The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

stayed, perhaps even wrote home for their wifes or fiancées to come out.
“Would you like me to bring them in one by one, Chief? Who do you want to
start with?”
It was all the same to him.
“I see the young De Greef crossing the square with his girl friend. Shall I go
and get him?”
He was being rushed and he didn’t dare protest. He had the consolation of
noting that his colleague was as sluggish as he was.
“These witnesses you are going to interview,” he asked, “are they summoned
officially?”
“Not at all. They come because they are willing to. They have the right to
reply or not. Most of the time they prefer to reply, but they can always demand
the presence of a lawyer.”
It must have been spread around that the Chief Inspector was at the town hall,
for groups of people, as in the morning, were forming in the square. Some way
away, beneath the eucalyptus trees, Lechat was in animated conversation with a
couple who finally followed him. A mimosa was growing just beside the door
and its sweet scent mingled strangely with the musty smell which pervaded the
room.
“I suppose, with you, all this is more formal?”
“Not always. Often, in the country or in small towns, the coroner’s inquest is
held in the back room of an inn.”
De Greef seemed all the more fair because his skin was as bronzed as a Tahiti
native’s. All he wore in the way of clothes was a pair of pale shorts and
espadrilles, while his companion had a sunsuit covering her torso.
“You wish to speak to me?” he asked suspiciously.
And Lechat reassuringly:
“Come in! Chief Inspector Maigret has to question everyone. It’s just
routine.”
The Dutchman spoke French with hardly any accent. He had a net bag in his
hand. The two of them were probably going shopping at the Co-operative when
the Inspector had interrupted them.
“Have you been living long aboard your boat?”
“Three years. Why?”
“No reason. you’re a painter, they tell me? Do you sell your pictures?”
“When the occasion presents itself.”