Show description

No,” answered the landlord. ” Marcel Basso was in white flannels, and his open shirt made the most of his beefy chest. But his massive build was of no use to him now. He swayed slightly from side to side, stretched out a hand as though groping for support, then abruptly sat down on the grass, barely three yards from the corpse, and took his head between his hands. “Poor man! ” It was a little, high-pitched voice which piped up, somewhere in the rear. It was intended to be in an undertone, and the girl blushed scarlet as heads were turned in her direction.

All the same, he didn’t forget it, and one day at the Quai des Orfèvres he mentioned the place to one of his colleagues. “On the Seine, you say? Never heard of it. ” But Maigret couldn’t even tell him that much. Lenoir had been sixteen at the time, or so he’d said. That would make it six years ago. And one evening when Maigret was waiting for a report to come in, he whiled away the time turning over the criminal records of that year. People had disappeared, as they always did. The only sensational case was that of a woman’s body cut in pieces, the head of which was never found.

But as soon as he struck the Canal Saint-Martin we tumbled to it. I don’t need to tell you what he was up to the time he opened the door and shut it again; and the carcass was in the ditch… “A nice clean job. The bloke’s pockets must have been full of lead, for he didn’t float a second. The only thing that rather spoilt it was our being there. “A wink from Victor, and we were hanging on to the car again. We thought the chap would be a nice one to have the address of. He stopped in the Place de la République, where there was a café still open, and swallowed down a glass of rum.