The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

imagined to be unique.
“Won’t you have anything to eat?”
“Not now.”
“In a quarter of an hour there will be fresh bread at the baker’s.”
In the end he relaxed, and Jojo must have wondered why he began to smile.
He had remembered.
Hadn’t Marcellin mentioned to Jojo a “pile” which he could have had? He
was drunk, certainly, but he often was drunk. For how long had the possibility of
laying his hands on this “pile” been here? It wasn’t impossibly recent. Ginette
used to visit the island practically every month. She had come the month before.
It was easy to check up. Marcellin, on the other hand, could have written to her.
If he was able to get hold of a pile, it was probable that someone else could
get it in his place, for instance by knowing what he knew.
Maigret stayed where he was, cup in hand, staring at the rectangular light of
the door, and Jojo kept darting curious glances at him.
Lechat claimed that Marcel had died because he had talked too much about
“his friend Maigret” and, at first sight, this appeared to make sense.
It was odd to see Mr. Pyke, almost naked, detach himself in the light, his
soaked towel in his hand, his hair stuck to his forehead.
Instead of greeting him, Maigret murmured:
“Just a moment…”
He almost had it. A slight effort and his ideas would fall into place. Starting
off, for example, with the notion that Ginette had come because she knew why
Marcellin had died.
She hadn’t necessarily put herself out to prevent the discovery of the guilty
party. Once she had married Monsieur Émile, she would be rich, certainly. Only
old Justine wasn’t dead yet and might linger on for years, despite the doctors. If
she discovered what was afoot she was quite capable of playing a dirty trick so
as to prevent her son marrying anyone after her death.
Marcellin’s “pile” was to be had straight away. Perhaps it was still in the
offing? In spite of the presence of Maigret and the Inspector Lechat?
“I beg your pardon Mr. Pyke. Did you sleep well?”
“Very well,” replied the Englishman imperturbably.
Was Maigret to admit that he had counted the times the plug was pulled? It
was not necessary and, after his bathe, the Scotland Yard Inspector was as fresh
as a fish.