Read Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard for Free Online Page B

after he left. Some time after.”
    â€œHow long after?”
    â€œAbout a year.”
    â€œDid it surprise you that he should be wearing light brown shoes?”
    â€œYes. It was different from his usual style of dress.”
    â€œWhat did you think about it?”
    â€œThat he had changed.”
    â€œDid you notice any actual change in him?”
    â€œHe wasn’t quite the same man. His sense of fun had changed. Sometimes he laughed as if he would never stop.”
    â€œDid he never laugh in the old days?”
    â€œNot in that way. Something new had come into his life.”
    â€œA woman?”
    It was cruel, but he had to ask.
    â€œPerhaps.”
    â€œDid he never confide in you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid he ever make love to you?”
    Vehemently, she protested:
    â€œNever! I swear it! I’m sure no such thought ever entered his head.”
    The cat had jumped off the old lady’s lap and on to Maigret’s.
    â€œLet it stay,” he said, as Léone seemed about to shoo it off.
    He had not the courage to light his pipe.
    â€œI daresay it was a bitter blow to you all when Monsieur Kaplan announced that he was about to close down the business?”
    â€œWe were all hard hit, yes.”
    â€œAnd especially Louis Thouret?”
    â€œMonsieur Louis was particularly attached to the firm. It had become a habit with him. Just think of it, he’d been working there from the age of fourteen, when he joined as a messenger boy.”
    â€œWhere was he from?”
    â€œFrom Belleville. From what he told me, his mother was a widow. She brought him along one day to see old Monsieur Kaplan. He was still in short trousers. He had had practically no schooling.”
    â€œIs his mother dead?”
    â€œShe has been for many years.”
    Why was it that Maigret had the feeling that she was hiding something? She had spoken freely, and had looked him straight in the eye, and yet there was something evasive about her, as though she were gliding furtively away from him on silent, felt-shod feet.
    â€œI believe he had some difficulty in finding another job?”
    â€œWho told you that?”
    â€œI gathered it from some of the things the concierge told me.”
    â€œIt’s never easy for someone over forty to find work, particularly if one has no specialist qualifications. I myself…”
    â€œDid you look for a job?”
    â€œOnly for a few weeks.”
    â€œAnd Monsieur Louis?”
    â€œHe persisted longer.”
    â€œIs that just a supposition, or do you actually know he did?”
    â€œI know he did.”
    â€œDid he ever come and see you during that period?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDid you help him financially?”
    He was by now convinced that Léone was the sort of person to have saved every penny she could.
    â€œWhy do you want to know?”
    â€œBecause, until I have a clear picture of the kind of man he was during the last few years of his life, I have no hope of laying my hands on his murderer.”
    â€œIt’s true,” she admitted, after a pause for thought. “I’ll tell you the whole story, but I’d be grateful if you would keep it to yourself. Above all, his wife mustn’t find out. It would be a bitter blow to her pride.”
    â€œDo you know her then?”
    â€œNo, he told me. His brothers-in-law both occupy positions of responsibility, and both had houses built for them.”
    â€œSo did he.”
    â€œHe had no choice. His wife had set her heart on it. She was the one who insisted on moving to Juvisy, like her two sisters.”
    Her voice had somehow changed, and one could sense the underlying rancor, that must have been festering for a long time.
    â€œWas he afraid of his wife?”
    â€œHe hated to hurt anyone. When we all got the sack, a few weeks before the Christmas holidays, he was determined to see it didn’t cast a blight on the family