Read Online Maxwell's Inspection by M.J. Trow - Free Book Online Page B

oldest part. There are three floors here, but we’re concerned with the second. They put in a new staircase in ‘eighty-three and a mezzanine floor … here.’
    She was pointing directly at the office of the man she loved, Peter Maxwell M.A., Ph.D. pending. It had been pending for thirty years now, but somehow the time had never been right. She could see, in her mind’s eye, his film posters, the wilting, unmemorable plant in the corner that Mrs B., Centre Block’s cleaner, somehow never got round to dusting. She could see his piles of essays and exercise books, smell his coffee, hear the clatter of kids as they moved about the building. This one was close to him, horribly , chillingly close.
    â€˜This,’ she was using a board marker, ‘is Aitch One, actually a History classroom which was used by the Ofsted team as a base for the week. There are two doors … here … and here. The second one leads into an adjoining room via a store cupboard. Beyond that is another classroom.’
    â€˜Are all these doors open?’ somebody wanted to know.
    â€˜Usually, yes. Only staff and sixth form have access to the store-cupboard. This week the room itself was off limits to everyone, staff included, unless they’d been specifically invited.’
    â€˜Anybody specifically invited today?’ Hall asked her.
    â€˜Not that we know of, guv,’ she told him.
    â€˜Right. Geoff.’ Hall had perched himself on the corner of a desk. ‘You’ve got the dead man’s movements. What?’
    Geoff Baldock was cutting his teeth on this one. Atall, gangly lad with blonde frizzy hair and rather tombstone teeth, he’d been a DC for a little over a year but he’d never handled an honest-to-God murder before. There was an adrenalin buzz about him that didn’t show in the others. They all felt it, of course, but with him, it flashed like a neon light on the top of his head. ‘He arrived in a people carrier with the others at eight fifteen.’
    â€˜That was direct from the Cunliffe?’ Hall checked. He knew the kid was still wet behind the ears and he didn’t like ends that dangled.
    â€˜Yes sir. The Ofsted people had a briefing in Aitch One for the first fifteen minutes, then Whiting had a meeting with the Head.’
    â€˜That’s James Diamond.’ Hall was dotting i’s so that all his team were in the picture.
    â€˜Correct.’ Baldock was getting into his stride now, enjoying the moment with all eyes on him. ‘That lasted for an hour.’
    â€˜So it’s… what, now? Nine thirty?’
    â€˜Spot on,’ Baldock enthused, totally immune to the relative lethargy and sideways glances of the others. ‘He was back in Aitch One by nine thirty-five. He was seen here by one of his team, a Robert Templeton, who waswriting up lesson reports. Then there was a fire drill at nine forty.’
    â€˜All right.’ Hall was rather relieved to switch the spotlight onto somebody else. ‘Pat, you were on that.’
    Pat Prentiss was a thick set, no-nonsense Detective Constable who’d been here before. He hadn’t got long left on the Force and had his eye on a rather cushy number in security in Brighton. He’d never set the world alight with his incisive intuition, but that wasn’t what being a copper was all about. He did his bit, an effective, fully-functioning cog in a justice machine; no one, including Henry Hall, could ask for more than that.
    â€˜Not planned,’ he told the Incident Room. ‘The bloke in charge of fire drills is Bernard Ryan, Deputy Headteacher. He normally has them on Thursdays, usually in the morning. This one took them all by surprise.’
    â€˜Not an actual fire, I assume?’ Hall grimaced as the stale, cold coffee hit his tonsils.
    â€˜No, guv.’ Prentiss shook his head. ‘Leighford hasn’t had a real fire since …’ he checked his notes,