The Misty Harbour Read Free Page A

busy
     here until three in the morning …’
    A straightforward man, who treats
     Maigret as a colleague, a public servant like himself.
    ‘Would you excuse me?’
    Then the harbourmaster looks out towards
     the open water, where there is nothing to see, and remarks, ‘A sailing ship
     from Boulogne has tied up at the jetty to wait her turn at the canal.’
    ‘Do you always know what ships to
     expect?’
    ‘Most of the time. Especially the
     steamers. They’re generally on a regular schedule, bringing coal from England,
     heading back from Caen loaded with ore.’
    ‘Will you join me in a
     drink?’
    ‘I can’t, not until the tide
     has ebbed. I have to stay here.’
    And the harbourmaster shouts orders to
     invisible men, knowing exactly where they are.
    ‘You are
     conducting an inquiry?’ he asks.
    Just then they hear footsteps, coming
     from the village. A man goes across one of the lock-gates and as he passes a light,
     it gleams on the barrel of a rifle.
    ‘Who is that?’
    ‘The mayor, off to hunt ducks. He
     has a blind down by the Orne. His assistant must already be there getting things
     ready for tonight.’
    ‘You think I’ll find the
     hotel still open?’
    ‘The Hôtel de l’Univers?
     Yes, but you’d best hurry … The owner will soon finish playing cards
     and head off to bed. And once there, he stays there!’
    ‘Until tomorrow, then.’
    ‘Fine. I’m due back here at
     ten, for the morning tide.’
    They shake hands, like two phantoms in
     the mist. And life goes on in the fog, where one may suddenly bump into an invisible
     man.
    The experience does not feel sinister,
     really; it’s something else: a vague uneasiness, a faint oppressive anxiety,
     the impression of an unknown world with its own life going on all around you. A
     world in which you are a stranger.
    That darkness peopled by invisible
     beings … That sailing ship, for example, waiting nearby for its turn,
     although you would never even guess it was there.
    About to pass the fisherman again,
     sitting motionless under his lantern, Maigret tries to think of something to
     say.
    ‘They biting tonight?’
    And the other man merely spits into the
     water as Maigret walks on, kicking himself for having said something so stupid.
    The last thing he
     hears before entering the hotel is the slamming of the upstairs shutters over at
     Captain Joris’ cottage.
    Julie, who is frightened! The cat
     escaping when they entered the house …
    ‘That foghorn going to wail all
     night?’ grumbles Maigret impatiently, as the landlord comes to greet him.
    ‘As long as there’s fog
     about … You get used to it …’
    Maigret slept fitfully, the way one
     does with indigestion or as a child tosses and turns the night before some great
     event. Twice the inspector got up to lean his face against the cold windowpanes and
     saw nothing but the empty road and revolving lighthouse beam, which seemed to keep
     stabbing at a cloudbank. The eternal foghorn sounded harsher, more aggressive.
    The second time, he checked his watch:
     four o’clock, and fishermen with baskets on their backs were clattering off to
     the harbour in their clogs.
    Almost immediately there was a frantic
     pounding on his door, which opened without waiting for his response and revealed the
     anguished face of the landlord.
    Some time had passed, however: although
     the foghorn was still going strong, sunshine now gleamed at the windows.
    ‘Hurry! The captain is
     dying …’
    ‘What captain?’
    ‘Captain
     Joris … Julie’s just rushed to the harbour to send for both you and
     a doctor.’
    Maigret, his hair unbrushed, was already
     pulling on his
trousers. He jammed his
     feet into his shoes without lacing them up and forgot to attach the stiff collar to
     his shirt before putting on his jacket.
    ‘You’ll have nothing before
     you go? A cup of coffee? A tot of rum?’
    No – he hadn’t time! It was sunny
     outdoors, but quite chilly. The