‘Did she expect you to be generous to her, Jowan? After all, you could afford it more than most.’
When no immediate reply was forthcoming, Tom prompted him. ‘Remember what I said, Jowan, I need you to be absolutely honest with me.’
Reluctantly, Hodge replied, ‘She asked me for money, yes.’
‘And did you give it to her?’
Jowan Hodge nodded unhappily, ‘She said she wanted it so she could leave her husband and take the baby with her. She even suggested we might go away together.’
This was a revelation indeed and Tom asked, ‘What did you say to that?’
Evading a direct reply, Jowan Hodge said, ‘She knew I would never leave Evangeline. I gave her money, yes, but only because she was very unhappy and didn’t deserve a man like Morgan.’
‘Was he ever violent towards her?’
‘She said he was and showed me bruises to prove it. She once also had a nasty graze on her cheek that she said he’d caused.’
Somewhat sceptically, Tom asked, ‘Do you have any idea why he should have had reason to be so violent towards her?’
After only a slight hesitation, Hodge replied, ‘I don’t know if Morgan had heard the rumours going about that the baby wasn’t his, or had worked things out for himself, but she said that once, when he’d been drinking, he demanded to know whether he was the father of her baby and knocked her about a bit.’
Tom thought that if Horace Morgan really was in doubt about baby Albert’s paternity it gave him a strong motive for murder – but he had one further question to put to Jowan Hodge.
‘Where did you and Kerensa meet to discuss her problems – and to hand over the money you say you gave her?’
‘Up on the moor, close to Hawk’s Tor. There’s an old mine not far from there that I spent some time inspecting. It was abandoned before it had a chance to come good and I thought of reworking it. I used to pass by the tor on my way home, but after giving Kerensa the money I took to coming home a different way and, like I said, on the night she was murdered I was many miles away, in North Devon. I’ll give you the address so you can check I’m telling the truth….’
Riding back to Bodmin on his way from the home of Jowan Hodge, Tom thought over what the successful miner had said about the relationship between Kerensa and her husband. That they were not the happily married couple Horace Morgan would have the world believe was becoming increasingly evident. Had the Trelyn land agent seriously believed Albert was not his son it would have given him a powerful motive for killing both mother and baby. The reason for murdering Jed Smith was less clear, but that would no doubt be established in due course.
Equally certain was that if Jowan Hodge’s alibi held up – and Tom had little doubt it would – it left only two known suspects and of the two Morgan was emerging as the more likely murderer.
However, Tom decided he would try to put Morgan out of his mind until he had been to Gassick Farm to speak to Zillah and collect the drawing she had made of baby Albert’s missing shawl.
Zillah seemed pleased to see him and he felt she would have liked him to stay for a while, but it was not long before the murder of her father was mentioned and her grandmother, a normally cheerful woman, who had been extremely fond of her gypsy son-in-law broke down and this upset Zillah so much that Tom reluctantly decided it would be better if he left both women to comfort each other.
Although disappointed there had been no opportunity to talk to Zillah alone, he left Gassick with the drawing of the shawl Zillah had made for baby Albert safely placed in his saddle-bag.
Urging his horse to a lively trot, he hoped to reach the Bodmin police headquarters in time to compare notes with Amos on the progress, or lack of the same, in their respective inquiries.
Chapter 23
IN AMOS’S OFFICE a few days later he and Tom were discussing the murder case when the sergeant in charge of the front office entered the room. He carried an envelope in his hand and explained, ‘The mail has just arrived, sir. This letter is addressed to you and marked “Urgent, Private and Confidential”. I thought I should bring it up to you right away.’
‘Thank you, Sergeant.’ As the policeman left the room, Amos looked at the envelope and said, ‘It’s from London, Tom, it must be from Verity.’ Hurriedly cutting the envelope open with a bone-handled paper-knife that had been a present from Talwyn, he took out a number of pages filled with small, neat handwriting.
‘It is from her,’ he said, excitedly and began reading.
Waiting for more information, Tom felt increasingly frustrated as he watched Amos’s expression undergo a number of animated changes as he read.
Putting the first page to one side and moving on to the second, Amos added to Tom’s frustration by saying, ‘I think we may have him, Tom. Verity has unearthed a motive … a motive we could never have imagined in a million years!’ Tantalizingly, Amos broke off what he was saying as he began to read the second page of the long letter.
When he reached the foot of the page and turned to the third, Tom could contain himself no longer. ‘What does she say—?’
He stopped abruptly as, instead of replying, Amos held up his hand to silence any further questioning and Tom was obliged to curtail his growing impatience until Amos had read the entire contents of the letter.
Finally placing the last page face down on the others, Amos leaned back in his chair, his thoughts seemingly far away for a few moments. Then, coming back to the here and now and tapping a finger on the letter, he said, ‘Verity has come up trumps once again, Tom. She has not only filled in much of Horace Morgan’s Indian background for us but given us a much stronger motive for killing Kerensa and baby Albert than any we could possibly have discovered for ourselves, here in Cornwall.’
Biting back a question, Tom waited for Amos to explain … and the explanation was not long in coming now.
