The Carter of ’La Providence’ Read Online Free PDF

said. They weren’t there, but the waiters all knew them. They sent me to the Dingo, then La Cigogne. I ended up at a small American bar, I forget what it’s called, in Rue Vavin, and found them
there, all alone, looking very sorry for themselves. Lia is quite a looker. She’s got style. Suzy is blonde, girl-next-door type, not a nasty bone in her body. If she’d stayed back in the sticks where she came from, she’d have got married and made a good wife and mother.
She had got freckles all over her face and …’
    â€˜See a towel anywhere?’ interrupted Maigret. His face was dripping with water, and his eyes were shut. ‘By the way, is it still raining?’
    â€˜It wasn’t raining when I got here, but it looks like it could start up again at any moment. At six this morning there was a fog which almost froze your lungs … Anyway, I offered to
buy the girls a drink. They immediately asked for sandwiches, which didn’t surprise me at first. But after a while I noticed the pearl necklace the Lauwenstein girl was wearing. As a joke I managed to get a bite on it. They were absolutely real! Not the necklace of an American
millionairess, but even so it must have been worth all of 100,000 francs. Now when girls of that sort prefer sandwiches and hot chocolate to cocktails …’
    Maigret, who was smoking his first pipe of the day, answered the knock of the girl who had brought his coffee. Then he glanced out of the window and registered that there was as yet no sign of life outside. A barge was passing close to the
Southern Cross
. The man leaning his back against the tiller was staring at the yacht with reluctant admiration.
    â€˜Right. Go on.’
    â€˜I drove them to another place, a quiet café.
    â€˜There, without warning, I flashed my badge, pointed to the necklace and asked straight out: “Those are Mary Lampson’s pearls, aren’t they?”
    â€˜I don’t suppose they knew she was dead. But if they did, they played their parts to perfection.
    â€˜It took them a few moments to admit everything. In the end it was Suzy who said to her friend: “Best tell him the truth, seeing as he knows so much about it already.”
    â€˜And a pretty tale it was too … Need a hand, chief?’
    Maigret was flailing his arms wildly in his efforts to catch his braces, which were dangling down his thighs.
    â€˜The main point first. They both swore that it was Mary Lampson herself who gave them the pearls last Friday, in Paris, where she’d come to meet them. You’ll probably understand this better than I do, because all I know about
the case is what you told me over the phone.
    â€˜I asked if Madame Lampson had come there with Willy Marco. They said no. They said they hadn’t seen Willy since last Thursday, when they left him at Meaux.’
    â€˜Just a moment,’ Maigret broke in as he knotted his tie in a milky mirror which distorted his reflection. ‘The
Southern Cross
arrives at Meaux on Wednesday evening. Our two girls are on board. They spend a lively night
with the colonel, Willy, Mary Lampson and Gloria.
    â€˜It’s very late when Suzy and Lia are taken off to a hotel, and they leave by train on Thursday morning … Did anyone give them money?’
    â€˜They said 500 francs.’
    â€˜Had they got to know the colonel in Paris?’
    â€˜A few days earlier.’
    â€˜And what happened on the yacht?’
    Lucas gave a knowing smile.
    â€˜Assorted antics, none very savoury. Apparently the Englishman lives only for whisky and women. Madame Negretti is his mistress.’
    â€˜Did his wife know?’
    â€˜Oh, she knew all right! She herself was Willy’s mistress. None of which stopped them bringing Suzy and Lia to join the party, if you follow me. And then there was Vladimir,
who danced with
all the women. In the early hours there was a row because Lia Lauwenstein