The Misty Harbour Read Online Free PDF Page B

lordly
     manner. ‘If it’s all the same to you, inspector, we’ll deal with
     this as swiftly as possible. I’m expecting guests for lunch.’
    ‘Are you married?’
    Frowning in concentration, Maigret kept
     pursuing his thought, his hand still on the front-gate latch.
    Monsieur Grandmaison, who was just over
     six feet tall, looked down at the inspector, who noticed that although the mayor
     wasn’t exactly cross-eyed, his irises were slightly asymmetrical.
    ‘I should
     warn you, sir,’ said the mayor, ‘that if you continue to address me in
     that tone, you might well come to regret it. Now show me what it is you wish me to
     see.’
    And after pushing open the gate himself,
     he walked up to and through the front door, where the policeman on guard stepped
     swiftly out of his way.
    Through a glass panel in the kitchen
     door Maigret could see right away that something was amiss: the two women were
     there, but he did not see Julie.
    ‘Where is she?’
    ‘She went up to her room! Locked
     herself in and refused to come down.’
    ‘Just like that, out of the
     blue?’
    ‘She was doing better,’
     explained the lighthouse-keeper’s wife. ‘Still crying, but not as hard,
     and was talking with us a little. I told her she should eat something, so she opened
     the cupboard …’
    ‘And?’
    ‘I don’t
     know … She seemed frightened! She dashed up the stairs, and next thing, we
     heard the key to her bedroom turning in the lock.’
    There was nothing in the cupboard but
     crockery, a few apples in a basket, a dish of marinating herrings and two greasy
     plates that had probably held some cold meat.
    ‘I am still waiting!’
     snapped the mayor, who had stayed out in the front hall. ‘It is eleven thirty.
     What that young woman has been up to should hardly …’
    Maigret locked the cupboard, pocketed
     the key and walked heavily to the stairs.

3. The Kitchen
     Cupboard
    ‘Julie, open up!’
    No reply, but the sound of someone
     collapsing on a bed.
    ‘Open this door!’
    Nothing. So Maigret slammed his shoulder
     into the door – and the screws popped out of the lock plate.
    ‘Why didn’t you open the
     door?’
    She was not crying. She was not
     agitated. No, she was curled up on her bed staring fixedly straight in front of her.
     When the inspector came too close, she jumped down and attempted to reach the
     door.
    ‘Leave me alone!’ she said
     loudly.
    ‘Well then, give me the note,
     Julie.’
    ‘What note?’
    She spoke aggressively, hoping to
     camouflage her lie.
    ‘Did the captain allow your
     brother to come and visit you?’
    No answer.
    ‘Which means that he did not
     permit it! Your brother used to come and see you anyway. It seems he came here the
     night Joris disappeared …’
    A hard, almost hateful look.
    ‘The
Saint-Michel
was in
     that day. So it was only natural that he would come and see you. One question: when
     he comes, he usually has something to eat, doesn’t he?’
    ‘You’re horrible!’ she muttered between
     her teeth.
    ‘And he came here while you were
     in Paris. Not finding you at home, he left you a note. To make sure that no one else
     but you would find it, he left it in the kitchen cupboard. Now give me the
     note …’
    ‘I don’t have it any
     more!’
    Maigret looked at the empty fireplace,
     the closed window.
    ‘Give it to me!’
    She was rigid in protest, but not like
     an intelligent woman would be, and she so resembled an angry child that the
     inspector, catching one of her outraged looks, grumbled softly, ‘Silly
     goose!’
    The note was simply under her pillow,
     where Julie had been lying a minute before. Instead of giving up, however, she went
     back on the attack, trying to snatch the note from the inspector with a fury that
     amused him.
    Pinioning her hands, he said sternly,
     ‘Are you done now?’
    And he read these lines of wretched
     handwriting, riddled with mistakes.
If you comm back with yor boss be
     carefull