Cold Justice (Willis/Carter #4)(88)

‘What happened to her baby son?’ Willis asked.

Cam shook his head. ‘I have no idea. Raymonds brought the baby outside and went to fetch his wife, who was a nurse. I stayed with Kensa.’

‘Has she ever spoken to you about that time?’

‘Occasionally I see her on the cliff top near the old mine by my house. That’s where her caravan was then, just down the hill from my cottage. I see her and my heart breaks for her. She thinks she can hear him crying but it’s the wind in the old mine stack – it makes a horrible sound when it’s blowing in the wrong direction.’

‘I can see you are upset about what happened that day,’ Carter said as he watched Cam becoming more agitated.

‘It was something I never got over. After everything she’d been through, she deserved this one piece of happiness, but she didn’t get it.’

‘Do you know if the baby was born alive?’

‘Raymonds said it never drew breath. That’s all I know. I stayed with Kensa until Eileen came.’

‘What did Raymonds do with the baby’s body?’ asked Willis.

‘I have no idea.’

‘You didn’t ask him?’ Willis asked.

‘I didn’t really want to know. I was traumatized enough by it all. All I cared about was Kensa. I blamed myself for leaving her that morning – what if I’d gone to get help then? What if she’d gone to hospital then?’

‘What happened after that?’

‘Sergeant Raymonds and Eileen took over and I went back to my life. I didn’t see Kensa for a month after that. Every time I tried to see her they said she didn’t want to. When I did see her, I could see her falling apart; no one else knew about the baby except me and anyone Kensa told, like Mawgan. Kensa went to live in the caravan she has now and she became more isolated. She started to spend more time in Penhaligon. Social services took her in a couple of times but she always came back. I tried to reach her. I really tried. But I was just a kid myself and no one seemed to want to help her. Everyone thought it was someone else’s problem. In the end I had to leave. My own home situation wasn’t great and I went to live in Bristol.’

‘Why did you come back?’

‘I told you, my marriage ended and I came home. Like you do sometimes when you feel completely lost.’

‘You came home to this, that’s lucky?’ Carter sat back and took a sweeping gaze around the café. ‘That was a smart move, and now you have plans to expand up another level?’

‘That’s right. They’ve just been approved now. I’m hoping to put a restaurant on the top.’

‘Well, good luck with that. How do you feel about Raymonds now? You said it was a hard thing to get over, what happened to Kensa and the way it was dealt with?’

‘I suppose a lot of time has passed.’ He shook his head.

‘So, you didn’t come back here hoping to get justice for Kensa?’

Simmons reddened and shook his head.

‘She knows she can always come in here and get a meal. I’ll always come if she needs me, but the past belongs there. I can’t change it. Raymonds did what he believed was right, no doubt. I have to live with my life and move on. I’ve learned to do that; I don’t want to be like Kensa or even Mawgan. I don’t want my past to ruin my future. I’m glad I went away and went through what I did. It almost destroyed me, it ruined my marriage, and I’m sad about that, but I have learned to exist with my past.’

‘Cam, what did your sister say happened that night at the house?’

He shook his head. He looked exhausted.

‘I never saw her again, she never came home that night. That was the night she left town.’





Chapter 37


Lauren stood on the doorstep waiting for Russell to finish his business. She couldn’t trust him to go out on the common because he didn’t come back for hours. She leaned against the front door frame and watched as the sun came out and sent everything shimmering in the breeze. She took a deep breath and heard the scurry of canine feet on the tile floor. Russell came scampering past her and straight onto the driveway but stopped as he caught a scent and disappeared inside the undergrowth. She waited for him to reappear and then called him back into the house. She stopped by the carved newel post at the foot of the stairs and rested her hand there, feeling the carved faces of the animals that decorated it.

She wondered if Toby had touched the same post as he had stood where she did nearly fourteen years ago. He must have. She walked up the stairs and reached the landing. Lauren turned into the space there and stood and imagined what Toby would have seen. Which room was his? she wondered, and then realized it was probably the one she slept in. It could have been the one Ebony was in – doubtful that it would have been the other one because it was too near the bathroom. That would have been the guest room, guests came first. She turned the handle of her bedroom door and let the door push open while she stayed looking around, opening her eyes to see things Toby must have seen. This was probably never a place for children, it struck her. She remembered what Toby had told her – that his father never spent time with him if he could help it, that he paid for him to holiday with other people. That he only ever brought him down here that once after his mother left.

Why did he bring him that one time? Lauren wondered. He couldn’t have known it would end so badly?