She pulsed and strained against him, took his mouth and the kiss she wanted as he began to rock into her, deep and deeper still. She began to shudder, coming undone by the simple fact of him. Joined at the quick, for once and always.

25

WESTERN UNION

TOTTENVILLE S.I. N.Y. DIST TELEGRAPH OFFICE XUS23 S902JD
SUN MAY 27 1883 7 A.M.
MRS LILY QUINLAN, MRS MARGARET COOPER, MR AND MRS LEE, ROSA AND LIA RUSSO

18 WAVERLY PLACE NY NY

DEAREST ALL. WE WERE MARRIED SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN TOTTENVILLE S.I. SHOCKINGLY SPONTANEOUS BEHAVIOR BUT WE ARE VERY PLEASED WITH OURSELVES. HOPE THERE IS ROOM FOR US BOTH AT ROSES UNTIL WEEDS IS READY. WILL BE BACK LATER TODAY AFTER SEEING SOPHIE AND CAP AND JACK’S SISTERS. HOPE TO BE THERE BY SIX. PLEASE NO PARTY UNTIL RESOLUTION OF INQUEST. LOVE TO YOU ALL. ANNA AND JACK

WESTERN UNION

TOTTENVILLE S.I. N.Y. DIST TELEGRAPH OFFICE XUS23 S902JD
SUN MAY 27 1883 7:10 A.M.
MR PETER VERHOEVEN ESQ AND DR SOPHIE SAVARD VERHOEVEN

40 PARK PLACE NY NY

DEAREST SOPHIE AND CAP. WE TRIED TO WAIT OUT THE IMPULSE BUT HAVE HAPPILY SUCCUMBED TO A REVOLUTIONARY MINDSET AND FOLLOWED YOU INTO MATRIMONY HERE IN TOTTENVILLE S.I. PLAN TO RETURN ON THE THREE O’CLOCK FERRY AND WILL COME STRAIGHT TO PARK PLACE TO TALK. WITH ALL OUR LOVE. ANNA AND JACK

WESTERN UNION

TOTTENVILLE S.I. N.Y. DIST TELEGRAPH OFFICE XUS23 S902JD
SUN MAY 27 1883 7:15 A.M.
DET SERGEANT OSCAR MARONEY

86 GROVE ST NY NY

WILL BE BACK LATE TONIGHT AND AT HEADQUARTERS FOR FIRST SHIFT TOMORROW. ANY NEWS THAT CANNOT WAIT LEAVE WORD FOR ME ON WAVERLY PLACE WHERE I’LL BE LIVING FOR THE NEXT WHILE AS I FINALLY TALKED ANNA INTO MARRYING ME. JACK

•   •   •

NEW YORK POST

Sunday, May 27, 1883

MORNING EDITION

WHERE ARE ARCHER CAMPBELL’S LITTLE BOYS?

FOUR SONS LAST SEEN THE DAY BEFORE THEIR MOTHER’S SUSPICIOUS DEATH

POLICE DEPARTMENT REQUESTING INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC

FOUL PLAY FEARED

Readers following the story of the tragic death of Mrs. Janine Campbell last Thursday will be shocked to learn that her four young sons are missing. Archer Campbell, husband of the deceased, a postal inspector and senior detective for the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice last saw his sons (Archer, Jr., 5 years old, Steven, 4 years old, Gregory, 2 years old, and Michael, 2 months old) just the morning before their mother’s death.

In a statement made to the police, Mr. Campbell related the following facts: Last Tuesday evening his wife announced that she was taking the children to spend a week on the Connecticut farm of his brother Harold Campbell, a common occurrence that raised no suspicion. However, when Mr. Campbell came home on Wednesday he found his wife had collapsed upon return from Connecticut and retired to her bed. She assured him she would be better after a good night’s sleep, and took laudanum to that end. She was still abed when he left the next morning for work and could not be roused, which he attributed to the effects of the laudanum.

By one o’clock that afternoon Mrs. Campbell was dead, the victim of suspected malpractice and criminal abortion gone wrong. Mr. Campbell spent Thursday afternoon and all of Friday much occupied with the investigation into his wife’s death and the arrangements for her burial. Late Friday evening he sent a telegram to his brother Harold in Connecticut, announcing the death of his wife, plans for the funeral to take place the next afternoon, and a request that the boys be brought home in order to attend.

Early Saturday morning he received an express telegram from his brother in which he learned that his boys were not in Connecticut. It had been many months since Janine Campbell or her sons had last visited the Connecticut farm, and even longer since they had had a letter. Harold Campbell knew nothing of the whereabouts of his nephews.

