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as Doctor): Son of small manufacturer in Seine-et-Oise who served as deputy for that department for one term and then went bankrupt. Father dead. Mother a schemer. Tried, with son, to establish property development
at Juan-les-Pins. Complete failure. Started again at Concarneau. Set up a company, trading on dead husband’s name. Invested no capital herself. Now trying to get town and department to underwrite development costs.
    Ernest Michoux was married, then divorced. His former wife married a notary in Lille.
    Degenerate type. Has difficulty paying bills.
    Leroy looked at his chief as if to say, ‘Meaning?’ Maigret showed him the next entry:
Yves Le Pommeret
: Prominent family. Brother Arthur runs biggest canning plant in Concarneau. Minor gentry. Yves the playboy of the family. Never worked. Long ago ran
through most of his money in
Paris. Came back to live in Concarneau when he was down to 20,000 francs a year. Manages to come across as gentry even if he does polish his own shoes. Many affairs with working girls. A few scandals hushed up. Hunts at all the big estates in the neighbourhood. Big shot. Through connections
got himself named vice-consul for Denmark. Pulling strings now for Légion d’Honneur. Sometimes borrows from brother to pay his debts.
    Jean Servières
(pseudonym for Jean Goyard): Born in Morbihan. Long-time journalist in Paris, manager of small theatres, etc. Came into small inheritance and settled in Concarneau. Married former usherette who’d been his mistress
for fifteen years. Middle-class household. Occasional flings in Brest and Nantes. Lives off small investments more than off newspaper work, but very proud of latter. Decorated by Academy.
    â€˜I don’t understand,’ stammered Leroy.
    â€˜Of course not. Give me your notes.’
    â€˜But … who told you I …’
    â€˜Let’s see them.’
    The inspector’s notebook was a cheap little graph-paper pad with an oilcloth cover. Leroy’s was a loose-leaf daybook in a steel binder.
    His manner paternal, Maigret read:
1.
Matter of Mostaguen
: The bullet that hit the wine dealer was certainly intended for someone else. As there was no way to foresee that anyone would stop randomly at that doorway, the real target must have been expected there, but
never came, or came too late.
    Unless the purpose was to terrorize the population.
The perpetrator knows Concarneau intimately. (Neglected to analyse cigarette ashes found in hallway.)
    2.
Matter of poisoned Pernod
: In wintertime, the Admiral café is empty almost all day. Anyone who knew this could enter and put poison in the bottles. In two bottles. Thus it was aimed specifically at the drinkers of Pernod and
calvados. (Note, however, that the doctor spotted, in time and easily, the grains of white powder floating in the liquid.)
    3.
Matter of yellow dog
: He knows the Admiral café. He has a master. But who? Seems to be at least five years old.
    4.
Matter of Servières
: Determine by handwriting analysis who sent article to
Brest Beacon
.
    Maigret smiled, handed the book back to his companion and remarked: ‘Very good, my boy.’
    Then, with an irritable glance at the gawkers’ silhouettes beyond the green windows, he added, ‘Let’s go and eat!’
    A little later, when they were in the dining room, along with the travelling salesman who had arrived that morning, Emma informed them that Dr Michoux was feeling worse and had asked for a light meal to be sent to his room.
    That afternoon the Admiral café was like a cage in the zoo, what with sightseers filing past its small dim windows in their Sunday best. They then headed towards the far end of the harbour to the next attraction – Servières’ car, still
guarded by two policemen.
    The mayor phoned three times from his sumptuous house at White Sands. ‘Have you made an arrest?’
    Maigret barely bothered to answer.
    The young crowd, those