The Yellow Dog Read Online Free PDF

whose expression was more evasive than ever, shrugged his shoulders and went out through the hotel door. Most of the shops had their shutters closed. People in Sunday clothes hurried by.
    Beyond the harbour, where boats were tugging at their moorings, Maigret found the mouth of the Saint-Jacques River. It was at the very edge of town, where houses thinned out and shipyards took over. Several half-finished vessels stood on the ways.
Old boats lay rotting in the mud.
    A stone bridge crossed the river where it emptied into the harbour, and there a group of inquisitive people stood around a small car.
    The nearby wharves were blocked by building sites, so Maigret had to make a detour to get there. From the looks he received on the way, he realized that everyone already knew who he was. He saw anxious people talking quietly in the doorways of the
closed shops.
    Finally, he reached the car abandoned at the side of the road. He pulled the door open brusquely, scattering shards of glass, and easily made out the brown streaks on the seat cover.
    The onlookers crowded around him, mainly kids and young people in their Sunday best.
    â€˜Monsieur Servières’ house?’
    A dozen people led him to it. It was a quarter of a mile away, rather secluded – a middle-class house with a garden. His escort stopped at the gate. Maigret rang the bell and was let in by a little maid who looked upset.
    â€˜Is Madame Servières here?’
    She was already opening the door to the dining room.
    â€˜Oh, inspector! … Do you think he’s been killed? I’m going out of my mind! I …’
    She was a handsome woman, about forty, with the look of a scrupulous housewife, an impression confirmed by the tidiness of her home.
    â€˜You haven’t seen your husband since—’
    â€˜He was home for dinner last night. I could see that he was worried, but he didn’t want to say anything to me … He’d left the car at the gate, which meant that he was going out again that night … to play his
regular card game at the Admiral. I asked him if he’d be late coming
home … At ten o’clock, I went to bed. I was awake a long time. I heard the clock strike eleven, then half past. But he often came home very late … I
must have fallen asleep finally. I woke up in the middle of the night and was upset not to find him beside me … Then I decided that he must have gone on to Brest with some people. There’s not much going on here, so sometimes he … I couldn’t get back to sleep.
From five o’clock on, I was up and watching out of the window. He doesn’t like me to wait up for him, and even less for me to check on him … At nine, I ran over to Monsieur Le Pommeret’s … I was coming back another way when I saw people gathered round his
car … Tell me! Why would anyone want to kill him? He’s the kindest man on earth … I’m sure he has no enemies.’
    A small group still clustered at the gate.
    â€˜They say there are bloodstains! I saw people reading a newspaper, but no one showed it to me.’
    â€˜Did your husband have much money on him?’
    â€˜I don’t think so … The same as usual – three or four hundred francs.’
    Maigret promised to keep her informed and even took the trouble to give her a few bland words of comfort. A scent of roast lamb came from the kitchen. The maid, in her white apron, led him back to the door.
    The inspector had gone no more than a hundred yards when a man approached him eagerly. ‘Excuse me, inspector. Let me introduce myself: Monsieur Dujardin, teacher. For the past hour, people – mostly the parents of my students – have been
coming to ask me whether there’s any truth to what the newspaper says. Some of them want to know whether they have the right to shoot if they see that man with the big