The Beast Within - Emile Zola [223]
As he walked out of the courtroom, Jacques was greeted by Philomène, who had also been summoned as a witness. She wouldn’t let him go, clinging on to him, trying to get him to spend the night with her in Rouen. He didn’t have to start work again till the next day and he was quite willing to take her for a meal at the inn near the station, where he had supposedly slept on the night of the murder, but he was not going to sleep with her; he needed to be back in Paris the next day and was catching the night train at ten to one in the morning.
‘Do you know what,’ she said as she walked on his arm towards the hotel, ‘I could have sworn I just saw someone we both know. It was Pecqueux, I’m sure. He was telling me the other day that he couldn’t care less about the trial and that he wouldn’t be seen dead in Rouen ... When I turned round he ran off into the crowd ... I only saw his back ...’
Jacques interrupted her with a shrug of the shoulders.
‘Pecqueux is in Paris,’ he said, ‘having a good time. He’s enjoying himself while I’m off work.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Philomène, ‘but you can’t be too careful. He can be a real swine when he gets annoyed.’
She leaned against him, looking over her shoulder.
‘Who’s that following us?’ she asked. ‘Do you know him?’
‘Yes,’ said Jacques, ‘stop worrying. He probably wants to ask me something.’
It was Misard, who had been following them at a distance ever since they had left the Rue des Juifs. He had given evidence too, although he had seemed half-asleep. He had hung around Jacques, trying to make up his mind to ask him something, some question that was clearly bothering him. When he saw them go into the inn, he followed them and ordered a glass of wine.
‘Well, if it isn’t Misard!’ exclaimed Jacques. ‘How are you getting on with your new wife?’
‘Don’t talk to me about her,’ he grumbled. ‘She’s been leading me a real dance! I told you about it the last time we were here.’
Jacques found it highly amusing. Old Madame Ducloux, the one-time barmaid of easy virtue, whom Misard had taken on to look after the crossing, had watched him searching through the house and had quickly realized that he must be looking for money that his deceased wife had hidden away. In order to get him to marry her, she had hit upon the bright idea of letting him think, by way of veiled hints and knowing smirks, that she had found it. At first he had nearly strangled her, but then, realizing that, if he did away with her before getting his hands on the money, as he had done with his wife, the whereabouts of the thousand francs would remain a mystery, he had tried to be nice to her and show her he loved her. But she would have none of it; she wouldn’t even let him touch her. When he married her he would have everything he wanted, she said — her and the money too. And so he had married her. But afterwards, she just laughed at him and said he was a fool if he believed everything people told him. The best of it was that, having found out about the money, she too became obsessed with it, and she started looking for it as frantically as him. Sooner or later that hidden money would be theirs. Now that there were two of them they were sure to find it! And so the search continued.
‘Still no luck?’ asked Jacques mischievously. ‘I thought your missus was giving you a hand.’
Misard looked him in the eyes.
‘You know where the money is,’ he said. ‘So why don’t you tell me?’
This made Jacques angry.
‘I know nothing at all,’ he snapped. ‘Aunt Phasie didn’t give me anything. I hope you’re not accusing me of stealing it!’
‘I know she didn’t give