Hawke's Tor (3 page)

‘We're looking for anything that might tell us she has been here,' Amos replied.

‘Do you want me to climb up the tor itself?' Jenken queried.

Amos hesitated for a moment then, looking up at the fortress-like granite height, he said, ‘She'd have been hardly likely to take a baby up there … and neither would anyone else. If we don't find anything down here it might be necessary to search up there, but, if we do, either the sergeant or myself will go, it's far too dangerous for you boys….'

At that moment a stoat broke cover from a clump of stunted gorse and with outstretched tail ran towards the tor.

With a shout of glee, Billy, the younger of the two brothers ran after it, ignoring Amos's call for him to come back. Darting in and out among the rocks scattered about the tor, the small boy kept appearing then disappearing, shouting all the while that he could still see the stoat.

Suddenly, when he reached the base of the towering tor he disappeared from view and his shouting ceased abruptly. Moments later he came into view once more … but all his excitement had gone and there was a look of wide-eyed horror on his face.

‘What is it?' Amos demanded. ‘What have you seen?'

‘I … It's … I think it's her … Mrs Morgan!'

‘You
think
?' Amos swung down from his horse. ‘Is it a woman … is she all right?'

Gulping in air, Billy shook his head. ‘It's a woman, but I can't
tell anything about her properly…. Her face …!' He suddenly burst into tears and ran to his brother and clung to him, sobbing uncontrollably.

‘Stay with him,' Amos said to Jenken, ‘… and keep an eye on my horse.'

Running to the spot from where Billy had appeared, he saw why the young boy had been so shocked. The body lying on the ground immediately beneath an almost sheer cliff face
was
that of a woman – or so it would appear from her clothing, but the face had been so disfigured it was virtually impossible to distinguish any features.

After confirming the woman was dead, something that was never really in doubt, Amos returned to where Billy still clung to his older brother. Attracting the attention of Tom, and waving for him to come to him Amos spoke to the older of the two boys.

‘Jenken, take Billy home to your mother. When things have settled down go along and see Sergeant Dreadon, he'll have a little reward for you both.'

D
URING HIS POLICE service in London's East End, before coming to Cornwall, Tom Churchyard had witnessed violence and its consequences on numerous occasions and been forced to deal with death in many forms but, called to the tor by Amos, he winced when he saw the disfigured face of the woman lying at the foot of the steep rock face.

Looking up towards the summit of the tor he said to Amos, ‘It looks as though she must fallen from the top, poor woman.'

‘If that's the case, then where's her baby?' Amos countered.

Looking up at the tor once more, Tom said, ‘It could still be up there … but if it is I doubt whether it would have survived the night, it isn't very old.'

‘You'd better find a way up there and go and check,' Amos said, ‘Although I doubt if it's there – or that Kerensa Morgan was ever there either, if this is her. But whoever she is, she certainly didn't fall to her death. Someone killed her.'

Startled, Tom said, ‘What makes you think that?'

‘I don't
think
it, Tom … I know!' Amos replied grimly. Pointing to an irregularly shaped chunk of granite, about half the size of a man's head, which was balancing on a flat rock several paces from where they stood, he added, ‘There's blood on that rock, lots of it. There's no doubting it's what was used to batter her to death.'

‘But
why
?' Tom queried. ‘Who'd want to kill a young woman who has just had a baby?'

‘Perhaps we'll learn more when we find the baby. You'd better climb to the top of the tor and make quite certain the baby isn't there, then ride down to Trelyn and tell Sergeant Dreadon to arrange to have the body carried down to his house and put in the cell. It can stay there until we can have it taken into Launceston for an autopsy. When that's done we'll see if Horace Morgan can identify her from the clothes she's wearing. Dreadon's already sent to Launceston asking for help in searching the moor but see if he can hurry things up. I'd like to cover as much ground as possible before dark if you don't find the baby on the tor – and I doubt very much if you will.'

 

Baby Albert Morgan was not on the tor and when Tom had ridden off to Trelyn, Amos made a detailed search of the area surrounding Hawk's Tor. Any doubts he might have entertained about the cause of the woman's death were quickly dispelled. There was what appeared to be a large bloodstain on hard ground close to one of the huge granite boulders some distance from the tor. By walking in a direct line between this spot and the body Amos found a number of bloodstains on the rocky ground.

