"She came with us and Babette."
"I'll go change," announced Éliane taking off her hat and climbing over a hedge which separated the station from a garden.
The house was right there, a great dark brick construction, dating from the worst time before the war, with dreadful ceramic ornaments. A lawn gave somewhat the illusion of a park, decorated with two horrible statues, while the remainder of the property remained in wasteland.
"I've thought of something, Chief Inspector," began Émile Grosbois. "If someone plans to take my life, he will probably come by the train. Now, from your window, you will be able to observe all the travelers who get off in Coudray. You've probably noticed that there are very few."
An extraordinary, painful impression! The site was splendid. The Seine, very broad, descended sluggishly between two wooded hills and made a large loop. The sun, which had started to set, had painted the sky pink. A scene where everything sang of the joy of life! But Maigret was there in the company of these two small, sly-looking, reddish men, who spent their time spying on each other. Instead of the cheerfulness which the word villa evokes, the dark construction exuded trouble, meanness, mistrust.
"Don't go that way, Chief Inspector, for there are traps. Let us take the path."
The steps leading to the entrance lacked style. Then a poorly-lit anteroom, where one began to sniff an insipid odor of moisture.
"I'll show you your room. The bathroom is at the end of the corridor. Unfortunately, in the summer, it is impossible to have hot water, for the bath-tub is connected to the central heating which we only use in the winter."
Maigret caught a glimpse of the maid who had received him on the Rue du Chemin-Vert and who appeared busy. He heard a woman's voice calling from the kitchen, "Babette! Where are you, Babette? I can't find any butter. I'll bet you forgot the butter again!"
"This way, M. Maigret," said Émile Grosbois. "I must thank you for having come. If you knew how much comfort your presence here gives me! I, who have never done any harm to anyone…"
It was pitiful, grotesque! In the corridor, Éliane emerged in a bathing suit, tall and robust in the style of American girls, and who, against all that vegetated in the house, breathed life and health.
"Aren't you going to swim?" she asked.
"I'm afraid I didn't bring a bathing suit."
"My brother will lend you one when he arrives."
Émile Grosbois sighed. "My sister has raised her so badly. You saw her behavior. That's how she'll stay until tomorrow evening, and she'll hardly wear any more to come to dinner.
Maigret didn't dare tell him that he was delighted, and that he much preferred to contemplate Éliane's form to the unpleasant figures of the two brothers.
"Here's your room. The wallpaper is a bit faded, but it's so humid here in the countryside… I suppose you wish to change?
Not at all. Maigret had brought only his razor, a toothbrush, and a pair of pajamas.
"You will find me in the billiard room."
And to think that a little below the bend of the river were young, healthy people, muscular and alive, camping and playing, plunging joyfully into the Seine! People who did not have thirty million francs!
2
Some families are able to abide a stranger among them for weeks, or even months, without showing anything of those small, more or less shameful secrets which are the dirty linen of all households. The Grosbois family too, had no doubt promised themselves to present Maigret a favorable image, and the proof was the affectionate attitude of the two brothers with respect to each other, when they had come to greet the Chief Inspector at the station.
It was the same with their sister Françoise, whose first appearance was all smiles and honey. She came out of the kitchen drying her hands. "Excuse me," she said, turning up the corners of her lips. "I haven't yet done my toilet. This old residence is so inconvenient and we have only one domestic."
Maigret noted to himself, "You, my little woman, are the cry-baby type! Victim of fate, all wailing and moaning."
As for the two brothers, they would have liked to continue to give the impression of peaceful, spiteless fellows. Actually, at first they almost succeeded, with their mouse-gray suits, their straw hats, their fabric shoes and the affected steps of small pensioners breathing in the air of their garden.
But not one hour had passed before this mask had already fallen. Babette had just served tea on the iron table in the garden. Émile Grosbois drew from his pocket a kind of snuffbox and took a out a capsule. At once, Oscar, unable to contain himself any longer, exclaimed, "You see, Chief Inspector! He's taking a pill, isn't he? Now, in an hour, it will be another one. And then, with his meal, some kind of drops, and after, still another drug." By his mimicry, he tried to reinforce his thesis of his brother's semi-madness.
"I take care of myself as I see fit," Émile countered rather bitterly.
"You might say that you are out of sorts. Certainly you are tired, and you need rest. But from there to believe you suffer all the diseases which you find in your medical book and to stuff yourself with drugs…"
"Each has his own mania."
"Well yours is absurd."
"I know people with more dangerous ones!"
And Maigret thought, "Round one! While waiting for the second, I'd be curious to know Oscar's mania."
During this time, Éliane, whose bathing suit was of the skimpiest variety, was swimming in the river, where a young man was not long in making his move towards her. The Chief Inspector would have sworn that it was the young man from the train, who had had to go down to the next station.
Round two! They had just sat down at the table. The menu was dulclass="underline" vegetable soup, potato omelet, spinach and cheese. Éliane, who had taken a sun bath, her skin still coated with a very odorous lotion, had been satisfied to put on a light dressing gown over her swimming suit. This time it was Émile who attacked: "Françoise! What have I told you a hundred times?"
The poor thing looked around her with anguish, like someone accustomed to being berated. She wondered what was wrong.
"I understand, Mother. Uncle Émile would like me to get dressed."
"Decently, yes!" Émile affirmed. Anyone who would enter here suddenly would have to wonder whether this was a serious household."
And Éliane retorted while rising, "More likely they'd think it was a lunatic asylum! For what there is to eat here, I'd do better to leave!"
Round three! They dined in silence, and there were two empty chairs at the table, Éliane's and another. Françoise lowered her nose towards her plate. Émile, after a time, noted, "Once more, Henri hasn't yet arrived!"
"He must have been delayed on business," risked his mother.
And the uncle laughed painfully, "His business! You dare speak of his business?"
"Émile!"
She indicated Maigret, hunched over, eating everything that passed within his range.
"You have funny way of raising your children! It is true that if they take after their father…"
"Émile!"
Not at all! He was due his speech! He addressed himself to the Chief Inspector. "You should be informed, M. Maigret, that my sister made a sad marriage, a man who married her only for our money and who had affairs. He died, fortunately, for if not I do not know what the family would have become!"
Françoise retained her tears. Suddenly everyone looked up, for a car had stopped in front of the garden gate, then set out again at once. Steps were heard. A young man entered, thin, pale, tormented face. "I missed the train! Excuse me."
Without noticing Maigret's presence, he sat down in his place, but quickly looked up in surprise, "Éliane's not here?" Then he saw the stranger, blinked, and looked at each one in turn, awaiting an explanation.