“All right,” Dan said. “We look to the past. We know about this man, Allan Pierce, who was around at the time of the Axeman. He might or might not have actually been the Axeman. But he wrote about the power of being a special entity created on Day Six, like all men, but with a power above men. So either this killer believes in it all or he likes the legends. And maybe it’s even a challenge to him to be using the number six.”

“I think the latter, and I don’t know why,” Katie said. “He murdered six years ago and twelve years ago, and he murdered three people each time. Which makes six. But here in New Orleans, he’s murdered three...or four, now, with Jennie.”

“But maybe he didn’t intend to kill Jennie, so she messed up his number scheme,” Axel said. “That may cause him to go into a frenzy.”

“Or to commit more murders,” Dan said. “Maybe he planned on three deaths first and then another three.” He looked at Katie. “Including you. He was at your house.”

“Then, I would have been four, but he’d need two more victims. You ruined his plan to kill me.”

“But he’s killed Jennie. I think we need to find out more about the couple and their niece who were killed in Florida,” Axel said to Dan.

Katie inhaled a long breath. “So our theory is this. The killer is from New Orleans, and he planned it all from here. The plan may have included going to Florida specifically to kill my father, then strategically his next kill in Orlando. To the best of my knowledge, my father didn’t know the couple in Orlando. But they, too, were retired and older, and if I remember what they said in the papers, the husband—” she looked over at Dan “—Harold Austin?”

“Yes. Harold and Marie Austin, and Harold’s niece Hennie, or Henrietta. Harold was seventy-two when he died, his wife, Marie, was sixty-eight, and his niece had just turned fifty.”

“Harold was an engineer who had worked in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before retiring to Florida,” Katie said.

“Hard to find a connection there,” Axel murmured.

“What if the connection is George?” Katie asked.

Dan frowned. “You think George is guilty now?”

She smiled and shook her head. “No. But George was with my parents. George lived just a block or so from Harold, Marie and Henrietta. And George came here because they were making so many movies. He’s a perfect man to frame for these murders.”

“I say any of it is more than possible,” Mabel told them, nodding gravely. “And while I do love the scent of food, I’m not good at all at shuffling papers around. I do suggest you all begin to look at these angles. And find the truth!”