A plumpish girl who was half-asleep and gave off a musty smell, a damp bed, a comb clotted with hair on a dressing table.
‘Did you hear a gunshot?’
‘A what?’
‘What time did you go to bed?’
‘I came upstairs at ten o’clock.’
‘And you didn’t hear anything?’
Richard was asking all the questions.
‘Next! … Open up, Marie … No, no, dear, it’s not important …’
A girl of sixteen who had slipped a coat over her nightdress and was trembling from head to toe.
‘Did you hear a gunshot?’
She stared at Richard and Maigret with a sort of terror.
‘Have you been asleep long?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Did you hear anything?’
‘No. Why? What’s going on?’
‘Any questions, Monsieur Maigret?’
‘I’d like to ask her where she comes from.’
‘Where do you come from, Marie?’
‘From Anseval.’
‘What about Germaine?’
‘Also from Anseval.’
‘And Louis?’
‘From Anseval, Monsieur Maigret,’ replied Richard with disdain. ‘You are clearly unaware of the fact that people who own a chateau tend to hire their servants from the village.’
‘The next door?’
‘Madame Louis’ room.’
‘Does her husband sleep there too?’
‘He sleeps downstairs, in the lodge.’
It took Madame Louis longer to open the door. She was short, swarthy and very fat, and had wary eyes.
‘Have you finished making a racket? Where’s Louis?’
‘Downstairs. Tell me, did you hear a gunshot?’
She almost threw them out, muttering furiously. And Richard carried on opening more doors, into empty rooms, junk closets, garret rooms. Maigret wasn’t spared the attic, and then he had to go down to the first floor and visit the apartments of the father and the son.
‘There are still the drawing rooms. Oh yes, I absolutely insist.’
Richard switched on the great chandelier with tinkling crystal droplets.
‘No dead body? No one wounded? Have you seen the whole house? Don’t you want to go down into the cellar? You’ll note that it is now a quarter past three.’
He opened the pantry door and they saw Justin Minard sitting on a chair, with Louis standing in a corner guarding him as if he were a prisoner.
‘Is this the young man who heard the shot? Delighted to have seen his interesting face. I presume, now, Monsieur Maigret, that I am entitled to file a complaint for slander and attempted forced entry.’
‘You are indeed within your rights to do so.’
‘I wish you good night. Louis, show these gentlemen out.’
Old Gendreau opened his mouth but said nothing. As for Maigret, he managed to say:
‘Thank you very much.’
Louis walked close behind them and shut the heavy door after them.
Disconcerted and slightly anxious, they were all alone on the left-hand pavement of Rue Chaptal. Maigret turned round automatically towards the patch of oil on the wooden paving, as if to grasp at something tangible in spite of everything.
‘I swear I hadn’t been drinking.’
‘I believe you.’
‘And I’m not mad.’
‘Most certainly not.’
‘Do you think this is going to get you into trouble? I vaguely heard …’
That night, Maigret was wearing his first-ever tailcoat for the first time. It was a little tight under the arms.
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Maigret's Dead Man Page 21
