The Grand Banks Café (2 page)

Maigret sat down in a free corner, on
the bench seat. He was surrounded by noise and activity. There were men standing,
men sitting, glasses on the marble-topped tables. All were sailors.

‘What'll it be?'

‘A beer.'

The serving girl went off. The landlord
came up to him:

‘I've got another room next
door, you know. For tourists. This lot make such a din in here!' He winked.
‘Well, after three months at sea, it's understandable.'

‘Are these the crew of the
Océan
?'

‘Most of them. The other boats
aren't back yet. You mustn't pay any attention. Some of them have been
drunk for three days. Are you staying put? … I bet you're a painter, right? We
get them in now and again. They do sketches. There, see? Over the counter? One of
them drew me, head and shoulders.'

But the inspector offered so little
encouragement to his chatter that the landlord gave up and went away.

‘A copper two-
sou
bit!
Who's got a copper two-
sou
bit?'
shouted a sailor no taller than a sixteen-year-old youth
and as thin.

His head was old, his face was lopsided,
and he was missing a few teeth. Drink made his eyes bright, and a three-day stubble
had spread over his jaws.

Someone tossed him a coin. He bent it
almost double with his fingers, then put it between his teeth and snapped it in
two.

‘Who's wants to have a go
next?'

He strutted around. He sensed that
everyone was looking at him and was ready to do anything to remain the centre of
attention.

As a puffy-faced mechanic produced a
coin, he stepped in:

‘Half a mo'. This is what
you got to do as well.'

He picked up an empty glass, took a
large bite out of it and chewed the broken pieces with a show of relish worthy of a
gourmet.

‘Ha ha!' he smirked.
‘You're all welcome to give it a try … Fill me up again,
Léon!'

He looked round the bar boastfully until
his eyes came to rest on Maigret. His eyebrows came together in a deep frown.

For a moment he seemed nonplussed. Then
he started to move forwards. He had to lean on a table to steady himself because he
was so drunk.

‘You here for me?' he
blustered.

‘Take it easy, Louis
boy!'

‘Still on about that business with
the wallet? Listen, boys. You didn't believe me just now when I told you about
my run-ins with the Rue de Lappe boys. Well, here's a
top-notch cop who's come out of his way to see yours
truly … Will it be all right if I have another little drink?'

All eyes were now on Maigret.

‘Sit yourself down here, Louis
boy, and stop playing the fool!'

Louis guffawed:

‘You paying? No, that would be the
day! … Is it all right with you, boys, if the chief inspector buys me a drink? …
Make it brandy, Léon, a large one!'

‘Were you on the
Océan
?'

The change in Louis was instant. His
face darkened so much that it seemed as if he had suddenly sobered up. He shifted
his position on the bench seat, backing off suspiciously.

‘What if I was?'

‘Nothing … Cheers … Been drunk
long?'

‘We been celebrating for three
days. Ever since we landed. I gave my pay to Léon. Nine hundred francs, give or
take. Here until it runs out … How much have I got left, Léon, you old
crook?'

‘Well, not enough for you to go on
buying rounds until tomorrow! About fifty francs. Isn't it a stupid shame,
inspector! Tomorrow he'll be skint and he'll have to sign as a stoker on
the first boat that'll have him. It's the same story every time. Mark
you, I don't encourage them to drink! The very opposite!'

‘Shut your mouth!'

The others had lost their high spirits.
They talked in whispers and kept looking round at the table where the inspector was
sitting.

‘Are all these men from the
Océan
?'

‘All save the big fellow in the
cap, who's a pilot, and the one with ginger hair. He's a ship's
carpenter.'

‘Tell me what happened.'

‘I got nothing to say.'

‘Watch your step, Louis!
Don't forget the wallet business, which ended up with you doing your
glass-eating number behind bars.'

‘All I'd get is three
months, and anyway I could do with a rest. But if you want, why not just lock me up
right now?'

‘Were you working in the engine
room?'

‘Sure! As usual! I was second
fireman.'

‘Did you see much of the
captain?'

‘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.