“Always with me,” he told her.
They made it up the stairs, laughing as they entangled with clothing on the way.
He headed to the guest room again. Maybe that meant no commitment.
No commitment, and no discussion, no talking...just breathless whispers that made no sense, sounds of pleasure that escaped. He focused on the feel of her skin, the scent of it, the way she moved, her flesh against his, naked and sweet.
The taste of her.
They made love, kissing, touching, caressing everywhere. It was even better than it had been the first time: it was exciting, it was comfortable, it was knowledge of one another, growing.
Climax, wild, exhilarating, almost violent in the force of it. Lying together, letting time go by, breathing, simply holding each other. Then his phone, in his jacket on a chair in the kitchen, began to ring. He leaped out of bed, heedless of his state of undress and tore down the stairs.
It was Axel.
“Yes, Brian and Aubrey... You found out who they really are? Do they really exist?” he demanded. “Did they manage to get social security numbers into the system—”
“Hey, hold up,” Axel told him wearily. “They existed.”
“What?”
“The two existed. They were from Baton Rouge. They disappeared about a month ago. Their families looked for them everywhere.”
“Then...wait. Is our dead woman Aubrey? And Neil-slash-Brian—”
“No. Two bodies that were dug out of the bayou a day ago just proved to be them. It looks like their throats were slashed. They weren’t dismembered. But they’ve been in the bayou, and the medical examiner is having a hell of a time. They’re...decomposed.”
“Then, how—”
“Dental records. It’s them. The two we knew as Neil and Jennie murdered the real Brian and Aubrey for their identities,” Axel stated.
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 we any closer to catching a madman?”
“Maybe. We have good people on it,” Dan said. “Anyway, I am pretty capable. I can help get the mules harnessed.”
Dan was a big help. Between them and Benny working carefully in order not to disturb his costuming, they were quickly ready. And with Matt leading the way, they headed toward the French Quarter and their curb at the square across from Café du Monde.
As Katie drove her carriage, she tried to articulate her thoughts to Dan.
“This thing with the number six. We know Neil and Jennie—I’m going to stick with those names until we know their real names—were part of it. We believe there’s a big man behind it. Literally. But they’d need three more people if they were going to be a group with the power of six.”
“They were trying to recruit Nathan Lawrence. Maybe they did,” Dan said. “Mild-mannered schoolteacher by day and vicious axeman by night.”
“You think so?”
“No, but it’s a group that needs money, and I told you Nathan Lawrence may be a teacher, but he inherited money. All this travel, fake IDs, it takes money.”
“Then...who could it be? All we know right now is the big man, who is maybe pulling the strings, and Neil. Jennie is dead. So...”
“They may need new people all the time, since it seems even the members of the group wind up dead if they might endanger the game,” Dan said. He was quiet then, thoughtful.
“What?”
“The casting director?” he said.
“What? She was terrified!”
“Or was she? And Nathan Lawrence...innocent and duped? Or maybe he was up to something.”
“But you had him under surveillance, and you’re supposedly good at what you do,” Katie said. She frowned, looking at him. “You still don’t think George—”
“No, actually, I don’t.” He hesitated, looking at her. “Okay, listen, we’ve had people monitoring the security tapes at his hotel. For his protection as much as anything else. George hasn’t left the hotel. He’s rented a dozen movies, and he has become friends with everyone working in the restaurant there. George is—”
“Is what?” Katie asked.
“Scared. I mean, maybe he was part of it once and knew even before we did that Jennie was going to wind up dead. But don’t be upset with me! I don’t think so. George has been used. I believe this thing is twofold. The big man, I guess we’ll call him, stepped into the whole Axeman/Allan Pierce legend, as far back as Katrina. Your father happened to be a stand-up guy who got in his way. Everything was planned. The big man either watched and studied your father himself or had his followers do it. Probably the latter, since Jennie and Neil evidently killed your parents. They missed with George, but that turned out to work for them, and they found out where he was living and made their next kill, that we know about, in the Orlando area. Where George fit the bill perfectly. They knew he was here, and they probably laughed at the fact he didn’t recognize them when they were both working for the movie. Now...”
“Who is the big man?” Katie whispered.
“We’ll drive around, and I’ll listen to your wonderful stories of history and beyond, and we’ll see what we can find out.”
They reached the square. Matt hadn’t even had time to cue up on the curb before he’d been hailed. As they pulled in behind Lorna, Dan jumped down and headed away from everyone to make a phone call. She wondered if he was calling Axel or Ryder or if anything else had been discovered. When a smiling woman approached her, she smiled in return and indicated Lorna was the next to go. Lorna nodded her thanks.
Benny was already in place near Decatur Street, where he could be viewed from those sitting street-side at Café du Monde.
But though she had sent the first group on to Lorna’s carriage, there was a second group that approached her almost immediately after.
Dan saw; he ended his phone call and jumped back on the carriage to be with her.
“The Axeman! The Axeman! Tell us about the old Axeman,” a teen boy in the group demanded immediately.
