Liberty Bar by Georges Simenon Read Free Book Online

on a rattan table.
    The owner was leaning on a handrail and
     chatting to two young women. When he laughed he displayed an impressive set of teeth. A
     three-metre-long gangplank separated the group from Maigret; the inspector shrugged his
     shoulders and began to climb it, and almost burst out laughing when he saw the
     steward’s face fall.
    There are moments like this when you take a
     particular step, not because it is useful as such, but just in order to do something or
     to avoid thinking.
    ‘Excuse me, sir …’
    The owner had stopped laughing. He stood
     waiting, his face turned towards Maigret, as did the two women.
    ‘A simple question, if you’d be
     so kind. Did you know a Monsieur Brown?’
    ‘Does he own a boat?’
    ‘He did once … William Brown
     …’
    Maigret was barely waiting for a reply.
    He looked at the man he had addressed, who
     must have been around forty-five and appeared very distinguished, standing between two
     women, half naked in their dresses.
    He said to himself:
    ‘Brown was like him! He too
     surrounded himself with beautiful, elegantly dressed women who had groomedthemselves to perfection for the purpose of sexual allure! For his own
     amusement he took them to bars and bought champagne for everyone …’
    The man replied, in a thick accent:
    ‘If it’s the Brown I’m
     thinking of, he used to own that large boat at the end … The
Pacific
… But it’s been bought and sold at least a couple of times since
     then.’
    ‘Thank you.’
    The man and his two companions didn’t
     really understand the purpose of Maigret’s visit. They watched him walk away, and
     the inspector heard one of the women giggling.
    The
Pacific
… There were
     only two boats of that size in the harbour, one of which was the one with the Turkish
     flag.
    Only, the
Pacific
had an air of
     neglect about it. In several places the metal of the hull was visible where the
     paintwork had flaked off. The copper fittings were rusted with verdigris.
    A scrawled notice on the bulwarks:
     ‘For Sale’.
    It was that time of day when the yacht
     sailors, all scrubbed up and in smart uniforms, were heading off into town in groups,
     like soldiers.
    When Maigret walked back past the
Ardena
, he could feel the three pairs of eyes on him and he suspected that
     the steward was scrutinizing him from some nook or cranny in the bridge.
    The streets were lit up. Maigret had a bit
     of difficulty finding the garage again, where he had one last matter to clear up.
    ‘What time did Brown come by on
     Friday to collect his car?’
    They had to ask the
     mechanic.
    A few minutes before five! In other words,
     he had just enough time to drive straight back to Cap d’Antibes.
    ‘Was he alone? Was there anyone
     waiting for him outside? And are you sure he wasn’t wounded?’
    William Brown had left the Liberty Bar
     around two o’clock. What did he do in those three hours?
    There was no need for Maigret to stay in
     Cannes any longer. He waited for the bus, settled himself in a corner and let his gaze
     drift over the procession of car headlights streaming along the main road.
    The first person he saw as he got off the
     bus at Place Macé was Inspector Boutigues, who was sitting on the terrace of the Café
     Glacier and who jumped to his feet.
    ‘We’ve been looking for you
     since morning! … Take a seat … What will you have? … Waiter! Two
     Pernods!’
    ‘Not for me! … A
     gentian!’ said Maigret, who wanted to find out for himself what that beverage
     tasted like.
    ‘I asked the taxi-drivers first of
     all. Since none of them had picked you up, I checked out the bus drivers. That’s
     how I know you went to Cannes …’
    He was talking quickly, heatedly.
    In spite of himself, Maigret looked at him
     with round eyes. But that didn’t stop the little inspector from ploughing on:
    ‘There are only five or six
     restaurants where you can get a decent meal … I phoned each of them … Where
     on earth did