006 Maigret and the Yellow Dog by Simenon Georges

Author:Simenon Georges
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Is that perfectly clear, sergeant? No one is to enter his cell except you, and you yourself are to take him his food and whatever else he needs. Meantime, take away anything he could use to kill himself with—his shoelaces, his tie. See that the courtyard is under surveillance day and night. And show consideration—the utmost consideration.”

“Such a distinguished man!” sighed the sergeant. “You think he’s the one who—”

“Who might be the next victim, yes. So you’ll answer to me for his life!”

Maigret went off down the narrow street, splashing through the puddles. The whole town knew him by now. Curtains parted as he passed. Children broke off their games to watch him with timid respect.

He was crossing the drawbridge between the Old Town and the new when he ran into Inspector Leroy, who was looking for him.

“Anything new? I don’t suppose they’ve laid hands on my bear, have they?”

“What bear?”

“The man with the big feet.”

“No. The mayor gave orders to stop the search because it was upsetting the public. He placed a few policemen at strategic spots… But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. It’s the newspaperman, Goyard, Jean Servières. A traveling salesman who knows him just got into town, and he says he ran across him yesterday in Brest. Goyard pretended not to see him and walked off.”

The inspector was surprised at how calmly Maigret took the news. “The mayor is convinced that the salesman was mistaken. He says there are plenty of short, fat men in any city. And you know that I heard him tell his deputy.—talking low but hoping, I think, I’d overhear? Verbatim: ‘Watch the Superintendent take off on this false scent. He’ll go to Brest and leave us to deal with the real murderer!’ ”

Maigret walked another twenty paces in silence. In the square, the market stalls were being dismantled.

“I almost told him that…”

“That what?”

Leroy blushed,and turned his head away. “Exactly! I don’t know… I, too, get the feeling that you don’t think it’s really important to catch the drifter.”

“How’s Mostaguen doing?”

“Better. He can’t think of any reason he was attacked… He asked his wife’s pardon, pardon for staying so late at the café Pardon for being half drunk. He was in tears and swore he’d never touch another drop of alcohol.”

Fifty yards from the Admiral Hotel, Maigret stopped to look at the harbor. Boats were coming in, dropping their brown sails as they rounded the breakwater, sculling slowly along.

At the base of the Old Town’s walls, the ebb tide was uncovering banks of mud studded with old pots and other rubbish.

A faint suggestion of sun showed through the almost solid cloud cover.

“Your impression, Leroy?”

The inspector grew uneasy again. “I don’t know… I think if we had that fellow… Remember that the yellow dog has disappeared again. What could the man have been up to in the doctor’s house? There must have been some poisons there. I deduce from that—”

“Yes, of course. But I don’t go in for deductions.”

“Still, I’d be curious to see that drifter up close.

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