“Gavin!” his mother said with dismay.
“Well, if he is immortal, maybe it is him again!” the boy said.
“Let our guide—guides—tell their stories,” the father chastised. “Please. No more on the Axeman.”
They started out. Katie told them about the founding of the city, some of her great stories about the Baroness de Pontalba and how buildings she’d had constructed in the 1840s still formed two sides of Jackson Square, allowing for shops, apartments, restaurants and museums. She talked about the War of 1812, the Civil War, the changes of flags over the city...
And when they went by Lafitte’s, she talked about the Lafitte brothers, the good and the bad, the triumphant and the sad. But just as she was ending that segment of her talk, she went silent for a minute, so long that the father cleared his throat and said, “Miss?”
“Oh, sorry. I’m so sorry. Lost my train of thought there for a minute,” Katie said. But she looked at Dan and gave a nod, indicating he needed to look to the street.
He turned his head in the direction she’d gestured to, and she knew he saw what she wanted him to see.
Mabel was strolling down the street, arm in arm with a man.
The man was in breeches, a white shirt, vest, socks and short boots; he wore a jaunty tricorn hat.
It was Gray Simmons, one of the ghosts of the city Katie had come to know.
A man who had lost his life at the Battle of New Orleans but remained to see that the city he had loved so much and died for grew and hopefully would prosper. A pirate, and a hero. That all depended on one’s viewpoint, he had told her once.
“I’ll jump off,” Dan murmured to Katie.
She nodded and slowed the carriage, and Dan jumped off, waving to her crew.
“He, uh, had a meeting,” Katie explained, and she quickly went on to talk about Lafitte and his pirating ways and his meetings with Jackson.
Maybe not the murder and mayhem of the Axeman, but the teenaged boy was mollified.
Apparently, he liked pirates.
* * *
“Darling!” Mabel said, greeting him, leaning toward him to give him a ghostly kiss on the cheek. “How lovely! I was hoping to run into you today.”
“Nothing from the city cops or agents, or whatever the rest of them are, eh?” the man at her side asked.
Dan was standing in the street, looking quite the idiot, he thought, reacting to people that no one else could see.
“Er, in here!” he said, indicating the courtyard area of the bar, empty now. The bar had barely opened, and while a bar might have patrons at any time during opening hours, which were almost all of them, it didn’t mean they’d be busy this early.
Shielded by plants, he indicated one of the benches and pulled out his phone. That way he’d appear much less suspicious.
The ghosts took seats across from him.
Gray Simmons had been a dashing man. Dan thought for a minute it was too bad the kid on the carriage hadn’t been able to see him. Gray fit the rakish image of a handsome rogue to perfection.
“I’m delighted, Dan. You’re getting so very good at this!” Mabel said. “I see that you do see Gray. Let me introduce you. Gray Simmons, Dan Oliver. Dan, my dear friend, and Katie’s friend, Mr. Gray Simmons.”
Dan nodded politely in acknowledgment.
“Another one. So rare,” Gray said to Mabel.
“Not so rare, I’m learning,” Dan said.
“Oh, yes, his friend saw me, too. The handsome fellow?”
“Axel is that,” Dan said. “And he’s with a group who apparently all see...”
“The dead, honey,” Mabel said. “Poor boy, you try to be so careful! And yet, Gray, I believe he’s supposed to be very good at what he does.”
“Which is exactly what?” Gray asked.
Dan realized he didn’t know the exact answer to that anymore.
“At the moment, I’m on the hunt for a killer. Or killers,” he said.
Gray nodded.
“I think he has something that may help you,” Mabel said. She patted Gray’s arm.
Dan looked at Gray hopefully.
“I mean, I don’t know. I just found Mabel today,” Gray said.
“I was looking for you, dear,” Mabel said.
Gray rolled his eyes with patience and amusement, not looking away from Dan. “The point is, I was distressed when news about all this got out. And especially distressed for Mabel because I know that years ago, the killings hurt her so badly with the loss of friends.”
Dan nodded, waiting for him to go on, glancing at Mabel with sympathy.
“But I didn’t know she was trying to help. I mean, how could I? It’s so rare when one can find someone who can see them, much less someone who can hear them...and might be trying to do something about what’s going on.”
“Just talk to people, Gray. You really never know until you do.” Now it was Mabel’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Anyway, can you help?” Dan asked.
“I saw the picture in the paper and on the news,” Gray said.
“The picture?”
“Of the woman. The woman who was killed, left butchered in the ruins of the cemetery,” Gray said.
“Yes?”
“Well, I think I saw her.” He looked at Dan earnestly.
Dan waited a second and then asked, “Living...or dead?”
“Living,” Gray said. “Before she was killed. I doubt we’ll see her hanging around. Most of the time...” He broke off and looked at Mabel.
“Well, we don’t know much more than you do except that...well, we’re here. And we’re at peace being here, though we’ve seen friends who have gone on to something else.”
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