Rene had been sitting on a big chesterfield sofa. He rose when they came in, shaking hands with them all.
“I’m afraid being late on this is my fault. And even now...” He glanced over at his wife. “Even now I’m afraid you’re going to think we’re alarmists seeing things that aren’t there, making things up.”
“When I first saw the man, Rene just laughed and said this was New Orleans. We’re both from here, a bit jaded. I mean, people are often in costume, and sometimes the more bizarre the costume the better, they seem to think,” Mona said.
“Even when it’s not Mardi Gras or Halloween,” Rene said dryly. “I mean...it’s just New Orleans. Oh, and we have a historic voodoo temple or house near here, about two blocks over.”
“And it’s great! Nothing evil there. Matisse Renoir is the high priestess there for her congregation. They don’t do anything bad, trust me. They adhere to the tenet that anything hurtful done to others comes back on oneself threefold. But the house there... She has wonderful historic displays, about the religions in Africa and Haiti and how old religions came together with Christianity, and how the saints work in and—”
“Sweetheart,” Rene said, interrupting his wife. “I don’t think we need to give them all a lesson in voodoo or even the history of the world,” he said softly.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just nothing bad goes on there, and people have a tendency to think that voodoo is all about curses.”
“It’s okay. Katie and I both live here. And our families go way back,” Dan assured her.
“Please, sit,” Rene said.
They all did so, Katie, Dan and Axel taking the sofa, Rene and Mona in the chairs across from it.
“So,” Rene began, looking at his wife, “I was in the kitchen, pouring my cup of morning coffee. I heard Mona out here, muttering.” He grimaced at his wife. “She talks to herself a lot, getting crotchety in her old age.”
“Hey!” Mona protested.
“And?” Dan asked.
“I poured us both a cup of coffee and brought them out here and asked what she was bitching about now,” Rene said.
“Rene didn’t see him at first,” Mona said.
“Him who?” Axel persisted gently.
“The Axeman,” Mona said. “Well, of course, I didn’t know it was the Axeman. I thought it was some weirdo who thought he was in Chicago or something. I mean, we’re not into the dead heat of summer or anything like that yet, but it’s not cold around here, either.”
“Temperature has been darned great,” her husband said.
“Yes, yes, and that’s why I was muttering about all the crazies we manage to get in New Orleans. And I was wondering why he wasn’t running around Bourbon Street or a party area if he was going to be all dressed up.”
“Dressed up how?” Katie asked.
“Big slouchy hat! And a trench coat or an old railway frock coat or something of the like,” Mona explained. “Everything he wore was black. He looked kind of like a giant in a full-length black coat, with a hat that dipped low over his face. Now, I didn’t think Axeman when I saw him. I just thought another crazy guy was running around New Orleans.”
“And he didn’t come anywhere near the house,” Rene said.
“What was he doing?” Dan asked.
“When I saw him, he was just leaning against a tree. It looked like he was resting or waiting for someone,” Mona said.
“Later, when we heard about what happened to the old couple—” Rene began.
“And so very near us!” Mona said with a shiver.
“Well, I still didn’t think of it at first,” Rene said.
“But then there was another body found, hacked up, and the news came out someone seems to think that he’s the Axeman returned,” Mona said.
“Well, we knew the legend, but I looked up information on the Axeman,” Rene told them. “And the few eyewitness descriptions that there are... Well, they coincided on describing him as a dark figure in a dark something and a slouch hat. So, you see, I started thinking the guy who had been leaning on the tree hadn’t been resting or waiting for a friend.”
“No! What he’d been doing was watching the neighborhood, watching for whoever came and went. Trying to see who did and who didn’t have dogs and alarms,” Mona said.
“Quite possibly,” Dan said gravely. “And thank you. If you see such a man again—”
“He strikes in different places!” Rene said. “The Axeman strikes in different places.”
Dan rose. “We don’t know for sure,” he said. “This isn’t a demon or anyone from hell or with a superpower, no immortality. This is simply a very sick human being. And I don’t think he always knows what he’s doing from day to day, and we don’t even know if more than one person is involved.”
“He was big, like a super being,” Mona said gravely.
“Lots of men are big,” Axel said as he stood.
Katie scrambled to her feet to join them; they were leaving.
Again, they thanked the couple with both Dan and Axel leaving their cards behind should the couple think of anything else.
When they reached the car, Dan turned to Katie. “Will you call Jeremy again, please?”
“I... Sure, but—”
“Please.”
She got Jeremy on the phone and handed it over to Dan as Axel drove.
Dan asked Jeremy about the day in the French Quarter after the storm when they’d had trouble.
“Among the people there... Was there anyone large?”
He listened to what Jeremy had to say and then ended the call.
“What?” Katie and Axel inquired in unison.
“Well, there are many tall men in New Orleans,” Dan said.
“But...what did Jeremy say?”
“The man your father had the altercation with was average-tall, maybe six one, six two. But he thought one of the guys hanging around in the background—he’s not even sure if he was with the group or not—seemed to be taller. Notably bigger. It’s
