Free Maigret in New York by Georges Simenon Page B

life,
right?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because it’s true. I have always been hungry
… Even when I was earning good money, because I never had
enough to eat as much as I’d have liked. You’ll have to get that
paper back to me because I promised my friend to return it.’
    ‘I’ll have it photographed as soon as I can.’
    ‘Oh, I’ll have other information, but not right
away. Already for that handbill, I had to insist that my friend look for it then and there. He
lives in an armchair mounted on wheels, comes and goes in his place cluttered with papers. He
assured me that he knew people who could tell us things but he wouldn’t say who … Because
he can’t remember for sure, I’d bet on that. He needs to rummage around in his clutter.
    ‘He has no telephone. Since he cannot go out,
that doesn’t help any.
    ‘“Don’t worry, people come see me. People come
see me,” he kept saying. “There are enough artistes who remember old Germain and are happy to
come and have a chat in this dump …
    ‘“I have an old friend who used to be a tightrope
walker, then a medium in a spiritualism act and who wound up telling fortunes. She comes every
Wednesday.
    ‘“Stop by now and then. When I’ve got something
for you, I’ll tell you. But now you must tell me the truth. This is for a book on vaudeville and
cabaret acts, isn’t it! There’s already one on circus folks. For that people used to come here,
worm things out of me, carry off my memorabilia and then, when the book came out, my name wasn’t
even in it …”’
    Maigret could tell what kind of a man Ronald
Dexter was and knew that there was no point in rushing him.
    ‘You’ll go back there every day …’
    ‘I’ve got other places to visit as well. You’ll
see, I’ll find you all the information you’re looking for. Except, I have to ask you for another
small advance on expenses. Yesterday you gave me ten dollars, and I’ve recorded your payment.
Look! … No, no, I want you to see …’
    And he showed him a grimy notebook, on one page
of which he had written in pencil:
    Received advance for J and J
    investigation: ten dollars.
    ‘Today I’d rather you gave me only five, because
I spend everything I get anyway, so it would all go too fast. So then I wouldn’t dare ask you
for any more, and with no money, I wouldn’t be able to help you. It’s too much? What about
four?’
    Maigret took out five dollars and for no reason,
when he handed them over, he looked intently at the clown.
    Well fed, the man in the trenchcoat wearing an
acid green ribbon for a necktie did not look any jollier, but in his eyes there was infinite
gratitude, infinite submission mixed with something anxious and trembling. He was like a dog
that has finally found a good master and searches humbly for a sign of satisfaction in his
face.
    It was then that Maigret remembered what O’Brien
had said. He remembered old Angelino, too, who that morning had set out on his daily walk and
been cruelly killed.
    He wondered if he had the right to …
    But
only for a moment: wasn’t he sending the former clown into a perfectly quiet part of the
city?
    ‘If they ever kill him on me …’ he
thought.
    Then he recalled the office in the St Regis, the
letter opener that had snapped in the nervous grip of Little John, and MacGill, busy talking
about him to his American girl in the bar.
    He had never undertaken an investigation in such
uncertain and almost crazy circumstances. In reality, no one had instructed him to pursue any
investigation. Even old Monsieur d’Hoquélus, so insistent in the house at Meung-sur-Loire, now
asked him politely to return to France and mind his own business. Even O’Brien …
    ‘I’ll drop by to see you tomorrow at around the
same time,’ said Ronald Dexter, picking up his hat. ‘Don’t forget that I have to return the
handbill.’
    J and J …
    Maigret found himself alone again out on the
pavement of an avenue he did not know, and he wandered a good while