The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

She had to ensure her power over the heir of the Moricourts, and perhaps, by
the same token, to show that she was unashamed.
As they passed, the couple had greeted the young De Greef and his
companion. Very vaguely. Rather in the way that masonic signs are exchanged.
The major, contrary to Maigret’s expectations, had been the first to leave,
dignified but uncertain in his bearing, and Pyke had gone some of the way with
him.
Then the dentist, in his turn, had left.
“You’ll see. You’ll see!” he had repeated to Maigret, as he predicted for him a
speedy onset of Porquerollitis.
Charlot, who had had enough of the crane, had gone to sit, jockey style, on a
chair next to the checker players, and, silently, had pointed out one or two moves
to Ginette. Once Monsieur Émile had left, he had gone up to bed. As for Ginette,
she seemed to be waiting for Maigret’s permission. In the end she had come over
to his table and murmured with a little smile:
“Still cross with me?”
She was visibly tired, and he had advised her to go up to bed. He had gone up
immediately after her, because the idea had come to him that she might be going
to join Charlot.
At one moment when he was trying to go to sleep—but perhaps he was
already asleep and it was only a dream—he had had the impression that he had
discovered a really important fact.
“I mustn’t forget it. It is essential that I should remember it tomorrow
morning.”
He had all but got up and made a note of it on a piece of paper. It had come to
him in a flash. It was very odd. He was pleased. He kept repeating to himself:
“Above all, I mustn’t forget it in the morning!”
And the plug once more set the Arche resounding with its racket. Afterward
there were ten minutes of listening to the water slowly flowing back into the
cistern. It was exasperating. The noise was becoming louder. There were
explosions. Maigret sat up in bed, opened his eyes, and found the room bathed in
sunlight. Just in front of him, framed in the open window, he saw the clock
tower of the little church.
The explosions were coming from the harbor. It was the engines of the boats
being started up and coughing. All the fishermen left at the same hour. One of
the motors kept on stopping after several efforts, and a silence followed, then