uproar and a scraping of chairs.
•
Le Clinche did not move immediately. Only his body drooped
imperceptibly to the left, and his mouth opened in a faint rattle.
Marie Leonnec was slow in understanding because she had not
seen the weapon. She threw herself on him, embraced his knees and
his right hand, and turned to the inspector in desperation.
" Inspector! What is it? . .."
Only Maigret had guessed. Le Clinche had a revolver in his
pocket, obtained heaven knows where, because he had not had one
when he came out of prison that morning.
And he had fired from his pocket! It was the butt-end that he
had been clutching during those long minutes when Adele was
talking, while he closed his eyes, waiting and perhaps hesitating. . . .
The bullet must have got him in the stomach or the side.
One could see his burnt waistcoat, torn to ribbons as far as his
hip.
" A doctor! .. . Police! ..." someone cried.
A doctor, who had been on the beach a hundred yards from the
hotel, came up in his bathing-suit.
They caught Le Clinche just as he fell, and carried him into the
dining-room. Marie followed them like a woman demented.
Maigret had no time to bother with Adele or her lover. But as
he was going into the cafe he saw her, livid, emptying down a large
glass against which her teeth were chattering.
She had helped herself. She still had the bottle in her hand and
she filled up the glass again. . . .
The inspector did not look further, but somehow die image of
that pallid face above the pink bodice, and particularly the teeth
chattering against the glass, remained in his mind.
He could not see Gaston Buzier. They were shutting the diningroom
door.
" Please don't stay here .. ." the proprietor was requesting his
guests. " Keep calm! . . . The doctor wants as little noise as
possible. . . ."
Maigret pushed through the door and found the doctor on his