Maxwell's Point Read online

  She still hadn’t spoken.

  ‘Cough, Dierdre!’ he barked and immediately wished he hadn’t because he saw stars.

  ‘All right!’ she shrieked back. ‘Oliver Lessing is my uncle. I swear I didn’t know he was as…odd as he is. We were just talking the other day and he happened to mention that he’d seen you in the woods at The Dam with the girls.’

  ‘How did he know me?’ Maxwell wanted to be certain.

  ‘He’d seen you in the Advertiser, apparently.’

  ‘How did you know who the girls were?’

  ‘He described them,’ she muttered.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  ‘He described them. In minute detail; what they were wearing, what they looked like. It couldn’t be anyone else.’

  ‘So you and he concocted the letter?’

  ‘No, no,’ she was adamant. ‘I merely said that I didn’t think it appropriate for a male member of staff to be alone with students like that.’

  ‘So the hands up the skirt and me exposing myself…?’

  ‘Max,’ she said, and there were tears in her eyes. ‘As God is my judge, I didn’t know he was going to write a letter at all. Obviously, it was to divert suspicion from himself…but, I had no idea. All that was just in his sordid imagination. I am so, so sorry.’

  Maxwell looked at her. ‘Has Diamond been in touch?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He’s delighted, genuinely delighted, Max, that it’s all been cleared up. You’ve misunderstood him all these years.’

  ‘Have I?’ Maxwell sneered, giving her his best Eddie Izzard. ‘Have I really?’

  She turned into the kitchen and handed him a letter lying on the surface there. ‘You might like a copy of this,’ she said. ‘It’s my resignation from Leighford High. Uncle Oliver has done a bunk. I don’t exactly know why and I don’t want to know. Mother always tried to warn me about him, but…well, I didn’t listen. My part in this whole wretched business was stupid and irresponsible, but I swear, it was not intentional. I hope you’ll believe that, Max.’

  He took the letter and read it. It was from the heart and the last line read ‘Peter Maxwell and I have rarely seen eye to eye on anything in the years we have worked together, but that has largely been my fault. He is, as you must know, one of the finest teachers and most caring men I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.’

  Maxwell looked at the woman. The serpents seemed to have vanished from her head and her eyes, no longer hollows of horror, still had tears in them. He tore up the letter and let the pieces fall to the floor. He tipped his hat.

  ‘You have a good holiday, Dierdre Lessing,’ he said. ‘And I’ll see you in September.’

  He was surprised to see Jacquie and Nolan waiting in the Ka outside Dierdre’s house.

  ‘Thought I’d pick you up,’ she smiled. ‘Bet no one’s done that in a long time.’

  ‘Bitch,’ he hissed, so that Nolan couldn’t hear.

  She handed him a couple of tickets.

  ‘What’s this?’ he asked.

  ‘Danny Goodburn and the Denvers; they’re playing at the Town Hall tonight. I thought we’d go.’

  ‘“Whale on a beach”?’ mused Maxwell. ‘Yes, I think we shall.’

  If you enjoyed this book, you may like to read the other books in the Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell series.

  Turn the page to find out more…

  We hope you enjoyed this book. Do you want to know about our other great reads, download free extracts and enter competitions?

  If so, visit our website www.allisonandbusby.com. Click to sign up to our monthly newsletter for exclusive content and offers, news of our brand new releases, upcoming events with your favourite authors and much more.

  And why not click to follow us on Facebook and Twitter? We’d love to hear from you!

  About the Author

  M.J. TROW is a full-time teacher of history who has been doubling as a crime writer for twenty years. Originally from Rhondda in South Wales, he claims to be the only Welshman who cannot sing or play rugby. He currently lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife and son. His interests include collecting militaria, film, the supernatural and true crime. The author of the Inspector Sholto Lestrade series and nine non-fiction books, Maxwell’s Point is the twelfth novel featuring Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell.

