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found floating in the Chicago River. For a few seconds the image of her luminescent pale skin, lithesome limbs, lush breasts and curving lips flashed into his mind's eye like a perfectly clear film clip. His muscles tensed.
    He couldn't make it work— couldn't rectify that breathtaking, vibrant image of stunning beauty with the report of a beaten, bloated, lifeless body.
    Ryan hadn't been able to reconcile those erotic photographs with what he'd learned of Hope's background, either. What he'd read about her life seemed to suggest that the bizarre things he'd been experiencing since stepping into the Prairie Avenue mansion must be wrought by an overworked, stressed-out brain.
    Hope's father had been rather famous in his day. Gail had made a few photocopies of old Chicago Daily Herald articles about Jacob Stillwater, a wealthy minister, social reformer and alderman of the first ward who had campaigned vociferously against the white slave trade and the shutting down of Chicago's notorious red-light district. A few of those articles speculated that his open warfare against graft, prostitution and white slavery had been the motive for the murder of his daughter.
    Hope's murderer had never been found, although one man, who had been colorfully dubbed Diamond Jack Fletcher, had been a prime suspect. The police had investigated Diamond Jack, a man one article had called the "King of Vice" of the Levee District, the area where most of the houses of prostitution could be found.
    Although Gail had complained about the person at the Chicago Police Department Regional Archives Depository being a pain in her ass, whoever had compiled the data had done an admirable job finding public and police records in regard to Hope's life and death. In fact, the file had included photocopies of old, handwritten notes from a detective on the Chicago police force, a man by the name of Connor J. O'Rourke.
    In his notes, Detective O'Rourke described Jack Fletcher as the most powerful crime boss in the city, owner of multiple brothels and gambling dens, extortionist, blackmailer and white slaver. He ruled the first ward and the Levee District with an iron fist. Jack and his cronies conducted the majority of their business dealings at one of his seedier brothels on the 2400 block of South Dearborn Street. Detective O'Rourke had no difficulty painting a black picture of Jack Fletcher in his notes, although he admitted with a hint of frustration that "certain foul circumstances" prevented him from pinning Diamond Jack with the murder of "that angel of mercy," Hope Stillwater.
    Ryan had long taken an interest in the history of Chicago and especially the Chicago Police Department. He had a suspicion that the "certain foul circumstances" O'Rourke referred to was the rampant corruption and graft that plagued the CPD's commissioners and captains in the early 1900s. Detective O'Rourke's boss was likely indebted to Diamond Jack for his heralded position and received some healthy payoffs in order to ignore the vast landscape of illegal activities that occurred in the Levee District.
    At any rate, if Diamond Jack Fletcher had thought to silence Jacob Stillwater with his daughter's abduction and murder, he'd made a critical mistake. Jacob Stillwater became even more vocal and active after his daughter's death, spearheading a political campaign that eventually closed down the Levee District. Stillwater launched some of the first federal anti-white slavery legislation. Apparently he was one of the pioneers for drafting laws that Ryan upheld even today by investigating scum like Jim Donahue.
    Meanwhile, Detective O'Rourke's shackled attempts at investigating Diamond Jack were stymied even further by Jack becoming sicker and sicker from a reported "blood disorder" that drained him of all his vitality, including his proclivity for violence. He died after a lingering, painful illness a year after Hope's death. That fact didn't provide Ryan with the measure of satisfaction he