Whoever had attacked the as yet unidentified woman had killed her a little distance away then dragged her body to a spot where it was less likely to be seen by anyone passing along the nearby path. It was a feat requiring considerable strength, but his discoveries brought him no closer to solving the mystery of what had happened to the baby, or finding
why
the woman had been killed.

Had it been a random killing, or one with a sexual motive, the
murderer would hardly have taken the baby off with him, unless perhaps it was felt its crying would attract someone to the scene. But would not a vicious murderer have killed the baby and left its body with that of its mother?

Of course, there was a remote possibility that the body was
not
that of Kerensa, or that the baby had been carried away by some unknown creature….

Amos rejected both these ideas. What was more certain was that this was not going to be an easy crime to solve. However, he was determined it
would
be solved, and the first step was to have the body identified.

 

Horace Morgan did not wait for the body to be brought down to Trelyn for identification. The two Coumbe boys had met a gardener from Trelyn Hall when they reached the hamlet on their way home and told him what they had found on the moor. The gardener immediately hurried away to the wooded slopes to pass on the news to the estate steward.

Tom was returning to Amos after speaking to Sergeant Dreadon when he saw Horace Morgan toiling up the slope to Hawk's Tor. Urging his reluctant pony to a faster pace up the steep slope, Tom caught up with him and found him fighting for breath but still doggedly pursuing a course towards the tor.

Guessing the Coumbe brothers had been unable to keep silent about Billy's gruesome discovery, Tom slowed his horse to match Morgan's pace when he drew alongside him.

‘You've heard a body's been found up by Hawk's Tor, Mr Morgan?'

Morgan nodded without slowing his pace, not replying until the path levelled out slightly, enabling speech to come easier.

‘Is it … Kerensa?'

‘We can't be certain. I am afraid she's suffered very severe injuries, Mr Morgan. It will be necessary to identify her by her clothes, or any jewellery she might be wearing.'

‘Albert … the baby … what of him?'

‘He hadn't been found when I left Superintendent Hawke but I'll go ahead to find out what's been happening while I've been away. I'd like to offer to take you behind me, but it's as much as the pony can manage to carry me up this slope. I suggest you take it a little more slowly too. Sadly there's nothing you can do for Mrs Morgan – if it is her – and when we find the baby he'll need his father.'

Kneeing his pony forward, Tom went on ahead to tell Amos that Morgan was on his way and in his understandably distraught state might prove difficult to reason with.

 

Amos and Tom left the shadow of the tor together to meet Morgan before he reached them and his first words were, ‘Where is she? Where's Kerensa? Have you found Albert?'

‘It's not absolutely certain yet that it is Mrs Morgan,' Amos replied, blocking the path of the desperate man, ‘and there is no sign of a baby … but please wait a moment and listen to me, Mr Morgan. I want to warn you that, whoever the woman is, she has suffered severe facial injuries. I would much rather you did not see her at all just yet, but she needs to be identified, even if only by her clothing.'

‘What sort of injuries – and how did she come by them? Has she had a fall … and why isn't Albert with her?'

‘I can't answer the last question and the cause of her death will not be fully known until an autopsy has been carried out, but it would be better if you stayed here while I find something with which to cover her face.'

‘You'll do no such thing. I want to see what's happened to her and if it is Kerensa I'll get every man from the Trelyn Estate up here to search for Albert.'

‘That would be a great help. I have already sent to Launceston for all available constables to help in the search for him. We will be able to make use of anyone else who can join them but, with all due respect, I feel it would be far better if you did not see her face until the doctor who will carry out an autopsy has been able to examine her and perhaps clean her up….'

‘Why does there have to be an autopsy? Isn't it enough that she should have fallen and disfigured herself, if that's what has happened to her? Does her body have to be mutilated as well?'

‘I am afraid it is necessary, Mr Morgan, because I do not believe her injuries to have been caused by an accident.'

Startled, it was some moments before Morgan seemed able to take in what Amos had said, then, in a strangled voice he queried, ‘Not an accident … what do you mean?'

‘I mean that she appears to have been murdered. Now, I regret the need for this, but do you mind coming up to the tor with us and checking whether the body is that of your wife but, if it is, please don't touch her?'

