Their food was arriving. She waited while they thanked their waitress and their plates were arranged on the table. When their waitress left, Mabel said, “I do enjoy the food on the table! I love seeing the delicious meals... Creole, Cajun or just plain whatever American is. Well, to be quite honest, I never did like hot dogs, but thankfully, they’re not on the menu here! Ah, that fish...it smells divine. I think it does. I imagine it does. Memory, yes, sensory memory, I believe that’s what it is!”
“It’s very good,” Dan assured her, smiling.
“Yes, I can almost taste it,” Mabel said. Then she shook her head. “With what you’ve told me about people running around the city talking about the number six, it does bring me back to Allan Pierce. I think that this killer had Jennie convinced he was powerful, in a supernatural way. Either that, or she was in love with him...and violence and killing and getting away with it. I doubt she ever thought that he’d turn on her.”
“All right,” Dan said. “We look to the past. We know about this man, Allan Pierce, who was around at the time of the Axeman. He might or might not have actually been the Axeman. But he wrote about the power of being a special entity created on Day Six, like all men, but with a power above men. So either this killer believes in it all or he likes the legends. And maybe it’s even a challenge to him to be using the number six.”
“I think the latter, and I don’t know why,” Katie said. “He murdered six years ago and twelve years ago, and he murdered three people each time. Which makes six. But here in New Orleans, he’s murdered three...or four, now, with Jennie.”
“But maybe he didn’t intend to kill Jennie, so she messed up his number scheme,” Axel said. “That may cause him to go into a frenzy.”
“Or to commit more murders,” Dan said. “Maybe he planned on three deaths first and then another three.” He looked at Katie. “Including you. He was at your house.”
“Then, I would have been four, but he’d need two more victims. You ruined his plan to kill me.”
“But he’s killed Jennie. I think we need to find out more about the couple and their niece who were killed in Florida,” Axel said to Dan.
Katie inhaled a long breath. “So our theory is this. The killer is from New Orleans, and he planned it all from here. The plan may have included going to Florida specifically to kill my father, then strategically his next kill in Orlando. To the best of my knowledge, my father didn’t know the couple in Orlando. But they, too, were retired and older, and if I remember what they said in the papers, the husband—” she looked over at Dan “—Harold Austin?”
“Yes. Harold and Marie Austin, and Harold’s niece Hennie, or Henrietta. Harold was seventy-two when he died, his wife, Marie, was sixty-eight, and his niece had just turned fifty.”
“Harold was an engineer who had worked in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before retiring to Florida,” Katie said.
“Hard to find a connection there,” Axel murmured.
“What if the connection is George?” Katie asked.
Dan frowned. “You think George is guilty now?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No. But George was with my parents. George lived just a block or so from Harold, Marie and Henrietta. And George came here because they were making so many movies. He’s a perfect man to frame for these murders.”
“I say any of it is more than possible,” Mabel told them, nodding gravely. “And while I do love the scent of food, I’m not good at all at shuffling papers around. I do suggest you all begin to look at these angles. And find the truth!”
Katie nodded at the woman. She had been beautiful in her day, probably a bit flamboyant, and yet a woman ahead of her time, not about to be put in the background.
And she remained on earth past death. Maybe frustration had kept Mabel there. She had suffered a terrible loss, and maybe her way to deal with the pain was to help now.
Mabel rose. “Ah, my friends! The deliciousness of your meals is fading. I’m going to hitch a ride down to Bourbon Street and find some friends for a rollicking good time. While I see if I see anything!” she added. “You darlings of flesh and blood, get some sleep! You’re going to need it. Ciao, my loves!”
She gave them a wave, blew a kiss and departed, half walking and half floating out.
“She’s right,” Axel said. “We have to find the associations. Because Dr. Neil Browne is someone who has an agenda, or he’s the patsy working for someone with an agenda.”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t get it. My father was a good guy. He served his country. He came as soon as he could when the levees broke after Katrina. Why would anyone want to kill him?”
They were all silent for a minute. Katie looked at her plate. Despite her certainty that she wouldn’t be able to eat after they left the morgue, she had cleaned it all up quite well. Axel glanced at Dan. Dan shrugged.
“What? Are you two implying that I didn’t know my own father?” she demanded indignantly.
Dan shook his head, turning to her. “No, his very decency might have outraged someone. After something like Katrina and the levees breaking, you get to see the very best in people. And the very worst. There was looting, there were people left behind, there were horrible things that happened. We’ll never know the depth of it because of the flooding. People were trapped in areas.”
“My father and Jeremy went out in a boat to save people.”
“And maybe they missed someone. Or maybe he saw illegal activity and stopped it. Katie, we’ll figure it out,” Dan said.
“Tomorrow. I’m about to keel over,” Axel said. “I’m going to drop you
