give us a detailed description. Most of them
speak of a small-made, ordinary man who waved his arms about. I was forgetting one detail which
Moers came up with this morning. He is very conscientious, never satisfied with his work. He
goes back and checks without being asked to. Well, heâs discovered that the dead man
walked like a duck.â
âHow do you mean?â
âLike a duck! With his feet pointing out,
if you prefer.â
He gestured to Madame Maigret, indicating that
she should fill his pipe. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, using his hands to stop
her packing the bowl too tightly.
âI was telling you
about the various descriptions we have of him. They are vague. Even so, two out of the five had
the same impression. âIâm not sure,â said the owner of the Caves du
Beaujolais. âI canât say exactly ⦠But he reminds me of something ⦠But
what?â Now he wasnât a film actor. He wasnât even an extra. An inspector asked
around all the studios. Nor was he a politician or a magistrate â¦â
âMaigret!â cried his wife.
Still talking, he lit his pipe, punctuating his
flow with pulls on his pipe.
âAsk yourself, sir, what profession matches
up with all these details.â
âI donât care for
charades.â
âWhen a man is forced to keep to his room,
you know, he has plenty of time for reflection. But Iâm forgetting the most important
thing. Of course, we looked at various spheres of activity. Cycle races and football matches
drew blanks. I had all PMU licensees questioned â¦â
âAll what?â
âThe Pari-Mutuel-Urbain â¦
Youâve seen cafés where you can put a bet on a horse without having to go to the
races. I donât know why, but I saw my man as the sort whoâd hang around PMU bars.
But that didnât turn up anything either â¦â
He had the patience of an angel. It was as if he
relished spinning this phone call out for as long as he could.
âOn the other hand, Lucas had more luck at
the races. It took him some time. Weâre not talking about a formal identification. The
disfigurement of the face remains aproblem. And donât forget either
that people arenât used to seeing dead bodies, only living people, plus the fact that when
a man becomes a corpse he changes his appearance greatly ⦠Still, on race tracks, a few
people remember him ⦠He wasnât a habitué of the paddock but of the public
enclosures. According to one tipster, he was something of a regular.â
âBut all this has still not been enough to
reveal his identity?â
âNo. But this plus the rest, everything
Iâve told you, allows me to say almost for sure that he was in La Limonade
â¦â
â
La Limonade?
â
âItâs the usual term, sir. It covers
waiters, bottle-washers, bartenders and even some café owners. Itâs the word used in
the trade for everyone who works in the drinks industry but excludes restaurants. Now all
waiters in bars are the same. I donât mean that they all look exactly the same, but
thereâs a family likeness. How often does it happen that you have the feeling that you
recognize a waiter youâve never actually seen before?
âMost of them have sensitive feet, as you
would expect. You only have to look at their feet. They wear light, supple shoes, almost like
slippers. Youâll never see a waiter in a bar or a head waiter in a restaurant wearing
outdoor shoes, with triple soles. And their profession requires them to wear white shirts.
âIâm not saying that itâs
compulsory, but there is also a fair percentage who walk like ducks.
âI would also add that, for reasons which
escape me,waiters who work in bars have a pronounced weakness for
horse-racing and that many of those who work early or late shifts, are keen
race-goers.â
âSo, to get to the point,
speak of a small-made, ordinary man who waved his arms about. I was forgetting one detail which
Moers came up with this morning. He is very conscientious, never satisfied with his work. He
goes back and checks without being asked to. Well, heâs discovered that the dead man
walked like a duck.â
âHow do you mean?â
âLike a duck! With his feet pointing out,
if you prefer.â
He gestured to Madame Maigret, indicating that
she should fill his pipe. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, using his hands to stop
her packing the bowl too tightly.
âI was telling you
about the various descriptions we have of him. They are vague. Even so, two out of the five had
the same impression. âIâm not sure,â said the owner of the Caves du
Beaujolais. âI canât say exactly ⦠But he reminds me of something ⦠But
what?â Now he wasnât a film actor. He wasnât even an extra. An inspector asked
around all the studios. Nor was he a politician or a magistrate â¦â
âMaigret!â cried his wife.
Still talking, he lit his pipe, punctuating his
flow with pulls on his pipe.
âAsk yourself, sir, what profession matches
up with all these details.â
âI donât care for
charades.â
âWhen a man is forced to keep to his room,
you know, he has plenty of time for reflection. But Iâm forgetting the most important
thing. Of course, we looked at various spheres of activity. Cycle races and football matches
drew blanks. I had all PMU licensees questioned â¦â
âAll what?â
âThe Pari-Mutuel-Urbain â¦
Youâve seen cafés where you can put a bet on a horse without having to go to the
races. I donât know why, but I saw my man as the sort whoâd hang around PMU bars.
But that didnât turn up anything either â¦â
He had the patience of an angel. It was as if he
relished spinning this phone call out for as long as he could.
âOn the other hand, Lucas had more luck at
the races. It took him some time. Weâre not talking about a formal identification. The
disfigurement of the face remains aproblem. And donât forget either
that people arenât used to seeing dead bodies, only living people, plus the fact that when
a man becomes a corpse he changes his appearance greatly ⦠Still, on race tracks, a few
people remember him ⦠He wasnât a habitué of the paddock but of the public
enclosures. According to one tipster, he was something of a regular.â
âBut all this has still not been enough to
reveal his identity?â
âNo. But this plus the rest, everything
Iâve told you, allows me to say almost for sure that he was in La Limonade
â¦â
â
La Limonade?
â
âItâs the usual term, sir. It covers
waiters, bottle-washers, bartenders and even some café owners. Itâs the word used in
the trade for everyone who works in the drinks industry but excludes restaurants. Now all
waiters in bars are the same. I donât mean that they all look exactly the same, but
thereâs a family likeness. How often does it happen that you have the feeling that you
recognize a waiter youâve never actually seen before?
âMost of them have sensitive feet, as you
would expect. You only have to look at their feet. They wear light, supple shoes, almost like
slippers. Youâll never see a waiter in a bar or a head waiter in a restaurant wearing
outdoor shoes, with triple soles. And their profession requires them to wear white shirts.
âIâm not saying that itâs
compulsory, but there is also a fair percentage who walk like ducks.
âI would also add that, for reasons which
escape me,waiters who work in bars have a pronounced weakness for
horse-racing and that many of those who work early or late shifts, are keen
race-goers.â
âSo, to get to the point,
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