He hurried along the park and came out on Decatur Street, annoyed at the sense of fear he was feeling, that his heart was racing, and he could hear his own breathing almost as if he was scuba diving.

He burst around the corner.

And it was all right.

Katie was there, on the sidewalk, chatting with a passerby.

He smiled, striding over to her.

“Hey!” she said cheerfully, seeing him. “You’re just in time.”

“For?”

“Well, this lovely young woman and her friends want to head over to the Irish Channel. It’s not a big tourist destination, but the ruins of an old mansion and the family cemetery are there. I was explaining that, as far as I know, it’s private property and there’s a big fence up around it all, but they’d like to just go by.” She grimaced, indicating the one cheerful-looking girl with dark curls and rosy cheeks. “Brenda is a medium. She just wants to get to the old place and see if she can feel anything.”

“Oh, okay,” Dan said.

A medium? The way Katie had said the word, he didn’t think she believed this woman had any special abilities at all.

She was far too polite to say so.

“Are you game?” Katie asked.

“Sure.”

The Irish Channel was a fine-enough area in which to live.

It wasn’t a tourist area, and the streets weren’t thronged with people as they tended to be in the French Quarter. It seemed Katie wasn’t against taking her carriage there, but Dan figured she hadn’t wanted to go alone.

“Let’s head on out,” he said.

Curly-haired Brenda was with a group of five, all explaining they were mediums, and yes, they had a small conference here where there were so many interesting places to be explored.

Where so many spirits cried out, unheard, seeking help.

He glanced at Katie and just nodded and smiled.

They hadn’t been in the carriage long before one of the men in the group—a thin, sandy and shaggy-haired man around twenty-five years old, leaned forward.

“Um, excuse me? You’re the cop, right? From the press conference? Do you think you could get us into the morgue? If one of us could touch the victim, we might be able to help. I mean, the spirits of the dead might be able to give us information.”

“I’m afraid I’m not a cop,” Dan said. “I can’t get anyone in anywhere. Sorry.”

“But we saw you on the news,” Brenda said.

He shook his head, glancing at Katie. “I was voted the spokesperson in the group,” he said. “But I’m sorry, I’m a consultant on this and nothing more.”

“Damn!” Brenda said. “It’s so frustrating. I mean, we could help. Oh, well. I have really wanted to see the ruins of this mansion. It comes with all kinds of rumors, scandals and ghosts.”