Forty-Three
J. P. Holt’s shiv-shaped, candy-apple red Tracker—loaded with an Elite 5X fish-finder, live bait wells and powered by a 115-horse Yamaha that reached hot holes in a hurry—tugged against its anchor line, neatly cleaving the Ohio’s current.
Holt’s buddy, a human fish finder named Woody Conroy, perched on a swivel seat tying a three-way bottom rig to an oversized rod and reel meant for saltwater fishing. The Ohio was home to dozens of fish species from pike and sturgeon to seven types of bass. But he and Holt were going for the big boys—
Blue Catfish. They could easily top one hundred pounds.
Holt had really been looking forward to this. Work had been brutal. He wouldn’t have another chance to get on the river over the next two weeks, not with Old Fashioned River Days coming up. He consulted the 5X’s screen. His calculation about where to drop anchor had been dead on. The drift had left the Tracker directly above one of the deep holes where the Blue Cats sought refuge from the fast-moving waters.
His phone chirped. He squinted at the screen. Reds win. He popped a beer. I should be happy, he mused. It don’t get no better than this. Isn’t that how the scene goes?
But happy was not how he felt. “Happy” wouldn’t make the top ten.
Holt drank while Conroy fished. After thirty minutes and no action, they hoisted anchor. Holt bee-lined the Tracker to his second-favorite spot.
“Try dead bait this time,” Holt advised. “The stinkier, the better.” Blue Cats were known for their keen sense of smell.
Conroy baited his hooks with dead minnows and a chunk of putrid chicken. He lowered his line until the sinker hit bottom and waited.
Not very long.
“Fish on!” Conroy’s rod bent into a quivering ‘u.’ The Tracker rocked. Holt grabbed the wheel to keep from spilling out of his chair.
“Lunker!” Conroy yelled.
Holt was surprised when something big breached the surface. Conroy had a habit of declaring every bite a “lunker”—until the fish was boated. But this time he was right. The thing was at least five feet long.
Conroy pulled up and reeled in. The monster went deep.
Holt swiped a gaff but hit nothing but water. He tossed the gaff, grabbed Conroy’s line and drew it in hand-over hand. Conroy reeled slack.
Holt began to get a bad feeling. Maybe the fish was just worn out, but it wasn’t fighting. In some ways, it didn’t even feel like a fish. The thing was acting like a dead weight.
When it broke the surface five feet from the boat, they both knew.
“Timber trout,” Conroy said disgustedly.
“A damn log,” Holt said. “A log for Woody.” He reached over the gunwale to unsnag the lure. He fell back like he’d been hit in the chest with a rocket.
Conroy peered over the edge. The log wore jeans and stunk to high heaven.
Holt stifled nausea and looked again.
It was easy to see why he had mistaken it for a log. Chunks of flesh dangled from the dark brown torso like sloughed-off bark. Boney fingers poked from bloated hands and arms, like twigs from branches. Holt couldn’t be sure, but he thought it was a man. Conroy’s fishing line was deeply embedded in the pulpy neck.
The body rolled over in slow motion. The lower half of its face was gone, giving prominence to a solid set of teeth that made the corpse appear to be grinning. The remaining face, including the nostrils, floated languidly in the water, attached only at the left ear.
To Holt, the skin of the face looked like a slab of white cheese. He shuddered. He knew the image would join the others—the shotgun-in-the-mouth suicide, the car wreck decapitation, that burned thing/man from the plant—that swirled unbidden in his head like bats in his own belfry, at least until obliterated by alcohol. They were all horrible. But this was beyond a doubt the most disgusting thing he had ever seen.
Holt considered hauling the body into the boat but thought better of it. Holding the fishing line, he started the engine and set off slowly, intending to drag the dead man to shore.
The rotting flesh released the jig midway. The body returned to the current, yawing as it sunk.
Holt and Conroy watched until it seemed unlikely to resurface.
“Looks like he’d been in there a while,” Conroy volunteered.
Holt nodded, but he wasn’t
