The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

not mistaken, he was mixing whisky with his white wine.”
“How was it he began talking about me? Who to? Was it at the major’s table
or Mrs. Wilcox’s?”
“I’m doing my best. You saw for yourself yesterday how it is, and yesterday
was a quiet evening. The Dutch couple were near Mrs. Wilcox. I think it was at
that table that the conversation began. Marcellin was standing up in the middle
of the room when I heard him declare:
“ ‘My friend Chief Inspector Maigret’… Just so, ‘my friend,’ and I know what
I’m talking about… I can prove it…”
“Did he produce a letter?”
“Not to my knowledge. I was busy, with Jojo, serving.”
“Was your wife in the room?”
“I think she’d gone up. She normally does go up when she has finished the
accounts. She’s not very well and needs plenty of sleep.”
“In short Marcellin might just as well have been addressing Major Bellam as
Mrs. Wilcox or the Dutchman? And even Charlot, or someone else? The dentist,
for example? Monsieur Émile?”
“I suppose so.”
He was called inside and, excusing himself, left them. The people coming out
of the post office began to saunter across the sunny patch of the square where, in
one corner, a woman was standing behind a table on which were arranged
vegetables. The mayor, to one side of the Arche, was unpacking his crates.
“You’re wanted on the telephone, Monsieur Maigret.”
He penetrated into the semidarkness of the café, picked up the receiver.
“That you, boss? Lechat here. It’s all over. I’m in a bar near the cemetery. The
woman, you know who, is with me. She hasn’t left me since the Cormorant. She
has had time to tell me her life story.”
“How did it go off?”
“Very well. She bought some flowers. Other people from the island placed
some on his grave. It was very hot in the cemetery. I don’t know what to do. I
think I shall have to ask her to lunch.”
“Can she hear you?”
“No. I’m in a telephone box. I can see her through the window. She’s
powdering her nose and looking into a pocket mirror.”
“Hasn’t she met anyone? Or telephoned?”