The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin Read Online Free Page B

his pocket. Monsieur Hosay coldly pointed out
something that had fallen to the ground:
     a third note.
    â€˜You seem to be treating your
     money very casually. Don’t you have a wallet?’
    â€˜I’m sorry.’
    â€˜If the boss saw you putting
     banknotes straight into your pockets like that … Well, I don’t have
     any change. You’d better carry over the hundred and eighteen francs fifty. And
     when that’s all gone, ask for more. This afternoon, you’re to go round
     the newspaper offices to put in the legal announcements. It’s urgent, they
     have to be published tomorrow.’
    The Turk, the Turk, the Turk!
    Once outside, Jean bought a newspaper
     and stood for a while in the centre of a circle of bystanders since the vendor had
     to find him some change. He read as he walked along, bumping into other people.
MYSTERY OF CORPSE IN LAUNDRY
     BASKET!
    This morning at about nine o’clock, as he unlocked the gates to the
     Botanical Gardens, the keeper noticed a large laundry basket in the middle
     of a lawn. He tried to open it, without success. The basket was fastened
     with an iron bar attached to a heavy padlock.
    He called Officer Leroy, who called in turn on the Chief Inspector of the
     4th district. It was ten o’clock before the padlock was finally opened
     by a locksmith. And then, what a sight greeted their eyes! Inside was a
     corpse, bent double, and in order to cram it into the space, several
     vertebrae of the neck had been broken.
    The deceased was a man aged about forty, of foreign aspect: his wallet was
     missing but in his waistcoat pocket was a business card in the name of
     Ephraim Graphopoulos.
    The dead man must have arrived only recently in Liège, since he was not
     listed on the register of foreign visitors nor on any of the police forms
     submitted by hoteliers.
    The pathologist will carry out a post-mortem this afternoon, but it is
     thought the man must have been attacked during the night with a heavy blunt
     instrument, such as a truncheon, iron bar, sandbag or weighted walking
     stick.
    Further details on this affair, which bids fair to cause a sensation, will
     appear in our next edition.
    Newspaper in hand, Jean arrived at the
     front desk of
La Meuse
, dropped off his legal notices and waited for his
     receipt.
    In the sunshine the town was busy. These
     were the last fine days of autumn, and stands were being erected on the boulevards
     for the big October festival.
    He looked behind him for the man who had
     followed him that morning, but saw no one. As he went past the Pélican, he checked
     that Delfosse, who had no afternoon lectures, was not there. He made a detour by the
     nightclub, Rue du Pot-d’Or. The doors of the Gai-Moulin stood open. The
     dance-floor was in darkness, and it was hard to see the crimson plush seating.
     Victor was cleaning the windows with a bucket of water and Chabot hurried past to
     avoid being spotted. His errand took him on to the
Express
and the
Journal de Liège.
    Adèle’s balcony fascinated him. He
     hesitated. He had
visited her once before,
     a month earlier. Delfosse had sworn to him that he had been the dancer’s
     lover. So Jean had knocked at her door at midday, on some flimsy pretext. She had
     received him in a grubby peignoir, and had carried on with her toilette in front of
     him, chatting away as if they were old friends.
    He hadn’t tried anything. But he
     had rather enjoyed this moment of intimacy.
    Now he pushed open the door next to the
     grocer’s shop, went up the dark stairs and knocked.
    No reply. But presently he heard
     shuffling steps on the wooden floorboards, and the door opened, letting out a strong
     smell of methylated spirits.
    â€˜Oh it’s you! I thought it
     was your pal.’
    â€˜Why?’
    Adèle was already turning back to the
     little burner on which some curling tongs were placed.
    â€˜Oh, I don’t know, just an