Katie was standing at the top of the stairway, wrapped in a sheet, looking down at him.
“They found bodies to go with those identities Carly gave us,” he told her.
“So,” she said. “We still have no idea who Neil and Jennie really are...just that they murdered more people than we can begin to know.”
“What about the address on their driver’s licenses?” Dan asked Axel, remembering he was still on the phone.
Axel let out an aggravated sound and told him, “Empty fields. And there’s the irony. The address they gave for Aubrey is right by the Medford Mansion—not a stone’s throw from where she died.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Katie gave Sarah a good brushing, enjoying the busy work that allowed her mind to wander. The dogs played near her, loyal guardians to the end, until they tired of their rollicking and lay down at the entry to the large barnlike stable structure that housed the mules and harnesses and other equipment.
Dan was just outside on the phone, catching up with Ryder and Axel. She’d heard they were planning another press conference. Dan wasn’t happy about being the spokesperson, but he’d done it once, and it seemed only logical that he would be the one to do it again.
He didn’t like being recognized in the city as being on the team. It made any kind of surveillance harder; then again, he’d told her that morning, it could draw a suspect out, if they were to approach him.
She knew Dan was frustrated. She had seen Jennie, and then they had discovered her body. They’d discovered clues to their work for the movie-production company, only to discover the names they had used belonged to people they had killed.
But, she’d reminded Dan, they hadn’t been killed with axes. They’d had their throats slit.
It seemed the Axeman’s Protégé cases were specific and specifically planned, but the man—or woman—driving the onslaught of blood and death didn’t care if their adherents killed others, just so long as they didn’t use axes.
Maybe.
Jennie was dead.
They believed that Neil—or Brian—had likely killed her. And he—whatever his real name might be—was still out there. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to kill her, but he’d been ordered to do so.
And yet there was more to it; it went deeper. Because so-called Neil was tall, but not extraordinarily so. He was built, but not massively. And it had sounded as if the man in the long black coat with the slouch hat hanging out and watching the Rodenberry house had been big.
Six.
Were there six people involved?
The man Dan had been hired to watch had met with Neil and Jennie—and Neil had wanted him to join with them. So, if there were six in the group imitating both the Axeman’s murders and Allan Pierce’s belief in the number six, they were now missing at least a couple players.
The dogs began to bark, but their tails were wagging, and Katie heard voices just outside the stables. She set her brush down, gave Sarah a pat and promised that she’d be back and hurried out to the entry.
Lorna and Matt had arrived together, with Benny.
Today, Benny was back in historical attire, dressed as a swashbuckling Jean Lafitte. As he often did, he’d used stage makeup to appear silver-gray from head to toe. He was so good at what he did that Katie and Lorna often enjoyed watching people’s surprise and amazement as they realized Benny was actually not a statue but a living man capable of entertaining them and making them laugh at themselves and him.
She thought about Benny and the artists and musicians on the square, along with the tarot readers and others. She loved New Orleans. And she realized that while, yes, she was scared, she wanted justice for what had happened to her parents. And now she was furious anyone could do these horrible things and tear at the fabric of a city that offered so much continual wonder.
“Hi!” Lorna called, seeing her.
“Hey, you guys!” Katie said. “That was good timing. The three of you here at once.”
“No, not timing,” Matt told her.
“We—Lorna and I—stayed at Matt’s place last night,” Benny explained.
“Oh,” Katie said. “Good idea.”
“We figured with three of us, we had a better chance of waking up if something was going on,” Benny said.
Matt grimaced. “And Benny brought his costumes and makeup...and swore to clean up the mess this evening.”
“Before he makes it again tomorrow,” Lorna said, laughing.
Dan had been listening, obviously done with his calls.
“We can’t all have a drop-dead, hunky G-man guarding us,” Lorna said, throwing a wink his way.
“I’m just a consultant,” Dan said, grinning.
“Still, you’re with the Feds now!” Lorna said. “Oh, and it’s cool... I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
“No offense taken,” Dan told her. “And yes, stay together. There is a certain safety in numbers.”
“You’re going to get him, right?” Lorna asked.
“Or them,” Katie muttered.
“More than one person is doing this?” Benny asked, horrified.
Dan shook his head slightly. He didn’t want any of their theories shared.
“Oh, who knows?” Katie said.
“What’s going on here?”
They all spun around. Monty was coming toward them. “I’ve got a business to run here!” he said, but he was smiling. He paid his three drivers, but most of their income came in tips. He seldom cared what hours they worked. He wanted to know when they were and weren’t going on, the best they could, so that he could cover their little piece of the action himself.
He was a good employer.
They were good employees.
“We’re ready...well, we’re almost ready,” Lorna told him.
“All three of you are going out today?” Monty asked, scratching his head through the wild thickness of his hair.
Katie glanced at Dan.
“I’m going to ride with Katie again,” Dan said. He didn’t ask permission; it was a statement.
But Monty didn’t mind. He just nodded. “Good. I’m going to do some cleaning up around here today, then. Go forth, children. Do your best. And try not to let anxious tourists get to you.” He looked at Dan hopefully. “Are
