Maxwell's Grave (29 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

They closed the dig on Staple Hill that weekend. The JCBs rattled and roared away without slicing into the ash grove. The trenches were filled in and the spoil heaps disappeared. Douglas Russell began the job of compiling his report, with the help of Robin Edwards and Helen Reader. It would carry the name of Dr David Radley, now and for all time.

And George and Julian, the men in black, went home and the developers moved in to create a golf club where a man had died. Or was it more?

Go down. Under the tangle of the ash grove, where the earth is dank and dark. Here, as the wind rustles the ash leaves on Staple Hill, a skeleton still keeps its solitary
resting
place below the stars. Its hands are crossed over its chest, its tarsals collapsed into the rib cage. And on the skull, grey and dust, a crown of solid gold. In the still clasped hand of the long dead man, a jewel, in glass and amber and gold and the legend Alfredus Me Fecit – Alfred Made Me.

Just another Saxon riddle.

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.

T
HE
P
ETER ‘
M
AD
M
AX’
M
AXWELL SERIES

Maxwell’s Match

Maxwell’s Inspection

Maxwell’s Grave

Maxwell’s Mask

Maxwell’s Point

Maxwell’s Chain

Maxwell’s Revenge

Maxwell’s Retirement

Maxwell’s Island