  Also available from Allison & Busby in the Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell series

  Maxwell’s Point

  Maxwell’s Mask

  Maxwell’s Grave

  Maxwell’s Inspection

  Maxwell’s Match

  Other titles in the series

  Maxwell’s Reunion

  Maxwell’s Curse

  Maxwell’s Ride

  Maxwell’s War

  Maxwell’s Movie

  Maxwell’s Flame

  Maxwell’s House

  M. J. TROW

  ‘Trow has the reader chuckling while tussling over the intricacies of his dexterous plotting. Tragic and humorous by turns, the Maxwell novels are packed with dry wit and keep the readers guessing to the last page’

  Good Book Guide

  ‘Trow’s skill at spinning mysteries a twist further than expected keeps him at the top of the form’

  Sunday Telegraph

  ‘No one, no one at all, writes quite like Trow… It’s almost impossible to second guess Trow, so top marks for the scholarly sleuth’

  Yorkshire Post

  Maxwell’s Inspection

  There comes a time in every teacher’s life when he must face his Nemesis – the four-yearly Ofsted Inspection. The investigation begins at Leighford High and Sally Meninger, the dangerously attractive chief inspector, is gunning for Peter Maxwell, Head of Sixth Form, from the start. But the tables are turned when Maxwell finds her in an intimate situation with her fellow inspector, Alan Whiting. Soon after, Whiting is found stabbed to death in the Inspection team’s office, and Maxwell can’t help but notice that Sally is not as upset as you might expect. In fact, her calm demeanour has more than a hint of the femme fatale about it. But it’s when Leighford High’s head teacher James Diamond becomes embroiled in the affair that things really start to turn nasty. It’s up to the embattled Head of Sixth Form to prove his friend’s innocence; the time has come to inspect the inspectors.

  Maxwell’s Match

  As part of a two-week staff exchange scheme, Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell is swapping the delights of Leighford High for the altogether more sophisticated charms of local private school Grimmonds. This is a school where the teachers wear gowns, a school with inter-house rugby, debating societies and fencing lessons. It’s a far cry from his familiar comprehensive – Grimmonds is steeped in tradition and dripping with money. But within a day of stepping through the imposing school gates, Maxwell has yet again stumbled upon an unnatural death.

  One of the Housemasters has fallen from the school roof – but did he jump or was he pushed? Two days later another teacher is found floating in the lake and this time it’s definitely murder. As the pack of journalists at the gates grows and parents start removing their children from the school, the headmaster has his work cut out to protect Grimmonds’ reputation. And when DS Jacquie Carpenter, Maxwell’s girlfriend, gets assigned to the case, Mad Max finds himself caught up in a complex police investigation and a tangled web of secrets.

  Maxwell’s Grave

  When Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell took his kids from Leighford High on an archaeological dig, all should have been about learning and fun. The professionals were very excited – was the grave they had found that of Alfred the Great? No, because the corpse was not Saxon and it wasn’t a king, but an altogether more recent murder.

  No sooner has the first body been unearthed than another is discovered: a policeman on the case is found dead at the wheel of his car. What knowledge did he possess that led to his death? And does his colleague, Maxwell’s partner Jacquie Carpenter, unwittingly have the same information?

  Maxwell locks horns with the great a
nd not so good in a vicious world of skulduggery, academic back-biting and religious mania which can only end in murder.

  Maxwell’s Mask

  Deena Harrison was one of Leighford High School’s ‘characters’ – and we all know what that means – but she had the voice of an angel and could act the skin off a rice pudding.

  Now an Oxford graduate, Deena returns to her old school to help out the drama department – their production of the Little Shop of Horrors is in danger of closing down. So Deena’s back on the scene. And people start dying. Oh, just tragic accidents of course – loose cables, carelessly placed ladders. Just minor health and safety issues, really. But somebody is killing the company, and it isn’t Audrey II, the man-eating plant.

  With murder treading the boards, DCI Henry Hall has his hands full. Especially when Peter Maxwell, Deena’s old Head of Sixth Form, stumbles into the spotlight. You see, Mr Maxwell has a habit of solving murders… Mad Max is once again on his bike.

  Copyright

  Allison & Busby Limited

  12 Fitzroy Mews

  London W1T 6DW

  www.allisonandbusby.com

  First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2007.

  This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2014.

  Copyright © 2007 by M.J. TROW

  The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  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 978–0–7490–1676–0