 

Horace Morgan was able to confirm that the body lying on the moor at the base of Hawk's Tor was that of his wife, Kerensa. He not only recognized the clothes she was wearing, but also identified the wedding ring which, when removed from the stiff third finger of her left hand revealed the inscription, ‘
K & H
' engraved inside the gold band.

Trying hard not to look at her disfigured face, he demanded tearfully, ‘Who would do such a thing to her, and why … and where can Albert be? What would they have done with him?'

The Trelyn estate steward glanced up at the tor towering above them and, correctly reading his thoughts, Amos said, ‘Sergeant Churchyard has been up there and found nothing, but as soon as policemen from Launceston arrive here we will organize a thorough search of the rest of the moor.'

Seemingly grateful for an opportunity to do something positive, Morgan said, ‘There's no need to wait for them, I'll bring every man from the estate up here and begin the search right away. If Albert is on the moor he'll have been out in the open all night, that's already far too long for a helpless baby.'

‘That's a splendid idea,' Amos agreed. ‘Take Sergeant Churchyard's pony and gather all the men you can. We will wait here until Sergeant Dreadon comes to take your wife's body down to Trelyn.'

‘What do you intend doing about finding Kerensa's killer?' Some of Horace Morgan's natural aggression returned when he posed the question to Amos.

‘While you're away we will see if we can find anything up here that might help us, but our main investigation will begin when we have the results of the autopsy and know exactly how and when she died. We will also have to obtain a statement from you, Mr Morgan, distressing though it might be for you. We
will
find your wife's killer, and your son too, but I am afraid nothing we are able to do is going to bring your wife back to you.'

N
EWS OF KERENSA'S murder and the disappearance of baby Albert spread quickly and soon the party searching the moor was augmented by miners from many of the nearby copper mines. They scoured a vast area until poor light brought the search to an end, but nothing was found of the child.

When darkness fell not a single searcher remained on the moor. Rumours of a ‘beast' or some supernatural creature roaming the high ground at night was not wholly believed by everyone but with the unexplained death of Kerensa Morgan no one was willing to put it to the test and in the inns and drinking dens that night even the most sceptical of disbelievers were unusually subdued.

Kerensa's body was conveyed to Launceston and, at Amos's request an autopsy carried out immediately. The results confirmed his belief that she had been killed with the bloody rock found close to Hawk's Tor. Tiny fragments of granite were found embedded in her skull and the doctor conducting the autopsy reported that her death had been the result of a ‘frenzied attack'.

Late that night, back at the superintendent's office in the police headquarters in Bodmin, Amos and Tom, both weary after the day's exertions, were discussing the events of the day. They had
been friends for a long while and when none of their colleagues was present there was a relaxed informality between them.

‘This is going to be a very difficult case to solve,' Tom declared. ‘At the moment we have no apparent motive and the disappearance of the baby is a complete mystery.'

‘It's certainly baffling to say the least,' Amos agreed, ‘but the answer is out there somewhere and we have to find it. What do you make of Horace Morgan?'

Tom looked at Amos sharply. ‘I was going to ask you the same question. He certainly
appears
to be absolutely devastated by all that has happened, but I had a feeling everything is not quite what it appears to be. He is no fool or he wouldn't be the estate steward for Trelyn, so I doubt whether he was as ignorant of her past behaviour as he would have us believe, and if Jemima Rowe is to be believed about the arguments he and Kerensa had then she hasn't changed too much since they were married.'

‘I agree and, as we both know, infidelity is probably behind more murders than anything else, but it doesn't explain the disappearance of the baby. According to all we've heard Morgan was besotted with him.'

‘What if he discovered the baby wasn't his?'

‘Now
that
would provide an answer,' Amos mused, ‘and although it would be difficult to dispose of a woman's body up there on the moor, a baby could be carried down and thrown in the river and would be miles away in a matter of hours. We'll go back to Trelyn tomorrow and while I follow up on some of the stories we've heard about Kerensa I would like you to interview Morgan. See what you can learn about his background, there might be something there to help us….'

Pushing himself up from his chair with a show of weariness, Amos said, ‘I don't know about you, but I think it's time we went
home. We'll make an early start in the morning and take the horse and pony again.'

As the two men walked down the stairs of the police station, Amos asked, ‘Have you heard from Flora recently?'

