Free My Friend Maigret by Georges Simenon Page A

like a baby. But she hasn’t much time left. A year at the outside.”
    â€œDid the doctor say so?”
    â€œShe’s got cancer and she is too old to have an operation. As for him he always imagines he’s going to die. He has fits of breathlessness several times a day, doesn’t dare stir, as if the least movement might be fatal…”
    â€œSo he’s asked you to marry him?”
    â€œYes. He made sure I was fit enough to look after him. He’s even had me examined by several doctors. Needless to say Justine knows nothing, or she would have thrown me out a long time ago.”
    â€œAnd Marcel?”
    â€œI told him.”
    â€œWhat was his reaction?”
    â€œNone. He thought I was right to provide for my old age. I think it pleased him to know that I would come to live here.”
    â€œMonsieur Émile wasn’t jealous of Marcel?”
    â€œWhy would he have been jealous? I’ve already told you there was nothing between us anymore.”
    â€œIn short, this is what you were so anxious to talk to me about?”
    â€œI thought of all the assumptions you would arrive at which don’t correspond to reality.”
    â€œFor example that Marcel might have been able to blackmail Monsieur Émile, and the latter, to get him out of the way…”
    â€œMarcel never blackmailed anyone, and Monsieur Émile would rather die of hunger than strangle a chicken!”
    â€œOf course you haven’t been on to the island these last few days?”
    â€œIt’s easy to check up.”
    â€œBecause you hadn’t left the house in Nice, had you? It’s an excellent alibi.”
    â€œDo I need one?”
    â€œAccording to what you said just now—I am speaking as a policeman. Marcel, despite everything, could have been in your way. Especially as Monsieur Émile is a big fish, a very big fish. Supposing he does marry you, he would leave you, on his death, a considerable fortune.”
    â€œQuite considerable, yes! I wonder now if I was right to come. I wasn’t expecting you to speak to me like that. I’ve admitted everything to you, frankly.”
    Her eyes were shining, as though she were on the verge of tears, and it was an old face, badly patched up and disfigured with a childish pout, that Maigret beheld.
    â€œYou can do what you like. I don’t know who killed Marcel. It’s a catastrophe.”
    â€œEspecially for him.”
    â€œFor him too, yes. But he’s at rest. Are you going to arrest me?”
    She had said this with the shadow of a smile, although one could feel that she was anxious, more serious than she wanted to appear.
    â€œFor the moment I have no such intention.”
    â€œCan I go to the funeral tomorrow morning? If you like, I’ll come straight back afterwards. All you have to do is send a boat for me at Giens Point.”
    â€œPerhaps.”
    â€œYou won’t say anything to Justine?”
    â€œNot before it’s strictly necessary and I don’t envisage the necessity.”
    â€œAre you cross with me?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    â€œYes. I felt it straightaway, before leaving the Cormorant , from the moment I saw you. I recognized you. I was moved, because it was a whole period of my life coming back to me.”
    â€œA period of regret?”
    â€œPerhaps. I don’t know. I sometimes wonder.”
    She rose with a sigh, without putting on her shoes again. She wanted to unlace her stays and was waiting for the chief inspector to leave before doing so.
    â€œYou must do as you wish,” she sighed finally, as he was putting his hand to the doorknob.
    And he felt something like a pang at leaving her all alone, aging, anxious, in the little bedroom into which the setting sun penetrated through the attic window, casting everywhere, on the painted wallpaper and the counterpane, a pink hue, like rouge.
    Â 
    â€œA white wine, Monsieur Maigret!”
    Noise, all of