Free Maigret's Dead Man by Georges Simenon

in all the houses and apartments. The street isn’t very long. Some of the locals must
have noticed the yellow car, and I’d like to know, as accurately as possible, exactly when
it broke down and what time it drove away again. Wait! That’s not all! The men in the car
might have wanted a spare part. There must be garages in the area. I want them questioned too.
That’s all for the moment … over to you!’
    â€˜One moment, sir, I have to go next door
…’
    That meant that Lucas was not alone and that he
did not want to speak in front of the person who was with him.
    â€˜Hello? … Right … I
didn’t want her to hear what I was saying. It’s further information about the car.
An old lady turned up half an hour ago, and I’m interviewing her in your office.
Unfortunately, she seems a bit crazy to me …’
    It was unavoidable. However
little publicity is given to a police investigation, the Police Judiciaire sooner or later
attracts all the crazy people, male and female, in Paris.
    â€˜She lives on Quai de Charenton, a little
further along than the warehouses at Bercy.’
    It reminded Maigret of a case he had investigated
a few years before in a strange little house located in that part of the city. In his
mind’s eye, he saw Quai de Bercy, with the warehouse gates on the left, the tall trees and
the stone parapet of the Seine on the right. Further on, after a bridge whose name he had
forgotten, the road widened. One side was lined with one- or two-storied houses which put him in
mind more of the suburbs than of the inner city proper. There were always many barges moored
just there, and he pictured the docks piled high with barrels as far as the eye could see.
    â€˜What does this old woman do for a
living?’
    â€˜That’s the hitch. She’s a
fortune-teller and clairvoyant …’
    â€˜Oh dear.’
    â€˜That was my first reaction too. She talks
the hind leg off a donkey and she has this very unnerving way of looking at you straight in the
eye. At first, she stated categorically that she never reads newspapers and tried to make me
believe that there was no point because she only had to go into a trance to be up to date with
everything that goes on.’
    â€˜You pressed her?’
    â€˜Yes. In the end she admitted that she
might just have glanced at a paper which one of her customers had left behind.’
    â€˜So?’
    â€˜She’d read a description of the
yellow car. She claims she saw it on Wednesday evening less than a hundred metres from her front
door.’
    â€˜What time was that?’
    â€˜About nine.’
    â€˜Did she see who was in it?’
    â€˜She saw two men going into a
building.’
    â€˜And is she able to say which
building?’
    â€˜It’s a small bar on the corner of
the Quai and a street that runs off it. It’s called the Petit Albert.’
    Maigret bit hard on the pipe between his teeth
and avoided looking at Madame Maigret, for he was reluctant to let her see the tiny flame
dancing in his eyes.
    â€˜Is that all?’
    â€˜That’s more or less everything
interesting that she told me. But that didn’t stop her yakking on and on for half an hour
at an alarming rate. Would it be better if you talked to her?’
    â€˜Yes!’
    â€˜Would you like me to bring her round to
your place?’
    â€˜Just a moment. Do we know how long the car
remained outside the Petit Albert?’
    â€˜About half an hour.’
    â€˜And it drove off towards the centre of
town?’
    â€˜No. It headed along the river bank towards
Charenton.’
    â€˜Was any kind of parcel transferred from
the building to the car? Do you see what I’m getting at?’
    â€˜No, nothing. She reckons that the men
weren’t carrying anything. And that’s what puzzles me. There’s alsothe time factor. I’m wondering what the men could have done with the
body between nine