A Crime in Holland (18 page)

‘Maybe twice in all.'

‘And the wireless operator?'

‘Dunno.'

‘Léon! Same again.'

Louis gave a contemptuous laugh.

‘I could be drunk as a lord and still I wouldn't tell you anything I didn't want to say. But since you're here, you could offer to buy the boys a round. After the lousy trip like the one we just been on!'

A sailor, not yet twenty, approached shiftily and tugged Louis' sleeve. They both started talking in Breton.

‘What did he say?'

‘He said it's time I went to bed.'

‘A friend of yours?'

Louis shrugged, and just as the young sailor was about to take his glass off him, he downed it in one defiant gulp.

The Breton had thick eyebrows and wavy hair.

‘Sit down with us,' said Maigret.

But without replying the sailor moved to another table, where he sat staring unblinkingly at both of them.

The atmosphere was heavy and sour. The sounds of tourists playing dominoes came from the next room, which was lighter and cleaner.

‘Catch much cod?' asked Maigret who pursued his line of thought with the single-mindedness of a mechanical drill.

‘It was no good. When we landed, it was half rotten!'

‘How come?'

‘Not enough salt! … Or too much! … It was off! There'll not be a third of the crew who'll go out on her again next week.'

‘Is the
Océan
going out again?'

‘By God, yes! Otherwise what's the point of boats with engines? Sailboats go out the once, from February to October. But these trawlers can fit in two trips to the Grand Banks.'

‘Are you going back on her?'

Louis spat on the floor and gave a weary shrug.

‘I'd just as well be banged up at Fresnes … You must be joking!'

‘And the captain?'

‘I got nothing to say!'

He had lit the stump of a cigar he'd found lying about. Suddenly he retched, made a rush for the door and could be seen throwing up on the kerb, where the Breton joined him.

‘It's a crying shame,' sighed the landlord. ‘The day before yesterday, he had nearly a thousand francs in his pocket. Today, it's touch and go if he doesn't end up owing me money! Oysters and lobster! And that's not reckoning all the drinks he stood everybody, as if he didn't know what to do with his money.'

‘Did you know the wireless operator on the
Océan
?'

‘He had a room here. As a matter of fact, he'd eat his dinners off this very table and then he'd go off to write in the room next door because it was quieter there.'

‘Write to who?'

‘Not just letters … Looked like poetry or novels. A kid with an education, well brought up. Now that I know you're police, I can tell you that it was a mistake when your lot …'

‘Even though the captain had been killed?'

A shrug for an answer. The landlord sat down facing Maigret. Louis came back in, made straight for the counter and ordered another drink. His companion, still talking Breton, continued to tell him to stay calm.

‘Pay no attention … Once they're back on dry land, they're like that: they booze, they shout, they fight, they break windows. On board they work like the devil. Even Louis! The chief mechanic on the
Océan
was telling me only yesterday that he does the work of two men … When they were at sea, a steam joint split. Repairing it was dangerous … No one wanted to do it … But Louis stepped up to the mark … If you keep him away from the bottle …'

Léon lowered his voice and ran his eyes over his customers suspiciously.

‘Maybe this time they've got different reasons for going on the bottle. They won't tell you anything, not you! Because you're not a seafaring man. But I overhear them talking. I used to be a pilot. There are things …'

‘What things?'

‘It's hard to explain … You know that there aren't enough men in Fécamp to crew all the trawlers. So they bring them in from Brittany. Those boys have their own way of looking at things, they're a superstitious lot …'

He lowered his voice even further, until he was barely audible.

‘It seems that this time they had the evil eye. It started in port, even before they sailed. There was this sailor who'd climbed the derrick to wave to his wife … He was hanging on to a rope, which broke, and the next moment he's lying on deck with his leg in a hell of a mess! They had to ferry him ashore in a dory. And then there was the ship's boy who didn't want to go to sea, he was bawling and yelling! Then three days later, they telegraphed saying he'd been washed overboard by a wave! A kid of fifteen! A small lad with fair hair, skinny he was, with a girlish name: Jean-Marie. And that wasn't all … Julie, bring us a couple of glasses of calvados … The right-hand bottle … No, not that one … The one with the glass stopper …'

‘So the evil eye went on?'

‘I don't know exactly. It's as if they're all too scared to talk about it. Even so, if the wireless operator has been arrested, it's because the police must have got to hear that during the whole time they were at sea he and the captain never said a word to each other … They were like oil and vinegar.'

‘And?'

‘Things happened … Things that don't make any sense. Like for instance when the skipper made them move the boat to a position where no one ever heard of cod being caught! And he went berserk when the head fisherman refused to do what he was told! He got his revolver out. It was like they were off their heads! For a whole month they didn't even net a ton of fish! And then all of a sudden, the fishing was good. But even then, the cod had to be sold at half price because it hadn't been kept right. And on it went. Even when they were coming into the harbour, they lost control twice and sank a rowing boat. It was like there was a curse on the boat. Then the skipper sent all hands ashore without leaving anyone on watch and stayed on board that evening all by himself.

‘It was around nine o'clock. They were all in here getting drunk. The wireless operator went up to his room. Then he went out. He was seen heading in the direction of the boat.

‘It was then that it happened. A fisherman down in the harbour who was getting ready to leave heard a noise like something falling in the water.

‘He ran to see, with a customs man he'd met on the way. They lit lanterns … There was a body in the water. It had caught in the
Océan
's anchor chain.

