The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

Presently, while he was shaving the Chief Inspector would have time to think
about the “pile.”
CHAPTER 6
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There is something to be said for the English. Would a French colleague in Mr.
Pyke’s place have been able to resist the desire to score? And hadn’t Maigret,
who was not especially given to teasing, all but made a discreet allusion just now
to the plug which the Yard Inspector had pulled so many times during the night?
Perhaps more alcohol had flowed that evening than either of them had imagined.
At all events it was rather unexpected. There were still the three of them,
Maigret, Pyke and Jojo, in the kitchen with the door left open. Maigret was
finishing his coffee, and Mr. Pyke, in a bathing suit, was standing between him
and the light, while Jojo was trying to find some bacon for him in the larder. It
was exactly three minutes to eight and then, looking at the clock, Maigret
declared in that innocent, inimitable voice, that comes to one in moments of
gaffes:
“I wonder if Lechat is still sleeping off his wine from last night.”
Jojo started, but managed not to turn around. As for Mr. Pyke, all his good
education failed to prevent the round look of astonishment being seen to light up
his face. It was, however, with a perfect simplicity that he uttered:
“I’ve just seen him taking his place on board the Cormorant. I presume the
boat will wait for Ginette.”
Maigret had done nothing more or less than forgotten all about Marcellin’s
funeral. Worse still, it suddenly came back to him that the day before he had
talked about it for a long time, with even a little too much insistence, to the
Inspector. Was Mr. Pyke present at that conversation? He couldn’t have said, but
he saw himself again, seated on the bench:
“You go with her, old man, do you get the idea? I don’t say it’ll lead
anywhere. Perhaps she will show some reaction, perhaps not. Perhaps someone
will try to speak to her unobtrusively. Perhaps recognizing a face in the
congregation may tell you something. One should always go to funerals; it’s an
old principle that has often succeeded. Keep your eyes skinned. That’s all.”
He seemed even to recall that, while speaking in a familiar way with the
Inspector, he had related one or two stories of funerals which had put him on the
track of criminals.