Our man in Camelot

Finsterwald watched in silence as his partner read the letter.

' 'Wishing you all success in your continuing researches'.'

Merriwether repeated finally. 'Whatever he was doing, sounds like he meant business… You ever heard of this battle of—what was it?—Badon?'

Finsterwald shrugged. 'Search me. But it'll be easy to look up—unless it's some kind of code-word.'

'Uh-uh.' The negro shook his head. 'If Davies wasn't on the level and this was coded it'd be about birds, not battles.'

'Then why the hell the bird cover?'

'We don't know it was a cover. He could have been interested in battles as well as birds. No law says what a man does in his own time.'

'And I say it still doesn't add up. It smells from here to—to Novgorod.'

'Could be you're right at that…' Merriwether flipped over the typescript to reveal the bill beneath it. For a moment he stared at the list of items casually, then he stiffened. ' Jesus!'

'What is it, Cal?' His partner's sudden excitement hit Finsterwald like a shock-wave. 'Pay dirt?'

'Pay dirt?' Merriwether's lip curled. 'Man—I've been slow. I've been one stupid black son-of-a- bitch.'

Anthony Price - Our man in camelot

'How?'

Merriwether held out the bill. 'Look at it—just look at it.'

Harry Finsterwald looked at the list.

The Observer's Book of Birds.

A Guide to the Birds of Britain.

The Bird-Watcher's ABC.

'So he did bird-watch,' said Finsterwald.

'He bought a pile of bird books,' corrected Merriwether. 'That was four months ago—see the date?'

Edward Grey: The Charm of Birds.

British Birds in Colour.

Gildas. De Excidio et Conguestu Britanniae. Trans.

Nennius: Historia Britonum. Trans.

Malory: Le Morte d'Arthur. Trans.

Bede: Historia Ecclesiastica. Trans.

'Bede.' Finsterwald looked up sharply.

'Keep going, man.'

Geoffrey of Monmouth: Historia Regum Britanniae. Trans.

Alcock: Arthur's Britain.

Morris: The Age of Arthur.

Chambers: Arthur of Britain.

Bullitt: Britain in the Dark Ages (Two vols.).

O'Donnell Lectures: Angles and Britons.

Stenton: Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Finsterwald's eye ran on down the page—

Continued overleaf

'For God's sake—it goes on forever,' he protested. 'He must have spent a goddamn fortune!'

'Not a fortune. About ?220—say about 500 bucks.'

'But just on books.'

Merriwether grinned. 'In four months? On his pay that was just the loose change. If it was women or horses you wouldn't think twice about it.'

'But these are—hell, they're weird.' Finsterwald slapped the list as though it offended him. ' The Archaeology of Post-Roman Britain…A Gazeteer of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites. Just those two set him back—nearly 25 dollars. Cash money.'

'Cash money.' Merriwether echoed the words happily.

'Sure. It says 'cash' down here.' Finsterwald consulted the list. 'As of this moment he owes just 38 pence

—30 for the pamphlet and 8 for the postage.'

'Exactly right, man. He paid cash money for everything he bought—that's what his cheque counterfoils say. And from the dates on that bill he must have called at that bookshop almost every week to pick up what he'd ordered.