CHAPTER 1

THE OHIO RIVER AT MOSCOW had been at ornearing flood stage for over a week. Though the muddy waterhad started to recede, crossing it still meant running a gauntletof floating trees, half-submerged chicken coops, outhouses,and other river junk that threatened at any moment to stovein the hull of any craft foolhardy enough to try to cross thestream.

Alfonzo Judd was an old hand when it came to the river;he had worked on it all his life. Just the same, he was nottaking any chances with his new steam-powered ferry theClermont. Alfonzo had his younger brother, Homer, standingat the bow to keep a sharp watch out for partially submergedtrees or anything else that could smash the hull or turn thepaddle wheels into kindling. This trip Alfonzo had just onecustomer. The respected federal jurist J. P. Wolfe and histwenty-year-old daughter Annabelle, or Annie as many calledher, were crossing the river to catch the train at Ivor stationfor a trip into Cincinnati, something they did routinely. WhileJudge Wolfe sat in the carriage bending the ear of his hiredman and driver Gabe, Annabelle was standing at the bow,helping Homer to look out for obstacles.

It started out to be an ordinary late-spring morning;father and daughter had made the crossing over a hundredtimes with no problems. However, this day would turn outto be different.

* * *

From a distance, the object looked like the bloated body of acow or some other barnyard animal that had fallen into theriver and drowned. It was now floating downstream with thecurrent. Annie pointed the body out to Homer.

"What do you think it is?" she asked.

"I dunno," Homer answered. "It looks like a dead pig. Itain't no cow. Too pink t' be a cow."

By this time, the floating carcass was less than twenty feetfrom the boat. Annie had a much better view.

"That's not a pig!" Annabelle yelled, "It's the body of awoman. It's got breasts!" She called up to Alonzo to stop theboat.

If Alonzo heard Annabelle's cry, he did not act as if he did;he was intent on being on time to meet the morning train.Annie yelled again, also without success.

When she saw that she was getting nowhere, Annabelleran to the carriage and breathlessly exclaimed to her father,"Homer and I just saw a body floating down the river. You aregoing to have to get Alonzo to go after it before it is lost."

"Are you sure it was a body?" the judge asked incredulously."Are you sure it is not a dead animal dislodged by thecurrent?"

"Father, I would not say that it was a body if I were notsure that it was a body," Annabelle scolded him.

"Very well," grumbled Judge Wolfe as he lumbered downout of his carriage. He made his way over to where he had agood view of the pilothouse and shouted up, "Alonzo," untilhe got the pilot's attention. "I am afraid you are going to haveto turn about, Alonzo. Annie thinks she saw a body in theriver."

Alonzo called back, "If I turn about you will miss yourtrain."

"You let me worry about that," the judge shouted. "I wouldrather have the whole courthouse mad at me for delayinga trial than have to listen to my daughter fussing at me allday."

"Very well," Alonzo called down from the open window ofthe pilothouse. "It's your train you are going to miss, not mine.I'm sure glad that I do not have any other paying customerswho have to go on this wild-goose chase."

The pilot reached over and rang "Full stop" on the enginetelegraph and then "Reverse/one fourth."

"So be it," the judge said. "If it is indeed a body, we can'tjust leave it to float down the river."

The river current was so swift, that by the time the decisionwas made to go after the corpse, it had drifted downstreamand was out of sight. It took half an hour of chasing andlooking before the corpse was spotted again, bobbing amongthe snags and other drift.

Alonzo was able to get the Clermont close enough so thatHomer could snag it with a gaffing pole and hook. Once theydragged the body onboard, Homer and Annie discoveredthat the corpse was not a complete body. It was the torso ofa woman and lacked arms, legs, and a head. The head hadbeen severed just above the shoulders, and the limbs hadbeen amputated by cutting them off at the joints. Part of theflesh in the groin between the hips was also missing. It wasimpossible to tell if it had been sliced off or was the resultof scavengers chewing on the remains. What was there wasbloated and misshapen from its time in the water and theeffects of the warm weather.

Ever curious, Annabelle leaned over the torso andexamined the deceased closely.

"Whatever happened," she announced grimly, "this was amurder. The missing parts have been severed from the body.It was done with a knife or some other sharp instrument; thecuts are much too clean to be otherwise. I seriously doubtthat the arms, legs, and head were gnawed off by some wildanimal."

In examining the corpse, or what was left of it, Annabellefound it hard to equate it with a person who had once been alive, breathing, and talking human being. It just seemed to bea blob of rotten meat. Still, it meant murder, and a murder, nomatter who the victim might be, had to be interesting.

"Annabelle Olivia," the judge exclaimed sternly, "it is notvery ladylike for one to stare at a corpse as you are doing. Thatis a job for the law, not you."

"But, Father," Annabelle protested, "This is the mostexciting thing that has happened around here since ... since,I can't remember when."

"Just the same," the judge admonished her, "you are muchtoo interested in something that should not concern a properyoung woman like you."

While everyone was busy gawking at the torso, Alonzohad taken the Clermont close in to the Kentucky shorelinein order to get the boat out of the swift river current. Aftersome thought, Judge Wolfe had Alonzo take the ferry back toits regular landing spot on the Kentucky shore. The morninglocal had already come and gone when the Wolfes arrivedat Ivor station, but Judge Wolfe had Mr. Spaeth, the stationagent, telegraph the courthouse in Cincinnati to tell themthat the court session would have to be postponed a day.Next, he had Alonzo transport everybody, including the tarp-coveredbody, back across the river to Moscow.

As the only law official on the scene, the judge was forcedto make an arbitrary decision. Though the body was foundin the river, which strictly belonged to Kentucky, it hadprobably washed off the Ohio shore. This meant the murderhappened in Ohio. It made sense that it would be up to Ohiolaw enforcement to investigate. Therefore, when the canvas-coveredbody was deposited on the Ohio shore, the judge hadGabriel go get the wagon and load the body into it.

In 1890 telephone service still had not made it to Moscow.Telephone lines had reached as far as New Richmond andBatavia. The linemen were hard at work planting poles andstringing wire to expand service, but for now, Moscow wasjust another tiny burg that stood alone in splendid isolation.In most situations, the judge did not mind being cut off fromthe world, but sometimes it was a bloody nuisance. This wasone of those times. As there was no other alternative, afteran early lunch, the judge and Gabriel took the body, or whatremained of it, to the sheriff's office in Batavia, the countyseat.

Much to her chagrin, Annabelle was not allowed to ridealong. She was told that "it would not be very ladylike."

* * *

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