Flora was a young housekeeper whom Tom had met when he and Amos were investigating another murder at one of Cornwall's great houses, some two years before. Romance had blossomed between them and it had been assumed by everyone who knew them that they would marry. However, after moving on as housekeeper to the tragically widowed Dowager Lady Hogg whom she had known for many years, Flora had accompanied her elderly employer to Canada, where three of the dowager's sons by an earlier marriage were living together with a number of her grandchildren. Lady Hogg had felt a need to be with them.

Flora had accompanied her on the voyage intending to return again when she had seen her employer settled in her new home, but her letters made it clear she had fallen in love with the country and was also reluctant to leave the frail, yet indomitable peeress.

Tom grimaced. ‘When Flora left for Canada nobody expected Lady Hogg to live for very long, but the country seems to agree with her health and it's beginning to look as though she might live forever – except when Flora mentions coming home to marry me. Then she suddenly becomes all ill and helpless. Flora's letters have been few and far between just lately and when they do come they are all about Canada and not about us. I was very upset at first, but I'm beginning to accept the inevitable.'

‘You've never thought of going to Canada yourself?'

Tom gave Amos a lop-sided, mirthless smile. ‘I don't think I would be welcomed there by Lady Hogg and her family, do you? Besides, I enjoy what I'm doing here.'

Tom had been instrumental in arresting Lady Hogg's youngest son on criminal charges and, although they were eventually dropped due to the family's influence in the county, the incident created such a scandal that the son involved was forced to leave the country and go to Canada where the family owned a great deal of land. Tom knew he could never go there – not even for Flora.

‘Well, you must come to the house and discuss it with Talwyn. She said I was to invite you to dinner tomorrow anyway. You can speak to her then.'

Amos's wife, Talwyn, taught school but she was very supportive of her husband and his work and he would often discuss particularly difficult cases with her. Amos wished Tom had someone like her with whom to discuss his problems. He felt the sergeant was becoming an increasingly lonely man.

‘I would like that,' Tom replied. ‘Flora was very fond of Talwyn, but I believe it's too late for any suggestions about our future.' Suddenly despondent, he changed the subject abruptly. ‘Anyway, I have an idea we are going to be working on this case for longer than any of us would like. We'll see what Morgan has to say tomorrow.'

On the way to the two-bedroom annexe of a house close to the Launceston police station which he shared with Horace Halloran, the Cornwall Constabulary's sergeant major, and a fellow ex-Royal Marine, Tom thought of his conversation with Amos.

When Flora had left Cornwall for Canada, he had been very unhappy and after she had informed him she could not foresee a return in the immediate future, he
had
considered going to Canada, despite the problems he would face there. However, Flora's letters became fewer and when they did arrive were full,
not of a life together, but of the vibrancy and excitement of being in a new, young country and he gradually realized he was probably never going to see her again.

Once he accepted this he felt less guilty about allowing his work to dominate his own life and in consequence was now able to go for many days at a time without thinking about her.

 

When the two policemen reached Trelyn the following morning Tom went on to the Hall to speak to Horace Morgan, while Amos decided that before he interviewed anyone else he would pay another call on Jemima Rowe. He found the ex-Trelyn Hall housekeeper making bread in the kitchen of her cottage and was not surprised to learn she had heard of the discovery of Kerensa's body and the disappearance of baby Albert.

Digging her knuckles into a mound of dough being kneaded on a dusting of flour scattered upon the scrubbed table-top, she commented, ‘I'm not one to speak evil of the dead, but if ever a girl brought about such a violent end to her own life, it was Kerensa Tonks.'

‘That may be so,' Amos agreed, ‘but she did not deserve such a death – and the baby certainly never harmed anyone.'

‘Then he's assured of a place with the Lord … although he might not be dead. It could be that he has found a good life right here on earth – and that's more than he could look forward to with his mother.'

‘What exactly do you mean by that?'

The ex-housekeeper's thin-lipped mouth clamped shut as though to indicate she had said enough, but Amos persisted. ‘Do I need to remind you this is a murder case, Jemima?'

From the cross positioned above the fireplace and the framed religious tapestries adorning the walls of the cottage, Amos had
assumed the ex-housekeeper was a practising Christian and he added, ‘I think I'm right in saying that the sixth commandment declares, “Thou shalt not commit murder”.'

