Dying Fall

again.
    Ruth has rung Tim to tell him about Elaine’s revelations but is currently getting no reply. In the light of day, Elaine’s story seems stranger than ever. Is there really an Arch Wizard whose command has to be obeyed on pain of death? And is it possible that no one knows the name of this demonic figure? Did Elaine really not know whokilled Dan? Does Clayton not know who moved the bones? Elaine doesn’t trust Guy, Guy doesn’t trust Elaine and neither of them trusts Clayton. Ruth doesn’t understand any of it. All she knows is that the sooner she and Kate (and Cathbad and Thing) are out of this place the better. Sandy still doesn’t know who is sending the texts but Ruth is pretty sure that her every move is being watched. It’s a horrible, frightening thought. Kate will have some happy memories of this holiday – the donkeys, the sand henge, the water park – but for Ruth, Lancashire will always be the place where the courtly Arthurian legend dissolved into the darker realm of the Raven King.
    When she had told Cathbad about Elaine and the recreation of Camelot, he had quoted dreamily, ‘Elaine the fair, Elaine the loveable, Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat.’ Except that this Elaine is not loveable or even (in good light) particularly fair. But maybe it was her Arthurian name which started this dangerous obsession. Ruth thanks God that she resisted the temptation to name her daughter after a tragic character in legend or literature.
    She tries ringing Tim again but his phone goes straight through to voicemail. She hesitates for a moment and then rings Nelson.
    ‘Hello, Ruth.’ He sounds wary. She wonders who is listening.
    She tells him about Elaine’s visit and about the revelation that she, Guy and Clayton were members of the White Hand.
    ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of Tim all morning.’
    ‘They’ve gone to Lancaster. They’ve got a lead about the White Hand.’
    Ruth laughs, she sounds slightly hysterical. ‘They should talk to Elaine. She knows all about the White Hand. Apparently they all dressed up in Arthurian clothes and had a ceremony on Pendle Hill. Does Sandy know about that?’
    ‘Sandy knows that Clayton Henry was involved in some way. Tim found a picture of him on Pendragon’s computer.’
    ‘Does he think Clayton was behind Dan’s death?’
    ‘I’m not sure.’ Nelson sounds rather put out. ‘He doesn’t confide in me.’
    ‘I’m seeing Clayton Henry today,’ says Ruth. ‘He’s going to show me some artefacts found at the site.’
    ‘Jesus, Ruth.’ Nelson’s voice is sharp. ‘Be careful. Man sounds like a nutter. Katie’s not going with you, is she?’
    Kate’s the one he’s worried about, thinks Ruth.
She
can have a breakfast meeting with Jack the Ripper as long as Kate is safe.
    ‘Cathbad’s taking her to Nickelodeon World.’
    ‘Well, she can’t come to any harm there.’
    *
    Nelson puts down the phone feeling frustrated. He wishes he could ask Ruth not to go to her meeting, he wishes he could haul Elaine Morgan in for questioning. But he’s not Ruth’s husband and he’s not the officer in charge of this enquiry. And even if he was her husband, he reflects gloomily, he doubts if she’d listen to him. Over the last few days Michelle has been pleasant but detached. Sheand her mother are always whisking off to places, ostensibly leaving him free to relax, in reality to fret about the case and wish that he could do more than just attend interviews ‘as an observer’. Sandy’s warning had disconcerted him too. On the one hand, the idea of old Sandy as a marriage counsellor is laughable. On the other, if
Sandy
has noticed something between him and Ruth, who else might become suspicious? His sisters? His mother? Michelle’s mother?
    He doesn’t like all this stuff about Arch Wizards and King Arthur. In his experience, when people start dressing up they lose track of what is real and what is make-believe. Maybe whoever killed Dan Golding thought that they were preparing a sacrificial victim, atoning for some ancient wrong. In reality, a man was burnt to death in his own home. He can’t bear the thought of Katie (or Ruth) mixing with these people. At least they’re going home this afternoon. Katie can have a nice morning at the Pleasure Beach with Cathbad, then back to Norfolk and safety. Jesus, it’s come to something when he thinks of Cathbad as the perfect babysitter.
    He knows that Sandy and Tim have gone to Lancaster on the trail