‘It would seem that Colonel Trethewy’s estate steward is reticent about his life in India for a number of very good reasons, not least of them being that he has a wife and children there!’
This was startling news indeed and Tom said, ‘You mean he married Kerensa bigamously?’
‘Most probably, although whether we could ever prove it in an English court is debatable. His wife there is an Indian woman named Shabnam and although the East India Company records have her recorded as his wife, Verity has been unable to ascertain whether they had a Hindu or a Christian church wedding. Whichever it was, Morgan and Shabnam have two children, a boy and a girl.’
‘If Morgan had left them there and started a new life back here in Cornwall why should he want kill Kerensa and his baby son?’
‘That’s where his story becomes even more interesting, Tom. The mutiny broke out in India, in 1857 and Morgan’s family were living in Cawnpore when it was besieged by a very large army of mutineers. They, together with about four hundred other women and children took refuge in the hastily fortified army barracks, protected by some four or five hundred men, many being invalid soldiers and civilians. Despite this, and against great odds, they held out for three weeks. Desperately short of food and water their suffering must have been unimaginable until eventually they were driven to accepting terms of surrender from the mutineers who offered them safe passage from Cawnpore. But, instead of being led to safety, they were turned upon by their besiegers and all the men and many of the women and children were killed. The survivors were kept in appalling conditions until a British relief column was drawing near, when they too were cruelly murdered.’
‘But if everyone was killed then Morgan didn’t commit bigamy with Kerensa, he was a widower … but how did he escape?’
‘Ah, this is where it all becomes very interesting, Tom! Morgan’s story to the East India Company after the event was that when Cawnpore was sacked by mutineers he escaped and hid for days before making his way to Allahabad, further down the Ganges River, where he fell in with the British army column making its way to Cawnpore to rescue the women being held there
. Unfortunately, the soldiers arrived too late to save any of them. His story was checked but there was such chaos in the country at the time that the East India Company had no alternative but to accept his story and because he was thought to have lost his family he was given a great deal of sympathy. When he expressed a wish to leave the company and return to England they repatriated him and awarded him a company pension.’ Pausing and leaning back in his chair, he said, ‘This isn’t the story he told to Verity when they spoke at Trelyn, possibly because he didn’t want to be questioned too closely about what really happened there.’
‘You say he was only thought to have lost his family?’
‘That’s right. Apparently – and just how isn’t known – his wife and the two children survived. Shabnam was Hindu anyway and both the children were dark-skinned, so with the help of one of the low-caste garden servants they made their way to the south, away from the area controlled by the mutineers, helped along the way by friends and family of the gardener. Shabnam eventually made her way to her parents’ home. They are very wealthy and she and the family are now living with them.’
‘But didn’t she look for her husband when the mutiny ended?’
Searching through Verity’s letter, Amos found the page he was looking for and replied, ‘Shabnam explained that in view of the wholesale slaughter of Europeans in that part of the country she assumed he was one of the victims. The mutiny ended in 1858 and then the British Government stripped the East India Company of its powers and took over the running of the country. As you can imagine the affairs of the company were in turmoil, with so many of its employees dead, and property and documents destroyed, it was impossible to discover exactly what had happened to anyone. Morgan believed his family had been killed, and his family believed him to be dead. It was not until last year – two years after the end of the mutiny – that her father met up with someone who had known the Morgans in Cawnpore and was told that Horace Morgan had not been killed but had survived and returned to this country.’
‘What did she do about it?’
The story related by Amos had brought Tom to the edge of his seat and he asked the question eagerly.
‘She wrote to the East India Company, here in this country, telling her story and asking for information about her husband. She said that if the information about his survival were true and he was alive, her father was willing to pay for her and their two children to take passage to England to be together again and that they could either make their home here or return to India where Morgan could be assured of living a very comfortable life with her wealthy family.’
‘When did Morgan receive the letter? It certainly gives him a very strong motive for doing away with Kerensa – and the baby too, especially if he had any doubts about being its father!’
‘That’s where there is considerable confusion, Tom. Because the clerk who received the letter was an alcoholic and had allowed his paperwork to get into an impossible mess, no one can say for certain whether the information about his wife being alive was ever passed on to Morgan, especially as the letter itself is still in the East India Company’s office and there is no record of when it was received, or whether or not Morgan was informed about it.’
‘But we do know Morgan received letters from the East India Company since coming to Cornwall,’ Tom pointed out. ‘The letter carrier has delivered letters to him with the company’s seal on the envelope.’
‘True, and the chances are that Morgan did know his wife and family had survived in India, but he could always say the letters he received were something to do with his pension. Until we get hold of the actual letter telling him they are still alive – or a certified copy of it – we can’t actually confirm the motive, let alone prove he killed his wife and baby because of it. We need to build up a cast-iron case against him for killing not only them but Jed Smith too, and make certain he doesn’t have a watertight alibi for his whereabouts on the night of the murder. We’ll go over everything we’ve done so far and push some people a little harder, Tom. Jowan Hodge, for instance. Try to learn whether he really could have fathered baby Albert and, if so, was it possible Morgan somehow learned of it. Landlord Kittow might be able to help with that. Discover what his customers in the Ring o’ Bells were saying about it and whether Morgan could possibly have heard the rumour there. I’ll be happier when we have the letter sent by Morgan’s Indian wife to the East India Company in our hands too, but our job isn’t over, even when we have it in our possession. However strong the motive might be, we still have to prove the case against Morgan in court, Tom. We must gather every scrap of information that comes our way about Kerensa and Jed Smith … whether it incriminates Morgan or not.’
