The Sailors’ Rendezvous

The body of a dead sea captain is found floating near his trawler, the ‘Ocean’, just back in port after three months’ cod fishing in Newfoundland. The captain was strangled. Suspect: Pierre Le Clinche, the boat’s yong radio operator, engaged to a girl who passionately believes he is innocent. Clues: a headless portrait of a woman, a drowned cabin boy, a crew half deranged after three months at sea with a mad captain.

The more Maigret probes the case, the more it gets under his skin. Sailors don’t talk much to other men, especially not policemen. But they all mention the Evil Eye when they speak of the ‘Ocean’s’ voyage. Whatever was going on, it stank as high as the argo of oversalted cod they brought back. Madame Maigret had seldom seen her husband so affected by a case.