Read The Saint-Fiacre Affair for Free Online Page A

Marie Tatin’s while everyone was talking about him and the missal.
    â€˜Do you know where little Ernest
     lives?’
    â€˜Three houses past the
     grocer’s, on the main street …’
    He ran off in that direction. A
     single-storey cottage. Enlarged photographs of the father and mother hung on either
     side of the dresser. The woman, already in her house clothes, was in the kitchen,
     which smelled of roast beef.
    â€˜Is your son here?’
    â€˜He’s changing.
     There’s no point in him dirtying his Sunday clothes … You saw how I shook him!
      … And to think that he’s only ever had good examples in front of his eyes and
     who …’
    She opened a door and shouted,
     ‘Come here, you scoundrel!’
    And the boy could be seen in his
     underpants, trying to hide himself.
    â€˜Let him get dressed,’ said
     Maigret. ‘I’ll talk to him later …’
    The woman went on preparing lunch. Her
     husband was probably at Marie Tatin’s, having an early drink.
    At last the door opened, and Ernest came
     shiftily in, wearing his weekday suit, the trousers of which were too long.
    â€˜Come for a walk with me …’
    â€˜Really?’ the woman
     exclaimed. ‘In that case, Ernest … Hurry up and put on your good suit
      …’
    â€˜There’s no need! … Come on
     then, my little man …’
    The street was deserted. The life of the
     village was concentrated on the square, the cemetery and Marie Tatin’s.
    â€˜Tomorrow I’ll give you an
     even bigger missal, with the first letters of each verse in red …’
    The little boy was amazed. So the
     inspector knew that there was such a thing as missals with red letters, like the one
     on the altar?
    â€˜Only, you’re going to tell
     me quite honestly where you got this one! I’m not going to tell you off
      …’
    It was odd to see the old peasant
     suspicion appearing on the boy’s face. His mouth was shut. He was already on
     the defensive.
    â€˜Did you find it on the
     prie-dieu?’
    Silence! His cheeks and the top of his
     nose were scattered with freckles. His fleshy lips were tight as he tried not to
     show any emotion.
    â€˜Don’t you realize that
     I’m your great friend?’
    â€˜Yes … You gave my mum twenty
     francs.’
    â€˜So?’
    The boy savoured his revenge.
    â€˜On the way back my mum said
     she’d only slapped me for show, and gave me fifty centimes.’
    Bull’s-eye! The boy knew his
     stuff! What thoughts was he rolling about in that head, too big for his thin
     body?
    â€˜And the sacristan?’
    â€˜He didn’t say anything to
     me …’
    â€˜Who took the missal from the
     prie-dieu?’
    â€˜I don’t know …’
    â€˜And where did you find
     it?’
    â€˜Under my surplice, in the
     sacristy … I was supposed to go and eat in the presbytery. I’d forgotten my
     handkerchief … When I moved my surplice I felt something hard …’
    â€˜Was the sacristan there
     too?’
    â€˜He was in church, putting the
     candles out … You know the ones with the red letters are very expensive …’
    So someone had taken the missal from the
     prie-dieu and hidden it momentarily in the sacristy, under the altar boy’s
     surplice, with the clear intention of coming to get it later!
    â€˜Did you open it?’
    â€˜I didn’t have time … I
     wanted my boiled egg … Because on Sunday …’
    â€˜I know.’
    And Ernest wondered how this man from
     the city could know that there was an egg and bread and jam at the priest’s
     house on Sunday.
    â€˜You can go.’
    â€˜Is it true that I’ll have
      …?’
    â€˜A missal, yes … Tomorrow …
     Goodbye,