The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )
This did not seem at all surprising to Mr. Pyke.“In the evening, out there, the bachelors gather at the club and have nodistraction besides drink. The major has drunk a lot in his time. In India it waswhisky. It was only here that he took to champagne.”“Did he tell you why he chose to live in Porquerolles?”“He had an appalling tragedy, the worst that could have befallen him. As aresult of a bad fall from his horse, he was immobilized in bed for three years,half of the time in plaster, and when he was on his feet again he realized that hisriding days were over.”“Is that the reason he left India?”“That’s why he’s here. I’m sure that almost everywhere in climates like this,in the Mediterranean or the Pacific, you will find old gentlemen of the same typeas the major, who are considered eccentrics. Where else can they go?”“Don’t they have any desire to go back to England?”“Their means won’t permit them to live in London according to their rank,and the habits they have adopted would be frowned upon in the country inEngland.”“Did he tell you why he doesn’t greet Mrs. Wilcox?”“There was no need for him to tell me.”Should he persist? Or would Mr. Pyke, too, prefer not to hear too much abouthis compatriot. Mrs. Wilcox, to put it in a nutshell, was not as a woman what themajor was as a man.Maigret wiped his cheeks, hesitated about putting on his jacket. The YardInspector had not put on his. It was already hot. But the Chief Inspector couldnot allow himself, like his slim colleague, not to wear suspenders, and a man insuspenders always looks like a shopkeeper on a picnic.He put his jacket on. They had nothing else to do in the room, and Mr. Pykemurmured as he rose:“The major, despite everything, has remained a gentleman.”He followed Maigret down the stairs. He didn’t ask what he intended to do,but he was following him, and that was enough to spoil the Inspector’s day.He had vaguely promised himself, expressly on Mr. Pyke’s account, to behavethat morning like a high police official. In theory, a Chief Inspector of the P.J.does not run around streets and bars looking for murderers. He is an importantman who spends most of his time in his office and, as such, runs from hisheadquarters a superintendent and an army of sergeants, inspectors, and
technicians.Maigret had never been able to resign himself to this. Like a hunting dog, hehad to ferret things out for himself, to scratch, sniff the smells.The first two days Lechat had got through a considerable amount of work andhad handed over to Maigret an account of all the interrogations he had carriedout. The whole island had been put through it, the Morins and the Gallis, the sickdoctor, the priest, whom Maigret hadn’t yet seen, the wives as well.Maigret would have installed himself in a corner of the dining room, whichwas empty all the morning, and he would have zealously studied all thesereports, marking them with a blue or red pencil.With an uneasy glance, he asked Mr. Pyke:“Does it happen at the Yard for your colleagues to run about the streets likenovices?”“I know at least three or four who are never to be seen in their offices.”So much the better, for he had no desire to remain sitting down. He wasbeginning to understand why the people of Porquerolles were always to be foundin the same places. It was instinctive. Despite oneself one was to some extentaffected by the sun, by the landscape. Now, for example, Maigret and hiscompanion were taking a walk out of doors without any definite direction andhardly noticing that they were going down toward the harbor.Maigret was sure that if, by chance, he was obliged to spend the rest of hisdays on the island, he would take the same walk every morning and that the pipehe smoked then would always be the best pipe of the day. The Cormorant, onthe other side of the water at Giens Point, was disgorging its passengers, whowere piling into an old bus. Even with the naked eye one could make out theboat as a tiny white dot.The mute would be about to load up some crates of vegetables and fruits forthe mayor, meat for the butcher, and the mailbags. People would embarkperhaps, as Maigret and Mr. Pyke had embarked the day before, and would nodoubt experience the same feeling of vertigo on discovering the underwaterlandscape.The sailors from the big yacht were washing down the deck. They weremiddle-aged men who from time to time went for a drink, without mixing withthe locals, at Morin-Barbu’s place.To the right of the harbor a footpath ran up in the form of a cliff, ending at ahut with the door open.A fisherman, sitting in the doorway, was holding a net stretched out with his
- Page 24 and 25: is sixty-five. It appears she had h
- Page 26 and 27: should have kept your letter, don
- Page 28 and 29: Paul’s a good chap. But there’s
- Page 30 and 31: wearing a butcher’s yellowish apr
- Page 32 and 33: stayed, perhaps even wrote home for
- Page 34 and 35: “They prefer not to think about i
- Page 36 and 37: “It’s she who runs the Sirènes
- Page 38 and 39: friendship, I sometimes act as her
- Page 40 and 41: “Of course.”“Were there other
- Page 42 and 43: that it was all futile, that he oug
- Page 44 and 45: for the open air.<P“Le Petit Var
- Page 46 and 47: “What about?”“I know perfectl
- Page 48 and 49: to her apron strings and that is wh
- Page 50 and 51: “When?”“When Justine dies.”