‘It was the skipper! He was dead when they fished him out. They tried artificial respiration. They couldn't understand it. He hadn't been in the water ten minutes.

‘The doctor explained the reason. Seems as how somebody had strangled him
before
 … Do you follow me? And they found the wireless operator on board in his cabin, which is just astern of the funnel. You can see it from here.

‘The police came here and searched his room. They found some burned papers …

‘What do you make of it? … Ho! Julie, two calvados! … Your very good health!'

Louis, getting more and more carried away, had gripped a chair with his teeth and, in the middle of a circle of sailors, was holding it horizontally while staring defiantly at Maigret.

‘Was the captain from around here?' asked the inspector.

‘That he was. A curious sort. Not much taller or wider than Louis. But always polite, always friendly. And always nattily turned out. I don't think he went much to cafés. He wasn't married. He had digs in Rue d'Étretat, with a widow whose husband had worked for customs. There was talk that they'd get wed in the end. He'd been fishing off Newfoundland these fifteen years. Always for the same owners: the French Cod Company. Captain Fallut, to give him his full name. They're in a fix now if they want to send the
Océan
out to the Grand Banks. No captain! And half the crew not wanting to sign on for another tour!'

‘Why is that?'

‘Don't try to understand! The evil eye, like I told you. There's talk of laying the boat up until next year. On top of which the police have told the crew they have to stay available.'

‘And the wireless operator is behind bars?'

‘Yes. They took him away the same evening, in handcuffs he was … I was standing in the doorway. I tell you God's truth, the wife cried … and so did I. But he wasn't a special customer. I used to knock a bit off when I sold him supplies. He wasn't much of a drinker himself.'

They were interrupted by a sudden uproar. Louis had thrown himself at the Breton, presumably because the Breton had insisted on trying to stop him drinking. Both were rolling around on the floor. The others got out of their way.

It was Maigret who separated them, picking them up one in each hand.

‘That's enough! You want to argue?'

The scuffle was over quickly. The Breton, whose hands were free, pulled a knife from his pocket. The inspector saw it just in time and with a swift back heel sent it spinning two metres away.

The shoe caught the Breton on the chin, which started to bleed. Louis, still in a daze and still drunk, rushed to his friend and started crying and saying he was sorry.

Léon came up to Maigret. He had his watch in his hand.

‘Time I closed up! If I don't we'll have the police on the doorstep. Every evening it's the same story! I just can't kick them out!'

‘Do they sleep on board the
Océan
?'

‘Yes. Unless, that is, and it happened to two of them yesterday, they sleep where they fall, in the gutter. I found them this morning when I opened the shutters.'

The serving girl went round gathering glasses off the tables. The men drifted off in groups of two or three. Only Louis and the Breton didn't budge.

‘Need a room?' Léon asked Maigret.

‘No thanks. I'm booked into the Hôtel de la Plage.'

‘Can I say something?'

‘What?'

‘It isn't that I want to give you advice. It's none of my business. But if anyone was feeling sorry for the wireless operator, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to
chercher la femme
, as they say in books. I've heard a few whispers along those lines …'

‘Did Pierre Le Clinche have a girlfriend?'

‘What, him? No fear! He'd got himself engaged wherever it was he came from. Every day he'd write home, letters six pages long.'

‘Who do you mean, then?'

‘I dunno. Maybe it's more complicated than people think. Besides …'

‘Besides what?'

‘Nothing. Behave yourself, Louis! Go home to bed!'

But Louis was far too drunk for that. He was tearful, he had his arms around his friend, whose chin was still bleeding, and he kept saying sorry.

Maigret left the bar, hands thrust deep in his pockets and with his collar turned up, for the air was cool.

In the vestibule of the Hôtel de la Plage, he saw a young woman sitting in a wicker chair. A man got up from another chair and smiled. There was a slight awkwardness in his smile.

It was Jorissen, the primary-school teacher from Quimper. Maigret had not seen him for fifteen years, and Jorissen was not sure whether he should treat him with their old easy familiarity.

‘Look, I'm sorry … I … that is we, Mademoiselle-Léonnec and I, have only just got here … I did the rounds of the hotels … They said you … they said you'd be back … She's Pierre Le Clinche's fiancée … She insisted …'

She was tall, rather pale, rather shy. But when Maigret shook her hand, he sensed that behind the façade of small-town, unsophisticated coyness there was a strong will.

She didn't speak. She felt out of her depth. As did Jorissen, who was still just a primary-school teacher who was now meeting up again with his old friend, who now held one of the highest ranks in the Police Judiciare.

‘They pointed out Madame Maigret in the lounge just now, but I didn't like to …'

Maigret took a closer look at the girl, who was neither pretty nor plain, but there was something touching about her natural simplicity.

‘You do know that he's innocent, don't you?' she said finally, looking at no one in particular.

The porter was waiting to get back to his bed. He had already unbuttoned his jacket.

‘We'll see about that tomorrow … Have you got a room somewhere?'

‘I've got the room next to you … to yours,' stammered the teacher from Quimper, still unsure of himself. ‘And Mademoiselle Léonnec is on the floor above … I've got to get back tomorrow, there are exams on … Do you think … ?'

‘Tomorrow! We'll see then,' Maigret said again.

And as he was getting ready for bed, his wife, already half asleep, murmured:

‘Don't forget to turn the light out.'

Looking for more?
Visit Penguin.com for more about this author and a complete list of their books.
Discover your next great read!