The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

and they were handing a pair of binoculars to one another.
“So you see, Mr. Pyke, I make mistakes as well. She realized that De Greef
had nothing to fear except her evidence and she was afraid of talking.”
He pushed through the crowd that had gathered in front of the hall. Lechat had
closed the window. The two men were still in their places, the bottles of beer on
the table.
Maigret started to prowl up and down the room like a bear, stopped in front of
Philippe de Moricourt and suddenly, without any warning whatever, this time
without the young man having time to protect himself, he struck him full in the
face with his hand.
This soothed him. In an almost calm voice he murmured:
“I beg your pardon, Mr. Pyke.”
Then to De Greef, who was watching him and trying to understand:
“Anna is dead.”
He didn’t bother to question them that day. He tried not to see the coffin that
was still in its corner, the famous coffin of old Benoit, which had already been
used for Marcellin and which was to be used for the young girl from Ostend.
Ironically, Benoit’s hirsute head, well in evidence, was distinguishable among
the crowd.
Lechat and the two men, handcuffed by their wrists, set off for Giens Point in
a fishing boat.
Maigret and Mr. Pyke took the Cormorant at five o’clock, and Ginette was
there, likewise Charlot and his dancing girl, and all the trippers who had spent
the day on the beaches of the island.
The North Star was riding at anchor at the harbor entrance. Maigret, scowling,
was smoking his pipe and as his lips moved Mr. Pyke leaned toward him to ask:
“I beg your pardon? You were saying?”
“I said: dirty dogs!”
With which he quickly turned away his head and gazed into the depths of the
water.
“Stud Barn”
Tumacacori (Arizona)
February 2, 1949
—«»—«»—«»—
[scanned anonymously in a galaxy far far away]
[for a complete bibliography of all 103 episodes of The Maigret Saga, check out Steve Trussel’s