Dying Fall

it comes at nine o’clock in the form of a marked police car at their front door.
    ‘The neighbours will love this,’ says Ruth, but for once the street is deserted. It’s Friday morning, maybe everyone has gone away for a long weekend. A polite policeman passes on a message from DCI Macleod requesting their presence at the police station.
    ‘What about my daughter?’ says Ruth. Kate is hiding behind her, staring open-mouthed at the uniformed figures.
    ‘Bring her too. DCI Macleod said he’d lay on breakfast.’
    ‘And the dog?’ asks Cathbad.
    The policeman looks dubiously at Thing, who puts his head on one side and tries to look sweet.
    ‘Can’t you leave him here?’
    ‘It’s a rented house. I don’t like to.’
    ‘Oh, all right. Bring him too.’
    Kate enjoys the drive into Blackpool, making sirennoises and waving excitedly at other motorists. Ruth and Cathbad sit in silence. Ruth suddenly feels very tired, not able to cope with Nelson and the famous Sandy Macleod, who is probably Nelson cubed. She wants to sit quietly and read Dan’s diaries. The description of finding King Arthur’s body had moved her. She remembers that thrill of discovery so well. Dan had sounded so happy but there had been ominous overtones too, the mention of the White Hand, of Elaine’s hostility. Less than a month after writing that diary entry, Dan was dead.
    At first sight, Sandy Macleod lives up to Ruth’s mental image of ‘Nelson cubed’. He is a large man, not as tall as Nelson but much heavier. His shirt strains across his stomach and the chair creaks when he sits down. His face is pouchy and almost comically mournful, with turned-down eyes and mouth, like one of those cartoons of a smiley face turned upside down. There is something cartoonish about him altogether, from the broad Lancashire accent to the bustling walk with splayed-out feet. But something in his eyes warns Ruth not to underestimate him. He gives her a sharp look too.
    ‘Ah, the famous Doctor Galloway.’
    Ruth wonders why she is famous to him, and while she normally likes people to use her title, on Sandy’s lips it has the effect of making her sound like a made-up character. Doctor Foster, Doctor Jekyll, Doctor Dolittle.
    But Sandy is nice to Kate, bending down to her level and offering to buy her chocolate from the vending machine. Ruth almost protests but doesn’t want to soundlike a neurotic middle-class mother. She can always eat it herself to save Kate’s teeth.
    Sandy is accompanied by another man who introduces himself as Detective Sergeant Tim Heathfield. Ruth takes to him immediately. He is respectful without being creepy, formal without being officious. He ushers them into a meeting room which contains a large breakfast – and Nelson.
    ‘What are you doing here?’ says Ruth, without thinking.
    ‘Cathbad called me from Pendragon’s house last night,’ says Nelson.
    ‘DCI Nelson informed me that there was important evidence at the scene,’ says Sandy, sounding as if he is making a statement in court. ‘I proceeded to the house and took possession of a laptop.’ He points at the computer on the table.
    Ruth looks at Cathbad and then at Sandy, who is now tucking into a bacon roll.
    ‘There’s something you should know …’ She gets out the memory stick.
    ‘What’s that?’ asks Sandy.
    ‘It’s a memory stick,’ says Ruth. ‘For a computer.’
    ‘I know that, love,’ says Sandy with menacing sweetness. ‘But what’s it doing here?’
    ‘I found it in Pendragon’s house,’ says Cathbad. ‘I thought Ruth ought to see it.’
    ‘It’s got Dan’s files on it,’ says Ruth.
    ‘You shouldn’t have touched it,’ says Nelson angrily. ‘It’s police property now.’
    ‘I know,’ says Cathbad, ‘but I thought Ruth should see it first.’
    Tim leans forward. ‘Have you opened any files, Doctor Galloway?’
    ‘I glanced at one or two,’ says Ruth defensively.
    Tim looks at Sandy.
    ‘What?’ asks Ruth.
    ‘It’s possible,’ says Tim, ‘that there was a virus inserted into the files. As soon as you opened the files, the virus could have sent an email to … to whoever took the computer in the first place.’
    ‘So they’d know I’d found it?’ says Ruth, suddenly afraid. She thinks of the text messages, the sense that someone is watching her. Now they’re watching her even when she’s on-line. She’s got a cyber stalker as well as the old-fashioned kind.
    Tim seems to know what she’s