The Oxford Murders

THE OXFORD MURDERS A gripping crime thriller full of twists PETER TICKLER Doug Mullen Mystery Book 4 Joffe Books, London www.joffebooks.com First published in Great Britain in 2023 © Peter Tickler This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this. The right of Peter Tickler to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. We love to hear from our readers! Please email any feedback you have to: [email protected] Cover art by Nick Castle ISBN: 978-1-80405-864-0 CONTENTS Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Author’s Note Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Epilogue Love Free Bestselling Fiction? The Joffe Books Story Also by Peter Tickler A Selection of Books You May Enjoy Glossary of English Usage for US Readers Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Join our mailing list and get a FREE Kindle book from a bestselling author every week! Click here to join our mailing list and also get a free box set of short stories! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @joffebooks Author’s Note When writing crime fiction set in and around Oxford, I have always tried to make best use of well-known (and not-so-well-known) places. When a character walks along a street and sees a shark diving into the roof of one of the houses, the chances are that the shark actually exists. If you don’t believe me, take a stroll along New High Street in Headington to check it out! In this particular story, the various real venues include the Ultimate Picture Palace and the Turf Tavern. But of course my story is a work of fiction, and so the people you come across in these places are the product of my imagination and are not real. As for the internal workings of such places, my story should in general be true to life, but I may also have included some details that are just made up! I am writing fiction, not fact. Peter Tickler Prologue Thank you for choosing this book. Join our mailing list and get FREE Kindle books from our bestselling authors every week! CLICK HERE TO GET MORE LOVELY BOOK DEALS I found the business card in the inside pocket of his striped suit jacket, the one with a red lining. He thinks I am pretty useless now, but I like going through his dirty clothes, checking he hasn’t left anything in the pockets. That is something I can do for myself on a good day. It is Ngung‘s job to do the rest — wash, dry, iron, sort out the dry cleaning — but when my head isn’t full of fuzz, doing the simple things makes me feel useful. Sometimes, of course, I come across things I would rather not have found, condoms for example, or the empty packet of one, but never an actual used condom — ugh, that would be too horrid! Ngung tells me to focus on the nicer things. Only the other day I found a half-eaten packet of mints in the Chapter 1 The guy seemed nice, but Julie knew all too well that first impressions can be disastrously unreliable. However, this one really did look OK. His hair was a bit short but his eyes were friendly, and besides, he had her bus pass in his hand. ‘You dropped this.’ A nice enough voice too. Ordinary, not posh, though she couldn’t quite pin it down to a particular part of England. ‘Thanks.’ She took it from him and stuffed it deep inside her handbag. ‘I’d have been stuck without it.’ ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ he said. She didn’t say anything, but he must have seen the alarm on her face because he stepped back and held his hands up in front of him. ‘Sorry. Inappropriate.’ She glanced around. The cinema was three-quarters empty. She had arrived early and there was no sign of them dimming the lights for the adverts before the film. She looked back at him, saw his embarrassment and gave the briefest of nods. ‘Sorry.’ They were both at it now