Inspector Cadaver Read Online Free PDF Page A

I
can tell you, that will already be common knowledge. Tongues wag … I suppose you
are going to question people? Their fancies will only get even more exaggerated.
That’s why I do wonder if this is the right approach … You’re not
having any more to eat? If you don’t suffer too badly from the cold, I’d be
delighted to show you round. I do a little tour of inspection every morning.’
    Maigret was putting on his overcoat when the
maid came down, her duties beginning an hour later than the old cook’s. The door
opened on to the cold, wet farmyard.For an hour they went from cowshed
to cowshed as milk churns were loaded on to a delivery van.
    Some cows, which were leaving for a nearby
market that day, were being herded together by drovers in dark smocks. At the end of the
yard there was a small office with a little round stove, a desk, a stack of
account-books and a row of pigeonholes. A farm worker in boots like his boss looked up
as they opened the door.
    ‘Would you excuse me for a
moment?’ Naud asked.
    Maigret saw a solitary light on the first
floor of the house. Madame Naud was getting up. Groult-Cotelle was still asleep, as was
the girl. The maid was polishing in the dining room.
    Meanwhile, in the darkness of the farmyard
and the out-buildings, men and animals came and went as the delivery van’s engine
idled.
    ‘There we are. A few instructions to
give. In a moment, I’ll be setting off in the car to have a look round the market.
There are some fellow farmers I need to see. If I had time and I thought it would
interest you, I’d explain how my business works. On my other farms, I breed
ordinary herds and we also have a dairy herd. Whereas here we deal mainly in pedigree
animals, which are sold abroad for the most part. I ship some as far as South America
… Now, I am entirely at your disposal. In an hour, it will be light. If you need
the car, or if you have any questions to ask me … I don’t want to be in your
way at all … You must treat this as your home …’
    His face was quite open as he spoke and he
showed no sign of irritation when Maigret replied:
    ‘Well, if you have no
objection, I’ll go for a little explore …’
    The lane was boggy, as though the canal,
which could be seen to the left, flowed underneath it. The railway embankment ran along
its right-hand side. Roughly a kilometre away an electric glare was visible. Judging by
the green and red lights clustered around it, this was the station.
    Turning back to the house, Maigret saw that
two other windows were now lit up on the first floor, and he thought about Alban
Groult-Cotelle, wondering why he had been annoyed to find out that he was married.
    The sky was brightening. One of the first
buildings Maigret saw, as he turned left in front of the station and went into the
village, had lights on downstairs and a sign saying the Lion d’Or.
    He went in and found himself in a long, low
room in which everything was brown: the walls, the beams on the ceiling, the long
polished tables and the backless benches. At the far end, there was an unlit kitchen
range. A woman of indeterminate age, bent over a bundle of firewood burning slowly in
the fireplace, was in the final stages of making coffee.
    She turned for a moment to the newcomer
without speaking, and Maigret sat down in the dim glow of a dust-smeared lamp.
    ‘Give me a little glass of your local
brandy, would you,’ he said, shaking his overcoat, which was covered in greyish
drops of dew. She didn’t answer, and he thought she hadn’t heard. She
continued to stir her pan of unappetizing coffeeand, when it was to
her liking, she poured some in a cup, put it on a tray and headed for the stairs,
announcing:
    ‘I’ll be right down.’
    Maigret was convinced this was
Cadaver’s coffee, and confirmation came a few moments later when he saw the
man’s coat on the coat rack.
    He heard footsteps overhead and the hum of
voices, without being able to understand what was being said. Five