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Authors: Georges Simenon
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Clinche?â
She did not answer. Gaston Buzier
sneered.
âAdmit it!â he barked in a
voice full of spite.
âIâm free to do as I please!
Especially seeing as how you didnât exactly abstain from female company while
I was away! Donât deny it! Are you forgetting the girl from the Villa des
Fleurs? And what about that photo I found in your pocket?â
Maigret sat as solemn and impassive as
the oracle.
âI asked if you slept with the
wireless operator.â
âAnd Iâm telling you to go
to blazes!â
She smiled provocatively. Her lips were
moist. She knew men desired her. She was counting on the promise of her pouting
mouth, her sensuous body.
âThe chief mechanic saw you
too.â
âWhatâs he been telling
you?â
âNothing. Iâll recap. The
captain kept you hidden in his cabin. Pierre Le Clinche and the chief mechanic would
come to you there, on the quiet. Was Fallut aware of this?â
âNo.â
âAlthough he had his suspicions and prowled round
you and never left you alone except when he absolutely had to.â
âHow do you know?â
âDid he still talk about marrying
you?â
âI donât know.â
In his mindâs eye, Maigret saw the
trawler, the firemen down in the bunkers, the crew crammed into the foredeck, the
wireless room, the captainâs cabin aft, with the raised bed.
And the voyage had lasted three
months!
All that time three men had prowled
round the cabin where this woman was shut away.
âIâve done some pretty
stupid things, but that â¦!â she exclaimed. âHand on heart, if I had to
do it again ⦠A girl should always be on her guard against shy men who talk about
marriage!â
âIf youâd listened to
me,â said Gaston Buzier.
âYou shut your trap! If Iâd
listened to you, I know what kind of accommodation Iâd be in now! I
donât want to speak ill of Fallut, because heâs dead. But all the same
he was cracked. He had peculiar ideas. Heâd have thought heâd done
something wrong just because heâd broken some rules. And it went from bad to
worse. After a week, he never opened his mouth except to go on at me or ask if
anybody had been in the cabin. Le Clinche was the one he was most jealous of.
Heâd say:
ââYouâd like that,
wouldnât you! A younger man! Say it! Admit that if he came in when I
wasnât here you wouldnât turn him away!â
âAnd heâd laugh so nastily that it
hurt.â
âHow many times did Le Clinche
come to see you?â Maigret asked slowly.
âOh, all right, the hell with it.
Once. On the fourth day. I couldnât even tell you how it happened. After that,
it wasnât on the cards, because Fallut kept such a close eye on me.â
âAnd the mechanic?â
âNever! But he tried! Heâd
come and look at me through the porthole. When he did that, he looked as white as a
sheet ⦠What sort of life do you think that was? I was like an animal in a cage.
When the sea was rough I was sick, and Fallut didnât even try to look after
me. He went for weeks without touching me. Then the urge would come back. Heâd
kiss me as if he wanted to bite me and held me so tight I thought he was trying to
suffocate me.â
Gaston Buzier had lit a cigarette and
was now smoking it with a sarcastic expression on his face.
âPlease note, inspector, all this
had nothing to do with me. While it was going on, I was working.â
âOh give it a rest, will
you?â she said, losing patience.
âWhat happened when you got back?
Did Fallut tell you that he was intending to kill himself?â
âWhat, him? He didnât say
anything. When we got back to port, he hadnât said a single word to me for two
weeks. To tell the
She did not answer. Gaston Buzier
sneered.
âAdmit it!â he barked in a
voice full of spite.
âIâm free to do as I please!
Especially seeing as how you didnât exactly abstain from female company while
I was away! Donât deny it! Are you forgetting the girl from the Villa des
Fleurs? And what about that photo I found in your pocket?â
Maigret sat as solemn and impassive as
the oracle.
âI asked if you slept with the
wireless operator.â
âAnd Iâm telling you to go
to blazes!â
She smiled provocatively. Her lips were
moist. She knew men desired her. She was counting on the promise of her pouting
mouth, her sensuous body.
âThe chief mechanic saw you
too.â
âWhatâs he been telling
you?â
âNothing. Iâll recap. The
captain kept you hidden in his cabin. Pierre Le Clinche and the chief mechanic would
come to you there, on the quiet. Was Fallut aware of this?â
âNo.â
âAlthough he had his suspicions and prowled round
you and never left you alone except when he absolutely had to.â
âHow do you know?â
âDid he still talk about marrying
you?â
âI donât know.â
In his mindâs eye, Maigret saw the
trawler, the firemen down in the bunkers, the crew crammed into the foredeck, the
wireless room, the captainâs cabin aft, with the raised bed.
And the voyage had lasted three
months!
All that time three men had prowled
round the cabin where this woman was shut away.
âIâve done some pretty
stupid things, but that â¦!â she exclaimed. âHand on heart, if I had to
do it again ⦠A girl should always be on her guard against shy men who talk about
marriage!â
âIf youâd listened to
me,â said Gaston Buzier.
âYou shut your trap! If Iâd
listened to you, I know what kind of accommodation Iâd be in now! I
donât want to speak ill of Fallut, because heâs dead. But all the same
he was cracked. He had peculiar ideas. Heâd have thought heâd done
something wrong just because heâd broken some rules. And it went from bad to
worse. After a week, he never opened his mouth except to go on at me or ask if
anybody had been in the cabin. Le Clinche was the one he was most jealous of.
Heâd say:
ââYouâd like that,
wouldnât you! A younger man! Say it! Admit that if he came in when I
wasnât here you wouldnât turn him away!â
âAnd heâd laugh so nastily that it
hurt.â
âHow many times did Le Clinche
come to see you?â Maigret asked slowly.
âOh, all right, the hell with it.
Once. On the fourth day. I couldnât even tell you how it happened. After that,
it wasnât on the cards, because Fallut kept such a close eye on me.â
âAnd the mechanic?â
âNever! But he tried! Heâd
come and look at me through the porthole. When he did that, he looked as white as a
sheet ⦠What sort of life do you think that was? I was like an animal in a cage.
When the sea was rough I was sick, and Fallut didnât even try to look after
me. He went for weeks without touching me. Then the urge would come back. Heâd
kiss me as if he wanted to bite me and held me so tight I thought he was trying to
suffocate me.â
Gaston Buzier had lit a cigarette and
was now smoking it with a sarcastic expression on his face.
âPlease note, inspector, all this
had nothing to do with me. While it was going on, I was working.â
âOh give it a rest, will
you?â she said, losing patience.
âWhat happened when you got back?
Did Fallut tell you that he was intending to kill himself?â
âWhat, him? He didnât say
anything. When we got back to port, he hadnât said a single word to me for two
weeks. To tell the
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