Chapter 24
ALTHOUGH AMOS FELT there was as yet insufficient firm evidence on which to arrest Horace Morgan for the murder of his wife, baby Albert and Jed Smith, Colonel Gilbert, Cornwall’s chief constable was not in agreement with him when the two men met later that day.
‘I feel you have sufficient evidence to bring him to Bodmin for questioning, at least,’ the police chief said.
‘That was my first thought,’ Amos explained, ‘but Morgan is estate steward for Colonel Trethewy and in view of Trethewy’s well-known opposition to us I felt it might be better if we left bringing him here until we had a watertight case against him.’
‘If the information you have about Morgan’s Indian family is correct – and in view of its source I am in no doubt about it – then he could run off to India at any time. This is an investigation into a number of very serious murders, Amos, and our duty is to bring the perpetrator to justice. At this moment Morgan is a suspect … a very strong suspect. I appreciate your concern about Colonel Trethewy, but leave me to deal with him. When the Cornwall Constabulary was formed, Trethewy and a few other die-hard “country gentlemen” made our work very difficult. Indeed, they posed a threat to our very existence. Fortunately, due in no small measure to the efforts of yourself and my other senior officers, the force has proved its value to the county and its people. Colonel Trethewy is now part of a fast dwindling minority who still show antipathy towards us. I will not allow him to hamper our investigation, whatever the outcome may be. Bring Morgan here to headquarters for questioning. ’
Both men knew that Colonel Trethewy would be furious at the arrest of his land steward on suspicion of murder, but Amos realized Chief Constable Gilbert intended this to be a show-down between himself and the constabulary’s most bitter and powerful opponent.
He would have preferred to be in possession of conclusive proof of Morgan’s guilt before arresting him, but there was sufficient evidence to justify bringing him to Bodmin for questioning. Besides, Gilbert had always supported his policemen when criticism had been levelled against them during the early, difficult days of the force’s existence, no matter how influential the complainant. He had earned the opportunity to hit back at one of his most virulent critics.
Horace Morgan would receive no special treatment because of the position he held at the Trelyn estate, but Amos realized he would need to be the one to make the arrest. He could not ask Tom to face the wrath of the Trelyn magistrate, although he would be accompanying him.
The two policemen left Bodmin for Trelyn early the next day to bring Morgan to Bodmin. Tom had expected they would be taking the light carriage kept at the headquarters station but Amos felt it would be quicker if they took riding horses. It would enable them to take a shorter route across the moor instead of needing to keep to the roads.
Morgan would have the use of an estate horse and be able to use it to return to Trelyn when their questioning came to an end. As Amos pointed out, unless Morgan actually confessed to carrying out the murders they would not be able to charge him.
They had been riding for a little more than an hour when Amos asked, ‘Isn’t the farm where your gypsy girl is staying somewhere near here?’
The question startled Tom because at that very moment he was thinking that he had not
seen Zillah for a few days and wondered how she was coping on the remote moorland farm.
In spite of this, he said, ‘If you mean Zillah Smith, yes, her grandmother’s farm is only a mile or so south-east of here, across the moor.’
‘Well, why don’t we take a ride there and see how she’s getting on? We’re still early and the last time I saw her she was very upset at the death of her father. I’d like to see how she is.’ Aware that Tom was smitten with the girl despite all his attempts to hide it, Amos added, mischievously, ‘I’ve no doubt you would, too.’
In truth, just lately Tom had found himself thinking of Zillah with a frequency he found disturbing, but he had no intention of admitting this to Amos … or to anyone else and, ignoring Amos’s final remark, he said, ‘I can’t think of anyone bothering her right out here. Gassick Farm is as isolated a place as you’ll find anywhere, but there’s always the chance she will have remembered something of help to us, so as we’re so close it won’t hurt to call in to see her.’
Amos felt he had known Tom for long enough to know how he really felt about Zillah Smith, and he felt deeply sorry for him. Tom was a lonely man and she was a very attractive girl, but Amos believed it was a relationship that could have no happy ending. Romance between the two of them stood as much chance of success as, say, a romance between his sergeant and Verity Pendleton!
Much to Tom’s disappointment Zillah was not at home when he and Amos reached the Gassick farmhouse, her grandmother, Blanche Keach, explaining that she had ridden off after completing the housework and feeding the livestock kept on the farm.
‘Aren’t you worried about her going off on her own knowing there’s still a killer on the loose out there somewhere?’
Amos put the question to Blanche as he and Tom stood with her, watching their two horses drinking from a granite water trough in the farmyard.
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