They were alone in the bar; employees and management were gone. Police photographers were still in the kitchen, but other agents and officers were out on the street finishing up with the large number of witnesses to the evening’s events.
“You...you always knew you wanted to be Krewe?” Dan asked him.
“Long story, but yes,” Andre said. “I’ve had so-called imaginary friends since I was a child. So far, it’s an amazing group. Never easy. But you don’t go into any of this if you’re looking for easy, right?”
“Right,” Dan murmured.
Andre stood then and gave them both a card. “That’s my cell, on me at all times, and obviously I shadow Axel, but if you can’t reach him or need anything...call.”
They thanked him and stood as well.
“We can go home?” Katie asked him. “Oh! Dan, did you want to go to the hospital, too? See what Axel can get out of... Neil Browne? Once he stops screaming,” she added softly.
Dan did want to help interrogate Browne. But he also didn’t. He didn’t want Katie anywhere alone. Not that night. Not until it was over. Really over.
And while Jennie might be dead and Neil Browne might be in custody, it was far from over. And he knew that already from the words the man had spoken in the kitchen as he’d waved his gun around.
“No. I’m good. Axel is there for the Feds, and Ryder is there for NOPD.”
“You two look exceptionally nice,” Andre complimented them, taking in their outfits.
“Thank you, but no more fine dining for me tonight,” Katie said. She pulled a face, looking at Dan. “Pizza to-go on the way home?” she asked.
He nodded, glad that after the trauma, she wanted pizza.
Dan gave Andre his hand. “Thank you.”
“Glad to meet you both. Sorry for the circumstances,” Andre said, indicating the front of the bar. It was time for them all to leave.
A crowd had gathered. They made their way through it, trying to blend in, just as Neil Browne had done earlier at the bar. They got a pizza and then did their best to get through to Dan’s car.
“You’re going to be a hero,” Dan told Katie. “Heroine, sorry. Fiercely defending herself and others...with gumbo.”
“New Orleans is famous for gumbo, you know,” she told him as they got into the car. “I’m actually starting to feel really bad about it. Dan, I did scald him. I mean, it was there. The pot was there, and I had to do something.”
“Katie, you defended yourself and others.”
“But what if... His burns have to be pretty severe. And he knows more, Dan. Yes, I believe he and Jennie killed my parents. And I feel torn. I never thought I was vicious, and I wanted justice...not revenge.”
“We always feel torn. He’ll live. And yes, we must learn from him everything there is to learn. Somehow. He isn’t going to want to talk. Remember, he didn’t care if he died. He was part of six. He said that made him immortal.”
“‘This isn’t the way he wanted it, but the way it has to be,’” Katie said, repeated the words that had been spoken. “A creature of six...and a he who is calling the shots. Oh, Dan, I wonder if that meant I’m supposed to die under an axe, like my parents.”
“Katie, we have Browne. Jennie is dead. We believe they were low on their number. Maybe the couple killed in Baton Rouge were part of the group. Jennie was seen, and so she had to die. Come to think of it, I wonder if Neil would have been killed, too. You knew he was in the city. You saw him. Once you saw him, he became a liability... Interesting. I’m sure Axel and Ryder will see that guards are posted on him at the hospital.”
They reached her house. The dogs were waiting.
Katie greeted them with a lot of love. “My knights in furry armor!” she said.
“They do love you,” Dan agreed.
“And they seem to like you okay, too,” she said.
“I like dogs. They’re honest,” he told her as they went up the porch steps and then into the house.
They ate the pizza in the kitchen.
Katie climbed up the stairs ahead of him.
But she went straight to the guest bedroom, crashing down on the bed.
“I think he is the big man,” Dan said, sliding his gun and holster onto the bedside table and walking idly to the dresser to strip off his jacket, vest and shirt. “He wants to recreate the Axeman and revive the belief in immortal creation on the Sixth, or whatever. But I believe different people carry out different crimes. I do believe Neil killed Jennie because he was ordered to do so. And he killed your parents and probably the couple in Orlando. But here in New Orleans, he really went for the Axeman legend. The big man himself seems to have committed the murders of the Rodenberry couple and Elle Détente. I don’t know whether he knew George before the murders or just knew George was a close friend of your father’s, or even if George was really supposed to die, but he turned out to be a very convenient scapegoat.”
He sat at the foot of the bed, sliding out of his shoes and socks, thoughtful. He turned to Katie, knowing her mind must be in turmoil and wanting to hold her.
“Katie?”
He curled up next to her.
He’d been talking to himself.
Despite the trauma, Katie was sound asleep.
He lay next to her, careful not to wake her, and held her tenderly in his arms.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Neil Browne sat across the table from Dan, Axel and Ryder. Dan thought that, under normal circumstances, they would have been a formidable trio.
Apparently not to Neil Browne, or whoever he really was.
He just stared at them all as they entered with folders and sat.
And he just kept smiling.
He spoke before any of them could begin to question him.
“I have nothing to tell you. And
