The dismembered body of a man is found in the Saint-Martin Canal. Maigret stops at a small café in the neighborhood, near Quai de Valmy, and is intrigued by the proprietress, Aline Calas, who is unusually taciturn. He slowly begins to wonder if the body might be her husband, Omer Calas, supposedly away on a trip. Eventually that proves to be the case, when she turns out to be an heiress who hated her father, and ran away with a married man 25 years earlier. A lawyer, Mr. Canonge's search for heirs brought him to her café, and though she wanted no part of it, Omer discovered the facts of the inheritance, and Aline's lover, Dieudonne Pape, killed him when he came in while Omer was beating her into writing to accept the inheritance.
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The review of this Book prepared by Dana Samson
