As Dan prowled in the refrigerator, Katie poured out three bowls of dog food.
“I’ll just put these on the porch for the boys,” she said.
He nodded absently, then turned to look at her.
“He did kill your parents, Katie. Sonny Hartfield killed your parents along with Jennie, whoever she really was. Jennie has met the same fate. We will get the proof we need. We will get justice for them,” he said softly.
She smiled and nodded.
Then she headed out to the porch, balancing the three bowls of dog food.
She’d thought Jerry, Ben and Mitch would be waiting there, hopefully wagging their tails. They knew she was a sucker for them, and even if they’d eaten, they’d wind up being fed again.
“Guys? Come!” she called. “Mitch? Ben, come on. Jerry!”
They didn’t respond to her. She thought she heard a whine from around the corner. Setting the bowls down, she worried that one of them had gotten hurt and that the other two were busy trying to help in their doggy way.
“Guys!” she called, and she walked toward the gate between the properties.
She saw the dogs; they were lying on the ground, all three whimpering.
“My guys, what happened?” she demanded.
Mitch was closest to her. She walked to him and knelt at his side. “Poor baby, I don’t know—”
The whack on her head was hard. For barely an instant, she felt searing pain.
Then she felt nothing at all.
* * *
“Katie?”
Dan had a pack of chicken breasts in his hand.
He dropped them and rushed to the door. She was just putting dog bowls out, for God’s sake. She should have been back by now.
He stepped out to the porch. The dog bowls were there, but there was no sign of Katie.
Or the dogs.
He thought he heard something. Drawing his weapon, he walked around the house, noting that he was stepping out of range of the cameras.
He wanted to kick himself or worse.
He should have never let her step out alone, even on her front porch, even with cameras, even with dogs...
The dogs! What the hell had happened to the dogs?
He moved toward the gate, thinking Katie might have gone that way to find them.
He saw one of the big animals on the ground. The dog saw Dan and tried to lift its head and wag its tail.
It was Mitch, he thought.
Mitch, who couldn’t quite move. But there wasn’t a mark on him, and there was only one answer that Dan could fathom.
The dogs had been poisoned.
There was something in the animal’s fur.
A dart! A damned dart. Dan quickly pulled it from Mitch, hoping that maybe the sedative hadn’t had time to work all the way.
He pulled his phone out quickly as he looked around, searching for any approaching danger, ready to call Axel. But as he held the phone in his hand, it began to vibrate.
It was Axel, calling him.
“Dan, get back here. Get Katie, and get back here.”
“Wait—”
“The lab identified the mystery hair from the crime scene. Get in here now!”
“Axel! I need backup here, now!” Dan said. As he spoke, he looked across the stables to the building that was Monty’s house.
The shadows were waving anxiously.
Mabel Greely stood with Gray Simmons, mere shadows in the dimming sunlight, and the dead were beckoning to him.
“Axel, he has her. I’ve got to get to her before... Come quietly. He may keep her alive to...to torture her. Axel, don’t be seen!”
“Dan, all right, Dan—”
But Dan was moving already, pocketing his phone. The ghosts were beckoning him to make all speed. He drew his weapon.
He’d find Katie, and he would shoot anyone in his way.
* * *
The pain in Katie’s head was ungodly.
It felt like an axe was sticking into her skull!
But as she slowly regained consciousness, she knew nothing was protruding from her body.
Not yet.
She was tied up, though. Wrists bound together. Her feet, she saw, were free. If she could just manage to get up, she could run...
Where was she? Think! Her head was spinning. She closed her eyes, willing for the spinning and dizziness to stop.
Time might mean everything.
Think! Maybe she was in the stables.
She wasn’t. No, she would know the smell of the animals and the hay. No...
She was in a bedroom. Someone’s bedroom, and not her own. There was a closet on one wall, a sturdy oak dresser against another, and a window that looked out opposite where she sat. There was a bed, a big one. And...
A chair in front of a small desk. There was a jacket laid over the back of the chair. A big jacket.
A big jacket for a big man.
“Ah, love, you’re with me now!”
She swung around.
A big man. A tall man, and a big man. Oh, dear God, why hadn’t she seen...
Even now, she couldn’t believe.
Monty? Monty Trudeau, a stone-cold, vicious killer without an ounce of empathy?
“Monty,” she said. “You?”
He smiled, so pleased with himself.
“Katie, love, I can’t tell you what pleasure I derive from seeing your face right now! You’re so stunned! Yes, Katie, me. This is my place. My town. And I learned quickly I could seize all the power I wanted. I studied the city, you see. Studied it as you, my guides, never quite did. I learned so much, and I learned how to earn my way to immortality.”
“Monty, you are not going to live forever.”
He shook his head, hunching down in front of her. “Katie, you don’t understand the immortality situation. You see, I am not the Axeman’s Protégé. The media just had to go with that. No, I am the Axeman! I am the Axeman. The real thing. He died and was reborn time and time again, and now he lives in me.”
“So, you’re the Axeman of New Orleans.”
“In this shell.”
