The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

his side Mr. Pyke, though impassive, seemed to be studying him.
Why not follow the others, after all? Marcellin’s burial was in process at
Hyères. Behind the bier Ginette took the place of family and she would be
mopping her brow with her handkedchief screwed tightly into a ball. There was
a heavy heat in the air over there in the avenues lined with motionless palms.
“Do you like the local wine, Mr. Pyke?”
“I should be very happy to drink a glass.”
The postman was crossing the bare stretch of the square pushing a barrow
piled with the mailbags. Lifting his head, Maigret saw the windows of the Arche
wide open and, in one of the openings on the first floor, Charlot leaning on the
window sill. Behind him in the gilded half-light, a young woman was in the act
of removing her dress, which she was passing over her head.
“He talked a lot and I wonder if he was hoping to get more out of me.”
That would emerge later. People like Charlot cannot easily resist adopting an
advantageous position. Just as Maigret and Mr. Pyke were sitting down in the
terrace they saw Monsieur Émile, more of a small white mouse than ever,
advancing on to the square with mincing little steps, a panama on his head, and
heading diagonally for the post office to the left of the church, high up. The door
was open. Four or five people were waiting while the girl behind the counter
sorted the mail.
It was Saturday. Jojo was giving the red squares of the dining room a good
scrubbing. Her feet were bare, and rivulets of dirty water were draining onto the
terrace.
Paul brought, not two glasses of wine, but a whole bottle.
“Do you know the woman who went up to Charlot’s room?”
“That’s his girl friend.”
“Is she in service?”
“I don’t think so. She’s some sort of a dancer or singer in a Marseilles night
club. It’s the third or fourth time she’s been here.”
“Did he telephone her?”
“Yesterday afternoon, while you were in your room.”
“Do you know what he said?”
“He simply asked her to come and spend the weekend. She accepted at once.”
“Were Charlot and Marcellin friends?”
“I don’t remember having seen them together; I mean just the two of them.”