Mr. Campbell went immediately to police headquarters to report that his sons were missing. Telegrams to family members as far away as Maine have provided no information or help. All that is known with certainty is that Mrs. Campbell left the city with them last Wednesday morning by train, and returned without them later the same day. Police inquiries began on Saturday, and will continue until the boys are found and returned to their grieving father.

The mayor has directed the police department to spare no effort to locate the Campbell boys. In turn, the police and family ask that any person or persons with information about the boys or about Mrs. Campbell’s movements in the days before her death come forward without delay. Information leading to the safe return of the boys will be amply rewarded.

•   •   •

NEW YORK TIMES

Sunday, May 27, 1883

CORONER ASSEMBLES A JURY FOR THE MRS. JANINE CAMPBELL INQUEST

DISTINGUISHED PHYSICIANS AGREE TO SERVE

Coroner Hawthorn has called on some of this city’s most respected physicians to hear testimony and examine evidence in the case of Janine Campbell’s death by criminal abortion.

A postmortem found the cause of death to be infection and blood poisoning following from an illegal operation. The coroner’s jury will meet to determine if an unknown party or parties performed the procedure or if Mrs. Campbell operated on herself. If that is so, there will be an inquiry into who provided her with the information and instruments she used.

The last two physicians to treat Mrs. Campbell, Dr. Anna Savard and Dr. Sophie Savard, will be present at the inquest with their attorney, Conrad Belmont, Esq., and must be prepared to give testimony to a jury of six more experienced experts, as well as an officer of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

In an unusual twist, Mr. Belmont, attorney for the two lady doctors, approached the coroner to request that the jury include at least two female physicians, who by their sex, experience, and training would be best able to understand and judge the evidence. This request was denied for reasons of law, custom, and propriety, but the coroner will allow female physicians to be present in Judge Benedict’s courtroom, where the inquest will begin at 1 p.m. tomorrow. As is customary, anyone admitted to the gallery may question witnesses.

Whether the disappearance of the four Campbell sons will be addressed in the inquest is unclear, though insiders believe that it will be necessary to take the facts of the case into account.

•   •   •

THEY GOT TO the Tottenville train station and onto the train at the very last second. Jack jumped onboard with both valises and then hauled Anna and her Gladstone bag up behind him, just as they jerked into motion.

The train was crowded, overheated, and awash in tobacco smoke. Anna fell into a seat with a great heaving sigh, lifting her hair off her damp neck. By the time Jack had stowed away the bags and joined her, she was coughing into her handkerchief.

They escaped to the covered vestibule between the two cars, where the window had been left open. It meant standing for the entire hour and swaying hard with every jolt, but it was worth any amount of jostling to stand in the cool rush of air.

“We’re not the only ones with a bright idea.” Jack inclined his head to the two women who had appeared at the vestibule door in search of clean air. They squeezed together to make room.

They were mother and daughter; nothing could be more obvious unless it was the fact that the younger woman was close to giving birth. Mrs. Stillwater and Mrs. Reynolds, as they introduced themselves, on their way to visit friends. Mrs. Reynolds rubbed her great belly with the palm of one hand and could not hide her curiosity.

She said, “I think you must be the newlyweds.”

Her mother’s face lit up with interest.

“My husband is Joe Reynolds; he’s a law clerk. He was one of your witnesses?”

Anna had no real memory of the witnesses whom the justice of the peace had called into his office, but she nodded.

Mrs. Reynolds was saying, “Joe described you. You don’t have any way to know this, but Judge Baugh refuses to marry almost everybody. He says he won’t be a party to a disaster.”

“You impressed him,” added her mother. “It bodes well for your future. Are you really a doctor?”

Anna agreed that she was. She knew where the conversation would go, and so she started it on her own.

“You are very close to your time, I think.”

The younger woman shrugged. “Everybody says so, but I don’t feel so uncomfortable the way most women talk about. Except maybe at night when the kicking and thumping keeps me from getting to sleep.”

“It’s a good time of year to have a baby,” Anna offered, because it was true. “Will you stay here on the island?”

She felt Jack’s attention focus as he realized what she was up to. Anna elbowed him gently to let him know he was not to jump in or offer any comments and heard him huff his resignation all too clear. In her experience mothers and daughters had a set way of telling their maternal histories, and she must let it run its course.

The mother, born and raised herself on Staten Island, had had all of her children right at home with the help of Meg Quinn, the midwife who had delivered almost everybody on the south end of Staten Island.

“She’s only ever lost two children and one mother,” the daughter said. “In thirty years of catching babies.”