Hawke's Tor Read Online Free PDF Page B

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.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜What if he discovered the baby wasn’t his?’
    â€˜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