‘The seventh says “Thou shalt not commit adultery”,' Jemima retorted, ‘but she paid no heed to that one, so don't quote commandments to me when you're talking about Kerensa Tonks, young man. I've spent my whole life living by them, but I doubt whether
she
had even heard of them.'

‘Then we should feel sorry for her, Jemima, but my job is to uphold the law here in Cornwall and the most serious crime that can be committed against that law coincides with one of the Commandments. Whatever Kerensa Morgan had done, she is the victim of a very serious and particularly violent murder and it's my duty to bring whoever did it to justice. It is your duty, both as a law-abiding citizen and a Christian, to give me all the help you can, so I'll ask you once more. What did you mean when you said baby Albert Morgan might be able to live a better life than the one he had with his rightful parents?'

For some moments Jemima Rowe remained silent and Amos thought his pleas had fallen upon deaf ears, but suddenly her shoulders sagged and she said resignedly, ‘You're right, of course, I'm being unchristian. I've never liked the girl, but no one deserves to die the way she did and the baby might have brought some real happiness into her life – there was little enough of it there before he was born.'

‘Wasn't she happy with her husband?'

‘Him? Horace Morgan gave her his name and a respectability she hadn't known before, but little more than that. He wasn't a generous man in any way. He was as tight with his money as he is with praise for anyone who does anything for him.'

‘Yet he gave her baby Albert.'

It was a policeman's baited statement, and Jemima responded as Amos had hoped.

‘As long as Horace Morgan believes that it's not for anyone else to say otherwise, whatever they may think.'

‘Is there any other man you can think of who
might
have been the father?'

Jemima gave an unladylike snort of derision. ‘I'm trying to be charitable towards the girl's memory but there are limits! Had Horace Morgan not come along when he did a great many men would have been quaking in their boots for fear she'd name them as the baby's father.'

It hardly narrowed down the list of possible suspects for Kerensa Morgan's murder and Amos returned to his earlier line of questioning. ‘Explain what you meant when you spoke about the possibility of the baby being better off now … if he's still alive.'

Jemima looked uncomfortable, ‘I was referring to something that happened years ago … just gossip, no more.'

‘I'd still like you to tell me about it.'

‘All right, but it happened some years ago and couldn't possibly have anything to do with the disappearance of Albert Morgan.'

‘Let me be the judge of that,' Amos persisted.

‘Well, as I said, it was no more than a rumour concerning simple Annie Dawe, daughter of Harold Dawe who farms at Bowland, out on the moor. She wasn't seen for a long time and word went around she'd got herself in trouble – by her own father some said. Then the Dawes were snowed in for weeks during the bad winter we had some years ago and when folks were able to get about again Annie told old Bessie Harris, the midwife at North Hill, that she'd had the baby and her father
had paid one of the gypsies camped out at Sharptor to take it away and give it to someone he knew who desperately wanted a child.'

Amos frowned, ‘You're not suggesting this gypsy might have murdered Kerensa Morgan just to get hold of a baby for someone?'

‘I'm not suggesting anything, I'm just telling you what I heard happened to the Dawe girl's baby, as you asked me. It was rumoured at the time that it wasn't the first unwanted baby this particular gypsy had got rid of for someone in trouble – and I believe he's still around.'

Amos thought about what Jemima had told him. If Kerensa had been killed by a man with a good reason to murder her, but who could not bring himself to murder a baby – possibly even
his
baby – it could have been a way to dispose of Albert Morgan.

‘I don't know, Jemima, it's one thing to take a baby from a girl who's got herself in trouble, but something quite different when it means getting involved with murder. Every gypsy I've ever known would be far too astute for that.'

‘I suppose it would depend how much money he was offered,' Jemima retorted. ‘Anyway, as I said, it was probably just gossip.'

‘Nevertheless, it might be worthwhile having a chat with this gypsy, do you know his name?'

‘I can't say I ever heard it mentioned – and you won't be able to get it from poor, simple Annie. She hanged herself in her father's barn only months after all this was supposed to have happened. Bessie Harris is the one to speak to. She still lives at North Hill and delivers most of the babies hereabouts … both those that are wanted and those that are not.'