Free Maigret Gets Angry by Georges Simenon Page B

came and sat down at the table where an impressive pile of
saucers had begun to accumulate.
    ‘What exactly do you want to know about the
Amorelle and Campois outfit, chief?’
    ‘Everything …’
    ‘Hold on …’
    He took a scrap of paper out of his pocket.
    ‘Old Campois, first of all. Arrived at the
age of eighteen from his native Dauphiné. A wily and obstinate farmer. Initially employed
by a building contractor in the Vaugirard neighbourhood, then by an architect, and then finally
by a contractor in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. That’s where he met Amorelle.
    ‘Amorelle, born in the Berry, married his
boss’s daughter. He and Campois became partners, and they both bought properties upstream
from Paris, where they founded their first sand quarry company. That was forty-five years
ago.’
    Lucas and Torrence watched their former chief
with an amused smile as he listened impassively. It was as though, while Janvier was speaking,
Maigret’s face had turned into that of the old days.
    ‘I found all that out from an elderly
employee who is vaguely related to a member of my wife’s family. I knew him by sight and a
few little drinks were enough to get him to talk.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘It’s the same story as with all big
companies. After a few years, Amorelle and Campois owned half a dozen sand quarries in the Haute
Seine area. Then, instead of transporting their sand by barge, they bought boats. Well, tugs.
Apparently it caused quite a stir at the time, because it was the ruin of the horse-drawn
barges. There were demonstrations outside their offices on the Île Saint-Louis
… Because the offices, which were not so grand
in those days, were already where they are today. Amorelle even received threatening letters. He
stood his ground and it all blew over.
    ‘Nowadays, it’s a huge company. You
can’t imagine the size of a business like that, and it leaves me flabbergasted. They
branched out into stone quarries. Then Amorelle and Campois bought shares in construction sites
in Rouen where they had their tug-boats built. They now have majority shareholdings in at least
ten businesses, shipping operations, quarries and shipbuilders, as well as civil engineering
firms, and in a cement company.’
    ‘What about the Maliks?’
    ‘I’m coming to them. My man told me
about them too. Apparently Malik number one—’
    ‘What do you mean by number one?’
    ‘The first to enter the company. Let me
check my notes. Ernest Malik, from Moulins.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘He wasn’t in the business at all,
but was secretary to a high-up municipal councillor. That was how he met Amorelle and Campois.
Because of the tenders. Bribes and all that! … And he married the eldest daughter. That
was shortly after the suicide of the young Campois, who had been part of the firm.’
    Maigret had withdrawn into himself and his eyes
had narrowed to slits. Lucas and Torrence exchanged looks again, amused to see the chief as they
had known him in his heyday, with his lips pursed around the stem of his
pipe, his fat thumb stroking the bowl and that hunching of the
shoulders.
    ‘That’s about all, chief … Once
he’d joined the firm, Ernest Malik brought in his brother from some backwater. He was even
less from that world. Some say that he was just a small insurance agent from the Lyon area. Even
so, he married the second daughter and, since then, the Maliks have sat on all the boards of
directors. Because the firm consists of a myriad of different companies that are interconnected.
Apparently old Campois effectively has no authority. What’s more, he was allegedly foolish
enough to sell a huge number of shares when he believed they were at their peak.
    ‘But, in opposition to the Maliks, there is
still the old Amorelle widow, who can’t stand them. And it is she who still has – at
least it is thought she has – the majority shareholdings in the various companies. Company
gossip has it that to infuriate her sons-in-law, she is