*

When Ruth drove back to Beach Row the next day, Elaine was waiting for her. Ruth remembered the other time that Elaine had turned up at her door, full of tales of King Arthur. Except that she had left out the most important fact: the identity of Mordred.

‘I didn’t know,’ she said to Ruth, who was trying to contain Thing’s frantic welcome. Nelson had been over the night before to feed the dog and take him for a walk but Thing clearly seemed to feel that he had narrowly escaped abandonment yet again. In fact, it took Ruth several minutes to feed Thing and get Kate settled with juice and her toy cars. By that time, Elaine was already ensconced on the sofa.

‘You must have had some idea,’ said Ruth.

‘I didn’t. Honestly. I thought Guy was the Arch Wizard. I really did. That’s why I was so scared. I didn’t even know that Sam was in the White Hand. I thought he was quite boring actually, always going on about the war and all that. I thought he was just an anorak, quite sweet but dull, you know.’

But what better indication of fascist sympathies, thinks Ruth, than an obsession with the Second World War? After all, hadn’t Sam’s first words to her been about Adolf Hitler? And, when she met him at the library, he had been going to give a talk about the war. It seems, though, that Sam’s interest had gone beyond mere local history. Police had found his house stuffed with Nazi memorabilia, as well as hundreds of books about King Arthur and a rather worried Jack Russell. This, of course, was the dog that Ruth had seen being walked along Beach Row by the blonde woman.

Surprisingly, it seems that Elaine knew, or suspected, about the cross-dressing. ‘Dan said that he’d caught him at it once. He called round unexpectedly and found Sam all tarted up in a dress and high heels. To be honest, I didn’t think too much about it. I mean, each to their own.’ She looked at Ruth earnestly, her face naked and vulnerable, like an actress without make-up. ‘We’ve all got something to hide. I’m sure you’ve heard all about my past.’

Nelson had told Ruth the night before. The young Elaine Morgan had a history of schizophrenia and, at fifteen, had stabbed her mother after a row about homework. A spell in a secure institution had followed, beginning a cycle of mental illness and hospitalisation interspersed with impressive academic achievements. Meeting Guy had proved to be a turning point. He had proved a remarkably stabilising influence, and for the last five years Elaine had lived with him in relative tranquillity – apart from dressing up as Arthurian characters and getting involved with white supremacist groups, of course.

‘We didn’t care about the politics,’ said Elaine. ‘We only cared about Arthur.’

But what about Guy, the man who loved Elaine but was forced to watch her have an affair with his friend and next-door neighbour? Guy was clearly involved with the White Hand, he knew Pendragon well, and he knew that Cathbad had been to Dame Alice’s cottage and found the laptop. Did Sam tell him? Did Guy know that Sam was the Arch Wizard? Ruth thinks not; she thinks that Sam stayed hidden behind the persona of a geeky war enthusiast, always on the outskirts of the group, always in the shadows. She remembers Terry Durkin mentioning Guy that day at CNN Forensics. That was the link, she thinks. Terry must have told Guy about the computer. Terry was probably the only person who knew about Sam and that was because Sam needed him, his man on the inside. The police are charging Terry Durkin with the theft of the computer. As a member of the forensics team, he would have had ample opportunity to remove evidence. Sandy is in ecstasy at the thought of the possible embarrassment to Peter Greengrass. And Terry also helped Sam to switch the bones. Didn’t he say that nothing entered or left CNN Forensics without his knowledge?

How much did Dan know? His diaries showed that he trusted both Guy and Sam. He thought that Clayton was shielding someone but had no idea who. His main concern was that Clayton would find out that he was sleeping with his wife. Not for the first time, Ruth wondered what it was that her old university friend really cared about. Not Elaine certainly. Not Pippa, who hardly merited a few words in his diary. In fact the only person mentioned with any passion was the Raven King himself. King Arthur.

