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accepted by the locals.’
    â€˜But that didn’t stop Kerensa from marrying him?’
    Giving a short laugh, Sergeant Dreadon replied, ‘I never knew her before she was married, but from all I’ve learned while I’ve been stationed here she would never have caught one of the local men … not to marry, anyway, she’d built up too much of a reputation for herself … but you’ll need to speak to some of the local men or women to find out about her. By all accounts she has had
a fling with most of the single men in this corner of Cornwall, and one or two of the married ones as well, or so I’ve heard. Of course, it’s all hearsay, she was already married to Horace Morgan by the time I was posted here.’
    â€˜Do you think her husband knew of the reputation she had when he married her?’
    â€˜I doubt it. Nobody spends very much time talking to him and apparently he has never gone out of his way to get to know any local folk. But he was so besotted with his wife it would probably have made no difference anyway.’
    â€˜What if he found out later … very recently, perhaps?’
    Giving Amos a searching look, Sergeant Dreadon said, ‘I can see where your questions are leading, and Horace Morgan is not a man to be trifled with, but as far as I know he has never laid a hand on Kerensa – and he thinks the world of that baby of theirs.’
    Putting aside that line of questioning for the moment, Amos asked, ‘Is there anyone she and the baby might be staying with? A relative, or a close friend?’
    â€˜She has no close family – no family at all, so I’m told – and no close friends either. There’s always the chance there’s a man involved somehow, in view of her past record, but I can’t think of any man in Trelyn who would care to cuckold Horace Morgan, he carries too much power on the estate. Besides, this is a small community, if she’d been seeing someone from outside it would be common knowledge … and no one would keep a secret in order to protect Kerensa Morgan!’
    â€˜Well, she has posed us quite a problem and at the moment I can’t see there being a happy ending to it, but Sergeant Churchyard and I had better speak to Horace Morgan before returning to Bodmin. As you’ve said, his employer is a very important man in the county, the chief constable will want it to
be seen that everything possible is being done to find Mrs Morgan and her baby.’
    â€˜You’ll find Morgan in the woods on the other side of the bridge across the Lynher, down by the old mill. It seems Kerensa liked taking the baby there sometimes to hear the birds, or so she said. He believes it’s possible she went there yesterday and met with an accident. He’s taken some of the estate workers up there to carry out a search.’
    â€˜You didn’t consider going with them?’ Amos’s question implied criticism of Sergeant Dreadon.
    â€˜He has plenty of men with him who know the woods better than I do and before you arrived I sent someone to Launceston to ask the inspector in charge if he could spare a few men to help with a search up on the moor. I don’t think it a good idea to concentrate on a single area unless there is something to go on, and at the moment her disappearance remains a complete mystery. I decided I should stay here in case someone comes in with information about Kerensa and the baby, otherwise there would be no one around to do anything about it.’
    Nodding acceptance of the other man’s reasoning, Amos said, ‘If you can point Sergeant Churchyard and me in the right direction we’ll go off and find Horace Morgan and see whether he and his men have had any success.’

Chapter 2
    R IDING THEIR HORSES carefully along the narrow and steep lane which led down to the equally narrow bridge spanning the Lynher river, the two policemen were passing a small cottage built