“Monty... My father... Why? I mean, you were forming this club of yours—”
“Club?” he demanded.
“Sorry, group?”
“The Six,” he said. “Just The Six. There is nothing else like us. Immortals.”
She started to laugh and then realized she shouldn’t. Her laughter angered him, and she had to figure out some way to get out. She had to escape, she had to survive...
Dan!
Monty wasn’t playing well at all, maybe because he was growing desperate. Dan was at her house; he would be coming for her, and he would know...
Wouldn’t he?
“I’m sorry! I didn’t study the past as much as I should have,” Katie said. “And honestly, I never seriously connected Allan Pierce with the Axeman. I always felt it was a mystery we’d never get to the bottom of. But I should have read everything out there. It’s hard, though, you know. There’s so much history.”
It was his turn to laugh.
Katie frowned.
“Um—”
“Katie, Katie, Katie. Do you think I really believe all that hogwash?” He leaned closed to her, and she saw he was holding an axe behind his back.
His friendly, bearded, big face was just inches from her own.
“Yes, hogwash, Katie, but it’s amazing. I had a pack of fools doing whatever I asked, because I convinced them that being with me would turn them into super beings and they would become immortal. Then I convinced Bella—oh, not sure if you know that yet or not, but Jennie’s real name was Bella, Bella LaPointe—and that idiot Sonny we’d made a mistake, that Brian and Aubrey were turncoats and traitors and had to be eliminated. Oh, by the way, the real
Brian was the one your father knocked around. He was very happy to listen to me about people needing to die and how as one of the six he would be special, and others would die because of him. I had a few problems with him. He wanted to kill your father so badly, and there was no way your dad wouldn’t have recognized him from that confrontation. So, well, I had to send Sonny and Bella instead. Oh, watching you all running around trying to catch your own tails! Priceless!”
Katie shook her head. “You knew who I was when you hired me six years ago. You could have killed me so many times over. Let’s see, you probably arranged for me to have such a bargain on my house, too, right?”
“Ah, guilty as charged!”
She shook her head. “Why?”
“I always wanted to do the Axeman bit!” he said. “The thing about the power is real. And I can’t explain to you what euphoria it is to kill, to watch blood splatter—”
“Why didn’t you kill me years ago?”
“Power of six. I had to do it right. Murders, murders, murders... This! The great finale of this part of the game, anyway. The Axeman back in New Orleans!”
“Did you even know George Calabria?” she asked him.
He smiled and shook his head. “The bastard wasn’t supposed to survive. Neither were you, actually. But then, when we found George in Orlando...and then that idiot, Dan Oliver! Wow, he made my day going after George the way that he did. I mean, I made sure he was led toward George Calabria all the way, and I’m good at what I do.”
“I guess so. You had Carly Britton as your sixth?”
“Carly couldn’t get going in business. I managed to set her up. And afterwards, she was happy to be one of The Six, though the most worthless, I’m afraid.”
“She saved your ass this morning,” Katie noted sweetly. “And then you killed her,” she added softly.
He shrugged. “I was afraid the car might have been seen.”
“Did you kill her husband, too?”
“No, I couldn’t find the lucky bastard. But...hey. He’s out there somewhere. Though, Katie, to be honest, I wanted you for the grand finale. You escaped the boat! You got twelve bonus years. I was so anxious, waiting for reports from Sonny. Because you see, you should have been first. Your dad and his precious wife, your mother, should have had the agony of watching you hacked to pieces first. Can you imagine that pain? And your dad would know it was all because he just had to be a hero, couldn’t leave us to do what needed to be done...to frankly worthless people. They didn’t deserve anything they had. They could have just run crying to FEMA. Your dad! He thought he was powerful that day. I showed him.”
“You killed a man. Thousands of thugs have done the same,” Katie said. “You’re nothing special.”
“But I am... I’m the Axeman of New Orleans. And now...”
“You poisoned your own dogs!”
“Well, if you shut up, I can get out of here. I’m just going to shoot Dan Oliver when he comes looking for you. I’m not sure he’s even worthy of the axe. Then I can save my dogs. Oh, Katie, I just can’t tell you how I’ve loved this! Watching you admire me, fall in love with the mules and the dogs. And bring in so much money! Thinking you were safe. And all the while, I knew. I knew this day would come... Oh, don’t worry. I will get away with it. My dogs were poisoned. The killer was after you. I tried to stop him! I was injured horribly...well, not that horribly, but I do know how to make it look like I was attacked.”
She listened to him, scrambling in her mind for more to say.
Dan had to be out there by now. But if he just kicked in the door, Monty would shoot him, then chop her to ribbons, harm himself...
She suddenly saw movement around Monty. She blinked. There was no way Dan had gotten into the bedroom, but...
It was Mabel! And she wasn’t alone; she was with the ghost of Gray Simmons. Her friend, who had just stayed to hang around and watch as his beloved city unfolded...
It was difficult to see them as they motioned to her.
They’d all been such idiots. Looking for a big man. Monty was a big man, blocking her view now.
“My head,” she muttered, swinging backward and forward.