- Page 52 and 53: “You must do as you wish,” she
- Page 54 and 55: be heard calling in the distance:
- Page 56 and 57: one probably doesn’t come across
- Page 58 and 59: CHAPTER 5« ^ »He had thought abou
- Page 60 and 61: Marcellin ever happen to go up to s
- Page 62 and 63: It is always ridiculous to play the
- Page 64 and 65: could be heard. Only the movement o
- Page 66 and 67: had only had occasion to visit Porq
- Page 68 and 69: again the coughing sound which made
- Page 70 and 71: imagined to be unique.“Won’t yo
- Page 72 and 73: He understood now why Ginette had m
- Page 76 and 77: bare toes and his hands, as nimble
- Page 78 and 79: The page from the Grand Hotel was t
- Page 80 and 81: “Including the big money?”“In
- Page 82 and 83: “I would like you to try to remem
- Page 84 and 85: “She hasn’t left me for a secon
- Page 86 and 87: “Inspector Lucas. If he’s not t
- Page 88 and 89: “Are you taking notes?” Mr. Pyk
- Page 90 and 91: “ ‘Is that you?… it’s me…
- Page 92 and 93: which she waited for several months
- Page 94 and 95: working the slot machine while his
- Page 96 and 97: “What are you thinking about?”
- Page 98 and 99: Paris.”He didn’t trouble to ret
- Page 100 and 101: It sometimes happened to him, espec
- Page 102 and 103: An odd sort of job, his! He was onl
- Page 104 and 105: Nothing else had happened. Charlot
- Page 106 and 107: uncombed, his eyes still puffy with
- Page 108 and 109: In the end there was a noise from t
- Page 110 and 111: “And did Monsieur de Moricourt kn
- Page 112 and 113: The latter still didn’t stir.“E
- Page 114 and 115: “Nothing. I shall say nothing mor
- Page 116 and 117: yacht as well as the North Star. I
- Page 118 and 119: hanging in line at the Louvre or an
- Page 120 and 121: Lunch had begun at the Arche. Jojo
- Page 122 and 123: and they were handing a pair of bin
This did not seem at all surprising to Mr. Pyke.
“In the evening, out there, the bachelors gather at the club and have no
distraction besides drink. The major has drunk a lot in his time. In India it was
whisky. It was only here that he took to champagne.”
“Did he tell you why he chose to live in Porquerolles?”
“He had an appalling tragedy, the worst that could have befallen him. As a
result of a bad fall from his horse, he was immobilized in bed for three years,
half of the time in plaster, and when he was on his feet again he realized that his
riding days were over.”
“Is that the reason he left India?”
“That’s why he’s here. I’m sure that almost everywhere in climates like this,
in the Mediterranean or the Pacific, you will find old gentlemen of the same type
as the major, who are considered eccentrics. Where else can they go?”
“Don’t they have any desire to go back to England?”
“Their means won’t permit them to live in London according to their rank,
and the habits they have adopted would be frowned upon in the country in
England.”
“Did he tell you why he doesn’t greet Mrs. Wilcox?”
“There was no need for him to tell me.”
Should he persist? Or would Mr. Pyke, too, prefer not to hear too much about
his compatriot. Mrs. Wilcox, to put it in a nutshell, was not as a woman what the
major was as a man.
Maigret wiped his cheeks, hesitated about putting on his jacket. The Yard
Inspector had not put on his. It was already hot. But the Chief Inspector could
not allow himself, like his slim colleague, not to wear suspenders, and a man in
suspenders always looks like a shopkeeper on a picnic.
He put his jacket on. They had nothing else to do in the room, and Mr. Pyke
murmured as he rose:
“The major, despite everything, has remained a gentleman.”
He followed Maigret down the stairs. He didn’t ask what he intended to do,
but he was following him, and that was enough to spoil the Inspector’s day.
He had vaguely promised himself, expressly on Mr. Pyke’s account, to behave
that morning like a high police official. In theory, a Chief Inspector of the P.J.
does not run around streets and bars looking for murderers. He is an important
man who spends most of his time in his office and, as such, runs from his
headquarters a superintendent and an army of sergeants, inspectors, and
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