Chapter One
It was a cold winter night in the city of Detroit, on the date of January 1st, 1899. The air could freeze a man''s hands and fingers to the point of acute frostbite.
Within the confines of the church chancel, Deacon Smith and several church members gathered for an important meeting. This meeting concerned a secret trial. This trial would determine the fate of an alleged witch in their community.
The alleged witch's name was Henrietta Baker. The Deacon knew that the members of the jury would find Henrietta guilty of the charges against her. The jury members were members of his church; the Church of St. Charles; they were a loyal lot of faithful and loyal souls of the church.
What were the charges against Henrietta? Henrietta was accused of being a practitioner of the black arts, a sorceress, evil witch, and her sentence would be death.
"She must pay the highest penalty for her offenses against God and man," Deacon Smith sadi to all of the members of his self-appointed jury.
"I have a witness that has seen Henrietta perform witch craft in the local morgue. This witness is present, stand up and give us your name young man."
The young man stood five feet and eight inches tall, he had a slender body. His blue eyes were shining from the luminosity of the cande light emitting from the large brass and copper sconce attached to the wall behind his audience of thirty men, and women.
He addressed the men and women with a smile as he stood to speak.
"My name is Andrew Price, and I'm here to tell you folks of what I have witnessed. A week ago from today I saw someone perform sorcery. As everyone here knows, I do handyman work for the City morgue downtown on Randolph Street, you know, I do stuff like clean up around the place," Andrew said.
