A slightly chipped mug appeared under Peter Maxwell’s nose. He was used to the mug. He was used to the awful coffee. He was even used, chauvinist pig that he was, to Helen Maitland making it for him. What he was not used to, at this time of the morning and in this particular office, was the voice.
He stood up quickly. ‘Jacquie?’
She stood by his desk, smiling, the tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘They said you’d been hurt,’ she said, her words thick, her lips trembling. Her fingers reached out, carefully, so carefully, to touch his neck.
‘You should see the other guy,’ he smiled.
‘I did,’ she sniffed, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. ‘He’s implicated Pamela Whiting up to her murderous little neck. Chief Inspector Hall would like to see you.’
‘Would he now?’ Maxwell raised an eyebrow. ‘What for, I wonder? To arrest me for helping police with their enquiries or to give me the George Medal? No, don’t help me.’ He held his hand up. ‘I think I know the answer. How are you, Jacquie?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said.
‘Is that why you came?’ he asked. ‘To give me Henry’s summons?’
‘No,’ she sniffed. ‘When you were at mine the other day, I think you left something behind.’
And she held up a key. Her house key; the one that usually lived in his pocket. They fell into each other’s arms and he cradled her head, smaelling her hair, stroking away the tears that splashed onto his shirt.
‘Oh, Max,’ Bernard Ryan popped his head round the door. ‘Oh, sorry…’
‘Oh, absolutely,’ Ryan smarmed, embarrassed as only Deputy Heads can be. ‘Absolutely. I just thought you’d like to know.’ He was holding a sheet of fax paper in his hand. ‘It’s just come through, the date of the rescheduled Ofsted Inspection.’
About the Author
M.J. TROW has recently retired as a history teacher – he has been doubling as a crime writer for twenty-three years. He is the author of the Inspector Sholto Lestrade series, the Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell series, and fifteen non-fiction books.
By M.J. Trow
THE PETER ‘MAD MAX’ MAXWELL SERIES
Maxwell’s Match
Maxwell’s Inspection
Maxwell’s Grave
Maxwell’s Mask
Maxwell’s Point
Maxwell’s Revenge
Maxwell’s Retirement
Maxwell’s Island
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
13 Charlotte Mews
London W1T 4EJ
www.allisonandbusby.com
Hardback edition published in Great Britain in 2003.
Paperback edition published 2004.
Copyright © 2003 by M.J. TROW
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1150–5