Lock No. 1 by Georges Simenon Read Free Book Online

damp.
    Ducrau, already solidly ensconced in the
     new day,
shouted some final exhortation to
     the master of a barge which was emerging from the lock chamber and beginning to slip
     down the current of the Seine.
    â€˜I was right. You’re like
     me.’
    Did he mean that the inspector was also
     made of the same stuff as those who get up early to organize the work of other
     men.
    â€˜Have you a moment?’
    His shoulders were so broad that he
     looked almost square-shaped. Of course, he was very probably wearing a bandage
     around his chest. But he moved briskly, and Maigret saw him jump down from the wall
     of the lock on to the deck of a barge which was more than a metre below him.
    â€˜Morning, Maurice. Did you run
     across
Eagle IV
above Chalifert? Did they get those seals fixed?’
    But he was scarcely listening. Once he
     had been given the information he’d asked for, he dismissed people with a
     grunt and turned his attention elsewhere.
    â€˜Hear any more about the accident
     in Revin culvert?’
    Aline was sitting on the deck of the
Golden Fleece
near the helm, grinding coffee and looking vaguely around
     her. No sooner had Maigret spotted her than Ducrau was at his elbow, with a
     short-stemmed pipe clenched between his teeth.
    â€˜Are you beginning to make any
     sense of it?’
    A jerk of his chin indicated that he was
     talking about all the activity in the canal port and the lock, not about the attack
     on him. He was much more jovial than on the previous evening, and less guarded.
    â€˜You see,
     there is a three-way junction of waterways connected to the Seine. Here, we are on
     the Marne canal. Over that way is the River Marne itself – it isn’t used for
     navigation hereabouts. Finally there is the Upper Seine. The Upper Seine will take
     you to Burgundy, the Loire, Lyons and Marseilles. Le Havre and Rouen are the most
     significant towns on the Lower Seine. Two companies share all the freight business:
     the General and the Centre Canal Company. But from this lock and as far as Belgium,
     Holland and the Saar, it’s Ducrau’s.’
    His eyes were blue and his skin fair in
     the early-morning sunlight, which bathed the landscape in a rosy glow.
    â€˜The entire block of houses all
     around mine belongs to me, including the bar, the detached villas and the small
     dance hall. Also those three cranes over there and the stone-crusher too. And the
     boat-repair yards on the other side of that footbridge.’
    He drank it all in, savouring his
     delight.
    â€˜They say that altogether the
     whole lot is worth forty million,’ observed Maigret.
    â€˜You seem rather well informed,
     give or take five million. Did your men come up with anything yesterday?’
    Even saying this gave him delight. In
     the event, Maigret had sent three inspectors to make detailed inquiries, at
     Charenton and elsewhere, about Ducrau, his family and everyone who had any
     connection with what had happened.
    The trawl hadn’t netted much. The
     brothel at Charenton confirmed that the canal magnate had been there on the
evening the crime was committed. He was
     often there. He paid for drinks, kidded around with the girls, yarned and frequently
     went home without asking anything more of them.
    As for his son, Jean, people living in
     the area knew almost nothing about him. He worked at his books. He did not go out
     often. He seemed like a young man from a good home and his health was delicate.
    â€˜Incidentally,’ said
     Maigret, pointing to the
Golden Fleece
, ‘I believe it was on that
     barge that your son spent three months last year?’
    Ducrau did not flinch, though he perhaps
     became a shade more solemn.
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Was he convalescing?’
    â€˜He’d been overdoing it. The
     doctor prescribed calm and fresh air. The
Golden Fleece
was leaving for
     Alsace …’
    Aline, holding her coffee-grinder, went
     inside the cabin,