The Judge

"...the visible world seems formed in love,
the invisible spheres were formed in fright."
                                                         H. Melville
                                                         1819-1891

The cafe in a Seattle bowling alley. An ex-con, Carl Nearman, stares fixedly at a beefy middle-aged man putting away a healthy slice of pie. After following him into the parking lot, Nearman knocks the man unconscious with a bowling ball, and whips out a knife.
A severed human tongue is mailed anonymously to Mrs. Annie Tisman, a middle-aged widow. Why would anyone send such an item to someone so ordinary? Bletcher tells Frank that over the last four years, three people have received severed body parts. Police have found no connection between any of the recipients, and worse, no bodies.

Frank, sensing an unusual element of mindfulness associated with the violence, sends for expert forensic pathologist, Cheryl Andrews. She detects a pattern change in the latest crime: for the first time, the body part was removed after the victim's death.

Bardale, a violent habitual offender just out of the penitentiary, is approached in a bar by the mastermind behind the series of murders, a man who calls himself the Judge. The Judge offers Bardale a chance to "serve a higher purpose" -- the meting out of personal justice. Bardale's first job for his new employer is the execution of his predecessor, Carl Nearman.

The body of the man in the bowling alley is discovered and identified as Detective Mellen, a retired Seattle cop. Frank realizes Nearman could never have plotted such intricate crimes. Someone of sharp intelligence must be orchestrating the murders. When Frank discovers that Mellen's false testimony had sent Mrs. Tisman's late husband to jail, he grasps the killer's motive. The killer is righting wrongs; employing men already prone to rough and violent justice to do his dirty work.

The Judge delivers his next sentence on Biggs, a landlord whose negligence caused the death of an elderly tenant. As executioner, Bardale is to amputate Biggs' leg below the knee while Biggs is still alive and conscious. Biggs' foot is found by a postal worker in a package. Forensic evidence leads the cops to where Biggs is hidden but it's too late to save his life.

Frank and Bletcher deduce that the killer must be another ex-con and are able to track down Bardale who leads them to the Judge. They take the Judge in for questioning who arrogantly offers Frank a job. He's certain he'll get away with it, and he's right. The cops have no tangible evidence, and must release him.

Though he eluded the authorities, the Judge didn't reckon with Bardale. On learning that the Judge manipulated conventional law to escape arrest, Bardale passes his own death sentence on the Judge...for hypocrisy. Frank finds Bardale alone in the farmhouse kitchen, who tells Frank that the Judge was no Judge - he was a pig. Frank finds what's left of the Judge half-buried in the hog pen.