Dog Will Have His Day Read Online Free PDF Page A

with the commissaire.
    Kehlweiler took out his sandwich and started to munch it, still standing up. He let crumbs fall everywhere. The policeman got cross, not unnaturally.
    ‘So what’s this little thing, what’s it all about?’
    ‘Cooked pigs’ trotters. Look, it won’t interest you, it’s too complicated to explain.’
    ‘Surname, first name?’
    ‘Granville, Louis Granville.’
    ‘Your papers?’
    ‘Haven’t got them on me. I didn’t come for that, I came in to cooperate with the police of my country.’
    ‘Get lost. We can do without your cooperation.’
    An inspector approached and took Louis by the shoulder. Louis turned round slowly. It was working.
    ‘Is it you causing this trouble?’
    ‘Not at all. I want to make a statement to Paquelin.’
    ‘Commissaire Paquelin?’
    ‘The very same.’
    The inspector made a sign to the first cop and pulled Louis towards a glass-fronted office door.
    ‘The commissaire can’t be disturbed. You can tell me about whatever piddling nonsense is on your mind.’
    ‘It’s not piddling nonsense, it’s pigs’ trotters.’
    ‘Surname, first name?’
    ‘Gravilliers, Louis.’
    ‘Just now you said Granville.’
    ‘Don’t let’s quibble over it, inspector, I haven’t much time, I’m in a hurry.’
    ‘Oh really, is that a fact?’
    ‘You’ve heard of Blériot, the guy who got it into his head to fly the Channel, so as to get there quicker? Well, he’s my ancestor.’
    The inspector put his hands to his cheeks. He was getting pretty cross.
    ‘So,’ Louis went on, ‘you can imagine the problem. It’s in my blood. Has to come out, as Paquelin says.’
    ‘You know the commissaire?’
    ‘Yes, well. Very well in fact. But he doesn’t know me. He can’t remember faces, which is a drawback in your job. Tell me, were you here when there was that regrettable incident in the cells over there?’
    The inspector passed his hand across his eyes. This one didn’t look as if he had had much sleep, and Kehlweiler understood that kind of suffering better than anyone. While waiting for the inspector to decide to push him higher up the hierarchy, Louis took Bufo out, and held him in his left hand. He couldn’t allow Bufo to suffocate in his pocket, police station or no police station. Amphibians have their needs.
    ‘What the hell is that?’ asked the inspector, recoiling.
    ‘Nothing,’ replied Louis, a little snappily. ‘Just my toad. He’s not bothering anyone, as far as I can see.’
    It’s true that people are very disappointing in their attitude to toads, they make a huge fuss about them. And yet they’re a hundred times less of a nuisance than a dog. The inspector passed his hand over his eyes again.
    ‘Right, off you go, out of here,’ he said.
    ‘Impossible. I wouldn’t have come in if I’d wanted to go out again. I’m a persistent guy. You know the story of the man who wouldn’t leave even when threatened with bayonets? Well, never mind him. All you need to know is, he was my ancestor. I don’t say it’s an advantage but that’s just how it is. You’ll have a job to get rid of me.’
    ‘I don’t give a damn about your ancestors!’ shouted the inspector.
    ‘Please yourself,’ said Kehlweiler.
    He sat down and munched the sandwich slowly. It had to last. It wasn’t very praiseworthy to be harassing a cop who was short of sleep, but he was enjoying himself all the same. Pity the cop didn’t want to enjoy himself too. Anyone can play the ancestor game, it’s not forbidden. And as far as ancestors were concerned, Louis was prepared to lend out as many as you like.
    Silence fell in the office. The inspector dialled a number. His superior officer no doubt. He was saying ‘captain’.
    ‘There’s a guy here, won’t go away . . . Yes, perhaps . . . You can come and take him and cook him in a pie if you want, you’ll be doing me a favour . . . I don’t know . . . Yes.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Kehlweiler, ‘but it’s