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different. It was as if she was afraid. I’m
certain that for a moment she was afraid of me, or of something … It only lasted a few
seconds then suddenly she was elbowing her way out and on to the platform …’
    â€˜Are you quite sure she didn’t speak
to anybody?’
    â€˜Certain. On the platform she waited until
the train began to move off and kept her eyes fixed on the crowded carriage.’
    â€˜Did she seem to be looking for anyone in
particular?’
    â€˜I couldn’t say.
What I can tell you is that her face relaxed, and when the train had disappeared into the dark
tunnel she was unable to prevent herself flashing me a look of triumph. Then she went up to
street level. She didn’t seem to know where she was. She drank an aperitif in the bar on
the corner of Avenue des Ternes, then she consulted a rail timetable and took a taxi to
Saint-Lazare station … That’s everything … I got the same train as her to
Poissy, and we both walked up the hill, one behind the other.’
    â€˜Have you eaten?’
    â€˜I managed to snatch a sandwich at the
station.’
    â€˜Stay here and wait till Lucas
comes.’
    Maigret turns away and walks out of the peaceful
village of Jeanneville, where all that can be seen are a few pink lights in windows. He soon
reaches Orgeval and locates Lucas in the Anneau d’Or. Lucas is not alone. The man he is
with, who wears blue overalls, can only be Louvet, the mechanic, who is in high spirits; the
four or five coasters already on the table in front of him show why.
    â€˜My boss, Detective Chief Inspector Maigret
…’ says Lucas by way of introduction. He too smells of alcohol.
    â€˜As I was saying to the sergeant, sir, I
never suspected a thing when I got into the van. I go to Paris every Thursday afternoon to get
whatever I haven’t got here …’
    â€˜At the same time?’
    â€˜Give or take …’
    â€˜Did Félicie know?’
    â€˜To be honest, I hardly knew her, and then
only by sight, because I’d never spoken to her. On the other hand, I knewPegleg, who came in here every evening to play cards with Forrentin and Lepape. Sometimes
it was the landlord, sometimes me or somebody else who made the fourth hand … Look …
That’s Forrentin and Lepape over there, in the corner on the left, with the mayor and the
builder.’
    â€˜When did you realize there was someone in
your vehicle?’
    â€˜Just before I got to Saint-Germain. I
heard a sort of moaning just behind me. I thought it was the wind, because it was a bit blowy,
and it kept lifting the tarpaulin. Then suddenly I hear this voice saying: “Have you got a
light?”
    â€˜I turn round and I see her. She’d
lifted her veil and had a cigarette in her mouth.
    â€˜She wasn’t laughing, that’s
for sure. She was dead pale, and the cigarette between her lips was trembling …
    â€˜â€œWhat are you doing there?” I
asked.
    â€˜Then she started talking, she talked
non-stop … She said it was absolutely vital for her to get to Paris as soon as possible,
how it was a matter of life and death, how the men who killed Pegleg were now after her, that
the police didn’t have a clue about what was going on.
    â€˜I pulled over for a moment so she could
sit next to me in front, on the bench-seat, because she’d been squatting on an old box
which was none too clean …
    â€˜â€œLater … later …”
she kept saying, “when I’ve done what I have to do maybe I’ll tell you all
about it. But whatever happens I’ll always be grateful to you for saving me.”
    â€˜Then as soon as we got to the toll-point
she thanks me and gets out, very graceful, like a princess.’
    Lucas and Maigret exchange
glances.
    â€˜And now, if it’s all right with you,
we’ll have a last one for the road – no no, my round! – and then I’m
going to get