Maxwell's Return by M J Trow

Author:M J Trow [Trow, M J]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: blt, _rt_yes, _NB_fixed, Literature & Fiction, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, British Detectives, Cozy
Amazon: B00JVMTBAI
Publisher: Thistle Publishing
Published: 2014-04-22T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

The Head of Sixth Form’s ears had not misled him and he met Jacquie on the landing, she at the top of the stairs, he at the bottom. She smiled weakly at him and mimed a cup of tea and a sandwich as she headed for the sitting room where he heard her bag land with a thump on the floor. This was standard practice for his wife who, although clean, could never be accused of being tidy. The floor for her was just one enormous shelf and she used it to its maximum. The house was still Hector Gold clean – which meant very clean indeed – but things were beginning to gather in the corners, including a new civilization of socks in the corner of the bedroom. Never mind, Maxwell smiled and looked back over his shoulder to where Jacquie’s shadow danced on the wall between the windows overlooking the street, he wouldn’t have her any other way.

When he joined her in the sitting room, cup of tea steaming and the sandwich a tempting round of her favourite ham and hummus, he found her relaxed back in her favourite chair and her feet up on a stool. She held out a hand wordlessly for the tray and took a swig and a mouthful, in that order. She chewed with her eyes closed and then sighed. ‘You have no idea how much I was looking forward to that,’ she said, looking up at him. ‘Your ex-star mathematician might be bright but she’s not much of a hostess.’

‘A lot on her plate,’ Maxwell suggested.

‘Hmm.’ She took another bite of her sandwich and nodded. ‘She does have a houseful. But I don’t know if it is going to get much bigger after all.’

‘Oh?’ If Maxwell was surprised at the level of sharing, he didn’t show it.

‘I’m telling you this because I have no doubt Lindsey will be round tomorrow telling nice Mr Maxwell all about it, how his nasty wife asked her April all sorts of things that are rude and unnecessary. She has suddenly decided to pretend that April is as innocent as a babe unborn – is that a quote? It sounds like one. Anyway, I think someone, her mother perhaps or a friend, has told her that if she admits that April has been at it like a weasel since she left Junior School, the Social will be round to take the kids, including her own unborn one. So we had a bit of an uphill struggle, to say the least. I kicked the mother out from the first – she really does call a spade a spade. Some of the words she used for having sex I’m going to have to look up later. Lindsey isn’t foul mouthed, but she seems totally… unsurprised, is the word, I think. When she remembered, that is.’

‘She did take me aback a bit, being so casual about the promiscuity.’ Maxwell had thought he knew it all, but he had to admit that Lindsey took lax parenting to a new level.

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