Liberty Bar

Liberty Bar Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Liberty Bar Read Online Free PDF
Author: Georges Simenon
should tell you that, when my husband was
     still alive, the Liberty Bar was famous … There were always artists here, and they
     attracted the rich clientele who came to see them …
    ‘Especially the yacht owners: almost
     all of them are party animals, eccentrics … I remember seeing William quite a lot
     at that time, in his white cap, always with friends or pretty women …
    ‘These groups liked to drink
     champagne until the small hours and they’d stand anyone a round …
    ‘Then my husband died … I
     closed for a month … It was out of season … The following winter I had to
     spend three weeks in hospital with peritonitis.
    ‘Someone took advantage of the
     situation and opened a bar right on the harbour itself.
    ‘Since then, it’s been quiet
     … I don’t even try to attract new customers.
    ‘One day, I saw William again, and it
     was only then that I properly made his acquaintance … We got drunk together
     … We swapped stories … He slept on the divan, because he couldn’t even
     stand up …’
    ‘Was he still wearing a
     yachtsman’s cap?’
    ‘No! He looked very different. He was
     a maudlin drinker … He got into the habit of coming to see me from time to time
     …’
    ‘Did you know where
     he lived?’
    ‘No. I wasn’t going to
     interrogate him. And he never talked about his personal business …’
    ‘Did he stay here long?’
    ‘Three or four days … He
     brought food with him … Or else he gave me money to go to the market … He
     said he didn’t eat anywhere as well as he did here.’
    And Maigret looked at the pink flesh of the
     mutton, the remains of the scented salad. It looked really tasty.
    ‘Was Sylvie already with
     you?’
    ‘I should hope not! She is only
     twenty-one …’
    ‘How did you meet her?’
    And as Sylvie had an obstinate look on her
     face, Jaja said to her:
    ‘The inspector knows the score, OK?
     … It was one evening when William was here … It was just the two of us in
     the bar … Sylvie came in with some gentlemen she had met who knows where,
     travelling salesmen or some such. They were already merry. They ordered some drinks
     … As for her, you could see straight away she was new to all this. She wanted to
     get them away before they got completely drunk … She didn’t know what she
     was doing … and so the inevitable happened: in the end they got so drunk that they
     didn’t bother with her any more and went off and left her here … She was
     crying … She admitted that she had just arrived from Paris for the season and that
     she didn’t even have enough money to pay for a hotel room … She slept with
     me … She got into the habit of coming here …’
    ‘Basically,’
     Maigret grumbled, ‘everyone who comes in here gets into the same habit
     …’
    And the old woman, beaming, replied:
    ‘What can I say? It’s the
     Lord’s own house! We’re easy-going here. We take each day as it comes
     …’
    And she meant it. Her gaze descended slowly
     to the young woman’s bust and she sighed:
    ‘A shame about her health … You
     can still see her ribs … William wanted to pay for her to have a month in a
     sanatorium, but she refused to go …’
    ‘Excuse me, did William … and
     her …’
    It was Sylvie herself who replied,
     angrily:
    ‘Never! It’s not true
     …’
    And Big Jaja explained as she sipped her
     coffee:
    ‘He wasn’t that sort of man
     … Especially not with her … That’s not to say that he didn’t
     occasionally …’
    ‘With whom?’
    ‘Women … Just women he picked
     up here and there … But it didn’t happen often … He wasn’t that
     interested …’
    ‘What time did he leave you on
     Friday?’
    ‘Straight after lunch … It must
     have been two o’clock, like today …’
    ‘And he didn’t say where he was
     going?’
    ‘He never spoke about
     that.’
    ‘Was Sylvie here?’
    ‘She left five minutes before
     him.’
    ‘To go where?’ Maigret asked
     the girl
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