Holding her breath, Jess leaned down to get a closer look at the victim’s face. “There’s some bruising around his mouth.” Other than that small amount of discoloration and the fact that former Mayor Joseph Pratt was tied to a chair in his study, he might have simply been asleep. The chair had been turned to face the wall on the side of the room farthest from his desk. His wrists were secured to the wooden chair arms with nylon rope in a very similar manner as the judge’s had been. The legs of the chair had been used for binding his ankles. As with Judge Rutledge, a wider nylon band worked like a safety belt to fasten his torso to the back of the chair. The stench of human waste and urine permeated the room. “The newspaper clippings tell quite a story,” Lori said. Jess straightened. Rubbing her aching back, she stepped closer to the wall where framed photos of Pratt with various other politicians had been removed and a collage of newspaper articles about Pratt’s career as Birmingham’s mayor had been created.
