Maigret and the Tavern by The Seine by Georges Simenon

Author:Georges Simenon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-03-17T15:13:00+00:00

* * *

Chapter VII

OLD ULRICH

« ^ »

THERE was one thing about James which Maigret found interesting to watch as they leant over the bar. As the Englishman drank, his eyes, instead of growing vague, as is the case with most people, became on the contrary progressively sharper, until they shone with an acuteness that was positively penetrating!

His hand never let go of his glass, except to take hold of the bottle. The voice, unlike the eyes, was hesitating and toneless. He didn’t look at Maigret—in fact, he didn’t seem to look at anything at all. He appeared to let go—to sink into the atmosphere around him.

The card-players exchanged a word or two from time to time. The zinc which covered the bar reflected the lights dully. When he opened his mouth, James spoke dully too:

“It’s funny… A man like you—strong, intelligent… and others too—detectives, policemen in uniform, magistrates, all sorts of people… How many are there on the go, all told? As many as a hundred? I shouldn’t be surprised—not if you count all the clerks at work behind the scenes, and the telephone operators, and all the rest… Anyhow, let’s call it a hundred. A hundred people working day after day, night after night, all because Feinstein was plugged. And with such a tiny bullet!”

For a moment he stared into Maigret’s eyes, and the inspector was quite unable to tell whether he was jeering or speaking with intense seriousness.

“Is it really worth all that bother?… And all the time that wretched devil Basso is a hunted man… Last week he was rich. He had an excellent business, a car, a country villa, a wife and a son. And now he can’t even show his head out of the hole he’s hiding in.”

James shrugged his shoulders and looked round him disgustedly, or perhaps merely sadly. The drawl in his voice became more noticeable.

“And what do we find at the bottom of it all?… A woman like Mado. A woman who needs men… And Basso goes and walks into the snare. I suppose there aren’t many men who’d have refused, what with her looks and her vivacity… You think there’s no harm in it, at any rate only once. But then it’s twice, and then it’s a habit.”

James gulped down a whole mouthful of brandy, then spat on the floor.

“Idiotic, isn’t it? Result—one dead, and a whole family ruined. And a whole machinery started up, with a hundred people to turn the wheels…”

What made it the more impressive was that he spoke without violence. It was no outburst. The words came out gently, lazily, while his eyes moved dejectedly from one object to another.

“I’ll trump that,” said an exultant voice behind him.

“And then Feinstein! Spending his life running after money, trying desperately to stave off disaster. That’s all his life was—one long nightmare of scraping through by the skin of his teeth, squeezing his wife’s lovers when there was nowhere else to turn… And now that he’s dead…”

“Or been killed,” put in Maigret dreamily.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.