Dying Fall

impatient. ‘The Neo-Nazis on campus, stomping around protesting about Chinese cockle-pickers in Fleetwood, they weren’t anything to do with us. The White Hand was different. It was about going back to the old days. The days of the High King.’
    ‘King Arthur?’
    ‘Yes, even before we joined the White Hand, we used to talk about recreating Camelot, the four of us. Clayton was King Arthur, I was Guinevere, Guy was Lancelot. Pendragon was Merlin.’
    ‘So why did you join the White Hand?’
    ‘Pendragon told us about it. He said there were magical powers associated with belonging to the group. Strong psychic energies. And he was right. We had an initiation ceremony on Pendle Hill. It was wonderful. There were lights in the sky, voices from the heavens, a great black bird appeared above us with wings of fire.’ She smiles reminiscently.
    There is a lot that Ruth could say to this. You can admire the Arthurian legends without belonging to a sinister secret society associated (whatever Elaine says) with racist and homophobic groups. As for the heavenly voices and the fiery blackbird, she suspects the presence of hard drugs. But there are other things she needs to know.
    ‘Who else was in the White Hand?’ she asks. ‘Who was in charge? Who was the Arch Wizard?’
    Elaine’s eyes flicker from side to side. ‘I don’t know. You only know your chapter and our chapter was the four of us.’
    ‘Someone must have known.’
    ‘Clayton, Guy and Pendragon were knights. They had messages from the Arch Wizard sometimes but I don’t think they ever met him.’
    ‘And you weren’t a knight?’
    ‘Oh no. Women weren’t allowed to be knights.’
    Sexist as well as racist and homophobic, thinks Ruth. But surely someone must know who the Arch Wizard is. Somebody prancing round in robes, setting people’s houses on fire, that can’t stay a secret for long. She thinks of the masked figure on the riverbank and shivers.
    ‘Who was Dan?’ she asks. ‘Did he have a role in all this?’
    ‘Oh, he didn’t know about the White Hand. We couldn’t tell him. But he was Percival, wasn’t he? The one who found the grail.’
    So when Dan wrote about the White Hand, he had no way of knowing that two of his closest friends and his boss were actually members. But, even so, both Guy and Clayton had clearly been scared of someone or something. Guy had insisted that the bones be stored in a safe place and Clayton had received threatening letters (or so he said). Did they know the identity of the Arch Wizard? Did they know that he was capable of murder?
    ‘Elaine,’ she says. ‘Do you know who killed Dan?’
    Elaine seems to sag in her chair, becoming young andvulnerable again. When she speaks, it is in almost a baby voice.
    ‘I didn’t have anything to do with the fire. Guy and I had been to the pub. When we got back, there were flames everywhere. I thought it was our house at first. Guy called the fire brigade. It was awful. I was screaming. We saw them bring Daniel’s body out. The paramedics were giving him mouth-to-mouth but Guy wouldn’t let me go to him. I was hysterical. I had to take a tranquiliser.’
    Ruth declines the invitation to pity Elaine. Instead she says, ‘You know something, don’t you? That’s why you’re so scared.’
    Elaine looks at her. Her face is not so much pale as drained of life. Her lips are almost white and Ruth can see the veins beneath her skin. She looks around the room, hands clenching and unclenching.
    ‘Elaine,’ says Ruth, more gently. ‘Why did you come to see me?’
    ‘I think the White Hand killed Daniel,’ says Elaine in a whisper.
    She sounds so scared that, despite herself, Ruth looks over her shoulder. The French windows are dark now and the night is quiet. She would give anything to hear Sandy’s patrol car driving past. She turns back to Elaine, who is still clenching and unclenching.
    ‘Do you know why they killed him?’
    ‘Guy thought that Daniel had discovered something about the High King,’ she says at last. ‘Daniel didn’t tell Guy what it was but Guy suspected.’
    So much for it being a joint project, thinks Ruth. She is unreasonably pleased that Dan hadn’t shared his suspicions with Guy, even though he had planned to take her into his confidence. Despite his protestations in his diaries, Dan obviously hadn’t completely trusted Guy.
    ‘What did Guy suspect?’ she asks.
    ‘He didn’t say,’ says Elaine. ‘But he thought it could be