Dan had loved the legend of King Arthur. The discovery of his tomb was the thrill of his life, professionally and personally. But Dan had made a fatal mistake. He must have told his friend Sam, his office mate, about the amazing test results that proved that Arthur, King of the Britons, though born in the north of England, had African DNA and was almost certainly black. This had sealed his fate. Sam says that he had pushed the burning rags through Dan’s doorway himself but the police think that he must have had accomplices, other members of the White Hand. Terry? Other members of the group? Sandy and Tim have still got a lot of work to do, tracking down all the neo-fascists at Pendle.

But Sam must have still had his doubts about Clayton, the man who was in so much financial trouble and who, in the tomb of King Arthur, saw his potential salvation. Didn’t Elaine say, that evening when she turned up at the cottage, that Clayton wanted to carry on with the investigation? And it was Clayton who had summoned Ruth, the so-called bones expert. From the moment that she arrived in Lytham, Ruth realises, she must have been in danger. And Clayton … Clayton signed his own death warrant.

It was Sam who sent the text messages: the phone was found in his possession. He must also have been the cloaked figure on the riverbank. Well, his attempts to scare Ruth away almost worked. If it hadn’t been for that last visit to the university and the discovery of Clayton Henry’s body …

Elaine told Ruth that she had received a phone call that morning asking her to come to the university for an interview. ‘I’d been applying for jobs as an assistant lecturer but no one seemed to want to employ me.’ She looked at Ruth out of mad blue eyes. ‘I don’t know why.’ So Elaine had dressed in her black interview suit and high heels and arrived at the university to find Clayton dead at his desk. ‘I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I ran around trying to find a place to hide.’ Ruth remembered the ghastly figure at the desk and the footsteps skittering about on the floor above and found herself feeling sorry for Elaine. She might be mad and seriously lacking in judgement, but she didn’t deserve to be framed for murder. Because that must have been what Sam was trying to do, surely? Elaine, with her history, would have been the perfect suspect. If Sandy hadn’t been distracted by Nelson’s frantic phone call, he would probably have charged Elaine on the spot. And she, in her fragile emotional state, might even have confessed. And, if Ruth happened to recall a mysterious blonde woman hanging around her house, wouldn’t that also have pointed to Elaine?

Ruth remembers looking at Elaine as she sat curled up on the sofa. Elaine had thought she was Guinevere and Ruth had once figured her, as her name suggested, as Morgan-le-Fay, but, in reality Elaine was a peripheral figure in the drama. Dan had not loved her and Clayton had not trusted her. Sam had seen her as the perfect scapegoat. Only Guy had stayed loyal, Sir Lancelot to the last. Ruth only hoped that Elaine appreciated him.

*

Ruth and Cathbad walk through the gate leading to Dame Alice’s cottage. Cathbad has prepared a post-funeral breakfast for all participants. When Ruth agreed to stay a few more days in Lancashire so that she could attend Pendragon’s funeral, she was surprised when Cathbad had announced that he was moving into the cottage. ‘I think it’s what he would have wanted,’ he said. ‘Thing will like it too.’

‘Why can’t you stay in Lytham with us?’ Ruth grumbled. The events at the Pleasure Beach had proved to her that, however unsatisfactory he was as a babysitter, Cathbad really loved Kate. After all, he was prepared to risk his life to save her. Nelson might call him a bloody fool but Ruth feels rather in awe of her friend. Would she have climbed nearly two hundred feet to save her baby? Well, yes, she would have tried, but the amazing thing is that Cathbad had nearly succeeded. ‘He looked like sodding Spider-Man up there,’ Sandy had said, and Cathbad’s feat had even made the later editions of the local papers. ‘Spider-Man’s Climb To Save Tot,’ said one, ignoring the fact that the tot was several hundred yards away and fast asleep at the time. ‘Superman to the rescue,’ read another. Cathbad claimed not to have seen any of the headlines but Ruth suspected that he was rather enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame. So why was he proposing to abandon them in favour of a deserted (probably haunted) cottage?