“You have a headache, pretty girl? It’s going to get worse!” he told her.
She finally heard what Mabel was trying to say to her.
“Kick him, kick him as hard as you can! Knock him over!” Mabel said, kicking out a ghostly foot.
“But...” Katie said aloud.
“But what?” Monty demanded. “Hmm, to shoot him in front of you, or hack you to death in front of him?”
“Kick him over!” Gray cried.
They had a plan, but—
“Monty! Monty!” She suddenly heard Dan; he was calling out. “Monty, was George here? We’re going to get him this time!” Dan called. “Where are you guys? Katie? The bastard went after your dogs! Monty, come on, I need to get you and Katie to safety.”
Monty looked at her, grinning.
She’d never known the man could look so purely evil. He was always so nice, so polite, so caring and courteous to others...
As he planned their demise.
“Kick him over!” Gray said. “Lass, you can do it!”
And then she knew Dan knew damned well Monty had taken her, and Monty had poisoned his own dogs...
Dan knew that Monty was the big man, the mastermind, the Axeman.
“Monty. I’m still confused,” she said, as if she hadn’t heard Dan. “Did this start with the Axeman, or with Allan Pierce’s theory of six and being superhuman and immortal. Or were you just sick as can be from the get-go? Because you messed up a lot. I mean, for one, Sonny Hartfield is going to talk eventually. I’m not sure if he can make a fortune with the tabloids from prison, but he’ll tell your story soon enough.”
“He won’t be able to. I can’t tell you how easy it is to buy an assassin, Katie. So easy. Of course, it’s not the same. I mean, I had to wait to hear about your parents. It’s not the same as feeling the axe in your hands, feeling it make impact with human flesh and blood! Oh, to be bathed in the warmth of blood splatter. But shut up now—”
He raised his voice. “Dan, help, help! Help us, for God’s sake! He has us, Katie and me. The Axeman has us...”
He was hunched down in front of her but looking toward the door. He had his axe in the one hand behind his back, and he started to draw out the other, in which he held a handgun.
Katie kicked him.
She kicked him hard, with all her strength, and perhaps...
Had just a little superpower of her own.
Revenge? Hatred?
Or the search for real justice, for so many years now.
He didn’t just fall. He went flying backward, sliding across the room on his rump, almost hitting the opposite wall.
The door burst open. Dan was there, and even as Monty struggled to right himself and take aim, Dan shot him.
Monty screamed as his hand exploded and his gun went flying.
“No warning! You can’t shoot me with no warning, you asshole. You’ll face charges. My rights have been—”
“Shut up or I’ll shoot to kill,” Dan said, keeping his gun trained on Monty as he hunkered down to slice the ropes from Katie’s wrists with his free hand. “And I’m just a private investigator. I’m not a cop or any kind of an agent. I’m a citizen standing my ground. I’d shoot you, you bastard, without blinking an eye, and the world—and all immortal beings—would thank me for it!”
Katie hadn’t heard the first sound of a siren.
She hadn’t heard any kind of commotion.
But suddenly, officers and agents were flooding into the room. Axel was there, asking her if she was all right. Ryder was with him, and Andre Broussard and others, all there to take Monty Trudeau away, to put to rest any concept of an immortal Axeman.
Dan pulled her up and to her feet.
She felt the ghosts behind her, heard Gray complimenting her on her kicking style.
She laughed and replied to them. Dan, Axel and Andre were grinning.
Ryder looked concerned. Katie grinned and went to him, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry, yeah, I’m a little wild right now!”
“Of course, of course!” Ryder said.
Katie shook her head, looking at Dan. “How could you know? I mean the dogs were down, and I was gone, but Monty was going to make it look like George got in here and poisoned the dogs and seized us both and killed me—”
“Well, actually,” Dan said, “I think I knew—he’s definitely a big man! But there was something else.”
“They’d finally found a piece of trace evidence,” Axel said.
“The hair—” Katie began.
Dan was nodding. “A strand of mule hair. We put it together.”
“The mules!” Katie said.
“The mules are all fine. The dogs are on their way to the emergency vet,” Ryder assured her.
She looked at Dan and said, “It’s over. Really over!”
He nodded and, disregarding anyone around them, he walked to her and took her into his arms. His words, too, were only for her.
“This nightmare is really behind us... Well, then, you know the rest. Katie?”
She smiled, looking at him.
“I guess we’re going to have to start looking for an apartment in the DC area. It’s not going to be easy to find a place that will accept three large dogs.”
Dan smiled.
“Let’s get tonight over with. And then we can start on the rest of our lives.”
EPILOGUE
The case of the New Orleans Axeman had been studied for years; the case of Monty Trudeau would now be joined with it.
Axel told them that members of the behavioral-analysis unit would be spending time with Monty, trying to figure out just what made such a mind tick.
In a plea deal, Sonny Hartfield admitted to the murders of Lou and Virginia Delaney, Anita Calabria, and Harold, Marie, and Henrietta Austin of Orlando. George Calabria had never had anything to do with the killings, other than conveniently living nearby.
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