My Friend Maigret Read Online Free PDF Page B

life of the winter, when the inhabitants are alone on the island, and it’s not quite what is called the season. Only the regulars have arrived. I don’t know if you follow me. Most of them have been coming here for years, and know everybody. The major has been living at the Minaret for eight years. The villa next to it belongs to Monsieur Émile.”
    Lechat looked at Maigret with a hesitant air. Perhaps, in the presence of the Englishman, he, too, was overcome with a sort of patriotic shame.
    â€œMonsieur Émile?”
    â€œYou know him. At any rate, he knows you. He lives with his mother, old Justine, who is one of the most widely known women on the Riviera. She’s the proprietor of the Fleurs, at Marseilles, the Sirènes at Nice, two or three houses at Toulon, Béziers, Avignon…”
    Had Mr. Pyke realized what sort of houses they were?
    â€œJustine’s seventy-nine years old. I thought she was older, for Monsieur Émile admits to being sixty-five. It appears she had him when she was fourteen. She told me so yesterday. They’re very quiet, the two of them, and don’t see anyone. Look. That’s Monsieur Émile you can see in his garden, in the white suit, with the topee. He looks like a white mouse. He has a little boat, like everyone else, but he hardly ever ventures beyond the end of the jetty, where he spends hours happily fishing for girelle .”
    â€œWhat’s that?” asked Mr. Pyke, whose skin was beginning to dry.
    â€œ Girelle? An extremely attractive little fish, with red and blue on its back. It’s not bad fried, but it’s not a serious fish, if you see what I mean.”
    â€œI see.”
    The three of them walked on the sand, along the backs of the houses which faced on to the square.
    â€œThere is another local character. We shall probably eat at the next table to him. It’s Charlot. Just now, when we landed, he said hello to you, chief. I asked him to stay, and he didn’t object. It’s curious, actually, that nobody asked to leave. They are all being very calm, very sensible.”
    â€œAnd the big yacht?”
    There was indeed an enormous white yacht, not very beautiful, made entirely of metal, which almost filled the harbor.
    â€œThe Alcyon ? It’s there all the year round. It belongs to a Lyon businessman, Monsieur Jaureguy, who only uses it for one week in the year, and then it’s to go and bathe, all by himself, a stone’s throw from the island. There are two sailors on board, two Bretons, who have a pretty easy life.”
    Was the Englishman expecting to see Maigret taking notes? He watched him smoking his pipe, looking lazily around him, and listening absently to Lechat.
    â€œYou see the small green boat, to one side, which has such an odd shape? The cabin is minute, yet there are two people, a man and a girl, living there. They have fixed up a tent by means of the sail, over the deck, and most of the time that’s where they sleep. They do their cooking and washing there. Those two aren’t regulars. They were found one morning, tied up where you see them now. The man is called Jef de Greef and is Dutch. He’s a painter. He’s only twenty-four. You’ll see him. The girl is called Anna and isn’t his wife. I had their papers in my hands. She’s eighteen. She was born at Ostend. She’s always half-naked and sometimes more than half. As soon as night falls, you can see both of them bathing at the end of the jetty without a stitch of clothing.”
    Lechat was careful to add for Mr. Pyke’s benefit:
    â€œIt’s true that Mrs. Wilcox, if you can believe the fishermen, does the same round her yacht.”
    They were being watched, from a distance. Always little knots of people who gave the impression of having nothing else to do all day.
    â€œAnother fifty yards further on you can see Marcellin’s boat.”
    From this point the harbor was no longer