The Strangers in the House by Georges Simenon
Author:Georges Simenon [Simenon, Georges]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141995526
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2021-10-21T00:00:00+00:00
7
Half an hour later, the rumour was circulating through the courthouse that Loursat had agreed to defend Ãmile Manu. He was still in the prosecutorâs office. The door of this office had remained shut, except for a brief while when Rogissart, who had promised to telephone his wife at eleven thirty and was unable to do so from his office, rushed to another office nearby.
âHe almost begged the boy to accept him as his counsel!â the tall, thin prosecutor said to his tall, thin wife over the phone.
He was exaggerating. The truth was that it had happened in quite a stupid way, for which more or less everyone was responsible. Rogissart and Ducup had felt embarrassed by this wild young man who was refusing to answer any more of their questions. They had conferred in low voices, standing by the window. When Ducup had returned to his desk, he had coughed and declared:
âI must inform you that the law allows you, as of now, to call upon the services of a lawyer and to request his presence at interrogations.â
Quite naturally, at the word âlawyerâ, Manu had looked at Loursat. A simple association of ideas. Yet Loursat had very nearly blushed. Would he have been able to hide his feelings from a man his age? Perhaps, but not from a child, precisely because the feeling that took hold of him at that moment was as naive and intense as that of a child.
He was longing to represent Ãmile, and he was so sure that longing was reflected in his eyes that he turned his head away.
Manu didnât trust him. And just because he didnât trust him â¦
The other two, Rogissart and Ducup, didnât understand, because it wasnât the reaction of an adult, but Loursat thought he did understand, because he wanted to understand.
Ãmile didnât trust him. He was thinking:
âMaybe itâs because of him that Iâm here. He resents me for compromising his family. Heâs related to all these people.â
But, turning to search out Loursatâs eyes, he said:
âI choose Monsieur Loursat!â
That meant:
âYou see, Iâm not scared! I have nothing to hide! I donât yet know if youâre my enemy or not. But now that Iâm placing myself in your hands, of my own free will, you wonât dare betray me again.â
Rogissart and Ducup looked at each other, and Ducup scratched his sharp nose with the tip of his pen.
As for Loursat, he said simply:
âI accept. Gentlemen, I think that in this case it is only right, after a formal establishing of identity, that I be given time to study the file. Shall we postpone the in-depth interrogation until tomorrow morning?â
They brought the court clerk in.
By the time Loursat left, Nicole and Madame Manu had already heard the news. They stood up simultaneously. Nicole looked at her father with a degree of curiosity, no more than that. She didnât yet understand. She preferred to wait.
As for Madame Manu, she couldnât have been expected to be quite as calm.
The three of them crossed the
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